2:00 AM must be a special time. Twice this week I have been woken up at 2 AM to deal with something that either is not mine to deal with or has been fully documented (making the phone call unnecessary). Needless to say that 4 hours sleep, getting woken up then 3 more hours sleep is not optimal. I am so bloody tired.
It has been a slow week, all things considered. It is month end close for our customer and many of the reports have already been ran. There have not been as many high severity calls as there usually is at this time of the month. I am just glad it is Friday. If today goes well, the odds of the weekend being quiet are much greater.
We have three open cases right now...two of which have been open for quite some time. All three cases are sitting with external vendors and to be honest this is the longest I have seen cases for our region open in quite some time.
"Lost" while always a strange show, has taken a turn for the more bizarre. I used to be super confused by all the flash forwards AND flash backs, I am really getting weirded out by the whole time travle theme thing. IIRC there are about 8-10 more episodes left fo this season, thanx to the writers strike. Jericho has 4-5 left. At least Jericho is easier to follow, though I love both shows.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sports and Steroids
Am I the only person alive who thinks this whole "Jimmy Ball Player took steroids" thing is being blown out of proportion?
For as long as man has been in existence, he has used "recreational and performance enhancing" pharmaceuticals. While I think it is a shame and feel these people should be prosecuted, WHY does there have to be a congressional investigation on the matter? I realize I am not Perry Mason, but do we really need to go that far? Just freakin' arrest them and give them MASSIVE fines.
I get tired of hearing about famous ball players being "investigated" and have to "testify before Congress". If you have enough proof for a grand jury, indict them. Have probable cause? Get a subpoena. Just get it over with.
If anyone can tell me why the government has to get involved at this level, please educate me. Really, I can take it. I want to understand . Help me understand.
For as long as man has been in existence, he has used "recreational and performance enhancing" pharmaceuticals. While I think it is a shame and feel these people should be prosecuted, WHY does there have to be a congressional investigation on the matter? I realize I am not Perry Mason, but do we really need to go that far? Just freakin' arrest them and give them MASSIVE fines.
I get tired of hearing about famous ball players being "investigated" and have to "testify before Congress". If you have enough proof for a grand jury, indict them. Have probable cause? Get a subpoena. Just get it over with.
If anyone can tell me why the government has to get involved at this level, please educate me. Really, I can take it. I want to understand . Help me understand.
Sure, 2:00 AM Is Fine
I received a call this morning at 2:15 AM from a manager in Europe asking me about an issue that we have been monitoring. There have been no updates on the issue (we are waiting on SAP to formulate a solution) and I have posted that on the web update page.
The manager tells me the customer is upset because the web has not been updated "in 14 hours". I know that to be rubbish because I updated it before I went to bed at 10:00 PM. I really dislike being called a liar.
Other than that, this week has not been too bad, but it is only Wednesday. I have received a few calls after hours and have had a few things to follow up on, but overall it has not been unbearable. Of course we have three lingering issues, one of which I hope to close today. It would be nice to get as much taken care of as possible because I would love to be able to make it to care group tonight. I really hate missing it. If I cannot, I will be at home, updating issues. While it is not my preferred thing to do, it does keep me employed. I am thankful for that.
The manager tells me the customer is upset because the web has not been updated "in 14 hours". I know that to be rubbish because I updated it before I went to bed at 10:00 PM. I really dislike being called a liar.
Other than that, this week has not been too bad, but it is only Wednesday. I have received a few calls after hours and have had a few things to follow up on, but overall it has not been unbearable. Of course we have three lingering issues, one of which I hope to close today. It would be nice to get as much taken care of as possible because I would love to be able to make it to care group tonight. I really hate missing it. If I cannot, I will be at home, updating issues. While it is not my preferred thing to do, it does keep me employed. I am thankful for that.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Further Apart
I have noticed that my posts are slipping further and further apart. To be honest I have not been in a writing mood the past few months and well, it shows. Maybe it will improve, maybe not.
The latter half of my work week ended well. No major storms although we stayed pretty busy most of the time. Busy is not bad...it keeps you sharp.
By the time Saturday had rolled around the weather had warmed up nicely (it had been cold a bigger part of the week) and I was itching to get outside. The pollen count (for cedar, at least) was pretty high and I was glad I had taken some Claritin that morning.
I cleaned the house early Saturday then went to get my hair cut before heading out for a few hours of caching. The house was not as bad as I had expected...more fur (from our two dogs) than dirt. I noticed that we really need to paint quite a bit inside and out...the walls and trim are looking kinda rough. While I don't like to paint, I would but my wife is more of a perfectionist than I am and requires more detail to get the job done. Needless to say I should stick to yard work :) .
After I got my hair cut I spent about five hours in Plano in the greenbelt and in various parks hunting for caches. I found 15 out of the 17 I was looking for which is pretty good for me. I did a lot of walking which caused my cache per hour ratio to drop, but the exercise did me good. I found a few ammo cans, some easy and fun ones, and several "hard" ones.
I got home and ate, fed the dogs and got cleaned up. After I got done walking the oldest dog, my wife and I went for a stroll and picked up some dessert at Kroger. We stopped at the pocket park to eat our goodies then we returned home. I was dead tired and had no trouble falling asleep by 10:30 PM.
Sunday we had a guest speaker at church. He is the "web minister" at Lamb and Lion Ministries and gave a great talk on evolution and creationism. I bet he made a great debater in college. His arguments against evolution were compelling and entertaining enough to keep me riveted to my seat. Good man, good speaker.
