Starting tonight (at 9PM Pacific) you can reserve your own Facebook vanity id. This means (hopefully) I’ll be “http://facebook.com/GaryLaPointe ” instead of “http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=736138968“.

You should be able to just go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to get your name.

As always, you’re welcome to add me as a friend…

SUCCESS! I did manage to get my name (as above). It’s not case sensitive but I like the caps capitalized. And there is no trailing slash (”/”), it causes an error.

Argh! Haven’t been this frustrated in a very long time…

The last 24 hours:
- I can’t sync my calendar items and address/phone numbers between my computers, MobileMe and iPod Touch.
- My main Windows machine won’t reboot, keeps resetting. Think the hard drive went.
- Accessing/syncing to my AppleTV is goofed up (that’s minor, unrelated and hacked so not an Apple issue)
- My cell phone keeps saying international roaming when I’m at home (it’s Sprint). I’m not that close to the border of Canada/Michigan.

I’ve spend more time with tech support the last 24 hours than the last 24 months. I’ve been escalated multiple times at Apple and not getting any closer. And after all the changes at my end I’m leaning towards it’s going to be a problem at their end so then I’ll have to get everything set back the way I want (a few hours ago, I’d have said 100% sure at their end, but not so sure now). They say this is a new problem and since we’re pushing 4 hours today I’m hoping it’s a unique problem (for their sake).

And I’ve wasted another sunny day

So this is just a quick update as to what I’ve been up to. I’m been having some problem typing so here’s a video to explain why…

(Oops, this was set to “private” originally. I fixed it now….)

 

Here’s a direct link to the video.

So they tell me when I fractured on my thumb it’s a Proximal Phalanx Fracture but they think it’s gonna be okay. Here’s a little picture of the x-ray (click for a bigger view), they say it’s going to be fine after wearing this cast for a while bit longer.
 

 

This is pretty much all the topics that I talk about. Larger means it’s mentioned more often. Closer to the top means I’ve mentioned it lately. This is based on my first five years of blogging. I usually keep a dynamic version of this page at what I talk about, but I thought I should keep a static version since it’s my fifth year blogging and I’ll probably have to start a fresh one with my new WordPress blog (coming soon).

Wow! I’ve been doing this for five years! There aren’t many hobbies that I’ve stuck with for this long. Heck, there aren’t many jobs I’ve kept this long (only one). I did stick with Michigan State University that long (undergrad and grad school) and I collected comics as a kid for this long. Besides living with my parents, I’ve never lived anywhere but my current condo for that long. I’ve owned my current Sebring Convertible for that long too (my car before it was the same model, just a few years earlier model).

So it seems like it’s the latest stuff I’ve been sticking with the longest. Does that mean that I’m figuring out what I like beforehand and sticking with it?!? That’d be nice.

So I originally started out blogging and thinking that’d I’d try not to complain at all but that didn’t last; while I do whine I try not to do it too much. Also, I’ve always thought I’d break out tech stuff into a separate tech blog and get even geekier but that’s never happened (yet).

I’ve met more than a few bloggers and other people from social networks over the last five years which has been awesome. Not only do I get to read these folks, I get to meet some of them too! I’m sure I’ve met 25-40 different people over the last few years, I’d have to count since some of them came to multiple events. And I really hope to make it to TequilaCon this year (is there a location/date set yet?).

I blog for myself but I try to post stuff I think others will find interesting too. When I’ve got 10 topics that I’m thinking of blogging about I do try to choose stuff that I want to talk about and stuff that you might find interesting. They might not be the same post but sometimes they are.

Speaking of blogaversaries: During my first year I had changed the name and the URL a few times (that probably didn’t help with traffic). Halfway through the second year I started using GarySaid.com, changing the URL to it’s own permanent home; I think I’ll always keep this short URL for my personal blog, even if I change the title of the blog itself the address is nice and short and easy to spell. The third year I didn’t post much on the anniversary date but I posted some stat and info a few days later. Year four wasn’t the best, I just never got into gear much this past year but I did get to travel a lot which gave me some good blogging material Speaking of whining, it’s been a pretty crappy year this past year. I haven’t talked about all of it on-line much, but things started going downhill last October and I just never got back into gear. I’m sure it’s seemed worse to me because everything was going pretty awesome before that (but that might just be hindsight). While I didn’t blog about much of those issues, I’m sure it affected my blogging some…

Things started picking up a few months ago and I’ve still got a few major potholes that I need to fill. As I start filling them in, I’ll probably start talking about some of them (I just never got around to it before, I had planned to). I’m sure it’s affected the tone of some of my blogging and the blogging itself. Thanks for sticking around!

