Feeling great while traveling.

So I was feeling pretty great while I traveled this trip. The allergies weren't too bad (even with all the extra dust and strange plants) and I slept great but never long enough (even the nights when I had my own room).

But the part I really noticed was:

The Clouds are Beautiful

I never thought I'd get tired of looking out the window when flying in an airplane. I thought I'd just sit at the window and watch the whole time no matter how long the flight was.

It's beautiful, but they don't hold my attention for so long any more. I'm not sure why. Because they aren't so mysterious any more? Because I know it's just water vapor (or something like that?)? Because I've got other boring things on my mind.

I thought I'd always been all about the window seat, now I'm all about the aisle so I can get up and wander and stretch when I want.

Instead of watching, I'm just reading and writing and watching movies. I'm not sure why on some lever I'm considering that to be a bad thing?

But here I am typing away instead of watching..

Technorati Tags: clouds, flying, scenery, vacation

(As I look at what I just wrote, I think maybe I've written something similar in the past on a different trip. Maybe not, maybe I just thought about writing it. For obvious reasons I can't look right now.)

Working from home

I could work from home all the time, except for when broken stuff needs repair. We've got construction at work (and it's a skeleton holiday staff) so there are carpeting (glue) and painting (paint) so many of us are working from home.

I could really handle this all the time. But I think I'd need something to track what I'm doing so at the end of the week I know if I'm working too much or not enough (I think it'd be the former). Obviously meeting rooms would need to be setup for video conferencing and a day a two a week would definitely be on site.

Pros (for my imaginary job):

Biorhythms

I wish I really believed in this stuff. Because in two weeks, on April 8th, I'd be having an awesome day!

Although if you look at the second chart, it might explain why I've been so sluggish this last week.

Actually, now that I think of it, on April 8th I should be having an awesome day!!! But you'll have to wait until then to find out for sure.

Technorati Tags: Biorhythm

Being Nice

So my philosophy in life is pretty much just to "be nice".

Maybe 'karma' and 'what comes around, goes around' and 'do unto others as you want to them to do unto you' want you to do the same thing ("be nice") but they try to make you fear what might happen if you don't. Really, they're just slightly nicer versions of 'an eye for an eye' (the way most people interpret it).

Douglas Adams pointed this out in in the beginning of two of his books,
"nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree
for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change"

I'm not pushing religion or any deep philosophies. I'm not even trying to figure out why we decorate and eat hard boiled chicken embryos or chocolate shaped in their image. I'm just trying to get people to think about being a little nicer, if for no reason other than they can.

A character of Neil Gaiman (another British author) one said something like 'It's not any harder to be nice than it is to be mean and it's not nearly as fun.'

Technorati Tags: be nice, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman

This is why I love the Internet

Over the last 24 hours:

Jobs I've Had

I've had a lot of jobs in my life, even since I was little. Not that Mom didn't buy me stuff, but I always had some hobby that needed ca$h so I often had jobs. Beside maybe shoveling show or leaves and stuff like that I've started pretty early. I was thinking about this since I saw Miss. Britt do a section like this for her 100 things list so I started thinking about it.

Spring Cleaning

I've been trying to filter out some of the "stuff" at my house that I don't use any more, today was the clothes closet. Some stuff will be bound for Goodwill / Salvation Army, some for the trash and a few things for the vacation pile (clothes that I take on vacation but don't bring back).

What I really hate getting rid of is shirts with stuff printed on them for several reasons. One, I probably paid more for them. Two, I didn't pay anything for them but they're pretty unique. (But) Three, I rarely wear them. Some of it's a mish-mash but today I noticed a bit of what I had in odd quantities:

Busy Day

So my back and shoulder has been killing me all this week (stayed home two days). I really haven't even been on-line much since sitting at a keyboard has been uncomfortable. You know if I haven't been on-line it's gotta be bugging me...

I went to the OMT (kind of the opposite of a chiropractor, they do the muscles not the bones, Osteopathic Musculature/Manipulative Therapy?) twice this week but that's not really fixing it. The drugs that really work knock me out, so that's not a great option; I bet I've averaged 18 hours a day the last few days. So today I went to my "regular" Doctor's office, but she wasn't in (they rotate on Saturdays) but they guy who checked out took care of me, a few shots into the muscle seem to be helping.

