JK Shepard

My brother would have been 22 today. Yesterday, I told my son that Jeremy would have been 21, but I think it is actually 22.

I wrote about Jeremy in September of 2005, around the anniversary of his death. If you do not know the story you can review it at:

http://blog.ericshepard.com/2005/09/jeremy-shepard.html

I have been thinking about Jeremy today. It has been distracting me quite a bit. I have been sort of sad.

I guess at 22 he would be close to graduating from college. I still picture him as a little kid, so thinking of him about to take place in a college graduation sort of blows my mind. Last time I saw him, he was a teenager, but basically I think of him as Tyler's age. I probably always will. I am not sure if that means I will always think of him as 5 or 6 or if that means that whatever Tyler's age, that is the age I will think of Jeremy. Probably, the later. Very often I see Jeremy in Tyler. Something about some of his facial features and expressions makes me think a lot of Jeremy is in Tyler.

Sometimes that scares me. I have an unjustified fear that somehow I will lose my boy. I know there is no more reason to think something bad will happen to Tyler because he reminds me of my brother than there is for any child. But often I am more concerned about losing Tyler to some tragedy than I about Connor. As crazy as Connor is, it should be just the opposite.

Tyler asked me last night why Jeremy died. I do not have a good answer for that question. I avoided it by talking about Jeremy's heart. But the simple truth is I do no know why Jeremy died.

I guess I could go with "because God wanted Jeremy with him". But why God had to have him at 15 instead of 85 is a mystery to me. It does not really bother me that I don't understand. But, I absolutely do not understand how a seemingly healthy 15 year old kid would die. I guess it is just one of those things I will ever fully comprehend. There are a lot of those things that are beyond my comprehension. I think Jeremy's death is at the top of my list.

I am trying to think where he would have gone to college. My answer (since I can pick anywhere) is Colorado University. Somewhere in Illinois is probably more likely, but today I picture him close to my home. We probably would have seen each other quite a bit had he come to school in Colorado.

Of course now I will never know.

Well, anyway, Happy Birthday Jeremy.

RMNP

We went camping this weekend up in Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather was less than ideal, but I am still glad we went camping. I just wish the weather would have cooperated a bit more.

Because of the weather I got to use our little tent heater. This is the first time we have used it out of need. I tried it out once simply to test it. Friday night (actually Saturday morning) it was cold enough that I fired it up out of concern for the kids' comfort. They told me the next day that they were warm enough all night in their sleeping bags, so I guess it was not absolutely necessary.

We also drove into town for breakfast Saturday and coming back did as many indoor things as we could. We spent a long time in the visitors center and the "Moraine Park Museum". Afternoon was actually decent. I went for a hike while Connor took his nap and Tracy and Tyler did stuff around the campsite.

Luckily Sunday was nice enough that the whole family could hike together. Connor was on my back most of the way, but Tyler hiked almost 5 miles round trip. We went to Cub Lake which is a very popular hike starting close to our campsite. It took us about 6 hours with a really long lunch and a big rest at the lake. It definitely took a large portion of the day. Connor got his nap in the kid-carrier which does not seem at all comfortable, but he did not seem to mind.

My legs are pretty sore from the two hikes. Most of the soreness comes from carrying a somewhat large 3 year old on my back up and down mountainous terrain for several miles. I still think he weighs a bit less than my backpacking pack, but not a whole lot less. I skipped my workout night last night to watch the cup finals game last night, but if I were not so sore I probably would have at least gone for a little workout.

I also got to try out the new camping stove that I got for Christmas. Sunday morning was just boiling water for oat meal and coffee. My little old camping stove was fine for boiling water. But Sunday I made sausage and pancakes. My old stove just sucked at anything like that. The new one ROCKS. It has a nice big griddle that fits over all three burners and is the perfect size for cooking multiple things. Perfect for pancakes and sausage. I was really really happy with the new stove and how nice the pancakes turned out. It makes me wonder why I tolerated the old one so long. Well... The reason is actually obvious; I am cheap. I never would have spent money on this myself so it is one of those awesome gifts. Thanks Tracy (Tracy never reads this so she will not be getting a big head).

Apparently there was "bear activity" in our campground the first night we were there (the really cold and windy night). One of the rangers came by in the morning to remind us not to keep food or any other nice smelling things in the tent. Of course, when we checked in we got the same talk as we were in "bear country". I am not sure I see the difference between there having been a bear in the camp and there potentially being a bear in the camp. Either way, it is a bad idea to keep food in the tent. What is sad is that the Ranger probably convinced some people to be more careful just by telling people there actually was a bear. I would venture to guess that usually when a bear goes through a campground, no one notices. So, being more careful just because someone noticed seems ridiculous to me.

Anyway, once again I was disappointed to miss seeing the bear.

We did see a bunch of Wapiti (Elk). A large number of them had on collars with antennas .... Presumably transmitters. It takes away from the thrill when the wild animal has a man-made collar on.

I also saw a rather large coyote slinking through the campground in the dark. Well, I am assuming it was a coyote because it was way too big to be a fox and the only other choice would be a small wolf. It also could have been a ghost - canine for all I know. I have been seeing a lot of coyotes recently. They wander around our neighborhood in the mornings and evenings.

Anyway... I am glad we went camping. I am looking forward to the next trip of the summer.

Pine Beattles

Well... I am on the light rail today. Trying to save a little gas. When I ride the train, I usually blog on my phone, but today I do not really have much to say. Or at least I cannot think of a topic. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the earphone adaptor for my phone so I cannot even listen to music.

The attached picture is from this weekend up in Winter Park. Auction Automations had an event in Tabernash and while it was not my event to work I went up with Tracy and the kids to be "on call". The charity paid for our rooms, so there was no big reason not to go.

The Winter Park valley seems to be the worst hit by the pine beattle epidemic. If you don't know, pine beattles are destroying a huge portion of Colorado's pine forests. Pine beattles lay eggs and their grubs eat pines. The pines die. It has gotten pretty bad. Most of the trees in the winter park area are dead and brown. The only thing to do is cut down the dead trees and wait for them to be replaced by aspen.

I suspect fire wood will be pretty cheap for quite some time. Although, it may be that they want to keep that wood quarentined, so I will not get benefit.

Unfortunately, Tracy's family is having a reunion up there at the end of June. Reservations had to be made almost 2 years ago. At the time we knew about the pine beattle epidemic, but I did not realize that it would ever get this bad.

And it is not just Winter Park / Frasier valley. I think I heard that eventually 90 percent of our pine forests will be wiped out. Years from now, colorado's evergreens will be replaced by Aspen. I wonder if there is an Aspen Beattle.

Of course, global warming is a big reason for triving pine beattles (isn't every negative thing in today's world at least partially caused by global warming?). The cold mountain winters are apparently no longer cold enough to control their populations. Another means to control the pine beattles is forest fire, which with so many people now living in he mountains are no longer allowed to clean up forests. Of course, forest fires also tend to kill pines.

One interesting thing to me is that it seems the whole purpose of the pine beattle is to destroy its food source. If the pine beattle population accomplishes its purpose there will be no more trees and so the pine beattles will die off.

And you would think 1 tree would be enough food for millions of these little things. But they do not seem content at all to stay put. Nope, they have to destroy thousands of trees. Greedy little bastards.

I am sure that in the whole scheme of things, the grand design of creation, Pine Beattles have an important role. I do not know what it is. It probably has something to do with keeping forest areas healthy by getting rid of old obsolete trees. Somehow the balance maintains itself if man does not screw with it, but we have somehow done something that allows Pine Beattles go out of control. This is where global warming or over controling forest fires or something comes in. I am sure this is all our fault. Probably specifically the fault of white christrian capitalist males.

I do not buy it.

I blame the tweedle beattles.

May Snow

It started snowing at our house this morning after a night of rain.

