Weekend Chore

Saturday was a momentous occasion for me. Despite the sever back pain, I climbed up onto the roof of my home, and replaced shingles. I had a few spots where the tar paper was showing! I also repaired a few minor leaks that developed over the winter. I did a very nice job, and you can only tell the replaced shingles because they are slightly darker in color. I think that in 5 years more, I will get the roof replaced completely. It lasted 4 years with some minor damage, but damage has been repaired and should last a while longer.

That was an absolute pain working on the roof. My back hurt, my toes hurt from being bent the entire time, and I got a sunburn. Yes I know, complain complain complain, but it still sucked!

As a reward, we filled up the propane tank, and had a small bbq. The little lady didn't want to cook, which meant I was the lucky contestant. It didn't seem much like a reward at that point.

This being Monday, I am in for a whole new week of work. What will happen this week? Will I get a raise? Will someone have pitty on me, and purchase the Creative Zen mp3 player for me? Will I ever be full? Time will tell.

In the mean time, I go to further my plans of world domination!

Work Politics

The following story is not related to my job in any way.

Yesterday, I was attempting to help out the company my father works for. They needed some networking done, but we ran into a hitch. Additional computers are needed in a fairly small room, but the two parties involved are not happy. The invaders do not want to be there, and the invadee does not want the invaders there. An unhappy situation all around. The really funny thing, the one person who needs to make the decision, was never asked, has no idea the need is there, nor that any decisions are being made. Because of all that, they didn't have the specs for what they need me to do, and so I went back home. After spending a lot of time looking at motorcycles though.

Why are companies always like that. They make decisions that make no one happy, and then not let the true decision maker know of the situation? Isn't that a lot like shooting yourself in the foot? I just hope they make a decision, I could use the extra money. Well, credit. I'm saving up to buy a nice bike. VTX1800s is the model I'm after.

I have the wife buy-off, but she won't ride with me. Just because she fell off of a dirt bike 16 years ago. I said 16 just to say 16. I don't know how old she was, but she was younger than 16, and 16 years ago definitely makes her younger than 16. You know how women are about their age.

I am SO glad today is Friday. I have had a hurt back all week, aggravated on Wednesday filming a wedding. You will never get the opportunity to see, but I bet it would be humorous watching me take a shower. Skinny, naked guy, moving very slowly, and completely unable to stand up without a great deal of pain and effort.

I think I'll stop now...

Wedding

Some friends from work married each other yesterday, and being the kind person that I am, volunteered to do their video. My gorgeous wife volunteered to do their flowers. It was a beautiful wedding, and a beautiful day. My biggest issue (aside from a lack of guests showing up) was the groom’s parents.

Let me take that back, the groom’s mother.

They paid $300 to purchase the supplies. (A LOT of flowers were involved here.) They paid nothing for the actual work, meaning they were only entitled to smile and say thank you. They didn’t. He broke his boutonniere by pulling his rose out and breaking the stem. She come to my wife and demands a new one because one broke. Acting like it was my wife’s fault. It wasn’t, I watched him do it. She broke her corsage somehow as well, but we didn’t bother telling her. Basically she had no gratitude and it pissed me off.

I was filming the reception, and she kept treating me like I was paid to be there. I was there as a favor for friends, and was doing my best to capture the moment. I felt belittled by her. The entire evening, I never heard her say thank you. I’m glad I am not related to her.

On the opposite hand, the Bride’s family was very grateful. They jumped in and helped when something was needed. They expressed their gratitude often, and were willing to talk to us, and get to know us. It was completely opposite.

The really funny, potentially tragic, incident of the night was when someone dropped my sister’s keys behind a fake wall front. My sister was also there helping out. The manager was kind enough to allow me to fish the keys out. To be honest, we were completely lucky that I managed to get the keys. As I pulled them out, I noticed that there was no way I should have been able to pull them up. They just managed to stay attached. It only took me about 30 minutes to get it out. The wall was the old backdrop of the pipe organ of the Mormon Assembly Hall. Built back in the 1800’s.

Other than a few ungrateful jerks, and a bad back, it was a beautiful day for the bride and groom, and a lot of good friends helping out.

Driver License

I have been rather busy lately, today is no exception, but I felt I just needed to write a little something.