I’ll be making some changes in my life and around here; since I plan to make it better for me, hopefully it’ll be more interesting for you in the year to come…

Just me getting into the water and climbing the big rock in the background and jumping into the water. Nothing ultra-exciting but should give an idea of the pool and jumping area…

I’m not the first person you see. I’m the guy who walks in front of the camera a few seconds into the video (and gets in). There is a larger version of the video if you go to the direct link (below). It’s not the best quality, it must have lost something in the encoding to YouTube

Here’s the direct link to the video of me.

So this topic has come up more often lately than usual and as I’ve been approaching the end of my fifth year blogging (with 2000-ish postings) I’ve been thinking about blogging more…

Thoughts about my blogging habits:

Blog posts are a snapshot from the past. It’s what I thought/felt at that moment in time. If my views change weeks or years later, I don’t change that post.

I post a very very small percentage of my life.

I mostly post about things like entertainment, tech and travel. Which might make me appear to be different things to different people. Superficial, consumer-oriented, a geek or…

There are specific areas of my life I don’t blog like love, work, religion, sex and many more things. These have a huge impact on my life, but I pretty much skip over them.When I post something on-line that’s how I felt at that moment when I posted it. I might have been happy/excited/sad about something but when you’re reading it weeks (or years) later I might not be happy/excited/sad about it any more, I was happy/excited/sad when I posted wrote it. And I might not even been happy/excited/sad when posted it, that might have just been when I wrote it (which might have been days before).

I only blog the things that I get around to blogging. That might sound silly but it’s such a small fraction of my life that shows up here on the web and there are lots of things that I want to blog but just never get around to it. Some of the stories might get changed (significantly) for ease of explanation. Plus, for every post that I write, there were probably five topics that jotted down as a subject of interest and a few that I wrote a sentence or two but never finished. So even the stuff I think might be bloggable, I’m sure I post <10% of the stuff that I consider posting; that’s not even counting the other 50% of my life that I don’t consider posting). Sometimes I forget what I did or didn’t blog, I’ll write a followup to a post and I’ll get annoyed because I never put the first post on-line (or never finished writing it) so the followup doesn’t make any sense.

Some people just blog about one thing: baseball, politics, losing weight, money, etc. but they still might mention other things in their life. I’ve got it a bit broader than those examples but it’s still pretty limited as to my overall life. I’ve got some specialized blogs I’ve got more ideas for that I’d like to explore more.

I don’t blog everything in my life, my main focuses consist of entertainment (books, movies, music + television), technology and travel (and I’ve been trying to post a more photos than usual in my everyday life). Of course, I’ll talk about blogging and myself too. Occasionally I’ll post things about my day, food, family/friends, science, blogging, saving money and other things. It’s pretty rare that I mention work, dating, religion and politics. I generally try not to complain (although I do quite often with restaurants and other customer service issues) and not complaining was something I specifically avoided when I started; I figured the world didn’t need another complainer.

I eat chili with a fork and I like my soup with a regular spoon.

I just thought you should know…

I see websites and blog posts picking on McCain (and Palin) and Obama. I see lots supporting Obama. But I don’t see many supporting McCain…

Maybe it’s just the (digital) places that I hang out? Or maybe that just says more about me…

So you can see, I’m pretty much at my low peak for things under my control. The problem is most of the things that have gone wrong haven’t been much under my control. As long as things start to get better I don’t care how the chart looks, but I’m really looking forward to working my way up to the 20th!

I used a desktop widget for my Mac to generate this, I like this one since it shows six cycles. If you’d like you can try an on-line Biorhythm generator but it’s only got 3 of the more traditional lines (I ran mine on-line for fun and the three do match up pretty good).

Later: I just found this web site that calculates the primary and secondary biorhythms.

