Current Brainstorms
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
There are a couple of places very close to me that offer Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu. It's compines serveral techniques and is ideally intended to disable an opponent on the ground.
One place is a more formal training program and the other is a mixed Martial art which combines elements of Kung Fu, Kickboxing, Jiu Jitsu, and weapons handling. Or at least that's my perception from surfing their web sites.
Rick's Kicks
USA Martial Arts
12:39 PM Posted by Big Dave
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I found this on
Slashdot. It's a animated short that I find fascinating. It's very deep for a cartoon.
More - by
Mark Osborne
11:17 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Monday, December 22, 2003
I wish I knew how to turn my mind off for a few hours. It feels like it's been reving the engine in neutral for a month. I'm not even sure what it's doing. It's certainly not working. I've been trying to work for a while and I haven't managed to get a whole lot accomplished. I even ran out for a while to do some christmas shopping hoping to put it on hold when I returned. It has not stopped.
I think I know what the worry is, but I don't know what to do about it.
5:04 PM Posted by Big Dave
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I have been thinking lately of my life or more acurately my lack of a life. I take great pleasure in having a weekend off every once in a while, but there are occasions where I really want to do something and I don't do it. I'm already planning on remedying much of that.
I know people make New Years resolutions with the intent of breaking them, but I already have a set that I truly believe are worthy of my accomplishment. I think I will feel better about myself if at the end of 2004 I can look back and truly say, I did everything I planned to. I know it's early, but here's my list and I'm sure I will add to it later. In fact I'm going to make it the wall paper on my laptop. I'll have to see it everyday until I can cross something off.
New Years Resolutions:
Enroll in a Karate Class
Get the first level of certification on SCUBA diving
Take the GMAT/GRE
Enroll in Graduate school at UTD for an MBA
Travel to Europe
Workout 3 times a week for a minimum 21 weeks during the year
Learn how to ride a motorcycle
Get through the second level of my piano lesson books
Be more spontaneous
Work more normal hours
Attend a ballroom dance and not look silly
Join a bible study and rediscover my faith
Do something no one expects me to do
Surprise myself
Attend a local play
Follow through on the activities I see in the paper
12:40 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Sunday, December 14, 2003
This has been a very busy week in almost every aspect. This Wednesday Yaser left for Kuwait until Christmas. And who did he put in charge? You guessed it. Me. I have my very own team of developers for a few weeks. <Evil villain Imitation>This will do nicely. Yes... </Evil villain Imitation>
It's actually not much different from what I normally do except instead of everyone interrupting Yaser with a question, they come to me and interrupt to ask a question. We have plenty of work to do for the next several weeks so I'm not worried about allowing anyone to slip by.
This weekend I started Christmas shopping. I bought several things, but I have a lot more to get before I'm done. Speaking of which my mom called on Wednesday and told me I didn't need to get her anything for Christmas since she had all she could want. My brother and his girlfriend are going to move from Denton to Abilene where my mom can once again apply her honed "mothering" skills to her baby. I think it will be a good move and maybe Jeff and Sam can find something that makes them happier than where they have been.
This has been a very busy music week for
Desiree. We went to a 6th grade band concert on Thursday night because her cousin and several of her piano students were performing. Saturday was a Uke party at her parents house. It's been a while since I have managed to attend one of the gatherings, but since it was at their house, I didn't have a choice on the RSVP. They have stopped telling me to RSVP since every time I ask "Is it optional?" I usually get a prompt "no," but I sometimes get a dirty look. It's hard to tell which I prefer.
The party last night was a "Useless" gift party. For my part I got some gag gifts. Unbreakable bubbles, bar coasters from around the world, a cheap harmonica, and "I love Lucy" Predic-a-mints. What I got in return was a pee-cture of a boy peeing on a tree. (Sorry I had to listen to it last night, you can just roll your eyes and continue. Oh it could possibly be a Pee-caso) Waka Waka Waka! It reminds me of the white elephant party where I brought something fun and ended up with a bag of charcoal.
Among the dozen other things Dezi does she's a choir director for a 1-2 grade choir at her church. This was the big Christmas show Sunday and she asked me to come. I sat towards the front when the little kids came in. Here are some of the more interesting things of note;
- A little boy in front wore a red flannel shirt with a cheetah print head band. He was having a great time making weird gang symbols with his hands and staring at the audience with his mouth wide open, but no sounds coming out.
- One of the other young boys discovered that his mother and the rest of the audience could hear him much better his he stood on his tip toes and sang at the top of his lungs into the choir mic that was right in front of him.
- Baby "Jesus" had had enough by the time the last service rolled around and cried the whole was through the program.
And now I'm back playing with my computer that keeps dyeing every 20 minutes. I need to scrub it and start again, but I'm being lazy and don't want to mess with it at the moment. Some day soon though.
1:44 PM Posted by Big Dave
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This would fall under the status of weird but true.
Saturday I picked up Oreo from the Vet Surgeons. He looks really funny. His whole hind quarters have been shaved and he has about 2 inches of tail shaved that explodes into a hairball through the rest of the tail. He's got one of those satellite collars on and keeps running into things all over the house.
The vets instructions included keeping him in a bathroom when I can't actually watch him and leaving the collar on for the next three weeks. Since I just spent all kinds of money with these people I figured I had better follow their instructions very carefully to avoid spending more. I lock Oreo in my second bathroom Saturday night with food, water, his own litter pan and some towels. I wake up this morning only to discover that the cat has somehow managed to pull the drawer out that's next to the door and I can't get in without destroying the door and/or drawer. I didn't even realize there was a drawer there.
