Aack

On the other hand...

I expressed a flusteration I had earlier this week, but it seems God does work in mysterious ways. Shortly after our Pastor arrived at his vacation destination, his mom had a stroke and he was able to be there for his mom and the rest of his family. She's alive, but the extent of the damage is unknown.

Thankfully God's ways are not our ways...I just need to remind myself of that every once in a while.

Wahoo!

Let the weekend begin! No work until Wednesday. Wahoo!

Grrr!

To quote a friend, "Some people's offspring!"

I just found out that our pastor, who has been integral in some decisions currently being made at church has taken a nice looong road trip to the Lower-48. I hope he likes the decisions we make in his absence, because I will have no sympathy if he doesn't like it.

Something stinks and it ain't my socks.

...And A PDF In Every Pot!

I just found out about a PDF product suite that is abso-freakin'-lutely free. There is a company called Software995 that markets a product called PDF995 that is actually a suite of three apps. They offer a PDF Writer module, a PDF Editor module, and a PDF Security module at no charge. From their FAQ they claim no spyware and only minimal add pop-ups that can be gotten rid of for only $9.95 per module or $19.95 for the suite. That sure beats $299 for Adobe 6.0 Standard.

Check them out see what else the suite provides. I will definitely be adding this to my software collection.

*Real* Tight Security

A friend clued me into some steps to take to prevent spamming on my blog. I faithfully implemented a few of them trying to protect the comment system. Well, I locked it down so hard, no one could comment. Now that's REAL security!

It's temporarily fixed. I'll attempt the offending security step again when I have more time. Thanks Valette for letting me know about the anti-spam info AND for letting me know I screwed up.

DVD Rot?

Here is an article that discusses the proper care and feeding of your DVD discs.

Sleep Blight...

What a crappy night. Let me say that again... What a friggin' crappy night!

I'm not particularly fond of sleeping in strange places for the initial 2 - 3 nights, at least not until I get "comfortable" in said strange place. Last night was no exception. I had a crappy night.

It started off okay, I had a good dinner, did a bit more work on the computers in the field office, went back to the barracks and watched 2 episodes of "Law & Order" till 11:00pm and then crawled into bed. Not only couldn't I "find my sleep" (a Moriah-ism) till about 1:30am, when I finally did go to sleep, the heater in the building woke me up every time it kicked on - about once an hour. Oh, and it's daylight out all night so I have to wake up enough to look at the clock to see what time it is.

Like I said, what a crappy night!

Waaay Past Puberty

I passed puberty about 15 years ago, but you know what? My face still breaks out with unsightly blemishes and it's driving me nuts! No smooth complexion for this guy. No sir-ee. I suffer through all the pain and hassle of those stupid little whitehead buggers. Right now, I currently have 5 or 6 of them that are in their various stages of healing. What I wouldn't give for some relief.

However, on the bright side, my voice doesn't jump an octave every other sentence.

Gourmet Site

Someone told me about a great food site this week. I just now had an opportunity to peruse it. It's a nice resource if you like spending time in the kitchen.

What A Guy!

So I'm going to sunny Galena tomorrow. I'll be gone overnight. Why am I going? Because no one else wanted to and I'm so much of a nice guy that I volunteered. I must be forthright and let you know that there are others going, but they needed another person.

What really chaps my hide is that it is officially my weekend. It is the season for overtime, so I can't complain too much, but I didn't really want to go - I've got lots to do to get ready for the fire season. I knew, however, that I'd most likely be "appointed", so it looks better to volunteer in the long run. Right?

The Other Aack

Reaching back into the dim existence that most people refer to as "college", I recently dusted off the fond memories I have of several comic strips and their artists. Names such as Larson and Waterson still evoke strong wistful feelings of loss because they have moved on to other projects or gave up fighting the "system".

However, the one that I miss the most is Berkeley Breathed and Bloom County. Opus, Bill the Cat (the other possible origination of my use of "Aack"), Steve Dallas and the rest of the crew were ever present in my everyday life. It was in this fragile bubble world that I was granted the ever so cherished gift of laughter. I'm not talking about the half attempted chuckle as you exhale. I'm talking about the gut wrenching, rolling around in the floor, peeing in my pants type of laughter.

And yet, at the same time, Mr. Breathed was able to explore the inner sanctum of our personal zeitgeist. I ask you, who doesn't have a closet full of anxieties, or a penchant for creating new life forms, or most importantly, struggles with self-image and self-esteem?

Now it seems that he's attempting a comeback. I hope it is true and I hope that it is with new material and not recycled strips from the 80's. Unfortunately, I don't think that the local paper will be carrying him any time soon. That's okay, I'm secure in the knowledge that I have found the meaning to my life.

Ack! Thppfft!

PhD in Funny

Why can't every graduation speaker approach the next generation's future in such a positive, forward looking manner. I mean, let's be realistic, I'm more likely to be inspired by this graduation speech than just about any other I'd hear.

The Knack to Aack

So I decided to jump on the blog wagon. Why? Why not!

Seriously, I have been following the blog of some good friends who are brother and sister. Needless to say (then why did I feel obligated to say it...) I got a little envious of not being able to have my own piece of web real estate to express my thoughts.

I may not be prolific nor profound, but I'd like to think that some day my children will be able to look back and maybe see a side to thier Dad that they would otherwise not know. Besides, the concept is kinda cool, and I want to know what others think about my thoughts and then I can decide if I'm normal and they are not.

I'm still playing with the application, and I'm not sure what I will be doing with this. I have some good ideas, so I'm hoping that the well doesn't run dry. Right now it's sorta ugly and I would label it Release Beta 0.5 with more on the way...

Okay, so why "Aack"? For as long as I can remember I have used "aack" as a temporary filename. I work with computers for a living and have been doing so since about 1987. I think that originally I came up with "aack" as a filename to throw something into that could be easily found, but deleted when no longer necessary. If I found a file named "aack" that I had no idea what was in it, I knew I could safely delete it and not have to worry about what was in it.

Over the years, I have "aacked" a plethora of files, folders, and hard drives. To the best of my knowledge I have never knowingly "aacked" a person (well maybe my ex-bestfriend from grade school, but he deserved it), but I won't say it isn't possible. There is more to this thing called "Aack", but I think it will have to wait until I get some sleep before it can be properly sorted out.

So in short, what will "Aack" be? A diary - maybe. A legacy - possibly. An excuse to have fun - definitely!