So since I was out (and not on the dizzy drugs) it seemed like a good time to run over to work to make sure some stuff that needs to run overnight was a-okay (you can't upload if anyone is actually using it and it won't run if you don't upload it) but it looked like everything was uploaded just fine. Now I'm grabbing a Wendy's Spicy Chicken, with free WiFi (Joy & Telegraph in Redford, MI), and then a quick stop at the grocery store...

It's not really such a busy day in general, but it's pretty busy for lately...

Technorati Tags: back pain, shoulder pain

Visacalc changed my life...

Visacalc, I think it's one of those products that changed the world. I'm certain that it changed mine...

For those that don't remember it - Visacalc was the first really popular spreadsheet program (maybe the first), it was before Lotus 123 and Microsoft Excel (it was probably be fore the was a Microsoft). It ran on Apple and Atari home computers (probably TRS-80 computers too). There were some other spreadsheets out there (anyone?) but I'd say that Visacalc was one of the first easily accessible ones. It put really powerful calculations into the hand of anyone allowing them to do a variety of "what if?" scenarios. I'd say that what 99% of what the average people does with spreadsheets these days do not exceed the capabilities of Visacalc from almost 30 years ago (other than graphing).

How did VIsacalc change my life? Jack Parish, the owner of The Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop (a hobby and toy shop two blocks and five houses from my house), was shown Visacalc. I think he bought a computer that day and shortly their-after starting carrying the Atari 800 and 400 computers at his store. He knew they were the things to come, he didn't know all the details but he knew...

So some of us kids started hanging out at the store more and we probably sold as many computers as the sales people. A few months later Jack offered me a job, they were going to start giving away training as his value added benefit to shopping at the store. I was going selling computers and teaching computer classes, teaching classes to kids and adults. My one condition was that I get a computer ASAP, they took a chunk out of my check every week until it was paid off, I got an Atari 800 with a cassette(!) tape drive.

This really did change everything for me. I learned and played and learned. I liked it more than other hobbies because it was fixable, correctable and once you got something done and it was perfect, it ran perfect every-time.

There were a limited number of computer stores in the area and if you owned a computer you eventually visited all the stores, I pretty much met everyone in the Detroit area who had an Atari computer and those people were contacts for me in the future.

So it wasn't really using Visicalc that change my life, just that fact that it existed and started a series of events that got me my first computer. I still would have gotten into computers but it probably would have been a little later in life, having that computer then opened up some doors that I wouldn't have found otherwise and some of those doors would have closed before I found them (as computer businesses tended to do).

Technorati Tags: spreadsheets, Visacalc

I got my XO Laptop

I'm SO excited!



I wasn't expecting it for at least another week....

For more info, go to Laptop.org

'I got my XO Laptop' uploaded by garylapointe

It's been 4 years since I started blogging.

It's been 4 years today since I started blogging. It wasn't really a plan. I had just looked into it for a bit and one day I had something to say and kept going...

I think this will be post number 1677 (that averages to a little more than 1 posts a day) and 2,299 comments.

Thanks for listening and commenting everyone!!!!! And if you've just been listening, speak up and say HI

I'm also guessing I've had about 1,000,000 spam comments deleted with via my different filtering systems (about 30,000+ spams deleted by hand).

I need a better way with MovableType to reply to a comment and also post the reply to the web site at the same time. (Anyone?)

Technorati Tags: anniversary, blogaversary

When You Wish Upon a Falling Star

So on my first night in Montezuma I was out on the beach in Montezuma watching the stars and it was perfectly clear. After a while I realized I hadn't seen any shooting stars. I thought, "If I saw a shooting star, I'd wish that I could move down here". At that instant (I'm not kidding) a huge one goes across the sky, coincidence? I think not! Technically, I can't tell you what my wish was since it won't come true, right? (or is that candles?)

And after that I easily saw another dozen over the next hour, but none as long and bright as that one....

Technorati Tags: Falling Star, Shooting Star, When You Wish Upon a Falling Star

Well rested!!

I was SO tired yesterday. I think I managed to sleep at least 10 hours, it might have been more, but I'm sure I went to sleep at least that early. I get confused since I wasn't sure about the time change and all I kept seeing were my Michigan clocks (it is one hour earlier here than the Detroit Michigan area).