Most people I know complain about this weather in May. Personally I like the fact that we can get snow this late in the year. It is certainly better than living someplace with no snow. Plus we keep hearing how dry this summer is expected to be so any moisture we get at all is a good thing.

Of course, in a couple of weeks we are going camping at Rocky Mountain National park. I do not want the weather to be cold and rainy then. If was just me, I would love camping in the snow. I think even just me and Tyler would have fun. But Tracy and Connor are not camp-in-snow kind of people. Connor is just a bit young and gets to the "I want to go home." chant too easily. Tracy, although she does not really complain and claims to be having fun is just too much of a girl to enjoy non-perfect weather camping.

By the way, I like that she is a girl.

Back to today's weather: between yesterday and today we went from mid to high 70s to what should be a high of 35 or 40 today. Crazy. Part of the complaint around here is that such a swing is hard to handle. It is hard to know how to dress; people claim temperature swings cause sickness; etc.... Again, I think this is part of what is so great about living here. These sort of people do not complain when we get gorgeous warm winter weather the next day after a winter snow.

I would not be surprised if this is the last snow we get this year. Crazy weather. I wonder if this is part of global warming.

One thing I do not like about this weather is how hot they keep the train. Holy cow I am burning up on the light rail.

No Rain

No rain today.

I am taking the light rail again because of the afternoon Rockies game today. I forgot to get off in time for my regular stop so I went up further. Traffic was horrible, and finding a parking spot was a bit of a challenge because I am not used to the parking layout of this stop. Eventually I found the area where there was plenty of parking.

It is just a beautiful day today. It makes me wish I could go mountain biking rather than working in front of a computer. I have not been mountain biking in just about forever. I miss it. I really have not been biking nearly as much as I used to. I need to get back into it.

I have been having my typical trouble sleeping lately. I keep waking up at about 3:30 and just cannot get back to sleep until I read for about 45 minutes. And then getting up at 6:00 is painful. It does not seem to help if I go to bed later. I am not overly tired once I get going, but I really wish I could sleep all the way through the night or at least get back to sleep once I wake up. Perhaps I should just start my day at 3:30. I am sure at the very least that would change the cycle and maybe completely fix me.

The reason I cannot get back to sleep is that I start to think about things I should do. Most often, but not always it is work related. In fact if I cannot figure something out, quite often lots of my ideas of things to try come between 3:30 and 4 in the morning. But most of the thoughts are not worth losing sleep over.

Well, my stop is coming up.

More later.

palindrome

A man a plan a canal panama

I am not good at identifying palindromes. I heard the panama one on the radio and typed it into my phone. I am not sure why, but there is something mysterious about palindromes. Something sort of exciting.

It is raining this morning. Denver traffic is not very good about dealing with rain. Drainage on the highways is horrible and just about any decent amount of rain results in flooded roads. The traffic report kept talking about closed down ramps and standing water right downtown where I am going today.

So I decided to ride the train in. There was one leaving right when I got here. I could have made it but decided to wait. The wait was a bit longer than it should have been, but now I am on the train.

I will probably take it tomorrow because there is an afternoon Rockies game and I do not wish to spend time looking for a decent price for parking.

Considering how expensive gas is lately, maybe I should make this a regular thing again. It just adds too much time to the commute.

Anyway, we got thunder storms last night. I heard thunder starting around 3. That kind of weather is unusual for Colorado. We get a lot of afternoon storms in he spring and summer, but rarely ones in the early morning.

My lawn really needs the rain. I am glad we are getting the moisture. I actually sort of like rainy mornings .... Probably from years of living in Washington. And I sort of miss this sort of weather in sunny Denver.

Well, I am getting close to my stop. Hope you enjoyed my boring blog.

Feel free to use the Palindrome if you would like.

I hate Red Wings

Well, I guess Denver does not have to worry about hockey-crazy fans rioting over a Stanley Cup this year.

Not only did the wings sweep the Avalanche, but in game 4, just humiliated the team. It was horrible to watch, and to make matters worse, it sure seemed that there were more evil Red Wing fans at the game than fans of the home team. This was especially true later in the game when the wings had 5,6 and maybe even 7 goal leads.

The Avs were missing Foresberg, Smythe, Wolski, and Stastny in the final game, and most of those players for most of the series. Even so, a professional hockey team should not lose 8 to 2 in an elimination game.

I guess 16W V2 is not happening this year.

I am not sure it will be happening any time soon here in Denver. Certainly, if we compare the Red Wings to the Avalanche, the Avs have a long way to go.

Well, I guess there is always next year.

Only you can prevent

We can't, you know.

The number of things that are actually under our control are surprisingly few.

"Only you can prevent forest fires" says Smokey. The reality is that most forest fires are caused by lightning or other naturally occurring events, and we are unable to stop them from happening. And truth be told... Naturally occurring fires are important to the natural cycle of life in nature. Ironically, the more we interfere trying to prevent forest fires, the more overdue the cleansing fires become and the worst the inevitable becomes.

You cannot prevent cancer or any other disease. It seems that every day something new causes cancer and new deadly viruses are born. Bacteria is now more resistant to anti-biotics in part because of how aggressively (and obsessively) we have tried to defeat germs.

You cannot prevent floods or tidal waves or drought or war or famine or homelessness or racism or stupidity.

You cannot prevent global warming or cooling.

You cannot prevent huge geothermal events or extraterrestrial objects from crashing into the Earth.

You cannot prevent your kids from getting in trouble. You cannot prevent them from getting hurt. You cannot prevent them from marrying someone of whom you do not approve.

You can not keep from getting old. You will eventually die.

All you really control is how you live your life and how you react to all these things that are out of your control. You can control how you treat people and for the most part how you choose to spend your time and energy.

Obviously, you can try to influence things. You can eat right and stay away from unhealthy situations. You can raise your children the best you can so they are less likely to have problems. You can help out less fortunate people.

But you can not control these things.

Just accept that fact and you will probably be better off.

The Island

Our auction tonight is at a place called "The Island".

I have never been here before and never really heard of it, but as far as I can figure it is a indoor and outdoor sand volleyball facility. Apparently they also rent out the space for events.

We are here to do a silent auction for Southmoore Elementary school.

Thank goodness it is indoor because it there is a possibility of snow tonight.

But, we are setting up a computer network on SAND. It is very dusty sand.

This is not a good place for us to do an auction. It is hard to setup and the dust is not good for our equipment. But, we aim to please, so our corporate policy is to not complain too much about it.

And come to think of it, this is not the worst venue we have done one of these in. The worst, actually is the Polo Classic (http://www.denverpolo.org/) because it is always over the hottest weekend of the year. I don't know how the 20/30 club of Denver manages it, but somehow they are always able to get it scheduled that way. Sometimes they even throw in huge thunderstorms just to keep us on our toes. Thunderstorms are not good for computer equipment either. the Polo Classic is even the one we do for free. We're so smart.

Anyway, we are pretty much setup for our even now. It does not start for about 2 hours, so I guess the setup was not too bad.

It is so much nicer now that we have paid setup people.

I've been playing around watching Slingbox the past couple of events. It works ok, but I am a bit disappointed with the quality of the picture while using my phone as a modem, but it is better than missing the Avs or the Nuggets. Plus, it is one of those guy toys I can show off with. I just noticed that the Nuggets are on a big TV in the bar of this place while I was watching a little choppy picture on my computer. Oh well.

-------------

Well... it is now the next day. We survived the night. The equipment seems to have survived. It was actually sort of fun. It was a late night.

Tommyknockers

We go to Tommyknockers quite a bit.

I'm actually the only one who likes the beer. Well, Tracy does claim to like some girly fruity beer that they make, but I sort of doubt ANYONE actually likes fruity beer. Maybe. But I doubt it.