After church we skipped the once a month pot luck and decided to go grab some Chinese then walk the dogs in a local park. We killed two birds with one stone, so to speak by allowing me to look for 2 caches while we were there. I managed to grab one of them but the other eluded me. We ran into several youth LARPers (Live Action Role Playing) sporting padded swords and colorful costumes. They mostly ignored me while I searched but when they took a break and began paying attention to me, I took a break as well.
I also ran into a small group if kids (older teens) hunting each other with CO2 powered soft pellet guns. Both events (the LARPers and the pellet gun boys) brought back a lot of memories of my youth, many that have been blogged about in my "Chronicles" listed to the right.
My wife and I returned about three hours later and decided to grill some fresh salmon and put it over a bed of fresh greens, aka Salmon Salad. It was very tasty and hit the spot.
The latter half of my work week ended well. No major storms although we stayed pretty busy most of the time. Busy is not bad...it keeps you sharp.
By the time Saturday had rolled around the weather had warmed up nicely (it had been cold a bigger part of the week) and I was itching to get outside. The pollen count (for cedar, at least) was pretty high and I was glad I had taken some Claritin that morning.
I cleaned the house early Saturday then went to get my hair cut before heading out for a few hours of caching. The house was not as bad as I had expected...more fur (from our two dogs) than dirt. I noticed that we really need to paint quite a bit inside and out...the walls and trim are looking kinda rough. While I don't like to paint, I would but my wife is more of a perfectionist than I am and requires more detail to get the job done. Needless to say I should stick to yard work :) .
After I got my hair cut I spent about five hours in Plano in the greenbelt and in various parks hunting for caches. I found 15 out of the 17 I was looking for which is pretty good for me. I did a lot of walking which caused my cache per hour ratio to drop, but the exercise did me good. I found a few ammo cans, some easy and fun ones, and several "hard" ones.
I got home and ate, fed the dogs and got cleaned up. After I got done walking the oldest dog, my wife and I went for a stroll and picked up some dessert at Kroger. We stopped at the pocket park to eat our goodies then we returned home. I was dead tired and had no trouble falling asleep by 10:30 PM.
Sunday we had a guest speaker at church. He is the "web minister" at Lamb and Lion Ministries and gave a great talk on evolution and creationism. I bet he made a great debater in college. His arguments against evolution were compelling and entertaining enough to keep me riveted to my seat. Good man, good speaker.
After church we skipped the once a month pot luck and decided to go grab some Chinese then walk the dogs in a local park. We killed two birds with one stone, so to speak by allowing me to look for 2 caches while we were there. I managed to grab one of them but the other eluded me. We ran into several youth LARPers (Live Action Role Playing) sporting padded swords and colorful costumes. They mostly ignored me while I searched but when they took a break and began paying attention to me, I took a break as well.
I also ran into a small group if kids (older teens) hunting each other with CO2 powered soft pellet guns. Both events (the LARPers and the pellet gun boys) brought back a lot of memories of my youth, many that have been blogged about in my "Chronicles" listed to the right.
My wife and I returned about three hours later and decided to grill some fresh salmon and put it over a bed of fresh greens, aka Salmon Salad. It was very tasty and hit the spot.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Burst, Backpack, Bummed Out
Tuesday was a flurry of activity. It all started 30 minutes after my colleague went to lunch when two calls came in for SAP issues. This would not have been bad but we were still fighting with an issue that had been assigned to a third party for resolution. This third party was 100% positive that the problem was not with their app and insisted that the WAN team and the server team look into the issue. At the end of the second day the issue was still not resolved.
The other two issues were resolved that evening. While I had to hand over three issues to our on-call guy in Brazil, he only needed to follow up on one.
That day at lunch I grabbed a couple of caches (one was a puzzle and the other was from a new cacher in the area) and then grabbed another puzzle cache on the way home. I usually avoid puzzle caches but when you have pretty much cleared the area out of regular caches, puzzles are all that are left.
I had Wednesday off and my plans were to go caching in the morning, after I voted (early voting rocks). I still needed to plan a bit for care group, since I was presenting information (on Mormonism). I am no expert but I had material collected from former Mormons as well as info from the book of Mormon, a DVD, testimonials, etc. I managed to get everything done, including replacing a defective cache container from one of my hides. It appears that humans are not the only animals attracted to the smell of coffee. I used an empty plastic coffee can for a hid and a field mouse chewed a hole in it. Funny.
I spent the morning geocaching in Bob Woodruff Park, collecting the ones I missed the first time through about a month or two ago. One one still eludes me and I am not sure that it is there. I had filled my backpack with all the goodies Ineeded to spend the morning out, but really did not need it. My fanny pack prolly would have been enough.
After finishing that I came home, at lunch, showered, updated the geocaching logs for my finds, swapped out the damaged cache container, researched my lesson, and went to help my wife's old boss with a computer issue. It turned out to be a Quickbooks issue, so was unable to help. No help, no charge. Bummer.
Care group went well but I was not into leading, so it was a little poorly paced. We came home and tried to watch TV, but fell asleep in the process, so we just went to bed.
I woke up a bit bummed out that I had to go back to work. I hat e to admit that I am 42 and ready to get out of the rat race. I really wished I had invested better (and sooner) so I could retire.
The other two issues were resolved that evening. While I had to hand over three issues to our on-call guy in Brazil, he only needed to follow up on one.