So the school system in the State of Michigan has an option as part of it’s retirement plan. You can actually “purchase” up to five years of work (called Universal Buy-In) and then then when you have twenty-five years of work into the system it actually counts as thirty so you can retire five years early. Now it’s a convoluted formula based on your age, your maximum salary and how many years you have in the system; so the younger you are and the least you make they cheaper it is. Plus, they’ll take the money out of your check pre-tax dollars so you can get into this deal for as about $35 less every two-weeks (that’s $50 pre-tax). When I got in on the deal the plan was better, now they charge you interest on what you owe, so now you’re better off paying it off fast, before you had to spread it out. (Warning: if you’re bored now, the post really doesn’t get much more interesting. The part in bold near the bottom is the slightly/semi-interesting part that caused me to write this post.)

I recommend this plan* to people who are in the Michigan retirement system and I always mention it to the new teachers at school. The younger you are when you start the cheaper this will be; I don’t want to hear you say you can’t afford it, you can start this at about $17 a week, that’s not that much and it should really pay off in the long run.

In my case, I didn’t hear about it until I had been in the system for a few years so it wasn’t cheap but since I knew I’d get five extra years of retirement payments so it seemed like a deal to me. I had it spread out evenly over the years I had left so it’s been getting paid down slowly.More details: If you leave the system (aren’t employed for a while by this system) they credit the years you’ve paid for and if you come back they’ll redo the above calculation with you being older, making more, having more years in system and factor in interest. This didn’t sound like such a good deal to me. Also, If you don’t actually work the 25 years, you have to wait until you’re sixty years old and it just increases your payment (or I think you can roll it in to some other kind of retirement).

So late last year I decided I wanted this paid off work was way too stressful late last year and I felt as if I could quit at any time, so I increased my contribution quit a bit. It wasn’t going very fast so I stopped contributing to my other IRA/403b retirement-type things and put almost all of my check into paying this off (I lived off of savings in the meantime) and eight paychecks later I was done. Hopefully, putting that much in pre-tax doesn’t goof up my exemptions come tax time.

This allowed me a few different things:

I don’t have to make those payments anymore.

I could move or take another job and not be concerned about this (if I left and wanted to pay it off it’d be one huge non pre-tax payment).

I could leave this retirement system for a few years and come back and this part is already taken care of.

It was something I didn’t have to worry about anymore. I don’t like payments and since I paid it off it was something I didn’t even need to think about. I don’t even like thinking about payments, my house is really my only thing that I owe money on. Now I need to replenish the savings that I lived off of but that’s different feeling altogether…

* I’m not a financial consultant nor do I portray one on TV (does anyone?), this is just my own thoughts on this.

Have you seen my news coverage yet?!? I’m so excited!!!

If the video doesn’t start, click the image once the video finishes loading.

Or go straight to http://GaryForPresident.com/

I wish things like biorhythms were more reliable! Why? Check out my biorhythm for September 19th, 2008!!

As a result I think for that weekend:

I’ll be playing the lottery,

applying for a new job,

entering a marathon,

competing on some gameshows and

asking anyone I have a crush on out for a date (be sure to tell them to say “yes” since it’s abundantly clear I’ll rock their world for the rest of the weekend).

And I think it’s pretty clear for the few weeks after that I just need to hide out as I begin my downward spiral. I guess that’s the downside of these things…

This image is from a widget for my Mac desktop. But I just found this web site that calculates the primary and secondary biorhythms.

I use tech to complicate my life and make it better. Not simpler. I’ve never felt that it simplifies my life. Tech gives me information, organizes me and entertains me.

If I used just a few tech tools, it could simplify my life. An answering machine simplified it. And a fax machine. But those are very 1/2 duplex technologies, more like Web -3.0

Other basic tools like a calendar and address book help to organize my life, and make it so I don’t need to remember things which makes my life a little easier.

Much of what unsimplifies life are the more interactive technologies, the ones that require a response, especially the ones that require a response quickly. E-mail is my biggest interactive technology, I’ve tried so many of the others and while I enjoy them they just take up so much time… Twitter, IM, and other chat-type services. I really like Seesmic, but it’s hard to get a feel for what’s going on with just a glance, you’ve got to watch the video’s to see what they’re about; there just isn’t enough of a description to know what the conversation is about (or what it’s become after multiple responses).

And then there are all the interactive ones that you’re just exploring, there is so much out there and it’s so time consuming it’s un-simplifying my life in that it’s taking away time from the rest of it.

With it I can do more than without it. Do I need to be doing more? Probably not, but some of what I’m able to explore and experience makes it worth it to me.

