Gettin' Lei'ed

I thought I'd clarify something I tweeted about earlier. Right as I started my shift today, one of the girls I work with greets me, and says, "We gotta put this on you!!!" I was thinking, "Huh???" when she produces a lei and places it around my neck. "It goes with your shirt!!!" she exclaimed. It rather does.



She had a half day today, and was going to be departing on her vacation at 5 this afternoon for ten days in Hawaii. She had been wearing the lei, but it was scratchy on her neck, so she took it off. I didn't get to see it, but she apparently had a cup with an umbrella in it, and a flower in her hair.

I wore it all day, and had to explain it several times. Of course, there was much innuendo about getting lei'ed. 25 days and my own Hawaiian adventure begins!!!

Salt Winder

Here's an interesting thing from a few weeks back. A guy my dad knows is building a land speed racer.



We went out to visit him with a few guys from my dad's car club.



To start with, he had to build a custom garage to accommodate it's length. Basically it's two car lengths long by two wide. Great garage, he's got pretty much a full machine shop set up around the perimeter!!!



The car is a classic streamliner, with two small block chevy engines. No transmissions, because they were the weak link in the system. Instead he's got a slipper clutch pack that grabs more as the RPM and speed increase.



The engines are World products with raised decks, and he's got them out to 427" producing around 700 horsepower each. He was spending so much money at the dyno shop that he ended up just buying the place. Cheaper and easier that way!!!



The engines are mounted crosswise to the body. A problem with mounting them conventionally is when you nail the throttle, the rotational torque has a tendency to flip the thing over on it's side, as well as when you let off the throttle.



I learned quite a bit on this jaunt. He'll be going out to the Bonneville salt flats this fall for it's next run.

T & A Energy

I enjoy having an occasional energy drink. Lost used to be my very favorite, but I happened on these 24-ounce cans, and I'd drink the whole one of those down (seemed like a waste to not finish it) and I'd be sick of it by the time I finished. Classic case of too much of a good thing!!!



Rock Star is one of my top favorites. They actually have it in one of the machines at work. One of my favorite things to do is go to Big Lots or or 99 Cents Only stores and see what kinds of strange things they have in that category. One flavor I originally found at 99 Cents Only was this Ace energy drink. They had only a lo-cal one when I first found it, but I later found the regular. I really like the art on the cans, the whole can is painted to look like a WWII bomber, complete with random bullet holes, and the nose art as the logo. It tastes pretty decent, too.



Last week I stopped into Big Lots on the way home (if they have it in stock, the usually have the original Ace for 60 cents a can, versus 99 cents at the 99 Cents Only, and I buy at least a dozen every time I go) and they had a new brand there. Hooters energy drink. I had to buy a few, just to try it out. I took one to work on Friday. The guys at work liked the artwork on the can. Unfortunately, the flavor wasn't near as good as the can art. Of the two, I think I'll stick with Ace.

I also found it interesting that my favorite flavor, the original, has the artwork with the redhead on it!!! You know, I really love the red haired girls!!!

New Toys

I should have made this post yesterday. Not only was that the day that I got this delivered in the mail. Additionally, yesterday was 5-12 and this is my 512th blog post!!! It's a pretty good one, I think.



My wife thought this was pretty cute, so she pulled out the camera and took this picture. The big boy laptop I bought at the very end of last year, just before the sales tax increased. It's a Toshiba with an AMD dual core processor, with 3 gig RAM and a 250 gig hard drive. It also has some advanced video hardware, not real common in laptops. It is running the Vista operating system. It is neither as bad as you may have heard, nor that much improved over XP that it seems to have been necessary. I got it for $499, I haven't seen too many priced and equipped as well since I bought it. I've been quite pleased with it, but it is a little bulky. My original thought, before buying a laptop, was get as much screen as you can, probably a 17". Ended up with a 15.6", and it seems larger than I really needed.



Prior to buying this, I'd been kind of looking at netbooks. They didn't seem to be quite enough, but the prices were better. Last week I got an E-mail for this little beauty. Less than half what I spent on my Toshiba for an Acer 8.9" netbook!!! Intel Atom processor, 1 gig RAM and 160 gig hard drive. It also has a few things I would like to have had on my laptop, a built in webcam and microphone, as well as a card reader that works with the media from my camera. The webcam does amazingly well in low light conditions, but the audio doesn't seem to sync quite properly with the video. I've only had it one day, but so far, I'm rather liking it better than my laptop!!!

Metaphor for Life

Here's a piece of cup artwork I did last week. I have enhanced it a bit in Paint Shop Pro, as the yellow highlighter I used on it didn't photograph very well.



For a bit of back story to it, I'll explain a bit about my work. Each of the printers has a green-yellow-red light mounted near it, visible to the others on the floor. It used to be more obvious, green if everything was going good, yellow if you get a cycle behind, and red if you fall two or more cycles behind. During some of the changes of the last year, the green and red lights meant different things, and no lights lit meant what green used to mean, all is well. Yellow is now the only light that gets used, and it just means you're behind.

I made this cup up, with the thought that the yellow light was quite a bit like life. You turn it on, and usually nothing happens. If you've fallen behind, it's usually because of a heavy work load, and that gets spread to all printers, so usually everyone else is struggling to keep up. You turn the yellow light on, and you're on your own. No one's coming to help, you better just hope for a few light batches. Of course, just like in life, there's a few people that, if you are fortunate enough to have them around you, will almost always be able to lend a hand, at least in some small way.

The interesting thing, though, is some of the responses I got from some of my co-workers. One guy noted that, no matter how bad things got, it always ends the same. Profound without even trying!!!