On Monday (my birthday) my driver license expired. I didn't think this was going to be a problem because I thought I could renew it online. No, that was not the case. In order to renew, you have to have a special pin number sent to you previously. I never received the renewl notice, and so Monday night when I went to renew online, I couldn't. Which means a trip to the DMV.

Open at 7am, I arrived at 7:30. Quickly filled out the form and by 8:00 I was out of there and on my way to work, with a paper license. I have to wait 3 weeks for my real license to show up in the mail. The paper license expires in 6 months. The paper license is easy to duplicate well enough to spoof any bar. If you were pulled over by a cop, and they ran the license, they would know the fake. How hard would it be to actually provide each DMV office the proper equipment to print the new licenses? Avoid the paper licensing. I know MANY 16 year olds who could do this. Once they get their first paper license, how hard would it be for them to duplicate it and go to the grocery store and purchase beer?

Political garbage. Spend the extra money and provide a little more security and peace of mind for everyone involved. The new license is a good idea, but poorly executed. Who was in charge? sen. Hatch? The doofus who is trying to make VCRs illegal? That guy is a moron. No wonder Utah has such a stigmatism? We are sending his garbage to represent us in D.C.? What is wrong with us?

Now What?

No, I did not forget to write yesterday. I ran out of time. Yesterday was one of those days that come every now and then, where you have no control over any outcome. Pretty much all you can do is hold on and hope to not be injured too badly. A lot like a run away roller coaster.

Going skiing this weekend. Really excited about that. My 4 year old boy is going for his first time, and my youngest sister (16/17) is skiing for her first time. There are enough of us going that we can take turns being with the beginners, and everyone still be able to have fun. Now do not worry. My boy is going to be in a group lesson for the first part of the day. And for the second half, ski with my sister and whoever is with them, so they can both get the mileage. I am bringing the video camera because this is going to be priceless! You know how many times they are going to biff it and get hurt?! BWAHAHAHA… err… Shoot. Was that my out loud voice?

My only problem is that I do not have an MP3 player. I have my PDA, but it won’t last the whole day. That screen really sucks out the battery life. My brother went a bought one last night. It holds 1 gig. For $30 he could have gotten one that holds 20 gigs, but is hd based so eventually it will wear out. If I had the money I would totally go out and purchase one for the trip. Sadly, my bid to encourage someone to gift me an iPod didn’t work. You have to have tunes while skiing. And a CD player won’t work. I’m not young anymore. I don’t want to listen to one album over and over. And burning a cd is lame. I have too many mp3’s to make a decision on the best 15 for the trip. And I’ll get bored of those songs real quick.

Sadly, I am ill prepared for this weekend. You would think someone would take pitty on me because my birthday is this Monday, and give me some money or something. But everyone around here is… Wait. I do not want to put my foot in my mouth again. Umm… There is no recovery from this tail spin, so I will sign off now. See you all in tomorrow’s post.

Edit: I forgot to mention! I have had two people comment whom I do not know from Adam! Thanks people! That is exciting! (Although one of them pointed out a mistake I made, and now my brother is going to kill me!)

Root of all Evil

I have done a lot of thinking this morning, and have decided that cell phones are the root and cause of all tings bad in our time. Cell phones help facilitate terrorists, drug trafficking, and all other sort of vileness. But the biggest evil caused, is miscommunication.

How many times has your cell phone dropped a call? How many times has your cell phone not received a call or message? I once received a message at 3 a.m. from my brother. He sent that message the previous day at 10 in the morning.

How many family arguments have centered around the cell phone? I need a cell phone. You went over your minutes. Stop text messaging, it costs too much. I lost my $900 cell phone and need a new one. Why didn’t you call? You have a phone. My battery went dead. Then why didn’t you use a real phone? I don’t know.

Do you understand the disaster looming over us? All of the problems in the world, in one way or another, can be tied to cell phones. When the evil corporations turn on us, Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, and remove that connection, the world will fall apart because all communication is tied to this poorly working contraption.

But we have the Internet. No we do not! That is evil as well! Don’t you DARE use the internet for anything other than reading my blog, and paying me money! Everything else out there in the ether is vile and dangerous! It will turn you from the godly paths, onto paths of darkness.

Let us return to the days of hand-written letters, of good penmanship, and of well thought out ideas.

Nothing

I have absolutely nothing to say. I have no comments. This past weekend was not any special eye opener. Nothing big happened. I have nothing to say, not good nor bad.