We took off today for a mountain adventure. I have never been up the Central City Parkway and figured there must be somthing somewhat interesting in the Central City / Blackhawk area. I was wrong. We did find a somewhat cool park in Blackhawk, but Tyler fell making it not quite as cool. For the most part, the day trip was a failure.

But, we headed back to Idaho Springs and Tommyknockers brew pub made the whole trip worth it.

Bike Ride

This past Sunday we went to Chatfield State Park for a picnic. After lunch, Tyler rode his bike around.

Change Drive Letter

My laptop was running out of space, so I got myself a 250 GB portal external drive.

When I first connected it, XP assigned F: as the drive letter.

Today, it came through as E:

Not a huge deal, except I also put all my music on this drive. Window Media Player shows all of these files on F:

So, google came to the rescue and I found the following way to set the drive letter of an external drive. It worked fine for me. Cool Beans.

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-change-the-drive-letter-in-windows-xp-for-an-external-usb-stick-or-hard-drive/

16w v2?

So, did you see the game last night?

Hard hitting. Hard skating. Great goaltending. Foresberg held in check off the scoresheet but still showing his magic on the ice and his love of physical hockey. Finally Ryan Smyth had a good game which is good to see in the playoffs. Both sets of d-men played mean and hit hard and jumped up into offensive plays. Overtime win by (who else) super Joe.

Jose Theodore was better than his counterpart and kept the Avs in the game.

And when you go to playoff overtime who do want on your team more than Joe Sakic?

It is probably far fetched to think the Avs will get 16w (15w now) for the cup, but I am not going to bet against a team that has Peter the Great, Hejduk, and Paul Stastny playing great together. A team that has Ryan Smyth playing well. A team with a defensive core as mean as Adam Foote and Rousolon Solei, as solid as Finger and Sauer and as exciting as JM Liles and J Leopold. A team with a red hot Theodore in net. And a team with (lets face it) Joe Sakic.

It was not an easy game. Both teams had to fight for every puck and every inch of ice. Either team could have won the game and I fully expect every game to be the same way. And if the Avs get past the wild, the opponents probably will not get any easier.

But still until they get knocked out... 16w all the way.

3 year old

Here is a picture of my 3 year old boy napping in his "new" big boy bed. He made the "move" this past Sunday and was very excited about being able to sleep in a bed like Tyler's. Of course it is the same bed. The only difference is that I removed one side so that he is no longer contained. My wife was nervous, just like she was for Tyler when he got out of the crib, that Connor would abuse his new-found freedom and we would spend all kinds of time trying to get him back in bed. Just as was the case with Tyler, though, he stays there until morning. So far. At least this time we did not get a stupid side rail to keep him in bed. Tracy listened to me this time on that. This is quite a milestone as it is the first thing she has listened to me on since we became parents, possibily even since we got married or maybe even engaged.

That is probably not true. I am sure she has listened before; I just cannot think of a time.

So anyway, Connor is thrilled to be a big boy. Even his big brother is excited about Connor's big step. Tyler and Connor have been begging for permission to have a "sleepover" in Conor's room. Tyler had his sleeping bag set up all week so that should the parents agree, he would be ready. I finally gave in last night, and they had a great time. They were up earlier than I would have prefered but for the most part it was not even a problem for Mom and Dad.

Connor will be 3 tomorrow, but he is still our baby. And he is definantly less grown up than Tyler was at 3. He is liking that he gets to have a birthday and he appears to be more excited about the accomplishment of growing up even more than for cake icecream and gifts.

Our baby is so cute.

Five for Fighting

I'm 15 for a moment. Caught in between 10 and 20.

I'm 22 for a moment. She feels better than ever, and we're on fire making our way back from Mars.

I'm 33 for a moment. Still the man but you see I'm a they.

I'm 45 for a moment. The sea is high and I heading into a crisis chasing the years of my life.

Half time goes by. Suddenly you are wise. Another blink of an eye, 67 is gone. The sun is getting high we're moving on.

I'm 99 for a moment. Dying for just another moment.

There's never wish better than this when you only got a 100 years to live.

Fitness

I am up early this morning working out at my favorite bally total fitness. I got here at 4:45. The place was aready open and others had been working out for some time already. The place does not officially open until 5. I am not sure how that works but it is convienient on days like his fo me.

My usual workout on early mornings is 35 minutes on the elliptical cross-trainer. Today I only did 30 minutes but now I am on the bike for a few minutes.

Today, I got to 810 calories in half an hour. That is about typical for me. But today I got to 300 in only 10 minutes. I have never gotten to +100 that fast before.

You see, shortly after I started at bally, my goal was to get 100 calories every 5 minutes. At first, that was very difficult. Now, that is a little more than a resting pace for me. Currently, my goal is for the first and second 15 minutes to get an extra 100 calories. So, I try to get to 800 in the first half an hour. That usually comes out to exactly 400 calories each of the 15 minute stretches.

I have never gotten to that +100 this fast before. It was not easy. Reading this, you probably think this is not really that big a deal, but trust me most people have never burned 800 in half an hour and certainly have not burned 300 in 10.

But the problem is that I am so grossly overweight . I am one of those big-boned people so most people are shocked when I tell them that according to typical height / weight charts I am over 50 pounds overweight. I do carry a lot of muscle, but even so I am probably at least 25 to 30 pounds overweight.

I work out at LEAST two times a week, and usually 3 or 4 at intensities far beyond what most people can do. And usually my workouts are 45 to 60 minutes on cardio alone.

But still I am fat. I am listed as dangerously obese on some height weight charts I have seen.

My resting heart rate is less than 60 beats per minute and my blood pressure is normal (and better than normal when I cut out coffee for a couple of weeks). My collesterol is ridiculously low. So my obesity is not really causing me any health issues. But still it bothers me that I am overweight.

It does not bother me enough to start a diet, though.

My TV

The tweedle beetles strike again.

My big TV has been having problems for quite some time. Since about the NFC championship game, the TV has been intermittenly shutting itself off immediatey when I tried to turn it on. I have to shut it off and back on several times before I actually get it on. Once it actually comes on it if fine until I turn it off.

At first, the problem was barely a problem. In fact for awhile I thought that phone suport had helped me fix the problem by going into TV settings and resetting to factory defaults. But it started getting worse and now I can count on spending 10 minutes trying to get the TV on.

The TV is still under warranty.

Vizio sent out an independent support tech out to replace two parts and the TV still did not work. Now they are sending me a new TV. They are low on stock for my model so they are sending out a newer model.

It has taken a long time (some of which is my fault), but in another 7 to 10 business days, I will have a brand-new 50 inch HD TV.

As I said, the whole process seems like it should have taken less time but for the most part considering everything, they did a fine job resolving the situation. I do not really have a problem with their problem resolution.

I hate the fact that the most expensive TV I have ever bought caused me the most problems. The most I have ever spent on a TV before this was less than 200 bucks and it is 13 years old with NO problems. I had my big fancy new technologically advanced TV for less than a couple of months and had major problems with it. And if it had not been under warranty I would probably have spent more money getting it fixed than I spent on all my previous TVs combined (all my 2 previous TVs).

And it seems to me that the more advanced and expensive things get, the more unreliable they tend to be. And the repairs get more expensive.

The guy who came by to replace the TV components told me that my brand of TV is usually one of the most dependable he services, and that I was just having ba luck with it. I did believe that he was telling the truth.

And if the new TV lasts me 20 years, I will be very happy. But right now I sort of doubt that this will last me as long as my other TVs. And that sort of pisses me off.

Right now I feel like

V Day

I have to say that I am glad my wife does not go nuts for Valentines Day. She does not expect expensive gifts or really any gifts at all, and she does not get upset when I am not romantic for the "holiday". I hear horror stories from other guys and I am just happy to not have to deal with that BS. It seems that some guys are just destined to fail the high expectations that their wives place on them.