Another guy, when he saw it, said, "That's good, just slow it down!!!" I like that!!!

In My Rearview

I was driving into work one morning last week when this incident took place. It was pretty entertaining to me, and put me in a good mood.

I'll preface this tale a little by saying that I've been trying to keep my speed at 65 or less for the last couple of weeks. It's not always easy to do, but I stay to the right so as not to obstruct traffic. I'm endeavoring to bump up my mileage by doing this, coefficient of drag increasing inversely with increased speeds and all that. Of course, with the warmer weather these days, I've been driving with the sunroof and/or the windows open, likely giving Baby the aerodynamics of a whiffle ball.

This particular morning, I was coming up to the interchange to the last freeway I take. I usually keep a good eye on traffic around me, and am usually aware of who is where, and often know what other drivers are going to do before they do it. I had been driving along with no one behind me for quite a distance, but the next time I looked up, probably around 1/8 mile before the ramp, there's what is billed as a German luxury performance car right on my rear bumper!!! Literally, mere feet from me, a distance better situated to parallel parking than cruising at 65. I maintain my speed, up until the long road of the transition leading to the curve. This section curves ever so slightly to the right, then leads into a 270 degree right turning clover leaf ramp. I let her coast down to around just under 50 coming into that stretch coming into the corner, and my shadow sticks right on my tail.

This has gotten on my nerves a bit, so as I'm starting into the clover leaf, I say, "Follow this, killer", and ever so gently start easing on the throttle. A German luxury performance car should be able to do some cornering, right??? I keep easing on the juice all the way through the corner, never coming close to the limits of adhesion, or even eliciting a squeal from the tires. I come out onto the freeway already exceeding my self imposed limit by ten MPH, and my new found friend is nowhere to be seen!!! I lay off and get the speed back down, and it must have been a quarter mile later before I saw him coming out of the curve!!! Ha!!!

That alone would have been good enough for me, but in the remaining quarter mile before my exit, he gets right back on my ass!!! Dude, I'd be embarrassed. He exits behind me. The street I exit onto has three lanes each way, and I end up taking a left, so if it's clear, I will move over to the left lane. It was, so I did, after checking my area and signaling. This guy does the same, except he never signals. Guys like him almost never do. Half a block later, he cuts back into the middle lane. Come on, you sit higher up than I do, and I can see from down here you ain't getting anywhere any quicker over there!!! Sure enough, a block later he gets back behind me!!! After that, he gets in a left turn lane. It has a signal for the turn, and he starts laying on his horn the second the light changes. Whenever someone around me starts honking, I almost always do so myself. I did. I think he should have left fifteen minutes earlier!!!

By the way, the picture on this post is a modification from a much earlier post, "Headlights in the Mirror", in case you thought it looked familiar!!!

Lost Pictures

Okay, so maybe they wern't really ever lost... but here they are anyway!!!



Since I've gotten my laptop, I rarely get on my desktop unless I need to print a document or retrieve a file. Yesterday my mom had a page that wouldn't print on their computer for some reason, so I did it for her. While I had it on, I took the opportunity to scan some old school pictures I've accumulated!!!



They are in order from newest to oldest. My dad, inspired by my wild whisker growth, grew his out for a photo op in his old Navy dress blues. Looks like the old salt, no???

The next two are from Christmas events, when I'd shaved my chin and head, yet left my sideburns. Not for long, it was too strange, and I always felt like I missed a spot.



The final one is from one of the gatherings at Geezers, when one of my co-workers had been axed.



He's to my left, the only co-worker I knew from my previous life. Just past him is the girl who I traumatized with my piercing. She has transitioned into the office. The guy on my other side, he's still in the bins with me, an excellent filler and good guy. Good times!!!

Lucky 13

Today (well, technically yesterday) was the first born's 13th birthday observed. Came out good.



To start off, I've included a Halo 3 logo for reference. Since he's into this series of games, I thought an interpretation of this logo, slightly modified, would do as a cake design.



The weathermen had been predicting rain for today, but it had all blown through by this morning. One of the things he'd wanted to do is have a water fight, not quite as much fun if it's already raining!!! Nice weather today.



He had invited several friends, but only three made it. That was okay, they spent most of the day playing Xbox games in their room. The beginning part of the festivities took place in the living room, playing Halo 1 multi player on a few of the computers. Too noisy out here, much more pleasant when they were all in their room. Here he is, opening the Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution game from my parents. It elicited a "WHOO HOOO!!!" from him, that Halo Wars from me hadn't. I called him on that, and he ammended it for that, too.



All three of the younger cousins came, as well as my parents, middle sister and her boyfriend. More family than friends, but they still had a good time. In case you were wondering, the number 6 candle was the only candle we had. Always short on candles, it seems. Also, if you were wondering, the chip in his hand is what he extinguished said candle with, which was likely a good thing, being as he was chewing on the pizza slice in his hand at the time!!!



And here they are, playing Xbox in their room!!! As you can see, they spent all morning cleaning it up!!! I've not made mention, but note the television. In the basement, I have had since I moved in an old RCA console TV, from back in the day when TV's were actually stylish furniture. Of course, the electronics on it weren't working, but I was able to meld it with my old Toshiba Blackstripe and come up with old world styling with space age technology!!! It's not a real smooth transition around the bezel, but I may be able to do something about that, eventually.



Oh, and water fight??? Not as epic as last year's, but there weren't so many participants. My parents also got him a couple of packs of water balloons, which they used several of. In my opinion, some of the best parts were when I got a pot of water and dumped it unexpectedly from the head of the stairs to where they were filling the balloons!!!