No, this is not a journal entry moment. There have been other times I have had nothing to say. It happens to everyone. Generally not to someone trying to maintain a blog though.

Hey, since today is singles discrimination day, I just wanted to tell my sweet wife, I love you. Thank you for putting up with me over the past 5 years. Sorry, in advance, for the stupid things I am going to do over this next year. Just remember that I love you.

All you singles out there, BWAHAHAHAHA! Suckers! Wasting your life, all by yourself! Fools! You know, you could come to this party. You just have to be married, or have a special someone! No deviations here though. You can not bat for the other team, at all. And no one night stands for this little shin-dig! That just ruins the whole purpose.

Maybe not though. Valentines day was invented by the retail stores to sale more products. But as a people, we get behind these holidays because it helps make a special day. Almost a mini vacation. The ones that get us out of work and school are the ones that people really got behind and supported. Christmas, Thanksgiving. Not New Years though. Businesses just got sick of their employees showing up drunk, and inept.

I am going skiing this weekend! YEA! I love skiing. I love racing down the mountain on two sticks. It is going to be great!

Bible Bashing

Have you ever noticed how touchy of a topic religion is? Wars have been fought over people’s faiths. Why? All religions teach peace and tolerance, and yet, you will get some of the most intolerance in people over religion.

I have had many a run in with pastors, ministers, whatever the religion, high up people. The most intolerant people, in my own experience, are those who seek to be compensated for teaching religion. If you teach, or profess something different than they, you will have an argument on your hands. I had a Baptist minister damn me to hell because I told him I did not appreciate the way he was belittling me, and that he had not be there when I returned. (We were at a restaurant sitting at our table and he had come to us and started ripping on us.) I stood up to throw my garbage away and he backed off in fear. I think he thought I was going to hit him. He stood about a foot shorter than I. As he walked out of the restaurant, from across the room, he turned, pointed right at me, and said, “I damn you to hell!” I am not a Baptist, probably a good thing. If I was, I would have a miserable life thinking that nothing I did would matter because I was already doomed for failure. Now that is a religion I can really get behind. I mean really! He alienated everyone there in the restaurant. Especially since he was the leader of his group in that area.

Now do not get me wrong, not all clergy fit that category. I have met Catholic Priests, other Baptist Ministers, Russian Orthodox Bishops, and others, who didn’t feel it was their life mission to convert or destroy me. I have had some very good discussions with these people. Every religion has at least some truth. Every religion at the core, teaches man to love his neighbor, and teaches peace. I do not believe that any one religion is the church of the devil, or that only members from one religion will be saved. There are some good, honest people in other religions who will be saved where some members in my own religion will not. God is just and fair, and will judge us each individually and according to our own circumstances.

However, to all insensitive pricks who have taken it upon themselves to belittle, and to confuse those of other faiths. I hate you! (Yes, I know that is not a Christ like thing to do, but there it is. Religion also teaches us to be honest.) If you have something that truly makes a difference in your life, please share it. I would love to hear. However, I am strong in my faith. It has made a difference in my life, and it continues to do so. You will not convert me. I will listen to you, I will talk to you, and I will share with you what I believe and see to be truth. If you wish to argue with me, I will eviscerate you in all my writings, I will refer to you as the devil’s friend. And I will do everything I can to ignore your very existence.

Something else that I feel is very closely related to religion, is my opinion. When it comes to my opinion, no one, but me, is correct. The facts may slap me in my face, but my opinion can not be changed, or influenced by anyone. They are my opinions. It is my opinion that every religion out there is WRONG! Save one. I will be your friend no matter your beliefs. My personal history has proven that. But it all boils down to that simple fact. I am right and you are wrong.

Being paid to tell me what I want to hear seems like a poor excuse for a profession. If you REALLY want to teach religion, teach the teachings of Christ. He asks some tough things out of us. If our religion does not demand of us to live up to those teachings, then what is the point? You can talk yourself blue in the face, but if we are not demanding of ourselves or the congregations to improve them selves, it is only a charade, and one that based on all world societies, a failing one! The majority of all religions, is just a bunch of yes men. I don’t want that when I take over the world, and I don’t want it now.