I almost missed breakfast but I get down there a few minutes before they were supposed to close. It's a beautiful morning nice and sunny and I'm heading down to the beach in a few. This is the view from my hotel room yesterday evening before sunset, it's a little dark but you can see the Pacific ocean is right there and it's a great location!

"Someone is at my Table!"

So I'm at my Einstein's bagel and someone is at the table a always sit at. It's the only high-top table in the place and it's by the window but next to a wall so that I get shade for my laptop. When they asked at the counter "what would you like?", I said "I'd like my table". The one person didn't know what I was talking about, but the other one said "I noticed that when you came in..."

I guess I'm just a create of habit.

Update: The guy just left, I'm trying to decide if I'm obsessive compulsive enough to move. "It's nice and sunny right there", he thinks as he tries to rationalize it....

Technorati Tags: habit, habits

Twelve hours sleep!

I can't even tell you how badly that I needed that! It was more like 6 hours and I was up for a few and then 6 hours more, it was wonderful...

I haven't gotten anywhere near enough sleep lately (even when I've been sick). I've been shortchanged on sleep too much lately, way too many 5 hour nights; I've been pretty happy with the few 7 hours nights and those just aren't enough to catch up. Work and life has been a little extra cRaZy and stressful lately and I'm sure this will help a little bit. I'm sure a few more days like this every week would really help...

Now if only there was some sunshine outside!

Technorati Tags: Costa Rica, stress, Vacation, work

Burnt My Lip!!! Pop Tarts are Evil!

I do understand that I just took the Pop Tart out of toaster but it really was a few minutes before I ate it. There was no warning of "Filling May Burn Gary's Lip" or "Pop Tarts Burn" printed any where on the package, the pop tart itself or the toaster...

Do you think I have a case against Kellogg's? Or maybe against my parents/teachers for not teaching me common sense?

I still think that it should have cooled off more, the edges weren't even crispy. I do wish I hadn't ignored the pain at the time, I probably could have avoided this blister...

Technorati Tags: Blueberry Pop Tart, Burn, Burning, Kelloggs, Pop Tart

I've fallen off the edge of the world and I can't get up...

I'll be back, it's just been extra cRaZy and I haven't had time to read blogs let alone post much. I'll be back in a week (give or take a few days)...

Sleep Machine

So I've certainly been catching up on sleep the last few days, I think I've had about 23 hours since Friday evening. This is excellent since I really haven't been sleeping all that well these days. I haven't gotten much accomplished this weekend but that's okay...

What I did get accomplished was that I went out to the cemetery where my grandparents and great-grandparents (Mom's side) are buried today. I usually get out there a few times a year (sprint/fall) just to clean up and edge where the grass is growing over the stones, but it's been so crazy lately (life and the weather) I'm getting out much later than usual. It's been raining/drizzling all day but it pretty much stopped when I got out there so that worked out nice.

I need to take Mom with me some time because I always come up with questions about dates, middle initials or something else about family history that I don't know the answer to...

So So Busy Lately...

It's been extra cRaZy lately:

Hand Update.

So I went back to the doctor today to see what the verdict was today. And after a very long wait (I was about to go back up to the counter to remind them I was there, they were shutting down for lunch and I was the only one left not waiting for someone to come out) I got to see him. Unfortunately they didn't have an answer for me. They can see something that looks like some kind of irritation on the bone, something that looked rough or worn, but nothing that looked broke. So they see some kind of unknown problem. Of course, this doesn't help me any...

They don't really want to cut into me to look because some muscles and vessels are attached to this bone and there is always the possibility of risk when operating on that. So they don't want to do that just for some kind of fishing expedition.

So “let's run some blood tests” and see if we see something odd that might be causing/related it. It was a lot of tests, but not many tubes so I was okay with that. But I'm confident they wont find anything in my blood. Of all the quarts I've been drained of in my life, I can't think of anything they've ever found. I really thought as a result of the bone scan they'd be able to fix this and I'm disappointed that while it was obvious there was something on the scan it's not something (at this point) that they can fix.

BTW, the pot I'm talking about is a little piece of bone protruding from the palm of the hand, but I can't recall the name right now.

So I'm at the medical center...