Tyler and Connor were excited for the day. Candy is always popular with them and the whole giving / getting cards to / from all the kids in the class is exciting. I guess I will find out tonight if it was all as wonderful as they seemed to think it was going to be. I guess since they are so young I will not question their masculinity based on being excited for the day. But real men think Valentines day is stupid.

It is, you know. It is really a stupid holiday. But I hope everyone out there has a nice one.

IE NT NTML Auto-Authentication

I ran into a problem where my personal computer seemed to be triggering a 3-password failure lockout on a client's domain. I was locked out probably 20 times in a 3 - day period. Honestly, I am not that idiotic to type in a password incorrectly 60 times!

It took me awhile to track it down to my personal laptop, but eventually I shut it down for awhile and had no problems. Almost as soon as I started it back up, I was getting locked out.

I had cleared out all mapped drives and all of the Client's printers from my computer. The issue occurred even though I was not trying to log onto any of the domain server. It appeared that all I had to do was start Internet Explorer.

It is sort of weird, because I have been at the client for a long time and never had this problem (at least to this extent). I also had not changed my password on the domain for several weeks.

So, after seeming to track it down to IE, I decided to try to clear out my NTML passwords.

Unfortunately, how to do this is not very well documented and it was sort of hard to find even on the Internet. A bunch of people gave really stupid ways to trick IE into acting like and individual password was cleared out, but certainly not how to just blow them all away.

Finally, I found that where this information is stored is an encrypted text file located in a folder in:

C:\Documents and Settings\Eric Shepard\Application Data\Microsoft\Credentials

I deleted the folders in the Credential folder.

I do not know how the whole challenge / response works for IE's NTML Auto-Autentication, but it appears that my encrypted file must have been corrupted in such a way that IE was trying to logon to the Domain at least times with an incorrect password before passing the prompt back to me.

Deleting the text file seems to have fixed my problem. At least I hope so. I thought I had it nailed several times over the past few days.

So, if you are ever having a similar problem, be my guest to try this same method.

Happy Birthday

I think it is about time I figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I turned 38 on the 4th of this month. Shouldn't I have some sort of idea what I want to do with my life? Maybe something in computers would be good. I do not know, I hear computer jobs are moving to India and China.

I do hear that this internet thing might become big. I should learn to leverage a web presence.

Sometimes I feel I am on the verge of figuring it all out. Often I think I am not even close.

I need to come up with something so innovative and lucrative that I do not have to earn money from a career. That opens up tons of career choices because you can get all kinds of jobs if you are willing (and able) to work for nothing.

I had a nice birthday. For breakfast, my wife and kids put a candle in a stack of pancakes and sang happy birthday to me.

The guys that I work with bought me lunch.

I got gifts and taken out to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner.

I even got cake and ice cream.

The gifts I got were nice. My wife got me a beer of the month membership. I hope I can keep up. Apparently she decided to pay month to month so if my beer stock gets too high we can take a month or two off. I do not forsee that being a problem. The only bad thing about it is that an adult must be present to accept the shipments. There is no way to know exactly when one will arrive, and the shipping company is sort of a long way off in the event that we are unable to be at home for a delivery. Anyway it will be interesting to see how much of a pain this ends up being.

So, what am I going to be when I grow up?

When will I actually grow up?

At the moment, when people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I am a "Computer Geek". That is pretty much what I am, but I do not think I am a very good computer geek. I am not really a specialist at anything. I am also not really a good generalist. Quite often (most of the time) when people ask me a computer question, my answer is that I do not really know. Do not for instance ask me what kind of computer to get. I do not know. Basically, I try to get the one with the best specs for the least amount of money.

I cannot build a computer.

I cannot hack into the Pentagone.

Lots of times when I speak to real computer geeks most of what they say goes right over my head.

The fact that I have a job at all has more to do with a series of lucky events (due to my semi-charmed-kind-of-life than any kind of tallent I have. I am actually kind of a lazy idiot.

It is interesting because no one seems to think that except me, unless an aweful lot of people have been lying to me my whole career. Whenever I have had to rate myself for job reviews I ALWAYS rate myself very low compared to my managers.

Of course, for the past two years I have been my own boss, so it has been awhile since I have gone through that sort of process. I still talk to peers and clients and think my perception of my abilities and worth is much lower than those people.

So, here I am, a 38 year old, self-employed computer geek who does not think he is a very good computer geek. I enjoy being a computer geek for the most part, but I just do not think I am great at it. And I am not the kind of person who is out there killing myself to become great at it. I am not pationate enough about work in general to strive to be the very best. So, I am not even close.

Actually, I guess technically, I am the employee (the only employee) of an S-Corporation. One of the guys in the same situation I am in says that is not the same as being self-employeed. I am not sure I agree with him, although, I do see his point. I will still call myself self-employeed, though.

A guy just told me that by 2015 there will be the biggest demand in history of technical resourses here in the US. That means I will have all kinds of opportunity whether or not a bulk of the developer jobs are overseas. I just have to maintain my mediocre status, and stay up somewhat and I am golden with the job I have now.

So, in the meantime, I still have time to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. If I pass my 65th birthday and still do not know, maybe I'll start to panic.

Happy birthday to me.

Nathan Yip

The Nathan Yip Foundation provides schools, education, medical, and financial support to underprivileged children in 3rd world countries. It was founded in 2002 by Jimmy and Linda Yip after they lost their 19 year old son, Nathan, in an automobile accident.

Nathan had a passion for philanthropic activities and became overwhelmed by the poverty and lack of educational opportunities for children world-wide. While alive Nathan spoke of starting a foundation with his father to help impoverished children worldwide.

After Nathan's death Jimmy and Linda started the foundation with the hope that the Nathan Yip Foundation will build upon Nathan's legacy and bring positive energy from their tragic loss.

In just over 5 years, the Nathan Yip Foundation has raised over $500,000 and are funding projects in China, Mexico, and Africa.

Check out http://www.nathanyipfoundation.com/donate/makeadifference.html on how to help make a difference through the Nathan Yip Foundation.

On Saturday, February 2, 2008, the Foundation sponsored an event at the Cable Center at the University of Denver for the "International Celebration for the Chinese New Year."

The event included a silent and live auctions and included special performances from Metropolitian Opera Star, Hao Jiang Tian and the Shaolin Hung Mei Dancers.

We (Auction Automations) did the silent auction.

I thought it was a pretty cool event. I was working so was not really taking it in that much. I was stuck in a corner behind tables of computers.

The dancers were very entertaining. The drummers that went along with them were LOUD.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of the Dragons from my cell phone. I apologize that they are not very good pictures. The one on the tois a dragon at the top of a pretty big pole held up by half a dozen or so of the dancers. It was pretty cool. Again, I am sorry the photos did not turn out that great.



The silent auction ended up doing very well. It did particularly well during dinner. People really got into the wireless bidding at their tables. Unfortunately, we had a bunch of units that lost their battery power, but we keep up pretty well with the demand. Always leave them wanting more anyway.

I really admire Jimmy and Linda. To be able to take the loss of a child and use it as motivation to start something that makes such a difference in the world is really a great accomplishment. I do not even know where I would start had I been in their shoes. I am sure they had great help from friends and family, but I am also sure that they accomplished something that 99% of people in the world would not be able to do. Most people would not even have the heart to want to do something like this, let alone find a way to get it done.

Anyway, the Nathan Yip Foundation put on a good show and if you get a chance to attend one of their events in the future, I do recommend it.

Give them some money too, it goes to a good cause: http://www.nathanyipfoundation.com/donate

All Aboard!

My boys really like trains.
Why do they like trains?
It must be something hard-wired into kids. Maybe it is only boys, although, if you ever go to a day-out-with-Thomas, you will see that an awful lot of girls seem to enjoy Thomas trains.