If you haven’t guessed, someone pissed me off yesterday. Some prick who didn’t know what he was talking about. Had said things about something he knows nothing about, and used language that shouldn’t be used in a conversation centered around Christ, Heavenly Father, and other things that matter a great deal to me. He was entitled to his opinion, yes, but not by belittling all others involved in the discussion. The jerk! I hope he slept poorly last night, for no good reason! (I know, not very tolerant of me, but that is the point. It is supposed to sarcastic. And more, it is my opinion, so don’t knock it!)

Aliens

As my family picked me up from work yesterday, I held up a DVD and without pause, my four year old screamed out, “ALIEN vs. PREDATOR!” Yes, he knew what it was, and yes he wanted to watch it. All you parents out there, do not fear, my boy gets disinterested in about 5 minutes. So instead of watching the movie as he wanted, he ended up downstairs playing the arcade. But boy, was he excited that he “watched” Alien vs. Predator.

There is this new cartoon called, “My dad the rock star.” Executive produced by Gene Simmons. You know him as the lead singer of KISS. A funny show. I swear, when my brother finally has kids, they are going to have the same life as that poor boy in the show. A father who cares, but is easily distracted by the smallest thing, especially if it has to do with music.

Yeah, so I really do not like the format of this website. Granted, it was a free template from blogger.com, but… Have you noticed the problem with trying to leave comments? You have to log in, but it doesn’t do anything. There is a major bug there. You have to type your password in, incorrectly, in order for it to accept your password and allow you to comment. You could just comment Anonymously, but where is the fun in that. I am just going to have to save up and purchase a real web hosting site, and then revamp what I have. The hard thing will be replicating what appears here so that this place doesn’t go up in a puff of smoke erasing forever what was typed here.

I’m sleepy, I slept horribly last night. I’m sure it had something to do with my little girl being so upset that she had to go to bed that she would not go to sleep. She cried and cried and cried. The monsters!

Homeowner

It is great to be a homeowner. You don’t have to worry about some snob coming by to inspect his home. You don’t have to worry about management fixing the problem. True, you have to take care of it yourself, but that means it is going to be taken care of a whole lot sooner.

Yesterday, my roof started leaking. The only reason I noticed it, is because as I walked underneath the entrance to the attic, I heard drips hitting the sheetrock from above. Pulled out the ladder, climbed up, and sure enough, there was a leak in one of the attic vents, right down the center of the attic entrance.

I have a ladder to get into my attic, but not one to get onto my roof. So, I had to purchase one of those as well as all the supplies to fix the darn thing. I don’t dare get on my roof though. There is still 4 inches of snow up there. I got up long enough to clear the snow away from the vent to stop the leak temporarily, but as soon as the snow melts, up I go again. Yeah, I need to repair some broken shingles, the leaky vent, and straighten out the cables for the dish. The guy didn’t do a good enough job in that regard.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, if you want a job done right, do it yourself!

Tax Return

I have already received my taxes back from the state. That is a first, state beating federal. I don’t care too much about the state taxes, they were small. I want the federal money back though. That is a whole extra pay check! I need my money, and I need it now!

Explain this to me. As part of the mortgage payment, money goes into the escrow account. If, at the end of the year there is extra money in the escrow account, they send it back to you. Why can’t they just roll it into the next year’s escrow account, or apply it to the principle. So now, instead of doing something sensible with the money, I am probably going to go blow it on something trivial, and unimportant. Now, if I had access to a truck, I would go buy some 2x4s and start working on my basement. But since I don’t have anything like that, I’m going to let the money burn a hole in my pocket.

I guess that I am going to go skiing on the 21st. My wife has already lined it up with my brother for him to come down from school to go with me. This is exciting, I haven’t gone skiing with him for a long time. Actually, I haven’t gone skiing for a long time, so this may be interesting. I hope I don’t break anything. Course, I have never understood how someone could run into a tree. How hard is it to fall to the side, to bail out, and avoid the pain of smacking into something as solid as a tree? Morons.

The Back Yard

We have lived in our home for four years now, and STILL haven’t done our back yard. I have six foot tall dead weeds back there. Due to some bizarre events before, during, and after our home construction, we need to bring in about ten loads of dirt to level out our backyard. That is a lot of dirt. Saturday, I spent time tearing out some of these weeds. The ones right next to the house. I don’t know what to do with the weeds. There are so many of them! I can’t just let them blow away in the wind. I think it would piss off some of my neighbors bad enough that they may do something drastic. In order to burn them, I have to have a fire pit. Don’t have a fire pit. That would be cool though!

