Time Cannon

Morning Pomp and Circumstance The "do absolutely nothing" three day weekend ran into some trouble today. It started out with attending our friends daughters graduation. At NINE AM!! Graduation, at nine AM in the morning? Isn't that crazy? I halfway expected to overhear one of the students say "hey man, what do you want to do after graduation? Hit the Waffle House or go back to bed?" The graduation in question was my old high school. It was held at Reunion Areana, former home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, the same place mine was held in 1985. Nineteen years ago, I was down on the arena floor awaiting my piece of paper verifying twelve years of hard labor, wondering what the future was holding for me. Well, I'm still here, healthy, can keep a roof over my head, not in debt up to my eyeballs, and have a family that loves me. I don't know if you can ask for much more. After the graduation we were invited for lunch at Campesi's....

Cartoon Cartograpahy My favorite show on televison is The Simpsons. The show has been on the air for fifteen years and still is consistently the funniest show on the tube. SlashDot had a link to a "fan created" map of Springfield . It's good way to pass a couple of hours. Give Fox's reaction to unauthorized material, you might want to download a copy while you can.

White Trash Beautiful On Fridays, six of us at work grill lunch in the back parking lot. The company actually bought us a grill for our club. We call it White Trash Friday. When it's your turn to cook that week, you buy the whole meal and cook. The other five weeks, you eat free. The menu, actually far from "white trash", regularly includes Ribeye Steaks, Butterflied Porkchops, Grilled Quail, Shish-K-bobs and other fine delicacies. It's a nice way to end the week. This week it was my turn to cook, and I broke my normal Ribeye tradition, and settled for Hot Dogs and Burgers. The best thing about WTF, is EVERYONE can smell the grill when it fires up and people always file by the break room, wondering what fine meal we have prepared. Some even try to trade their frozen dinner for a plate of food. I think not.

Arwyn is outta here! Actually got in the mood to scan a comic tonight. Sojourn #34. The final issue of the comic, that basically drug me back into the hobby. Greg Lands art (sadly not in this issue) is so far above and beyond whats on the shelves now it's not even funny. And for Crossgen to cancel their highest selling book, well that just tells you how bad they were on the business side of things. Rumor has it they will be out of business mid June at the latest. Talk about your rags to riches to rags story. A damn shame.

"Boooooring" Homer Simpson A rather blaise day as such things go. Not much, if anything worth writing about. Work went by at the speed of a glacier. I guess the prospect of having a three day holiday this weekend slows things down to a crawl. Fantasia wins American Idol. Wooop Te Do. Best singer won, no shock there. Now, all you people screaming racism, please go crawl back into your mossy caves now.

"Do you believe in miracles? Yesssss!!" Al Michaels The little league playoffs began tonight. For some crazy reason, all eight teams make the playoffs. On Sunday, if your a loyal reader (both of you), you'll recall the spanking they received. As luck would have it, us being the eighth seed we get to play the number one seed, one of the teams that killed us Sunday. This would be a fitting end to a dismal season. But a funny thing happened. Being the visiting team, we batted first and scored two runs. Those two runs had an amazing effect on the team. They realized that they aren't as bad as they have been playing. They realized they could play with these guys. That confidence actually transferred defensively as we cut down on our errors and and played a back and forth game. In little league, you never make it to nine innings so the two hour time limit usually comes into play. When we hit the two hour mark, the other team was batting and the score was t...

Paranoia By Joseph Finder Ah, welcome to book (audio) review #1. I don't care what the experts say, listening to an audiobook, is almost, as good as reading the text yourself. And with the amount of free time I have, it's better than the alternative, which is don't read OR listen. Adam Cassidy is your above average slacker. A junior product line manager for routers at Wyatt telecom. He hates his job, spending the day doing just enough to not get fired. A great bullshit artist, Adam hatches a scheme to divert corporate money in a fund to throw a lavish party (ice sculptures and all) for a retiring dock worker, who wouldn't have even gotten a thank you, if it weren't for Adams party. Adam fully expects to get caught and fired. He does not expect to get caught and threatened with embezzlement and Corporate Espionage, a felony with guaranteed prison time. To his surprise he is made and offer by the Nick Wyatt, the arrogant and ruthless CEO of Wyatt Teleco...