This is my Mother and I, it’s not the best picture but it is the most recent one, just a few months old (I was showing her my QuikPod more than we were posing); you can tell we were just goofing around since she didn’t make me fix my hair. Maybe we’ll take a better one later today.

She’s a been a great Mom and she had to work hard at it, she had to drop out of High School to have me and that can’t have been easy in her very Catholic family. I do remember her going back to High School when I was in the first grade; she actually went back to school during the day, she didn’t just get her GED she completed the Diploma. I don’t really remember a commencement ceremony or anything like that (although I’ll ask today if I can get it to come up) she must have just gotten the paper.

I’m sure having me changed her plans for life in many many ways. I don’t know if she ever even got a chance to think about life after high school or if al of a sudden it was all over…

Thanks Mom! You brought me up pretty good and I came out mostly okay. Statistically, I’m doing pretty great – I’m gainfully employed, educated, not in debt (other than my home) and my only complaint is that I’m single with no kids (but I’ve still got some time for that). Thank you again and I Love You!!

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:

I didn’t have any headaches. For the previous few weeks I’ve been eating Ibuprofin like they were M & M’s, I actually had to cut myself off since I was starting to bruise to easily (disturbs the platelets?). But I didn’t take a single one while I was on this trip (even after hiking and taking a little spill). The only time I considered it when banged my forehead last night.

My neck/back hasn’t bothered me much at all, even after sleeping on all sorts of strange beds, flying thousands of miles and carrying all sorts of luggage and other junk with me. And these cRaZy roads and all the bouncing around on them and I still feel pretty good.

So what is it about home that causes these headaches and neck/back pain? Any thoughts?

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..(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.)

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):

I don’t have a specific time to be there, just times to be available. Similar to college professors, but more hours (and I’d actually be there).

It’d make others plan ahead and be more self-sufficient. No last minute stuff since I wouldn’t be there to swoop in and set up (what I probably shouldn’t be spending time on anyways).

When I’ve got a block on something, I can do something else (like laundry). Or solve some personal concern that might actually be distracting me from working efficiently.

I’d save gas and time on the road. If I just stayed home 3 days a week, I’d probably save 2 hours on the road and 4 gallons of gas. And less gas/money on going out to lunch.

Cons:

I might not get out of the house at all. Unless I found some good restaurants/cafes/bars with decent internet access (and good lighting).

Not enough human interaction.

I’d need to buy more pajamas.

Ummm….

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.

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”

So maybe the above is an appropriate quote for this weekend, but it’s stuck with me for the last 20 years since I read it. It’s a pretty simple concept, be nice. all that confusing dying for our sins and betrayal really can confuse the whole simple concept.

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.’

Over the last 24 hours:

• I’ve been watching live video from DeLoach winery (in Napa Valley?) watching Kevin Rose, Robert Scoble, Gary Vaynerchuk (wine guy) and Tim Ferris ( The 4 hour work week ). And typing questions and getting answers from the live video! Plus we all got an invite to a wine party tonight, but I didn’t get on a plane and go, I really really should have. I think they’ve gone to several vineyards actually.

• I’ve also sent comments to Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy and gotten responses.
• I’ve also provided some tech support to a MySpace musician in Kentucky, I’m not yet sure if that solved her problem.
• Ordered some Blu-Ray DVDs for only $7.99 each: Stargate, Terminator 2 and Total Recall. Now I need a Blu-Ray player…
• Ordered a (probably mismarked) outdoor George Foreman grill that I probably don’t need for $45 shipped. Deal appears dead or I’d link it.

And that’s just the out-of-the-ordinary stuff.

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.

I delivered the shopping news once a week (maybe every other week), a local ad newspaper, it didn’t pay much but it got me some money. I know I was pretty young but I really don’t know.

The little bookstore down the street gave me stuff to do here and there. The wonderful lady who ran it gave me cash or credit for books.

I had some paper routes for the regular newspaper too, The Detroit Free Press, but I hated the mornings. I think I gave it up for a while and then got it back a few years later (the money was pretty good). I quit the second time because the Lions club (or some other organization) did a fundraiser by selling subscriptions and they tripled my route size. I couldn’t get it done in the morning and the manager wouldn’t shrink my route (the assumption was after the 20 week promo ran out, many would drop, but I didn’t have three hours every day before school for the larger route).

I baby sat for my younger cousins pretty regularly in the ninth grade for a while.