The video is of my two-year-old playing on the train that sits in downtown Idaho Springs.

My boys could spend hours and hours there if their parents could stand it.

Anyway, the Connor boy is very cute.... and he can yell really loud.

M & M

I like M and M's. Especially peanut M and M's.

I do not eat them much because my boy suffers from an alleged peanut allergy. It is not good to have peanut products or even products packaged anywhere near peanuts around my son.

I also like peanuts themselves. I do not eat a bunch of those around Tyler either. I do sometimes snack at them at work because Rob brings them in with his food deliveries. Probably he brings them because I said they make good snacks.

Who is Rob? It does not matter.

Rob is trying to convince us to buy really expensive chairs.

I could do several Blogs on Rob Harvey. However, I would have no idea where to begin.

But this blog is not about Mr. Harvey.

I like M and M's, and I also like Eminem. I cannot listen to him at home much because my boys are too young to hear the profane language that comes out of his mouth. The sexist violent homo-phobic content is also bad for children. It is not good for adults either but theoretically I can handle the destructive nature of his songs.

"I don't blame ya. I wouldn't let Hailie listen to me neither."

I think most people would assume I would not be much of an Eminem fan because of my quiet non-violent nice-guy non-judgemental dare-I-say-Christan personality. Eminem does not have the same kind of personality.

But I think Slim Shadey is extremely talented. I do not understand why he associates himself with no-talent rappers like 50 cent or Obie Trice or other D12 idiots.

Maybe he does not realize that he is more talented than those jokers. Or maybe he realizes it and just wants to shine in their company.

Some of his songs are simply great. His profanity is horrible and some of his songs advocate some immoral things, and probably should be banned. But all of his songs show that he has talent for rapping and I would even call some of his stuff poetic.

"Lose Yourself" from 8 mile won an award and completely deserved it. It is a great song about doing what it takes to chase your dreams. It is a timeless theme and the music itself is powerful and fun to hear.

I also think the movie 8 mile was a very good movie and Marshall was awesome as the protagonist. That sound track probably includes the best of his serious lyrical work.

Mockingbird is also a wonderful song. It is a sweet proclamation of his love for his daughter.

"When I'm Gone" is also a poetic masterpiece. It is an insightful self realization of how destructive his Slim Shady persona has been to his family. Ironically it appears to be his "swan song". He kills slim shady as part of the song's narrative. To be honest, I do not necessarily know that he has done anymore songs after he published "When I'm Gone".

He has many other great songs, and even those that are not great are very good. I do not think I have heard an Eminem song, especially those where he does not go in with 50 cent or some other "Gansta Rapper" that I do not enjoy on some level. Some are silly and funny. Some are profound. Some are sweet. It is just too bad he cannot figure out how to clean up the language (and other immoral subject).

"Will Smith don't have to cuss in his raps to sell records. Well I do so f+@k him and f#$k you too."

I think Eminem likes me too. When he refers to a typical white upper middle class suburban kids he uses the name Eric or Erica. I am quite sure he was thinking of me when he made that choice.

White America ... Eric looks just this. (White America)
White America ... Erica loves my sh!t. (White America)
Eric ..oh ..ah (My first single)
Square dance . People (Eric) it feels so good to be back. (Square dance)
Sheppy-do wants to square dance with me. (Square dance)

I made up that last one, but I am sure if I were more famous so that more people would catch the reference, he would have added "Sheppy-do" to his song.

Anyway, I am sure no one cares whether or not I like Eminem.

Hockey Game

I am at a hockey game. Avs vs. Blackhawks.

Of course I am wearing my blackhawks jersey.

It is sad I do not really follow the BH anymore so I do not know many of the players.

I do follow and know all the av players.

But I still find myself cheering for the Hawks.

I need to go to more hockey games. This is fun.

My Best Blogs

Here is a page on my website that lists the blogs that I think are my best. None of them are that great, though.

http://www.ericshepard.com/docs/favoriteblogs.htm

I think if I had to name my #1, it would be: Male Lions

Atheist Seuss

Apparently there is another blogger who does not trust the Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz.

http://longshrift.typepad.com/longshrift/2007/12/beware-dr-seuss.html

I am not sure his purpose for writing this blog. It is an exact copy of the second example on http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp except he replaces references to Phillip Pullman, the atheist who wrote the Golden Compass, with Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

Perhaps the author of the blog is trying to point out how easy it is to post something completely ridiculous on the internet. Not only is it easy, but it is not all that difficult to make it sound authentic.

I do not know if that is actually what he is doing.

Maybe he is just trying to pull me into an intellectual Maelstrom where I spend hours contemplating Dr. Seuss as a poisonous anti-Christian author. This contemplation would certainly make me dizzy.

Or maybe, he really thinks Dr. Seuss’s work is meant to contradict Christian themes found in the Narnia books. I sort of doubt it.

Actually it seems sort of like something I might do. Why would I do it? My main reason would be that I am a weirdo. Maybe this guy is sort of weird like I am. Trying to read his mind is probably not worth the effort. It would be similar to the intellectual Maelstrom only this is my own creation, and not his intention.

Maelstroms are exciting. Did you see the one at the end of At World’s End? It was cool.

I have to say, all this controversy on the Golden Compass makes me want to see the movie even more than I did before. I also want to read the books now.

Based on what I have heard / read, the worst of the three books is the third where a couple of child heroes go out to try to kill "god". In this case, though, it sounds to me that the "god" they are killing is an entity that claims to have created the universe but did not. It is a false god.

I have no problems with an author going out to kill a false god. Kill all the false gods you want. I sort of doubt Jesus would have a problem with getting rid of false gods. The Bible is full of stories of faithful standing up to the false gods established religion. Moses destroyed the golden calf. Jesus himself went crazy in a temple to protest the established religious leaders of the time and how they no longer were actually serving the true God.

Anyway, people who go out of their way to point out and become outraged about controversy in works of fiction need to get a life.

BTW, just before posting this, I checked back on his blog. I had left a comment telling him I did not get the joke. He responded and It turns out my original thought was pretty correct. He was making a point on how easy it is to post ridiculous claims about any work of fiction. He was also making a point on how ridiculous the whole uproar about the Golden Compass was too. I have to say I completely agree on both points.

He wrote:
“I wasn't sure what about the original 'Golden Compass' screed was more ridiculous: the claims of the author or the crazed style in which it was written. And I got to thinking that you could, er, embellish just about any work of fiction with similar claims. And I happened to have just finished reading 'The Cat in the Hat' with my son.OK, maybe that was reaching a bit too far.”

Tweedle Beetle Update

So remember the Tweedle Beetles? (http://esheppy.blogspot.com/2006/03/tweedle-beetles.html) I bet I have referenced them the most of any person or thing or concept in my blog. I blame them for all kinds of ills with my life and the world in general. Some of my claims in regards to the Tweedle Beetles turned out to be false. For instance, I no longer think that Tweedle Beetles invented the big-screen TV. It was also not their fault that I did not own one. I now do own a big-screen TV and no Beetles of any kind attempted in any way to stop me. Obviously, the Tweedle Beetles did not prevent the Rockies from making the playoffs since the Rockies did end up winning the NLCS. I do not even think that the Tweedle Beetles had anything to do with the pathetic showing the Rockies had in the World Series, although I am quite sure that Tweedle Beetles are big Red Sox fans. They do not like Fox in Socks, but they probably do like Baseball Players in Sox.

Anyway, I still do think that they are involved with the Summit County mob. And I still do think they need to be stopped. I am still looking for the Fox in Socks and the Knox in Box to form an alliance whoes sole purpose will be to fight the Tweedle Beetles. Unfortunately, the Fox still has not gotten back to me, and I fear that the Knox has been neutralized by the Tweedle Beetles (or some of their minions) and may even be dead never to be found. I'll bet they put cement overshoes on the poor guy and sent him to the bottom of the ocean. Davy Jones might know where he lies, but DJ will certainly not tell me and even if he did, would it do me any good?