After much deliberation and trying a number of rigged inventions, I realized after consulting my parents as well as Dezi's that I can actually get the door knob off and run a coat hanger in there to knock the drawer closed.
So how would you expect a cat to react to his rescuer? He promptly walks out and urinates on my coat. Sigh... That's gratitude.
The rest of the weekend was enjoyable. I didn't do much since I wanted to stay home and keep an eye on the cat, but I have to get to business and do all my Christmas shopping. If I could only figure out what I wanted to get everyone.
I put Oreo back in the bathroom before I left this morning, but I took that drawer out and put it in the closet. He'll just have to find some other means to thwart me.
9:45 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Friday, December 05, 2003
Cartoons act like cocaine
Hmmm... Maybe that's why I still watch kids shows
9:13 AM Posted by Big Dave
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Thursday, December 04, 2003
After I arrived at the vets office, I spent 30 minutes arguing with the vet in the back room. All the assistants and everyone else scattered. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. It didn't change my bill in the slightest and I didn't get an itemized bill until after I had paid. And he thought he was doing me a favor by charging boarding for the last 3 days instead of "Hospitalization" when they haven't done anything for my cat over the last 8 days.
This morning I took Oreo to the surgical clinic. They managed to work me in. I wasn't even kept waiting for very long. I got a call from the surgeon this afternoon to say that everything had gone fine and that I might even be able to bring Oreo home tomorrow night.
I know a lot of people will think I'm crazy for dropping the kind of money that I'm going to have to before this is all said and done. And maybe they are right, but I couldn't do it when I had a choice.
On a completely separate note, but furniture staining has been successful. I'm going to have to try it out when I get home this evening. I should be able to start using the furniture normally. It wasn't a perfect job, but I'm pretty satisfied with myself.
4:16 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Wednesday, December 03, 2003
The lynch mob is prepared to descend upon the monstrosity that is a veterinary clinic.
Oh trust me. When 5 o'clock rolls around and I get over there, they are already going to have more than they can handle. I've been stewing all day. Trust me, I can yell and scream. I'm trying to decide just how vicious I'm going to be. I think it's going to be worse if I'm calm and collected when I tell him he's an incompetent a-hole. I'm also going to tell him that I don't think it's appropriate that I have to pay for his learning curve. I also think when we agree to something on Monday and it takes until Wednesday at noon for it to be done and get back with a response. That's after me calling twice. I think that's completely unacceptable. I think this could and should have been referred before Thanksgiving since we talked about it on Tuesday. That for 1100 dollars I would expect them to have busted their rear ends, but I feel that they have not done a damn thing. I feel like I was not kept in the loop. I feel it could have been handled more expeditiously and that they have left an animal to suffer needlessly.
Did I mention I'm a little upset?
4:26 PM Posted by Big Dave
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I'm fixing to throw a screaming fit. My cat Oreo is still at the vets. Apparently when we agree to something over the phone it takes 3 days to get it done. But that doesn't mean that I get credit for those three days with the vet bill. They are fixing to have a very big and very mad person come lay the smack down on them.
2:32 PM Posted by Big Dave
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Tuesday, December 02, 2003
I was reminded last night that it was my father's birthday. It was Desiree who reminded me. Now I feel really sheepish. Hmm...
Yesterday was the first day back into the grind. I really enjoyed the few days off. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. One Wednesday I went to help my cousin Elizabeth move. She has a nice apartment in Fort Worth that she was moving into and needed some extra help. It was a third floor apartment so my legs were screaming, but we managed to quickly get everything into the apartment in time for her boyfriend Chris to get to work. I met the boyfriend, his brother, and his niece (7 year old Amanda). After they left I tried to get her hooked up with her new cable modem. I finally ended up calling the goobers. I hope they got her working after that.
Thursday was a day with Desiree's family. As she puts it, 'We had a "small" group of sixty-eight people.' I was doing fine until I wasn't and then I was really ready to go. Desiree got grief about us leaving early, but I honestly don't know what staying for another three hours would have done to my already frayed sanity. Last year I played with the kids most of the day. It was warm enough that everyone could run around outside. This year it was just a hair too cold and very windy. It's hard to escape somewhere in a house with that many people.
Friday and Saturday was time well spent in Abilene. We managed to get a lot done around the house. I didn't call my friends that were in town. Not quite sure why, but I just never managed to get to it. Saturday my brother Jeff and his girlfriend Samantha drove down from Denton. They were both running on very little sleep and Jeff had to get back by 11:00 that night to be at work. It was nice that they could come, but I wish they didn't have to balance things like that.
Yesterday I decided that I was finally going to do something about not having enough drawer space. I have a little chest of drawers that I bought for $20 while at A&M. It's just not going to cut it anymore. It's always been slow, but I'm trying to get to the point where I don't "keep" all my clothes on the floor. As such I went to the Nude Furniture store where I acquired a 5 drawer cabinet and a night stand. The night stand will take the place of the little printer table that I have used for a TV stand in the past. After making my choice and popping them in the back of my Jimmy I promptly drove to Home Depot to buy staining supplies. I spent the rest of the evening sanding and staining. I have the first coat done on everything and I'll put the second one on tonight. I went back to look at it this morning and you can definitely tell when I started getting tired. I'll have to work hard to make sure the second coat looks good. Didn't know a geek could be a handy man did you?
9:06 AM Posted by Big Dave
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