I worked at the local bowling alley, Hartfield Lanes, in the evenings just picking up bottles and stuff as the leagues drank their way through their frames.

Eventually, I started working at the snack bar. This was a much better job and George pretty much let us run the place so it was a great job.

These were most of my jobs up to the time that I started getting computer jobs (not that there weren’t some non-computer jobs later on too). So I think I’ll wrap this up for now and make that a second (or third) part, this gets me through age 15…

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:

Apple Computer T-Shirts (5): Most of these I got as promos or won at a conference but they’re all to small, it’s either all they had or it shrunk the first time I washed it. I keep hoping they’ll magically it some day, but…

Tori Amos (5): A few from concerts or that I found at a music store. I’ve got one that I got autographed at a concert.

Indigo Girls (6): Mostly from concerts, something from an on-line group and an autographed one that a friend bought for me at an fund raising auction.

Domestic Violence (7): I either purchased these at an event, they were given to me for volunteering at an event or came in a ‘thanks for donating’ package.

Costa Rica (1): I’ve been there 4 times and only ended up with one shirt from my first trip (from one of the Zip Line through the Cloud Forest adventures).

Blogography (3): Cool shirts that Dave from Blogography created.

Sandman related (6): Shirts inspired from the Neil Gaiman Sandman series (I think they all have Dream, Death or Delerium or some combination of them).

Tech Shirts (10+): Other tech shirts from vendors, tech conferences (part of registration or gift for presenting), organizations or something or another.

My job (6+): Shirts that one of the departments printed up for work or some kind of fund raiser event.

I so rarely wear them out (in both interpretations), I usually just wear plain (colored) shirts. If I’m changing into something to wear after I come home and shower I’ll throw one on but wearing one out and about just doesn’t happen so often. Actually, other that wearing a music one to a concert I think the only ones I’ve worn outside in the last year is probably wearing a few of the shirts that Dave made.FYI, the counts are just estimates, I didn’t actually make a tally sheet.

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…

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).

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 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 HII’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?)

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….

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!

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….

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!

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…

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)…

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…

It’s been extra cRaZy lately:

We’re nearing the end of the school year and it just plain gets hectic around then (even though I work year-round).

The superintendent just retired, he’s been in the district 44 years(!!!), so there has been work to wrap up and a variety of celebratory events (admin building, district-wide, just administrators, etc.). He sure knew a lot of people, many whom came back for some of the celebrations.

I just starting teaching a class at a local university and getting everything started always takes time (even though I’ve done this same class before); plus I’m trying to do more on-line with this group.

Life in general has been a little busier lately from Mother’s day to days off and other things.

I think I’ve missed at least an extra day a week at work for some meeting and/or conference every week since before Easter and had to take a few vacation days here and there too so it’s been busy for those reasons too.

I’ve got a new boss, which is great(!), but it’s stressful figuring out how they want things (what things I should ask about and what things to just do) there’s no problems, it’s just I figured all that out with the old boss and had a good grip on these things.

I’ve been having sleep problems too, but I bet that’s partially due to the above and the crazy weather changes affecting my allergies.

Hmm… Putting them all in a list I realize there are more work related items than life in general, have to think about that…

I go have good stuff going on, most (all?) of the busy personal stuff has been good, it’s just been making life busier. I haven’t spent as much “fun” time on the computer as usual, certainly not much time blogging lately, but I think things will calm down soon, but we are still getting into the end of the year crunches at work. That’s all for now, just a life in general update, not too exciting but you know I’m alive…

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 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…

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:

Let the gas run out and having someone come by later with a key.

Take a cab somewhere that there is a spare key and come back, but that would cost more than the first option.

See if I can get the door open without damaging the car.

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!

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…

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?

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…

Now these are stats probably mostly guesstimated from where people are geographically. And since my blog is definitely not a he-man’s sports/gambling/you-get-my-point blog they probably are semi-accurate. Although the Asian stats have to be off (maybe spammers?) since I don’t get any comments that make me think that guesstimate might be accurate.

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.

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…

See Doctor: to fix this congestion – got shot, got drugs!

Barnes & Nobel: Educator discount week – got three books and 25% off!

Dollar store: Get some spare reading glasses – selection stunk but I gat a tiny pair in tiny durable case to keep in the car and a tiny fold up pair (they fold up half the normal size). Actually they had some decent ones but just not in my size. The question is if they are reading glasses, why do they print the size of magnification so small on the glasses?