So I'm at the pace to get a bone scan (actually this was last week, I'm just finishing up this post now). I think I mentioned I've had some on and off problems with my hand/wrist, I had a CAT scan the other week (nothing to see) and now I'm up to a bone scan. So this morning I had some radioactive “dye” (something that attaches to phosphates I believe she said) injected and they stuck me in some machine that watched me for a few minutes to see how it flows through my body. Then I had to come back in 3 hours to get more images taken, not so bad except the center is in Ypsi and I work 30 miles away (but I've gotten some e-mail done, an order done and picked up some supplies for work at Target).

Not related to the tests but in the morning I had someone in Nuclear Medicine named Kelly helping me out, now this was odd to me since I had an ex-girlfriend (fiancee actually) named Kelly who worked in the Nuclear Medicine department at a local hospital. A little bit of a coincidence, no...

So now I'm waiting to go back in. They have WiFi but I can't get past the “accept their internet policy page”. And I left my book in the car, so I'm really bored now....

So they finished the bone scan and while the image on the screen was only a few images high I could clearly see a glowing spot on my right hand where it hurts (the left hand didn't have any spots like that) so I'm hoping they can diagnose the problem or at least know where to focus the search. I go back Friday for the results...

Another coincidence (making it a weird bigger coincidence) - the afternoon Nuclear Medicine person was also named Kelly!!

On a side note, since they injected me with radioactive stuff, they mentioned that if I have to pee that I should go and not hold it in any more than necessary. Kinda made me nervous. Certainly didn't encourage me to go pee, I didn't want the radioactive “stuff” pissing passing through that part of my body...

Technorati Tags: doctor

Locked out of my car!

Do they intentionally just put the car door buttons for the locks / windows just out of reach of a coat hanger in case you're fishing one through the window? Well, it sure seems that way to me...

I guess I should start at the beginning (actually a little before that). I'm the kinda guy who misplaces things but since I know that, I'm prepared for it. I keep spare keys for my car / house at home, work and with friends. And I label all my stuff like my camera, computer, pda, backpack, etc. Back when I used to really misplace things (I'm not as bad any more), I'd put post-its in the front of the books I read with my name and number on it so when I left them somewhere. I do still keep a spare tie and belt at work in case I somehow walk out of the house without one or the other. In essence, I never “lose” stuff since I always get it back :)

And if I ned to leave my car running with keys in it (to scrape windows or check mail or whatever) I open one of the smaller windows so if the car decides to lock it's not a problem, normally I could start it without keys in it except that the remote start broke and I didn't fix it yet (I actually had someone follow me the other day to drop it off, but the place went out of business, so I did actually try). Twice times at work I've had to call someone from my office to come meet me at one of the schools with my spare key (the other few times I was at my building so no one had to know). What happens is I end up dropping them while carrying something into a school with my hands full or answering the phone as I climb out or something else distracting like that.

This time it was different. I was leaving and I put my stuff in the car from the passenger door and thought, “gee it's cold, I'll start my car before I get my mail” so I started the car and pushed the little lever to open the tiny passenger back seat window. Then I got the mail, threw some out, put some in the house and went to get in the car (you saw this next part coming, right?) and it's locked. Turns out I don't sit in the passenger seat enough, there is not button for the back window, it's just the front passenger window and the button for the lock. So pretty much all I did was lock the door. I was fine with it, stuff like this doesn't upset me, even though I can't seem find a spare for the car anywhere I look. And I start to realize everyone I know who has access to a spare key isn't going to able to bring me one for hours. The problem is the car is running (and has a full tank of gas) and it's parked in the garage.

So I've got some options:

I tried to get the door open. After many trips up and down the stairs (my condo is on floors 3 and 4) trying to hunt for a hanger that was all metal (without the cardboard hanger piece). And after lots of bending of the glass windows in my car (trying to fish in a coat hanger) I managed to find and squeeze a metal rod (dowel-like) that I had bent enough to have a hook on the end so I could pull back the button that opens a window. Success!! Total time, about 35-40 minutes, most of that was trying to find things like a hanger and trying to find something to bend it and things like that. And I managed to not inhale to much exhaust fro the car too. All in all a mini-adventure for the day...

From a security standpoint, I couldn't have done what I did if the car wasn't running. The windows don't work if the key isn't in the ignition, and once the car has been parked for a while if you unlock it from the inside it sets off the alarm so I feel pretty secure. I'm glad I never got around to using that metal rod since that would have meant cutting it in half!