That day at lunch I grabbed a couple of caches (one was a puzzle and the other was from a new cacher in the area) and then grabbed another puzzle cache on the way home. I usually avoid puzzle caches but when you have pretty much cleared the area out of regular caches, puzzles are all that are left.
I had Wednesday off and my plans were to go caching in the morning, after I voted (early voting rocks). I still needed to plan a bit for care group, since I was presenting information (on Mormonism). I am no expert but I had material collected from former Mormons as well as info from the book of Mormon, a DVD, testimonials, etc. I managed to get everything done, including replacing a defective cache container from one of my hides. It appears that humans are not the only animals attracted to the smell of coffee. I used an empty plastic coffee can for a hid and a field mouse chewed a hole in it. Funny.
I spent the morning geocaching in Bob Woodruff Park, collecting the ones I missed the first time through about a month or two ago. One one still eludes me and I am not sure that it is there. I had filled my backpack with all the goodies Ineeded to spend the morning out, but really did not need it. My fanny pack prolly would have been enough.
After finishing that I came home, at lunch, showered, updated the geocaching logs for my finds, swapped out the damaged cache container, researched my lesson, and went to help my wife's old boss with a computer issue. It turned out to be a Quickbooks issue, so was unable to help. No help, no charge. Bummer.
Care group went well but I was not into leading, so it was a little poorly paced. We came home and tried to watch TV, but fell asleep in the process, so we just went to bed.
I woke up a bit bummed out that I had to go back to work. I hat e to admit that I am 42 and ready to get out of the rat race. I really wished I had invested better (and sooner) so I could retire.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Still A Street Fighter
I was fortunately enough to see the Kimbo Slice-David "Tank" Abbott fight over the weekend and while I have to say that I am impressed with Kimbo's power, he is still a street fighter. Bas Rutten tried but he was not able to hone the raw fighting skills of Kimbo into a real mixed martial artist.
He did not show any respect for the rules of MMA and had to be warned constantly to stop hitting the back of the head/neck and to return to his "corner". He even had the nerve to pick up a mouthpiece tha was on the ring floor and throw it out into the crowd. While this may have made the fans thrilled, it was very unprofessional. It clearly showed that he does not have much professional experience.
All that being said, he will most likely make EliteXC (the organization he fights for) a lot of money, but if he is not careful, he will get fined and possibly suspended by the state athletic commission.
Personally I think he is too old to make the transition from a street tough to an MMA professional. Being a former bodyguard, he has defense ingrained in him and finesse is not something street fighters have a lot of.
Sure Kimbo hits hard...he is legendary on the internet as a bare-knuckle street fighter, but put him up against someone who has a chin and is good in BJJ, he is toast. Hey Kimbo, if you really want a test, fight Minotauro Nogiera.
He did not show any respect for the rules of MMA and had to be warned constantly to stop hitting the back of the head/neck and to return to his "corner". He even had the nerve to pick up a mouthpiece tha was on the ring floor and throw it out into the crowd. While this may have made the fans thrilled, it was very unprofessional. It clearly showed that he does not have much professional experience.
All that being said, he will most likely make EliteXC (the organization he fights for) a lot of money, but if he is not careful, he will get fined and possibly suspended by the state athletic commission.
Personally I think he is too old to make the transition from a street tough to an MMA professional. Being a former bodyguard, he has defense ingrained in him and finesse is not something street fighters have a lot of.
Sure Kimbo hits hard...he is legendary on the internet as a bare-knuckle street fighter, but put him up against someone who has a chin and is good in BJJ, he is toast. Hey Kimbo, if you really want a test, fight Minotauro Nogiera.
Ack, It Is Monday Already
The weekend flew by and that is odd since the weather was less than agreeable...
The work week ended on a flurry...we had several calls come in all at the same time (many were related) after having a very quiet week. It has been rather quiet the past month or so but I know it will pick back up.
I am now finally caught up with "Lost". I have set the VCR (we still are using that old technology...a DVR is not in the budget yet) to record "Lost" and "Jericho" until the end of the season for each. I am pleased with Lost so far, but I am confused about the flash forwards.
Jericho is okay, but I get the feeling they are trying to end it. I know it was on the chopping block last season and only received the green light for seven more episodes, but I was hoping for more.
Friday the weather was looking grim and when I woke up Saturday morning, I had found out that it had been raining/storming all night. I got up earlier than I wanted to so I could help my wife get ready. The women were honoring the men from the church by serving them breakfast at our monthly get together. I found it ironic that even though we were being honored, I got up earlier and still helped like I normally do for the Men's breakfast, just in different areas. However, to be honest the part I played was very minimal.
After the breakfast I came home and vacuumed the house. No geocaching was going to be done in the kind of weather we were having. I was not too disappointed since i was able to grab a few during my lunch hour at work during the week.
Sunday was kind of mixed in terms of being good or bad. Sunday School and church were good (my wife got re-baptized) but lunch afterwards at TGI Friday's was mostly bad. The food was dry and the service was slow...even though we were told that we would love the server. The bright spot to the entire lunch was when we saw a soldier come in with his wife, small child, and an infant. My wife and I like to say "hi" to the soldiers when we see them in uniform and we help them whenever we can. My wife said to me as she saw them come in, "Too bad we are so tight on our budget...I would love to buy them lunch." It got me to thinking so I excused myself and went over to the hostess station where they were waiting. I walked over and introduced myself, informed the soldier that I had a son who had served in the middle east, and that I was thankful for his service. He thanked me and we shook hands. As we did, I told him that while it was not much, I wanted to give him something so I reached into my pocket and gave him the gift card we were going to use for lunch and told him to enjoy.