I have come close to tracking down the Fox, but nothing concrete enough to share with my faithful readers of this blog (or should I say reader of my blog).

In case you wish to refresh your memory about some of the things I have written about the Tweedle Beetles, I have listed some links of Tweedle Beetle Blogs. You might want to go in reverse direction to maintain a chronological order in your mind.
Auction Automations
TV
Rockies
Subdomains
Knox in Box
Fox in Socks
September
Wasn't There
Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz
Tweedle beetles

A close second to the most referenced person or thing or concept in my blog is probably Jesus. How screwed up am I that Tweedle Beetles seem to hold more interest to me than Jesus? I am pathetic.
Christmas
Caiaphas
He is Risen
Eat Pig
Homeless
Is anger a sin?


And actually, I did a blog search on "Tyler". It appears that I reference my kids much more in this blog than Jesus and Tweedle Beetles combined:
Ryan ; Pool ; Kelsey ; Is anybody there? ; AA ; Miscellaneous thoughts ; Baby Adventure ; He is Risen ;Male Grizzlies ; Male Lions ; Happy New Year ; Potty Training II ; Potty Training ; Thanks ; Theodore ; Smacking Tyler ; Jeremy Shepard ; 10 Years ; 14ers ; Time Flies ; Tyler Cowboy ; Is anger a sin? ; Good Day to Die

That is certainly appropriate because Tyler and Connor do interest me more than anything.
I reference my wife quite a bit too. Probably more than Tweedle Beetles but less than my kids.

I keep saying how uninteresting this blog is, but as I went back through some of these posts, they really were sort of good. (only if I say so myself) I really should go back and read the old posts more often. You should look at some of these too.

Anyway, I promise to you that I am not done fighting the Tweedle Beetles and just because I have not chronicled every little battle, does not mean I have not been actively trying to rid the world of the evil known as the Tweedle Beetles.

Everyone other than the Tweedle Beetles and their minions, please have a healthy and happy 2008.

Church

We are visiting my parents in Illinois. We went to their church today. They have a cute little church where when there are visitors, people notice. It is sort of aggrevating. We know we were the only visitors because they take time to introduce all visitors after the service.

My Dad gave the childrens sermon. The majority of the kids up there (5 out 8) were Dad's Grandkids.

I am used to our church where we have been members for over 6 years and most of the people there do not know us. I have never seen a childrens sermon with as few as 8 kids. I do not know if I have ever seen as few as 20 kids up for the Childrens sermon. There are probably more visitors on a typical week at our church than total members today at my parents church.

A church with so few members that you can double the kids in a childrens sermon with just one family seems dangerously small to me. It does seem to be a pretty old demographic at the church, so the membership does not have a lot of kids, but still.

A church where you can be a member for several years and still very few of the congregation knows your name is probably too big. Part of the reason is that I am not very outgoing and do not participate a whole lot, but still.

Anyway, Dad did a pretty good job with the Children's Sermon and the Congregation seemed to think it cute that most of the kids were Dad's Grand Sons. It was actually very cute.

Air Flight

We are at the concourse almost 2 hours ahead of time. It gives us plenty of time for a leisurely lunch. We got to the airport so early because of the snow we got yesterday and the nightmare the airport was last year. Last year we gave ourselves almost 3 hours to get through check-in and security and we needed almost every minute. Plus we were rushing so hard that we lost Tyler's carry-on bag.

This year we could have taken one hour to check in, one hour for security and one hour to get to our gate. Checking in took less than 10 minutes. Security took 25 minutes. And so we are sitting at McDonalds with plenty of time to spare.

It is so much nicer to not have to rush, but it sure would be nice if there was a way to know exactly how long things would take. There is a hotline you can call to get security wait times, but I discovered last year that the posted time is not necessarily accurate. Last year it was probably 45 minutes off. This year it was closer, but still underestimated the wait by 5 minutes. You can check to see if your flight is on time, but they never admit to being late until they actually are late, so that information is pretty much worthless. So between not being able to trust the published information and not knowing how traffic will be (traffic reports seem to be about half an hour later than ever does you any good.), and the x-factor of traveling with young kids, your only real option is to build in a ridiculous safety buffer between.

So this sort of begs the question: if the published information is wrong, isn't it better to not publish it at all? Ironically, it is probably fine 90% of the time... When everything is going smoothly, but it is the 10% of the time when things are not going normally that you most need the information and it seems that is when it is most off. Maybe whoever is in charge of collecting information is too busy trying to correct problems to get timely info on the website or recorded message or radio or whatever. But what good is a security wait time that is off by 45 minutes?

Anyway, I am now in Wisconsin. We had an uneventful flight. I am actually typing this while on an exercise bike close to Milwaukee. My goal today is to burn 2000 cardio calories before heading back to Tracy's brothers house. So far I am at 1632, but I am slowing down. I also lifted today so I am probably over 1800, but lifting does not count because the weights do not keep track like cardio machines do.

Speaking of inaccurate information, the scale in the mens locker room is obviously off because when I put the big weight on 250 and the little weight on 0, the scale says I am well below 250. When I put the big on 200 and the little on 50, it tells me I am over 250. I hate it when fitness club scales are not properly calibrated, but I have never seen a scale do this before. It does not matter that much, we will call it 250, but it certainly is something to be miffed about as I peddle and type.

1720 calories.

Someone who exercises as much as I do should not be 50 lbs overweight. I usually lose a good 10 or 15 pounds almost immediately after the holidays. This year I hope to make it more like 25. My biggest problem I think is the beer. I would probably be skinny without beer. And pizza. And lattes.

I published photos of the kids on http://kids.ericshepard.com This is the first addition to the website in over a year and a half. You might ask: why even have a website if you are not going to keep it up to date?

To that I answer: Shut up.

1810 calories. 90 minutes of cardio. I am getting exhausted.

This blog is already too long and boring. I am going to send it up.

Ryan

Tyler's friend Ryan is at our house.

Together, they are wild, loud and silly. Connor seems to think they are hilarious.

I think they are loud. And weird.

I am sort of glad Tyler was not twins.

Of course it has been along time since I have had the kind of fun they are having together. And at least no one is crying yet. Their laughing is loud but better than screaming and crying. Their sense of humor is sort of childish. They are acting like kinder gardeners.

It is sort of sad that as an adult, I no longer have the ability to have this kind of fun. Oh well... I will just have to live vicariously through my boys.

Downtown

I am finishing up Christmas shopping downtown during what some people would consider lunch time. I do not usually take a lunch hour. I usually just eat at my desk. I probably should take some time during the day especially on nice days like today because it is unhealthy to stare at a computer all day.

It is a beautiful day.

On Hold

I am on a web-ex with Captaris tech support. It seems that I have talked to them a bunch over the past couple months and I am getting sick of it.

Right now I am on hold. They are having trouble giving me a key that allows me to use their Teamplate server product. I am trying to upgrade from an old version to their newest and it seems like it had been one trouble after another. Now I am on hold and it really seems this should be easier.

The guy forgot to ask me for my system id. I am back on hold.

So, I recently discovered in my last blog that attaching JPGs to a blog email now works. I have thought for some time that it should work and now it does. I do not know when they made that enhancement. Maybe they read the blog where I mentioned that it should work. Yeah right.. Only if Derry or Tera work for Google. (they do not)

The phone CHFA has in here is not ideal for being on hold. It does not have a speaker phone. I cannot mute. It is also a bit of a stretch to get it by my computer and it has to sit in my lap. I am glad I did not have Caparis call my cell phone. I would be pissed to waste my minutes like this. My neck is getting a bit sore holding the phone between my shoulder and ear. I might have to stop blogging because of the pain.

Why is this taking so long?