There is enough dried material in my backyard to make quite a bonfire! I know my boy would think it the coolest thing!

It snowed last night. Right now as I stare out the basement windows, there are four to five non-drifted inches of snow. What is up with that? I thought winter was winding down. Well, that stupid groundhog back east saw his shadow, so I guess I should have seen this coming.

Ugh! It is time to begin this week and go to work. There is nothing wrong with work, I do enjoy it. But I enjoy being home so much more! My weekends are NEVER long enough! At least work provides some amusement to share with all of you.

Children Gone

I am still unsure on the details, but we were able to pawn the children off onto my mom last night. The kids were excited to be having a slumber party at grandma’s. I was excited to know that I was going to be able to have a good nights sleep.

The idea of ditching the kids was so that my wife and I could celebrate her birthday alone. We saw Oceans 12, which was a good movie. Not quite up to par with 11, but still good. Had dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. It is good to have sea food every now and then. Especially for my wife who grew up on sea food in Washington.

I began pulling all my art things out of all the secret places where I hide things from my kids, yesterday. I have some pretty ambitious undertakings coming up and I need to be prepared for it. This of course means practice. Yes, even an Evil Overlord must take time to practice, and to improve himself. Even exercise. But I’ll save that for AFTER I take over the world and actually have time for it.

The weekend is upon us, and as soon as I have survived this last day of work, I’m heading home to play with my kids!

Evil Genius Stuff

I am the proud owner of Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius! Ok, quick review. Projects are WAY cool, but some are a bit expensive. Oh sure, they are easy to do, and cost under $100 for everything except the one hard to find item that costs over $500. That Bob Iannini has already taken courses in Evil Genius school. Get you hooked on the idea, and then force you to pay up the nose to complete the project!

However. I do intend on building a laser cutter/engraver (eventually), and laser listening devices, and a few other “fun” projects to add to my Evil Genius tool kit.

A nice side effect of purchasing this book, it has greatly enhanced my desire to finishing writing the book I am working on. Even if I do not make lots of money from the sales of the book, I intend on having a copy for myself just for kicks.

Also, for those who know, I have built myself an arcade cabinet. I have a few things to finish on it, such as the side art. I have decided to use anime style artwork. Stupid library! They don’t have ANY available books on the topic. It is going to be very difficult to learn without that guidance, but I think I can manage! Once I have finished the cabinet (another $200 in parts) I will be able to begin one of my new “projects.” Until then, I will have to work on my book.

If only I can decide on a suitable font…

Little Lady’s B-Day

It was my wife’s birthday yesterday. Although I ran the many questions at work, and everyone tried to help me think of the best gift to give her, do not worry, I picked a winner! First of all, I found that stupid collectors Barbie doll she wanted. The Russian one. Yes, it does look cool, and it is the Russian “princess” but still, that is all she wanted. In all honesty, if I left it at that, I would deserve having to sleep on the couch. I didn’t leave it at that.

What does every girl like. Yes, I have given her jewelry every year since we were married, but this piece I really couldn’t pass up. Matching earrings and pendant, dark blue sapphires. Yes, it was a winner! I am not sleeping in the dog house. Course, I may be starving for the next two weeks. They cost a pretty penny. But she is happy, that is all that matters.

My little girl liked them as well. Yes, the two year old gave her approval. For the doll and the jewelry. Oddly, more for the jewelry than the doll. Isn’t she supposed to be a little bit older before things like that really catch her eye?

Boys! If you want to catch my daughters attention, give her expensive jewelry!
Daughter, take them for all they are worth! Give them nothing in return! BWAHAHAHAHA!

Taxes

After spending several hours on the dang blasted things, spanning several days, I have finished my taxes and sent them in. I am expecting a nice return this time. Enough to pay a mortgage payment. Taxes need to be overhauled. I can not believe how complex the rules are. What I want to know, is how many tax rules contradict other rules? Seriously, you think that might be a problem?

I need to announce that today is my wife’s birthday. Today she is one year older, and another year closer to being over the hill. I love you sweety!

I want to go skiing SO much! The mountains are calling to me. The biggest problem though is that I have no one to go skiing with! It really sucks! My younger brothers are too far away to say, hey lets go skiing. One is in Japan, and the other is about 1.5 hours away and going to school. This sucks! I am going to have to go with co-workers I guess! ARGH!

It isn’t that bad. As long as we don’t talk about work.