Target: pick up prescription – got it! Doc said it might keep me awake so not to take it late in the day, I’ll start tomorrow.

Staples: use that $10 off $10 coupon before it expires – I was just going to get some office supply “stuff” but I picked up tax software on sale.

Gas Station: get gas – Prices were heading back up so I filled it up.

Hair cut: get it cut – it’s shorter (all of them).

Dearborn Credit Union: they’re letting new customers open up a $1,000 CD with 10.47% interest – Most places are giving about 5% so this seems like an easy way to make $50. I did not accomplish this task.

Later: I did cehek my list at home and this is more than I had on my list

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:

$1.79!!!! – Okay so I’ve mentioned gas prices occasionally and that I get excited with great prices, but today I got it for $1.79, I think that’s my record since I started blogging…

Wine bags – So I was cleaning up today and put away bottle of wine that I received for the holidays. It came in a wine bag (which was really cool) but what do you do with the wine bags after you take the wine out? Do you re-gift the bag the next time you take a bottle of wine somewhere? I have more than a few wine bags and I just don’t know what to do with them (I’d probably reuse them but I never think of it when I’m taking wine somewhere).

Christmas cleaning – I hate putting away the Christmas stuff when the holidays are over. It’s a pain in the ass for one thing, but I miss the holiday atmosphere and the lights. Actually, it’s mostly the lights that I miss.The lack of blogging also ties into not feeling well, since I’ve been feeling yucky (I’ve been so stuffed up I cannot believe I’m getting enough oxygen to the brain) I’ve been tired. And when I’m tired my eyes get really tired and the screen looks fuzzy, so I’ve been computing less (Have I mentioned I’ve been wearing reading glasses? That’s another story). Today’s the best of felt in days and days so hopfully I’m on the mend so I’ll try and catch up when the weekend hits…

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…

You can see your 2007 HoroSpoke here.

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”.

I’m just bringing it up since it’s that time of year and I’m sure a few of you have already broken a few of the resolutions that you’ve already made. I’ve been doing mine for just over a year and I’ve completed 30%, and I still have 18 months to go. I’m sure I’ll hit 90% (at least 80%) and that’s probably better than the average person does on the old fashion list of resolutions.

Here’s the link to the originator of the 101 in 1001 list with their rules.

So I got too much sun on my arms today! Two hours on the scooter today (we had until 11 am to return them) and they look a little baked. I’m not sure why that happened today and not earlier

I think I’m going to find some cooling/soothing lotion more sooner than later….

I found my ring!!!! I lost it a few months ago and I realized this I was leaving my house. So I retraced my steps and dug through the garbage and everything. Plus, I examined my car from head to toe to see if I dropped it in there. But I never found it and it just had to be here somewhere…

So, I was just digging through my laptop backpack and I found it way at the bottom. So I’m pretty excited about this.

This is the ring that I bought in Egypt with the Hieroglyphic Alphabet all the way around it. It was always a little big, so now I guess I know it’s too big. It wasn’t very expensive but I’ll get it sized a tiny bit smaller. You can click the image for a larger view.

So I gave up Coca-Cola for a few weeks for several reasons. It’s on my list of 101 in 1001 to try and see how if it makes me feel any better or sleep any better, etc. I chose this time just to hopefully have less sugar/caffine in my body to maybe stay healthier for the holidays (especially since I’m hosting Christmas for 25-ish people on Saturday). I’m not allowed to substitute other (inferior) caffeinated drinks or extra amounts of chocolate, etc.

Well, the health thing didn’t work out since I got sick a few days later (last week) and don’t know if I slept better due to the illness or the decrease of sugar/caffine. No friends or coworkers have noticed I seemed to be less hyper

But I do get cravings for Coke, even when I haven’t removed it from my intake. But the other day at McDonald’s I got my number three which includes a drink, fries a Quarter Pounder with cheese, no pickles or mustard for those of you who may not know what a McDonald’s is, let alone what a #3 is. And as I took a drink of my soda I realized I was taking a really really long drink through the straw and it was tasting really really good. And then I realized why, I accidentally got a Coke. So while I hate to be wasteful, I went and dumped it out and got a Sprite instead. The Sprite just wasn’t the same…

So I’ve got two more days to go. Actually, about two days and five hours. And I’m really ready for it. And I know I need to try this experiment again sometime, the getting sick really through off the results the “experiment”. But I think I’m gonna stick it out for a few more days just because I can. Maybe…

So as I mentioned a few days ago it’s been 3 years I’ve been blogging. But here and the last few days I’ve been jotting down some odd stats:

1379 posts so far (counting this one).