I did not give him a chance to say anything I just turned and walked back to my table. My wife knew what I was doing and almost cried. Those men and women put their lives on the line for less money than you or I make so figured it was the least I could do for him.
After lunch we came home and I decided to go out a do a little geocaching. I did not want to do any hiking (the mud would have made it treacherous) nor did I want to drive all over God's creation looking for PnG's, so I just decided to spend time on three caches: a puzzle that I solved the night before and still needed to find, "El Diablo" (which is on a very dilapidated old trestle not far from a Terracache I had already found), and "Brass Monkey" (one that has been looked for but still remains elusive to most).
I quickly found the puzzle cache, then moved to "El Diablo". I had surmised that it was hidden in a railroad spike on the tracks. While I thought I looked at every spike, that devilishly sinister hide still eluded me. Since that was a bust I decided to give the monkey a shot. Since BM required the cacher to calculate the coords, it took some time, but I figured out where it is. That is the good news. the bad news is that I still cannot find it. I was given some clues but the more I hear the less I want to find it. After meeting two other cachers at GZ and looking with them for a while, I gave up and went home.
The work week ended on a flurry...we had several calls come in all at the same time (many were related) after having a very quiet week. It has been rather quiet the past month or so but I know it will pick back up.
I am now finally caught up with "Lost". I have set the VCR (we still are using that old technology...a DVR is not in the budget yet) to record "Lost" and "Jericho" until the end of the season for each. I am pleased with Lost so far, but I am confused about the flash forwards.
Jericho is okay, but I get the feeling they are trying to end it. I know it was on the chopping block last season and only received the green light for seven more episodes, but I was hoping for more.
Friday the weather was looking grim and when I woke up Saturday morning, I had found out that it had been raining/storming all night. I got up earlier than I wanted to so I could help my wife get ready. The women were honoring the men from the church by serving them breakfast at our monthly get together. I found it ironic that even though we were being honored, I got up earlier and still helped like I normally do for the Men's breakfast, just in different areas. However, to be honest the part I played was very minimal.
After the breakfast I came home and vacuumed the house. No geocaching was going to be done in the kind of weather we were having. I was not too disappointed since i was able to grab a few during my lunch hour at work during the week.
Sunday was kind of mixed in terms of being good or bad. Sunday School and church were good (my wife got re-baptized) but lunch afterwards at TGI Friday's was mostly bad. The food was dry and the service was slow...even though we were told that we would love the server. The bright spot to the entire lunch was when we saw a soldier come in with his wife, small child, and an infant. My wife and I like to say "hi" to the soldiers when we see them in uniform and we help them whenever we can. My wife said to me as she saw them come in, "Too bad we are so tight on our budget...I would love to buy them lunch." It got me to thinking so I excused myself and went over to the hostess station where they were waiting. I walked over and introduced myself, informed the soldier that I had a son who had served in the middle east, and that I was thankful for his service. He thanked me and we shook hands. As we did, I told him that while it was not much, I wanted to give him something so I reached into my pocket and gave him the gift card we were going to use for lunch and told him to enjoy.
I did not give him a chance to say anything I just turned and walked back to my table. My wife knew what I was doing and almost cried. Those men and women put their lives on the line for less money than you or I make so figured it was the least I could do for him.
After lunch we came home and I decided to go out a do a little geocaching. I did not want to do any hiking (the mud would have made it treacherous) nor did I want to drive all over God's creation looking for PnG's, so I just decided to spend time on three caches: a puzzle that I solved the night before and still needed to find, "El Diablo" (which is on a very dilapidated old trestle not far from a Terracache I had already found), and "Brass Monkey" (one that has been looked for but still remains elusive to most).
I quickly found the puzzle cache, then moved to "El Diablo". I had surmised that it was hidden in a railroad spike on the tracks. While I thought I looked at every spike, that devilishly sinister hide still eluded me. Since that was a bust I decided to give the monkey a shot. Since BM required the cacher to calculate the coords, it took some time, but I figured out where it is. That is the good news. the bad news is that I still cannot find it. I was given some clues but the more I hear the less I want to find it. After meeting two other cachers at GZ and looking with them for a while, I gave up and went home.
Friday, February 15, 2008
It Is Madness, Part One
I had not gone after any geocaches at lunch for a quite a while so yesterday I decided to go after a new one not far from the park where I normally eat my lunch. To make a long story short, I met two geocachers, coinpopper and duckman972. The cache I found was owned by duckman972 (he hid it on his propery and he saw me looking for it) so that is how we met and coinpopper and I were both driving around looking for the cache at the same time but I was able to park and sign it before he got to GZ.
Duckman972 is new and has less than 10 finds while coinpopper has been caching for just about a year and has over 1500 finds. Think about it. This man has found (on average) more than 4 caches each and every day for a year. I thought I was a man possessed when I grabbed 100 in my first month. I give him credit, he is dedicated.
I have been caching since mid September and I have about 250 finds. That is about 50 per month. Now to be fair, my first geocaching expedition was back when I was visiting family and friends in WV. Those same friends took me out one cool afternoon and we snagged 4 caches near North Bend State Park. 3 of the 4 were pretty good and only one of them was rather lame. I finished my vacation, came home, created an account on geocahcing.com and logged my 4 finds. It was not until the end of September that I started geocaching on my own and to make things more challenging, I did not use a GPSr unit until after I had found 40 on my own using just Google Maps. I guess finding 40 or so caches in about 2 weeks was not too bad considering I didn't have a GPSr.