The guy is doing something on my computer without talking to me. I hate that.

I share this room with 4 other consultants. They are not very courteous about phone calls. This is part of the reason I hate being on Caparis support calls. At the moment all 4 are talking. Does not matter right now since I am ON HOLD. But, it is annoying nonetheless.

My neck cannot take this anymore. I am going to stop blogging.

----

Well between yesterday and today I spent almost 2 hours just getting a license key for our development server. It sure seems it should have been easier.

Pool

My biggest son is taking swimming lessons while I sit next to the stroller containing my youngest son. I cannot tell what is going on for the lesson. It seems to me that he has had enough lessons that he should be able to swim better. I am proud to say that he is not afraid to go under or get his face wet. He does not take after his mother on that regard. Thank goodness.

Last week I was angry at Tyler for horsing around and not paying attention. After my talk with him, he is being much better today. A big part is probably that his partner in crime is not here today. It is just Tyler and a little girl, so he has to pay better attention and there is really no one else to horse around with. The teacher is either with Tyler or with the other child and so there is no real opportunity to get in trouble.

I hope my talk with Tyler did some good though.

I am probably expecting too much for Tyler's progress. This is the third swimming course he has taken. He is five. And it seems to me he should be able to swim. I feel sort of ripped off. And I feel like I do not work him enough. We do not go swimming that much as a family. Given that Tracy does not have the same disappointed feeling towards his progress, it is probably going to be up to me to get him taught. Because obviously swimming lessons alone are not getting it done. And it makes sense to me that some 'homework' should be part of the learning process.

And like I said, I am probably a bit unrealistic on where he should be. Oh well, at least he seems to be having fun.

Christmas

So why do I say Christmas is not really a Christrian holiday?

Obviously it should be. It celebrates the birth of Christ. Churches are packed Christmas Eve. All the best Christmas Carols sing of the baby Jesus. Religious Christrians use the day to celebrate their God and how He so loved the world He gave His only son. It is a religous Holiday.

Sort of.

The thing is, though, Christmas is so ingrained in the materialistic American culture that it does not seem you have to be a Christrian to 'celebrate' the holiday. I certainly know several people who never go to church but still have Christmas trees and give / receive Christmas gifts. I guess you do not necessarily need to go to church to be a Christrian, but in fact, I specifically know of at least one guy who says he does not believe in God. He still does all those Christmasy things. I also once got a Christmas gift from someone of the Jewish faith.

So, we have all heard or read the saying: 'put the Christ back in Christmas.' Obviously whoever says that would agree that Christmas as currently practiced (generally) is missing a necessary part it needs to be an actual religious holiday. Given the number of commercials and ads, you might even call it more of a holiday for retail and commercialism.

And maybe the vast number of non-Christians or semi-Christrians is not necessarily a bad thing. Whether or not everyone goes to church or consciencely honors Jesus's birth, it still is a season of giving. Charitable giving is up this time of year. More people volunteer at soup kichtens and so forth. Lots of people spend significant time with family over the holiday. So even if Christ is not in everyone's mind, his Spirit is still around.

But still, I think a lot, maybe even most people celebrate the Christmas holiday without celebrating, or even thinking about Christ. Maybe that is cynical.

I probably did not explain myself well, but in a nutshell that is why I say Christmas is not really a Christrian holiday.

Nonetheless, I am looking forward to it. I'll try to remember to thank God that I get to watch my kids open their gifts and spend time with family that I have not seen in almost a year.

Hair on my head

I wonder if bald people feel short-changed when they hear 'But not a hair on your head will perish.' Luke 21:18
Or
"Indeed, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Luke 12:7
Of course they don't. That would be silly.
I heard on the radio that Lowes put out their "holiday" catalog. According to the person giving the report, Lowes sells Christmas trees, but in the catalog they called them "Family Trees". They apparently were trying so hard not to offend non-Christrians that they called Christmas Trees "Family Trees".
Christmas today is not really a Christrian holiday, so I am not sure why Lowes felt compeled to rename the tree.
According to the scale at Bally, where I work out, I was 6 pounds heavier than I was just 24 hours before. Thanksgiving was between those two weighings, so I ate a lot with not much exercise. But, how is it possible to gain 6 pounds that quick? Then, I did cardio for 50 minutes. I weighed myself again and was 3 pounds lighter. How is that possible? It cannot all be water weight, can it?
On the way to Bally, I saw people waiting in a huge Friday after Thanksgiving line outside Circuit City. I swear there were more people in line than would fit in the store. I do not care what kind of bargains someone would be able to get, it is not worth that kind of shopping hell. I do not know anyone who admits being one of those people. But obviously they are all over the place. I just do not understand it.
Of course I saw similar lines at Best Buy and at the mall as I drove past.
There was no line to get in to work out at Bally.
-----------
It has been a couple weeks since I last added to this blog entry. Right now I am waiting to give blood. Tracy's Christmas party was last night and I drank. For some reason I feel like my blood pressure is up. I feel stressed. I am not sure why. They do not have as many beds today as usual so the wait is longer.
---
It is now Tuesday. I am riding the light rail to work because of snow on the rodes. Apparently a light rail derailed South today so I got on further North where all the trains come together. I was not delayed other than slow drivers because of the snow but I cannot imagine the people who rely on the system being able to go South if I were on of those people I would probably just worked at home today. The highway that runs North into downtown was shut down too, so it was really a mess.
Wow the ride is much shorter coming in from where I got on. I am almost there.

4:30 AM

Lately, I have been waking up at 4:30 in the morning. It is almost always within one or two minutes. I am not sure why. It is probably some sort of witching hour signifying some good fortune coming my way. Or maybe it means I just can not sleep.

I have tried going to bed eariler. I have trie going to bed later. I've tried exercise. I've tried making sure I do not exercise before bed. I have tried getting up and reading. I have tried getting up and working. I've tried just laying in bed.

Usually I end up getting to sleep (no matter what I do) about the time I should be waking up. That sucks.

It does not seem to be causing me major problems. I get over being tired relatively soon in the day. I am not exhausted going to work. It is just getting up in time to get the kids to school that seems to be hard, and not THAT hard because I do it everyday.

I just wish I could sleep.

It makes me cranky that I cannot sleep. I do not think it is sleep deprevation that is causing the crankyness. It is just that I am pissed off that I cannot sleep past 4:30. And being cranky does cause me some problems.

So here I am sitting on a bench being cranky while I should be inside working a
Problem on the computer.

I caught myself getting annoyed at people today, when I know the reason is that I have this 4:30 am problem. It is not their fault. So, I know I should not be getting annoyed. I just cannot help it.

Anyway... I wish I could figure this out. If not, maybe I can just accept it.

Yeah right.

HD Hockey

Oh my GOSH !!!

If you have not seen hockey on a big TV in HD, you do not know what you are missing.

I do not know if I will ever be able to watch hockey on a regular TV ever.

TV

Well.... I did it.

I went out and got myself a 50 inch HD TV.

Do I need a HD TV?

No.

God knows how many starving children someone could buy with the money I spent on this monster, but I saw it on sale for a price I liked and I bought it.

It is much nicer than my old 25 inch TV. It is also ridiculously bigger. I think my family room may be too small now. I guess I will get used to having it n there, but right now it seems out of place. But it is so cool.

So now I have a bigger TV and have to get furniture to hold it. Right now it is on the floor in front of the old entertainment center. It needs to go on something. That will be another expense. I do not have a HDMI cable yet, so I will have to buy one or two. I need the HDMI because at 50 inches of screen, you actually notice the difference between non-HD and HD. I never really saw the point at 25 inches. Eventually I am sure I will want real-surround sound. I'll need blue-ray or an HD DVD player. It is endless. The 50 inch TV is ruling my life. I'll bet Tweedle Beattles invented big-screen HD.