"The Play is at third!" Local Baseball "coach" You've seen my ramblings about @'s baseball team, a bunch of good talented kids, with absolutely no help from their coach. The coaches son plays shortstop. If such records were kept, we surely would hold the record for Worst Fielding Percentage By a Shortshop in the History of All Man Kind . But, since he's the coaches son, the errors continued mount. @ pitched the second game of a double header today. He gave up 13 runs. TEN OF THEM UNEARNED!!!!! He only gave up only four hits that were not a grounder, he had absolutely no help from his "defense". I swear I'm not one of these crazy sports parents that lives their lives vicariously through their son. It's just frustrating to see these kids underachieve because of the coach. Think I'm being a bit harsh? We're in the field. The other team has a player at third and one out. The coach yells: "be ready infield, the...

"I Got a Fever. And The Only Prescription is More Cowbell!" Legendary Record Producer, Bruce Dickinson The Perfect Saturday. I'm such a homebody, a hermit almost. I'm most comfortable at home. I feel sorry for *, it's got to drive her crazy now and then. My list of accomplishments today included the following: Sleep late, take a nap, surf the web, download comics, hang out on IRC, watch HBO Boxing (I STILL can't believe Roy Jones Jr. got knocked OUT !) and stayed up way too late. I wonder what my thoughts on the entry would be if I could have time traveled at 21 to read this entry in the future. I do know my definition of Perfect was a tad different back then.

Gettin' The Hell Outta Dodge Middle school graduation was tonight. @ was really pumped. Not at graduating 8th grade, but finally leaving SPX. Grades 1-6 at the Catholic school were fine. The last 2 years, though were a royal pain in the ass. The teachers have been there too long are underpaid and had lost interest in guiding these kids. I think I was as happy as he was after the ceremony. I won't miss dealing with those people at all. Right before we left, I told him it was time for us to give him his present. We had gotten him a cel phone but I want to string him along a bit. On Tuesday when we switched plans both * and myself got new phones also. That night, we were showing off the features of the new phones to him. He played along, acting like he was happy for us, all the while wanting his own I'm sure. I purchase a belt clip for my phone and his. I put the clip in a bag and wrapped it for him. When he opened it, there was a look of "what the hell...

"The music does the talkin' says the things you want to hear" Triumph - Magic Power The other day, while browsing the Netflix site for movies to add to my queue, I found out that Triumph (probably my second favorite band) has released a concert DVD, A Night of Triumph Live . It was shot it 1987, just as the band was reaching their pinnacle of popularity and success. It arrived today. Couldn't WAIT to pop it in and crank the surround sound. Wow, what a disappointment. The music was great, the band was tight, but GOOD GOD MAN, whoever directed this ought to be shot. When I watch a concert or concert video, I would kinna like to see the band every now and then, not a shot of the mullet headed masses every 5 seconds. It was amazing. I actually stopped the DVD when, during Midsummer's Daydream (a GREAT little acoustical piece), the camera was BEHIND Rik. Nah, I don't want to see that amazingly fast fret run from one end of the guitar to the other, than...

Internal Audit The very first entry in the Time Cannon dealt with my haveing acute prostatitis. That entry, (and this one perhaps) will never be enshrined in the Blog Hall of Fame for Outstanding Entry In a Personal Blog, and surely falls into the category of Way Too Much Information (tm). But, as a major trauma in my life it must be noted. The first time I went to the doctor (my birthday, thank you very much) I had no clue that I was going to have THE EXAM . So when he told me what he was about to do, I didn't really have too much time to worry about it. The checkup was today. I knew that I would have to have THE EXAM . Not knowing you are going to get THE EXAM , is much better than knowing your are going to get THE EXAM . I can tell you that personally. The report was good, all seems to be well, and we won't have to revisit that particular area until I turn 40. Another positive that came from this is a pretty fun website I stumbled across while looking for one of...

"Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets." Yogi Berra The Little League season is winding down to a close and it couldn't come any sooner. I know it's all for fun, but the absolute and utter lack of coaching is about to wear me down. With the talent level of these kids, we should not be as bad as we are. To call our team the Bad News Bears would be an insult to the Bad News Bears. To be fair they faced a hell of a pitcher, I mean this kid could bring it. He held us to one hit (@ had it, a little seeing eye grounder between first and second, that plated our only two runs). But the defense was horrible as usual, with just about everyone contributing to the error-fest. Add to that the incredulous coaching descions and you have the recepie for a 14-2 rout. One example of coaching prowess encapsulated our entire baseball carreer under this guy. Our main pitcher, complained that his arm was hurting. When a young...