Sleep!

I've slept great that last two nights!!! Today I got about nine hours and yesterday I only got 6-7 but I had to get up for work so I probably would have slept longer (but it was quality sleep). I just haven't been able to sleep in on my days off lately and I think I've really needed it. I used to do a 12 hour day (or two), now it's rare if I get an uninterrupted 5 hours...

I've got a few things to do today. Most importantly to mail in my taxes! THey're done, I just need to get them in a mailbox. This is an item from my 101 in 1001 list to mail them in on time. I always do them late (sometimes years late).

Speaking of 101 list I got 1/2 an item done this week. I was going to change out all my exterior lights on my car. One of the back lights went so I change out all the bulbs on the back end. It's really cold out, even in the garage, so I saved the front end until the next bulb goes out (I already have them all purchased so I'm ready to go) and it makes a little sense to wait until one's bad too. I'm hoping to drive this car a few more years so maybe after that I'll never have to change another bulb on this one ever again...

I made the 2000 Bloggers List!

So I made the 2000 bloggers list that I mentioned last week. It was kinda hard to find my picture (the one to the left) buried in with the other (almost) 2000 but I found it. As of today it looks like there's still room for about 400 or so more (nope see the update below).

If you arrived here from a 2000 bloggers list PLEASE leave a comment!

UPDATE: Due to all sorts of reason dealing with linking and indexing the 2000 bloggers list has been removed from the original site. Worries and threats of it being considered a “link farm” to trick search engines caused Tino to remove the original list. It's funny because while the list was replicated, I don't think anyone was told to replicate it (even though the code was easily made available). And some people were put on it without their knowledge so how can you penalize them? I just wanted on the list to generate some new viewers (and it has). Forget raising my Technorati, since my posts somehow don't show up on their site (everyone else seems to index me), how does a higher ranking help me?!? Getting a few more readers (and being more findable) is one of the reasons I signed up on Technoriti, but without content, I'm not very findable (even if my rank goes higher). I'm not sure if anyone came here via Technorati (did you?).

I'm not sure if the list ever actually made it to 2,000. Does anyone know for sure?

You'd think I'd get more dates from blogging...

So while I've done my share of dating (friend set ups, personal ads, on-line, etc.) my blog has never factored into dating. I don't really mention dating on-line and I generally don't mention blogging to people I'm dating. But when you look at some of the stats from QuantCast and the make up of what they think my readership is you'd think I might have gotten a date (or two) due to that last 3+ years of blogging or at least a little more flirting...

It's just an observation, and some silly points to bring up the fact the the stats here are interesting in the way they present them. You can get a bit on your blog by just putting your site in the search box. Some sites seem to have more information than others, I'm not sure why but it must get some info from other sites.

I did put the QuantCast tracker on my site a week ago so the daily stats are probably semi-correct on the web visitors, but I'm not sure how many users use blockers that might stop that tracking, but I'm sure it doesn't compensate for RSS readers and stuff like that.

Today's List

Had a bunch of things to do and I think I got most of them done. I'll have to check the list that I forgot and left at home...

Random Thoughts...

So I've just been behind with blogging and posting info from the trip to Costa Rica. Partially since I've been so busy and sick in the parts in between. So, some little tidbits:

HoroSpoke 2007

So I noticed they posted some new HoroSpoke forcasts over at GirlSpoke and mine doesn't look to bad for the year!

Now, my Virgos out there are going to have the most eventful year by far. In every facet of your life, you'll be experiencing some sort of change, mostly in a good way.

Career? Check.

Love life? Check.

Financial bid-nass? Check.

So, because you'll be having such a grand ol' time this year, you need to make sure that you keep all skepticism and worrying at bay. With such strong forces in your world in 2007, worrying about these changes will be as smart as using an umbrella in the midst of a hurricane...

New Year's Resolutions

So I don't do New Year's Resolutions any more. People generally don't keep track and they tend to eventually fade away. I found out about the 101 in 1001 list on-line. What you do is make a list of 101 things you want (and can) to do and you have 1001 days to complete the list. They need to be measurable like how many pounds or how many miles you plan to walk per day. This gives you almost three years to complete the items you put on the list. It can be as simple as “taking a warm winter vacation” or “visit Costa Rica again”, or even do “taxes on-time”.