I watched the Rockies lose game one on the big screen last night. 13 Red Socks runs probably looked even worse. It was depressing. Actually I saw most of it on the TV at the health club and it was just as depressing there.

I am a bit cranky today. It is not because of the Rockies. I knew that eventually they would lose and I almost think it is better to get blown out and embarrassed when they lose because they want to win game 2 that much more. If they win game 2, they are back in control of the series and the pressure is on Boston.

Anyway, I am not sure why I am cranky.

I have not been sleeping as well between the hours of 2 and 5 AM as I would like, but that is not it either.
------
I have been without my phone for about a week now. I thought it was lost and we just found it in the Auction Automations trailer. I even order a new Q. I got it on EBay so I do not think I can return it. Maybe Tracy wants a Q. I was pretty lost without a cell phone and I really missed its internet access. It is amazing how fast this little thing made itself indespensible. I actually probably lasted longer than most would have been able to. It is scary how much I feel I need someting that I was able to last most of my life without.

Speaking of not being able to live without, HD is awesome. Now I am pissed how most of the shows are not in HD. I am disgusted to watch hockey on regular old resolution. It sucks.

I did watch the Rockies in the world series on HD. They lost but the picture was fantastic.

Well, I am going to send this. It is so nice to have my phone back.

Brooms

I saw a guy selling brooms on my way to the light rail station today.

Can you guess why?

A little hint: he was a few blocks away from Coors field.

You probably do not need it, but here is another hint: the Rockies play the Diamond backs tonight.

The Rockies are up 3 - 0 in the series and will probably sweep the Snakes tonight.

This guy was selling used brooms.

I sort of think maybe letting people into a packed stadium with sticks might not be a great idea. So, I do not know if once you bought the broom if you would have to sneak it in. Maybe security woud look the other way, or maybe brooms are just allowed.

Even if it was no problem getting the broom into the stadium, I do not think I would buy a used broom on my way to Coors field. I probably would not even buy a new broom.

I probably would not even bring one from home. I hope the Rocks win tonight so that the fans who went to the trouble do not feel foolish.

Go Rockies.

Blood

I gave blood this past Saturday. The guy who processed my paper work and the girl who took my blood told me that I am up to 3 gallons with Bonfils Blood Center. They were very appreciative. It made me feel sort of good to hit another gallon milestone.
My church has a blood drive 6 times a year and I go whenever I get a chance. I have probably only missed 3 opportunities to give over the past 3 years. So, there are probably some people who give more often than I do, but certainly not many. 6 times a year is the most they will take your blood and I have done it 5 times each of the past few years. At my rate it still takes awhile to get up to another gallon.
For some reason, every time I get to another gallon, I picture milk gallons in our fridge filled with blood. It sort of grosses me out. That is a lot of blood.
Most people I talk to who have not recently given blood seem to be scared of doing it. I try to explain that it really is not that bad, but most people do not believe me. I actually enjoy giving blood. It makes me feel a bit heroic knowing that I may be saving lives. Actually, in my head, everytime I give blood, I am saving 3 people. That is the number of people Bonfils publishes as people I could potentially be helping. I translate that in my mind from potentially saving to absolutely saving lives.
My wife does not give blood anymore because she has had a bad experience. The last time she tried to give they kept jabbing and jabbing and eventually gave up. I guess her veins are a bit difficult to find and tap into because she has had this problem giving blood samples to doctors as well. I think if I had an experience like that, I would probably stop too.
But the worst experience I have ever had giving blood was that the snacks were not quite the selection as usual. They have never had trouble finding my veins. I have never fainted or even felt the least bit woozy. Nothing the least bit unpleasant has happened to me while giving. I never even feel worn down or feel I should take it easy the days I give blood.
If they let me, I would probably give blood more often. Probably not a lot more often but 7 or 8 times a year.
I have heard that it is healthy to give blood on a regular basis. Some of the things I hear sound sort of urban- legend - like, but at least some of them I think are legitimate. The one I can think of right now is that there are studies which show a decrease in prostrate cancer (in men) for those who give blood regularly.
So, it is apparently good for my health for me to give blood.
But that is not why I do it. I do it for the glory that I have built up in my mind.

Guess Who

I am sitting at a silent auction waiting for remainding people to come by and CheckOut. I am also watching GameDay on MLB.com of the Rockies and Philly. They are tied 1 to 1. It is a good thing I am able to use my phone as a modem because people are really interested in the game, and it is easier to tell exactly what is going on from the real MLB site rather than the mobile site. I am glad I got the ability to use my cell phone as a modem because it adds allows me to do stuff during the slow times of these darn things.

It is weird how many more Rockies fans there are now that they are in the playoffs. I have probably written that before in this blog.

In fact, look at me. See how many Rockies blogs I have this year. I have had none in previous years.

Now, the Rockies are up 2 games to 0 in the NLDS and are probably the best team left in the NL. It would be crazy to see the Rockies go to the World Series.

Auction Automations is getting a bunch of business. This is good. We still do not have employees to run our events. That is bad. I am so tired of doing these events and we are still undercharging. But, we are doing well for a company that I thought would never do much. The guys who do our selling do not have real jobs and do not take into account the fact that the rest of us do have real jobs.

One nice thing is that we are using our main competitors to re-sell our solution. They are going to use our software and give us a very nice cute. I love the deal they gave us. Obviously they must think our solution is awesome.

The lady who is running this event (The Hispanic Chamber of Education) just told me "You are the best". She was refering to our company because I was able to give her a list of items that were not bid upon. The old-style silent auction was such a pain for her that this thing is a real relief for her. This is like the 10th time tonight that she has told us that we are the greatest or the best or just plain awesome. She loves us.

I wish we would have charged her more. Tear down should be pretty easy tonight. I hope.

Well, the Rockies won 2-1 and swept the Phillies. Sweat.

I need to start helping with tear down.

L8R

Rocks Win

13 innings into the game, Matt Holiday scored the winning run. He did not touch the plate, but the ump screwed up and called him safe. Rockies win Rockies win Rockies win.

And the fans went nuts. And the players went nuts. Holiday was bloody and led off the field, but I think he is ok. The Rockies are playoff bound.

And they go into the play-offs winning 14 out of 15, by far the hottest team in MLB. I do not think it is that far fetched to say the Rockies have a chance to go to the World Series. Denver is caught up in the excitement.

Talk about a magical run. Hopefully they can keep it going.

Wow

Wow. It is crowded in Lower Downtown Denver. The Rockies seem to have thousands more fans today than they did just last week.

It makes me a bit jealous that all these people get to go to the game and I do not. This is easily a sellout. I have never seen this many people in the 3 block radias around Coors field and the game is about to start so surely there must be even more inside.

Anyway, I guess we will have to see how things go.

Go Rocks!!

next

I have a problem with the movie NEXT. I will not Blog specifically what my problem is (in case you have not seen the movie), but the logic of the story is completely flawed.

Play - in

So, I guess that the Rockies were absolutely not out of the race. Somehow, this team has won 13 of the last 14 games to tie for the wildcard spot. Today they play a one - game tie-breaker to see if they are in the play-offs. I do not know how they decided who gets to play this game at home, but it is at Coors field in Lodo Denver, right across the street from where I am working today.

I am riding the light rail so that I do not have to worry about parking. I have a feeling that even though this is a night game, parking will be expensive today.

And, Lodo will be nuts.

I am not a huge baseball fan. There are Rockies fanatics out there who have had to suffer a team that for the past 10 or so years has not finished out of 2nd to last in their division. These fans deserve to get a bit crazy with joy. And they will.

And to be honest, this run came out of nowhere. The Rockies seemed better this year and had a couple of decent streaks, but there is no way anyone (except maybe some insane fan) could have predicted such a finish to the season.

The whole thing is really remarkable. I hope they win tonight.

I hope the Rockies can keep this going for the next couple years.