Near the middle of October, my wife's (former) boss, who also happens to be the head trustee at church, let me borrow his spare (and rather old) Garmin "indefinitely". I had told him that funds were tight but I would buy one as soon as I could, most likely with part of our tax return or some of my year end bonus. Well the year end bonus came and went, thanx to bills and the fact it was a lot smaller than expected. I guess in many ways that is good because I have done research and now know which unit I need to buy. Hopefully (God willing) I should be able to order one in about two weeks.
Once I had the borrowed GPSr, I needed to upgrade the software (it was 4 years out of date) and learn to use it. To be honest, the old GPSMAP 176C is not overly user friendly and does not have great features for caching, but it works just fine as a freebie. I will say it is very rugged. A few weeks ago I was out caching and slipped and fell (rather hard, actually) on some muddy rocks. The unit flwew from my hand had BOUNCED off the rocks, popping the antenna off. I thought for sure it was ruined, but I power it back on and it worked just fine.. The antenna popped back on and after I cleaned all the crud from it I was ready to go again.
Geocaching is a very interesting hobby. It combines many of my favorite things (technology, nature and hiking) and adds an element of critical thinking and problem solving. To be able to find some of the micro caches (and even some of the nano sized ones) takes a sharp mind. I cannot count the times I have found a hid that just amazes me on the creativity and craftiness of the hider.
I am not shy about telling people about my hobby. While some people scoff at it, saying it seems silly to "hunt for tupperware in the woods using billion dollar satellites", others are fascinated by it. It is the thrill of the hunt/hide that drives me...enought that I have hidden several myself in the Allen and Richardson area. Of course, none of mine are hard, but they are fun, nonetheless.
I tend to go out caching once a weekend, two times if there is nothing going on around the house. Sometimes I cannot go out due to my on call rotation at work. I am required to respond within 15 minutes so caching can be difficult unless the caches are close to home and I have grabbed most of those. I also cache once in a while during my lunch hour, but again, that is limited. I cannot go too far nor can I go tromping off into the woods in my khakis and polo shirt. When I started caching, I used to make it a goal to get one at lunch at least three days a week. However I have cut back on that, mostly because the caches closest to work have all been found and second, I do not want to become "obsessed" with geocaching. Do you think I am kidding? Geocaching is not called "Geocrack" for nothing. People can become so competitive that the hobby rules their life. You have people who are obsessed with getting as many caches as they can and others who are driven to be the "First to Find" (FTF) every cache they can. Let me give you an example. Last weekend I placed three caches in the Allen area. Tuesday night, the geocaching admins published them. Three of the local geocaching diehards made a mad dash to see who would be FTF. One of the teams, a husband and wife team from Lucas, went out in their PJ's looking for them...trying to be the FTF. All this was documented in the cache logs. I like geocaching, but I am not sure I am going to go that far to find caches. I will admit that it did make for some funny reading when I went back to review the logs.
Duckman972 is new and has less than 10 finds while coinpopper has been caching for just about a year and has over 1500 finds. Think about it. This man has found (on average) more than 4 caches each and every day for a year. I thought I was a man possessed when I grabbed 100 in my first month. I give him credit, he is dedicated.
I have been caching since mid September and I have about 250 finds. That is about 50 per month. Now to be fair, my first geocaching expedition was back when I was visiting family and friends in WV. Those same friends took me out one cool afternoon and we snagged 4 caches near North Bend State Park. 3 of the 4 were pretty good and only one of them was rather lame. I finished my vacation, came home, created an account on geocahcing.com and logged my 4 finds. It was not until the end of September that I started geocaching on my own and to make things more challenging, I did not use a GPSr unit until after I had found 40 on my own using just Google Maps. I guess finding 40 or so caches in about 2 weeks was not too bad considering I didn't have a GPSr.
Near the middle of October, my wife's (former) boss, who also happens to be the head trustee at church, let me borrow his spare (and rather old) Garmin "indefinitely". I had told him that funds were tight but I would buy one as soon as I could, most likely with part of our tax return or some of my year end bonus. Well the year end bonus came and went, thanx to bills and the fact it was a lot smaller than expected. I guess in many ways that is good because I have done research and now know which unit I need to buy. Hopefully (God willing) I should be able to order one in about two weeks.
Once I had the borrowed GPSr, I needed to upgrade the software (it was 4 years out of date) and learn to use it. To be honest, the old GPSMAP 176C is not overly user friendly and does not have great features for caching, but it works just fine as a freebie. I will say it is very rugged. A few weeks ago I was out caching and slipped and fell (rather hard, actually) on some muddy rocks. The unit flwew from my hand had BOUNCED off the rocks, popping the antenna off. I thought for sure it was ruined, but I power it back on and it worked just fine.. The antenna popped back on and after I cleaned all the crud from it I was ready to go again.
Geocaching is a very interesting hobby. It combines many of my favorite things (technology, nature and hiking) and adds an element of critical thinking and problem solving. To be able to find some of the micro caches (and even some of the nano sized ones) takes a sharp mind. I cannot count the times I have found a hid that just amazes me on the creativity and craftiness of the hider.
I am not shy about telling people about my hobby. While some people scoff at it, saying it seems silly to "hunt for tupperware in the woods using billion dollar satellites", others are fascinated by it. It is the thrill of the hunt/hide that drives me...enought that I have hidden several myself in the Allen and Richardson area. Of course, none of mine are hard, but they are fun, nonetheless.