Mooooove Jimmy Falon as Nick Burns, The Computer Guy My rant a couple of days ago against "computer idiots" has come back to haunt me. About once a week someone will ask me if I can look at their computer to take the latest virus off or get rid of their extensive spyware. If it's slow at the office, I don't mind doing it. Today, the owner of the company brings me THREE pc's he wants "upgraded". The first two are Pentium ONE 100's!!! The other was a decent AMD, a newer machine. When I tell him that you can't upgrade the P1 machines (both motherboards only support 100mzh chips) he gave me a look that made me think it was MY fault. What kills me, is this guy has money, and instead of spending 400 bucks to get a decent machine, he wants to upgrade a machine thats over 10 years old. I finally talk him into ordering a new machine. The parts arrive from NewEgg tomorrow. Now for the Cherry on top of my Wednesday, the CFO of the company h...

Adventure's Waiting Just Ahead!! When I arrived home from work yesterday, a late birthday present had appeared on the kitchen table. It was the Limited Collector Edition of Speed Racer Volume 2. Does she know me or what...

Kill Bill @ graduates from Middle School Friday. Yeah, I said graduates . Kids theses days, they have kindergarten graduation, middle school graduation, high school graduation and on and on. He has been hounding me to get him a cel phone for about 2 years now. I have adamantly refused, playing the responsibility card. The more I though about it, the more I decided that I would get him one for graduation. Maybe it will instill some reponsibilty in him. So I trekked over to the local AT&T Wireless store to see what kind of plan I could work out. Looks like it was a good time to buy. My current 2 line plan (analog) ran $62 per month. What I ended up getting, was upgraded to the new GSM network and adding a third line. Upgrade to GSM, means three new free phones, 200 more minutes and free nights and weekends for $59 per month. Add a line get 3 new phones, more minutes and pay less. A rare win for the consumer. Hopefully I wont be posting any "I took away @'s cel...

"Rock N Roll 'Aint Noise Pollution" AC/DC A sad day in Dallas Radio history today. KEGL, a long time rock fixture has switched formats. No matter your taste in music, you should be sad. The demise of the medium by way of "Corporate Radio" is almost complete. I find it ironic when the word monopoly is thrown around, Microsoft immediately comes to mind. ClearChannel is worse in my opinion. They are almost singlehandedly responsible for the generic playlists that float through the airwaves today. Now Dallas (the fifth largest advertising market) is left without a true rock station. Like we need more syrupy stations playing Billy Joel and Barbera Streisand. Sure there are a couple of classic rock stations, an alternative rock station, neither of which will fill the hole KEGL did. If you know me, you know what type of music I like. Good 'ol 3 chord blues influenced rock n roll. Thats it. I have severe tunnel vision when it comes to the type of musi...

My First Comment! Woo Hoo! Received my first comment on the blog yesterday (Thanks Kelley). I started this thing just a an outlet to jot stuff down for myself. It's cool to know someone else actually reads it. Boring as it may be. So, don't be shy, lemme hear from ya!

"If size did matter, Dinosaurs would still be around." Wendelin Wiedeking Monday night, that means Monster House. This weeks installment (a repeat that I had not previously seen) is called Jurassic House. I know I always wanted a T-Rex skeleton in my living room. This was nicely done, the theme was carried throughout the house, unlike shows of late where there are just individual projects that don't mesh together under one motif. "Hey Man, Why is My Computer Running So Slow?" Computer Idiot That phrase make my skin craw. I know a lot about computers. I can build one and I can fix one I can network one, and I deal with them for a living. I though that this would be a good thing, ya know, maybe a little bit handy you'd think. The sole problem with knowing this, is the fact that someone eventually finds out. I don't mind helping people, I really don't. But for the love of all that is holy and pure, could someone PLEASE tell me why...

"Adultery Is The Application of Democracy To Love" H.L. Mencken One of my favorite Sunday morning rituals is to watch Cheaters (taped from the previous night). If you haven't heard of this show boy are you missing out. People who think their significant other is cheating, submit their case to Cheaters detectives. They then follow the philaderer and try to catch them on hidden surveillance camera. That part is good, but they save the best for last, The Confrontaion. Fists usually fly, and people will STILL deny that they aren't doing anything wrong while being shown a video of themselves caught red-handed. And the fact that it's shot in and around Dallas, makes it all the more intriguing. At least two times they have had cases in Mesquite. I'm still waiting to see someone I know. "You guys. You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first..." @ had a 4:00 baseball game in Richardson. It was about 35 de...