1.25 posts a day is my average. Although, lately I certainly haven’t been keeping up with that. But usually it’s more like 2 or 3 a day and then I skip a day or two…

1563 comments! I love comments!!! I’m averaging a little more than one per each post (but most posts get none). I should see which ones get the most, I haven’t noticed a pattern/trend but there may be.

101 trackbacks. Actually, I accidentally deleted all the trackbacks a while back (which was 23) so I currently only have 78. This is unfortunate since trackbacks are so incredibly useful (although spammers have pretty much ruined them for everyone). A chunk of those are probably me making trackbacks to my previous posts, but that’s sort of what they’re there for…

8,800 spam messages per month is what I’ve averaged per month lately. That’s almost 300 a day! The last time I reset my spam filter was May 21, 2005 and since then I’ve have 169,500 comment / trackback spams blocked. I still use MT-Blacklist in addition to to SpamLookup (included with Movable Type). More on this at the end of this post.

These numbers are huge at least to me), I can’t believe I’ve been doing it this long. It’s a joy to blog, but I do always feel that if I let it go for a while it’ll just kinda die. I hate to blog just for the sake of blogging but I do always try to keep it up-to-date with a few details of life (or tech or TV or something) even if I’m not in an extra blogging mode. I’ve got some other points that make the blogging extra geeky/interesting for me but the list started to get too long, so I’ll finish and post that at a later day. I’m starving right now and need to get something to eat!

OPTIONAL GEEKY SPAM STUFF: The reason I use both (MT-Blackslist and SpamLookup) is because the stuff MT-Blacklist knows is spam gets deleted without me having to look at it. If I just use SpamLookup, I’d still need to look at those 300 messages a day to make sure it doesn’t have any real messages caught up in it. As it is, I still need to look at the 50 that MT-BLacklist didn’t delete to see if SpamLookup grabbed something important. And sometimes SpamLookup does grab a few (a few a week). And once in a very long while a real spam gets through both and makes it on the web site, but that’s only about once a month (maybe longer).

So my last post wasn’t to make you believe that life isn’t good, it was just pointing out the blah things and not being in the mood for blogging (or even much blog reading). Life has been good and even today in general has been great.

I got some gifts for a wedding and not only did I find somethings on the registry that I didn’t mind buying but I found things I wanted to buy for them and one was something I had even considered before reading the registry. I won’t list the items in case they’ve been keeping up on my blog.

I went to the library to pick up two new books I had on reserver and they actually had a third waiting for me! The items consist of: Brother Odd (Koontz), Next (Crichton) and Wild Fire (DeMille). These plus some other one week books are going to generate some nice fines for the library.

While I couldn’t get to sleep last night I slept like a rock once I did get to sleep, got a little over nine hours, if I can just do the same tonight…

While I was at the library I found a few 25 cent paperbacks which I’ll take on my next vacation (and not need to bring back).

Plus I drove by my local bar just as happy hour started and I popped in. So I’m currently blogging this over a Long Island Iced Tea and some and some free appetizers! Plus, it’s very Christmas-ish here thanks to Dawn.

Other good things coming up: We’re celebrating Christmas at my place for the extended family in a few weeks and I’m way excited about that. I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to put 25 people in my condo but I’ll make it work. For the last few years my (Mom’s) extended family hasn’t celebrated Christmas anywhere near the 25th (we used to do it on the 24th every year) which is why I volunteered to have it on the 23rd. I actually sent out invites in April to make sure this would happen. And on top of that, next month I get to go on a warm sunny vacation to Costa Rica!

In addition, many of the things in this post and the previous post gets a bunch of items off my 101 in 1001 list. I’ve completed 24 of 101 things done and I have 637 of 1001 days left to do them so I need to catch up a bit (23.76% of tasks done but 36.36% of the time had passed). The Costa Rica trip crosses off two (maybe three items), family Christmas knocks off two and the eye appointment is another. I might get a few more but those are guaranteed to be done in the next 60 days.