I tend to go out caching once a weekend, two times if there is nothing going on around the house. Sometimes I cannot go out due to my on call rotation at work. I am required to respond within 15 minutes so caching can be difficult unless the caches are close to home and I have grabbed most of those. I also cache once in a while during my lunch hour, but again, that is limited. I cannot go too far nor can I go tromping off into the woods in my khakis and polo shirt. When I started caching, I used to make it a goal to get one at lunch at least three days a week. However I have cut back on that, mostly because the caches closest to work have all been found and second, I do not want to become "obsessed" with geocaching. Do you think I am kidding? Geocaching is not called "Geocrack" for nothing. People can become so competitive that the hobby rules their life. You have people who are obsessed with getting as many caches as they can and others who are driven to be the "First to Find" (FTF) every cache they can. Let me give you an example. Last weekend I placed three caches in the Allen area. Tuesday night, the geocaching admins published them. Three of the local geocaching diehards made a mad dash to see who would be FTF. One of the teams, a husband and wife team from Lucas, went out in their PJ's looking for them...trying to be the FTF. All this was documented in the cache logs. I like geocaching, but I am not sure I am going to go that far to find caches. I will admit that it did make for some funny reading when I went back to review the logs.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
At Least I Still Have A Job
$Colleague stops by my office to ask me what I thought of my raise. I told him I was not aware I was getting one. He told me to check our online pay stub, so I did. I compared the current one (we get paid on Friday) with the last one:
* My pay went up .20 / hour. You read that correctly... twenty cents per hour. I am sure fast food workers get better raises.
* My net pay went DOWN $1.28 per paycheck, due to an increase in out of pocket benefit costs ($17.28 per pay check)
* My gross pay just increased $416 per year.
Next step? The cut our on-call pay next month. That 5% now becomes 2%.
At Least I Still Have A Job
* My pay went up .20 / hour. You read that correctly... twenty cents per hour. I am sure fast food workers get better raises.
* My net pay went DOWN $1.28 per paycheck, due to an increase in out of pocket benefit costs ($17.28 per pay check)
* My gross pay just increased $416 per year.
Next step? The cut our on-call pay next month. That 5% now becomes 2%.
At Least I Still Have A Job
Mid-week Update
It is Wednesday. I am sitting in the office by myself to allow my office mate a much deserved day off. I got in shortly before 7:00 and checked the threat board and my work e-mail to see if anything needed attention. God was being merciful...all was calm.
On Sunday hid three new caches in Allen. They were published on Tuesday night.
Monday we had the trustee meeting at church and it was over by 9:00 PM. I came home and watched a little TV and then went to bed.
Tuesday, the trustees, the board, and the search team met with the pastoral candidate. Both he and his wife are young (mid 30's) and seem like good people. I thought she was funny, almost comedienne funny. She has a "Dallas Chic-ness" about her but I cannot put my finger on exactly how.
As I was checking my personal e-mail, I notice that the caches that I hid were published and several people scrambled to be the "First to Find" (FTF) them. The notes on the logs were hilarious...some of the funniest I had read in weeks. It almost makes me want to hide a few more...just to see the scramble.
I got a call from one of the local gurus (Tizom) today while I was at lunch. he was at the park looking for the ever elusive "Brass Monkey" hidden by Langly. So far only one team has found it. I have offered to go with Tizom som time to look for it, but I guess he couldn't wait. He still has not found it. If he can't find i, I am sure I do not have a prayer.
On Sunday hid three new caches in Allen. They were published on Tuesday night.
Monday we had the trustee meeting at church and it was over by 9:00 PM. I came home and watched a little TV and then went to bed.
Tuesday, the trustees, the board, and the search team met with the pastoral candidate. Both he and his wife are young (mid 30's) and seem like good people. I thought she was funny, almost comedienne funny. She has a "Dallas Chic-ness" about her but I cannot put my finger on exactly how.
As I was checking my personal e-mail, I notice that the caches that I hid were published and several people scrambled to be the "First to Find" (FTF) them. The notes on the logs were hilarious...some of the funniest I had read in weeks. It almost makes me want to hide a few more...just to see the scramble.
I got a call from one of the local gurus (Tizom) today while I was at lunch. he was at the park looking for the ever elusive "Brass Monkey" hidden by Langly. So far only one team has found it. I have offered to go with Tizom som time to look for it, but I guess he couldn't wait. He still has not found it. If he can't find i, I am sure I do not have a prayer.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Things Will Pick Up
Last week went mostly slow but over the weekend they did another SAP upgrade and the last time that was done we spent 2 months slogging through the aftermath. We had more critical cases each and every day...why should this upgrade be any different?
The city council meeting last Thursday was one of the most boring I have ever attended. I kept nodding off and nothing on the agenda was interesting...yawn.
Friday was more of the same...slow at work. There was one issue that was started a few days earlier, but it was complex and was only going to be worked on during European business hours, so we had little to track during our shift.
Saturday I decided I would geocache in the morning instead of the afternoon like I normally do. I had to wait until 9:30 before I could leave since my wife had people dropping stuff off at our house before 10 AM and she as not going to be home. After the drop offs, I went over to Brockdale Park, and equestrian and hiking park in Lucas,Texas. It is a long hike...9 miles round trip. I managed to get 10 of the 12 that were there. I would have gotten all 12 but 1 was a night hike and the other, which was a multi, was missing a set of clues so it was impossible to find the last stage. Bummer, since I found all three stages and the final one, which led to the cache, was missing the coordinates for the final stage. Nonetheless it was a nice 5+ mile hike. I got home about 3 PM.
I vacuumed half the house when I got back and then helped my wife install some window film in the living room. The film my wife chose blocks large amounts of UV and heat. It also is hard to see through unless there is light on in the house. It is tricky to work with but worth the results.
Sunday we went to church as usual. There was a guest speaker who had a great message on unity that really hit home with many of us. We grabbed a couple of bagels with cream cheese for lunch and then stopped by Target to get a bathroom squeegee to replace a ripped one. On the way back we saw an SUV or a van that had flipped over on 75 North...we could not ell if anyone was inside but I did not see any that looked hurt.
After we got home I decided to go place a few geocaches. While I was out I found one that had been recently revived. It was not hard but it was in a very busy area.
I got to work right on time (for me...10 minutes early) and checked the threat board to see what needed to be handled. All was well, then my boss called me to tell me one of the guys (whom he backs up) has a family emergency and will not be able to do his job and my boss wanted to know if I would do t for him...on top of my regular duties. I told him no as politely as I I could. My colleague was not in yet and since we have to drop what we are doing to work on critical issues, I would not be able to do the other guys job. While he was not happy, I think he understood.
I am not going to try to do both jobs. First, it is not possible and all it will do is set me up to fail. Second, my boss the that other guy's backup...not me. Besides, we are going to get busy with the fallout from the weekends changes and I do not have time for problems caused by another group.
The city council meeting last Thursday was one of the most boring I have ever attended. I kept nodding off and nothing on the agenda was interesting...yawn.
Friday was more of the same...slow at work. There was one issue that was started a few days earlier, but it was complex and was only going to be worked on during European business hours, so we had little to track during our shift.
Saturday I decided I would geocache in the morning instead of the afternoon like I normally do. I had to wait until 9:30 before I could leave since my wife had people dropping stuff off at our house before 10 AM and she as not going to be home. After the drop offs, I went over to Brockdale Park, and equestrian and hiking park in Lucas,Texas. It is a long hike...9 miles round trip. I managed to get 10 of the 12 that were there. I would have gotten all 12 but 1 was a night hike and the other, which was a multi, was missing a set of clues so it was impossible to find the last stage. Bummer, since I found all three stages and the final one, which led to the cache, was missing the coordinates for the final stage. Nonetheless it was a nice 5+ mile hike. I got home about 3 PM.
I vacuumed half the house when I got back and then helped my wife install some window film in the living room. The film my wife chose blocks large amounts of UV and heat. It also is hard to see through unless there is light on in the house. It is tricky to work with but worth the results.
Sunday we went to church as usual. There was a guest speaker who had a great message on unity that really hit home with many of us. We grabbed a couple of bagels with cream cheese for lunch and then stopped by Target to get a bathroom squeegee to replace a ripped one. On the way back we saw an SUV or a van that had flipped over on 75 North...we could not ell if anyone was inside but I did not see any that looked hurt.
After we got home I decided to go place a few geocaches. While I was out I found one that had been recently revived. It was not hard but it was in a very busy area.
I got to work right on time (for me...10 minutes early) and checked the threat board to see what needed to be handled. All was well, then my boss called me to tell me one of the guys (whom he backs up) has a family emergency and will not be able to do his job and my boss wanted to know if I would do t for him...on top of my regular duties. I told him no as politely as I I could. My colleague was not in yet and since we have to drop what we are doing to work on critical issues, I would not be able to do the other guys job. While he was not happy, I think he understood.
I am not going to try to do both jobs. First, it is not possible and all it will do is set me up to fail. Second, my boss the that other guy's backup...not me. Besides, we are going to get busy with the fallout from the weekends changes and I do not have time for problems caused by another group.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Fed Up
My first choice for president, Fred Dalton Thompson started late and quit early. My heart sank. Did he even want the job? Then my number two choice. Mitt Romney states he plans on stepping aside. What happened to choice?
I am NOT going to vote for the lesser of 2 evils any more. The Republican party has broken my heart for the last time. I grew up Democrat, registered Indy, and voted Republican for a long time. I am a registered Independent so in 2008 I am going to vote that way.
Oh, save all your arguments about "voting for a man who cannot win is throwing your vote away". That argument is total rubbish. I do not buy it.
Write in Steve Adams for President 2008.
I am NOT going to vote for the lesser of 2 evils any more. The Republican party has broken my heart for the last time. I grew up Democrat, registered Indy, and voted Republican for a long time. I am a registered Independent so in 2008 I am going to vote that way.
Oh, save all your arguments about "voting for a man who cannot win is throwing your vote away". That argument is total rubbish. I do not buy it.
Write in Steve Adams for President 2008.
Ouch
My back has really been sore lately. I tried Aleve but it did not seem to have much of an effect on the pain, so I started stretching (as painful as that was) and it seemed to help. I remember that after I had my back surgery and I had healed, I ended up getting sacroiliitis a couple of months later. This feels just like it. I am sure the only cure will be my "Aleve Therapy" and stretching. Joy.
Work has been slow, but I am thankful for that. My week of on call was light and so far it has been the same for my office mate. While we still have been getting calls, many of them have not been severe enough to get us involved. With it being slower, my office mate has ad time to get caught up on some older nagging issues that he let sit while we took care of the more important issues. Now it looks like he is all caught up.
One of the Swede's was given notice that he is to be laid off in 30 days. While it is not a good thing, at least he is in good shape financially. He is not married, nor does he have any kids. He has his car and house paid off and has no other debt. He can live quite well on half of his salary and has been saving quite a bit of money. He will eventually get a job but it may take a while,so being debt free is a big plus for him. I am envious.
Well, I do not have a lot planned this week other than the city council meeting tonight and some geocaching this weekend. I will also need to write up an agenda for the Trustee meeting on Monday.
I will be working solo on Wednesday to allow my office mate a day off. He is in a similar situation with vacation and needs to burn as much as he can. So far the Wednesday off deal is working pretty well. While I have not taken every Wednesday off, I have taken one off each month so far this year. I may take two off this month, manbe not.
Oh, if I have not mentioned it yet, Sim City has been release as open source and has been ported to Unix and Linux (sorry Windows users) so far as "Micropolis". It has been hard not to play it all day when it is slow at work :)
Work has been slow, but I am thankful for that. My week of on call was light and so far it has been the same for my office mate. While we still have been getting calls, many of them have not been severe enough to get us involved. With it being slower, my office mate has ad time to get caught up on some older nagging issues that he let sit while we took care of the more important issues. Now it looks like he is all caught up.
One of the Swede's was given notice that he is to be laid off in 30 days. While it is not a good thing, at least he is in good shape financially. He is not married, nor does he have any kids. He has his car and house paid off and has no other debt. He can live quite well on half of his salary and has been saving quite a bit of money. He will eventually get a job but it may take a while,so being debt free is a big plus for him. I am envious.
Well, I do not have a lot planned this week other than the city council meeting tonight and some geocaching this weekend. I will also need to write up an agenda for the Trustee meeting on Monday.
I will be working solo on Wednesday to allow my office mate a day off. He is in a similar situation with vacation and needs to burn as much as he can. So far the Wednesday off deal is working pretty well. While I have not taken every Wednesday off, I have taken one off each month so far this year. I may take two off this month, manbe not.
Oh, if I have not mentioned it yet, Sim City has been release as open source and has been ported to Unix and Linux (sorry Windows users) so far as "Micropolis". It has been hard not to play it all day when it is slow at work :)
Monday, February 04, 2008
Something To Look Forward To?
Well, I survived my house arrest (on call). It was one of the lighter on calls I have had and for that, I am thankful. I only had 2 nights with anything to follow up on and no calls came in after hours. No bad.
Since I was on house arrest and many of the caches in the area are beyond my 15 minute radius, I decided not to go out geocaching (shocker!) this weekend. I cleaned the house some, spent time with the dogs, went to church and Sunday School and finished out season two of "Lost". It was a very quiet weekend.
Solder Boy called this weekend and he talked to my wife for a while. He was visiting my sister
I called my mom on Sunday as I normally do and realized that she does not have enough to keep her occupied. Every time I call she walks about how much the creek has risen or dropped (she can see the creek from her front window). I asked her if she was worried about flooding and she told me that she wasn't, she just like to keep track of the rising water.
My mom does not get out of the house much and only really does anything on Sunday's with church and visiting a friend afterwards. I am afraid she has too much time on her hands and needs something constructive to do.
I hope I do not follow that path. I want to stay interested in various things and keep my brain healthy.
Since I was on house arrest and many of the caches in the area are beyond my 15 minute radius, I decided not to go out geocaching (shocker!) this weekend. I cleaned the house some, spent time with the dogs, went to church and Sunday School and finished out season two of "Lost". It was a very quiet weekend.
Solder Boy called this weekend and he talked to my wife for a while. He was visiting my sister
I called my mom on Sunday as I normally do and realized that she does not have enough to keep her occupied. Every time I call she walks about how much the creek has risen or dropped (she can see the creek from her front window). I asked her if she was worried about flooding and she told me that she wasn't, she just like to keep track of the rising water.
My mom does not get out of the house much and only really does anything on Sunday's with church and visiting a friend afterwards. I am afraid she has too much time on her hands and needs something constructive to do.
I hope I do not follow that path. I want to stay interested in various things and keep my brain healthy.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Electric Eye
A while back it was announced that Google Maps would be offering a street level view of cities that goes beyond normal satellite images. Google as well as other companies would be driving around taking pictures to offer a virtual tour of the city. The cities were announced and low and behold, Dallas has made that list. I found this out quite by accident when I used Google Maps to zero in on a set of GPS coords to assist me when I geocached. When I got the page, I was surprised to see a street level option that allowed me to look at the front yard of the address as if I was driving by it myself. Now this has already cause a stir in some bigger cities (San Fran and New York) because the photographers have caught some rather...interesting things on film, such as a case of plummers crack (complete with thong), and a young man picking his nose.
Now I work in the suburb of Dallas that this picture was taken and now I am beginning to worry about my chances of being filmed while doing something completely innocent (scratching, adjust clothes, etc) without my knowledge. Camera angles are tricky things and what may look innocent at one angle looks obscene at another.
Be careful out there...you never know who is watching.
Oh, by the way, I finally got my wife to watch "Lost". While she is not hooked, she did admit it was a good show.
Now I work in the suburb of Dallas that this picture was taken and now I am beginning to worry about my chances of being filmed while doing something completely innocent (scratching, adjust clothes, etc) without my knowledge. Camera angles are tricky things and what may look innocent at one angle looks obscene at another.
Be careful out there...you never know who is watching.
Oh, by the way, I finally got my wife to watch "Lost". While she is not hooked, she did admit it was a good show.
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