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Kopaka's Ice Engineering

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Year 22

About Kopaka's Ice Engineering

  • Birthday 09/25/1979

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    SE Louisiana, by way of SW Louisiana and most recently NE Illinois
  • Interests
    Erm, uh, ah.......

    Lessee.... BIONICLE, Classic space (old school. blue wings, 'nuff said), Ultima Online (no WoW, thankyouverymuch.......UO's makin' me poor enough as it is), RealLife comics (hilarious), Houston Astros, and, um...
    Can I get back to you on that?

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    Ze Admiral

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  1. I've been hit by the nostalgia bat recently. A few weeks ago, I was tagged (on the book of faces) in an 18-year-old photograph of my senior homecoming, well, a homecoming alternative put on by those of us (and our parents) at the church I attended at the time. I was about to turn 17 (if I wasn't already) at the time of the photograph, and I'm now more than twice as old as I was when that photo was taken. Something else I saw on the book of faces recently: an update to something I posted 6 years ago. I got to reading the old entry, and I was struck as to what has changed in the past 6 years: I have not worked at another MathCounts competition since then. One of the other judges at that competition is now a co-worker. I'm now considering sending my firstborn daughter to one of those three Lake Castle schools for pre-Kindergarten. As for the funny email, well, it appears six years hasn't done too much to the running joke. I'm sure you've heard it before, but here it is to enjoy again. (Lines with no change have been greyed out.) Good comedy never gets old. Does this qualify as good comedy, though? -KIE
  2. Behold, the end of C. Ray Nagin's trial on counts of bribery during his term as mayor of New Orleans. ...courtesy WDSU, NBC affiliate in New Orleans, LA (and whose offices are catercorner from my office (parking lots both open to Carondelet St)). I've wanted to post about my computer for a few weeks now, but I haven't gotten around to it. This, this is something I couldn't delay in posting, not when I borrow one of his most famous lines to entitle my blog. It would behoove me to learn more about this text editor, too, should time permit. In the interim, I'll simply say that I'm not dead yet, and that two girls a wonderful, except when big sister acts out on little sister. -KIE
  3. Hello. Remember me? I used to be a moderator here on these boards, but life has happened over the past 7 years. If I hadn't rotated off the forum circuit by the time Katrina hit, I was awfully close to doing so. I'm thankful, however, for the time I've gotten to know people with color-shifty masks. I'm honored to have been one, and I do not regret the time spent, for more reasons than making friends scattered throughout North America and beyond. Gee, it sounds like I'm leaving the site. I'm not leaving the site: it's just been 10 months since I've gotten around to posting anything of consequence. Maybe if I were more studious about posting, I wouldn't feel like I have to reintroduce myself each & every time I duck my head in the door. "What has happened in the past 10 months?" you may wonder. Well, I live in the "country" now. My house is on an acre and a half, and the nearest full grocery store is some 10 miles away. My office in downtown New Orleans is 50 miles away from the carport. I spend about 2½ hours a day commuting. (What's more, the computer is usually reserved for my daughter to watch Jay Jay the Jet Plane episodes on a popular website for video in the evenings.) I find myself getting up at 5 AM to get to work, and am rarely home before 6:15 PM. I'm not complaining, per se: this is just where I am now. Anyway, I have more to address than the two tanks of gas I buy in a week. No, today is an important day in the USA. ELECTION DAY! Forty-five months ago, I set forth an auspicious challenge. A vote is a grave matter, and not something I should have thrown around so haphazardly. Of course, I felt that I was shielded by the fact that it would take a southern Democrat (see: Carter, Clinton) for Louisiana to light up any color other than red on the map, regardless of my ballot. I made my gambit not having a clue what the next years would actually have in store. And oh, did those next years have a curve ball. I confess, I felt as though this criterion was open and shut within 3 months. The passage of the second half of the stimulus package was a big deal, and we at the Jefferson Parish Sewer Capital Program sought to put in on the money being made available. Not a one of our projects was selected, and I thought that this was going to be it for my January posting. Then life happened. Not 4 months after the wedding, I leave the Yenni Building and end up getting laid off after 4½ years at DEII. Miraculously, I am hired before my severance runs out, and a countdown clock of sorts starts: with this job, of which 60ish% of the funding is footed by the ARRA, I am going to have to move my wife & I to Illinois for almost 2 years. As the calendar switches from March 2010 to April, we're driving a UHaul north on I-55 (figuratively: a good chunk of it was I-57). Not long after we leave, the Deepwater Horizon accident happens, and the Oval Office puts a moratorium on all deep water exploratory drilling. My father is laid off from Halliburton after 35 years, some 2 years away from his planned retirement. People in Illinois ask me what the big deal is, why drilling on the shelf alone isn't enough: I inform them that, by and large, the shelf is tapped out, and no one has expected to find anything new there for the past 15 years. Over the course of two years, my wife & I acquire a set of close friends in Illinois. We learned who we are as a couple, independent of our respective families. We learned how much we can rely on the other, for there were times (before the friends) we had no other person there. We become parents to a wonderful, adorable little girl. I say all this, needing to circle back around to the original question I posed myself forty-five months ago: are my life and surroundings better off than they were four years ago, and if so, are they a direct result of Barack Obama becoming president and his policies becoming law. To the first part, I say yes, absolutely. Certainly it is not in the manner I thought it would be "yes" when I typed that four years ago, but the fact remains: yes, despite my father losing his job, I and my family are better off. (I suppose there's a tangent here about when or where the definition of "family" shifted from "my parents & brother" to "my wife, and now daughter." Even though it doesn't seem to be long, I'm not going to chase it here.) To the second part, I credit my family's fortune to God's provision. However, I feel compelled to further elaborate. I'll save the full text of the story about God, the flood victim, the news, the boat & the helicopter and say that Divine Providence takes on many forms. It would be remiss of me to ignore the very real possibility that ARRA was God providing a way for me to provide for my family, even though none of it went to the sewer projects I helped submit for in the first place. Is this two years of northern exposure mellowing out my hard right lean? (Maybe) Is this all an exercise on how one shouldn't throw one's vote around? (Maybe) Is this going to make a real, appreciable difference? (Not really. It wouldn't have made a difference if we weren't back from Illinois yet, either.) Am I going to own up to my statements? (Yes) From the outskirts of Chocolate City will vote for the following candidates for the Louisiana Electoral College for the November 6 election: 2012 Electoral College Karen Carter Peterson Shane Riddle Gilda Warner Reed Jay H. Banks Diana Hamilton Cedric Bradford Glover Leslie Dandridge Durham Kyle Gautreau pledged to vote for Barack Obama of Illinois and Joe Biden of Delaware. From the outskirts of Chocolate City endorses the following candidates and positions for the November 6 election. United States Representative, First Congressional District of Louisiana Steven Scalise (R) Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #1 Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly AGAINST because we don't need to solve problems that don't exist Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #2 Strict Scrutiny Review for Gun Laws AGAINST because we don't need to solve problems that don't exist (didn't I just say that?) Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #3 Earlier Notice of Public Retirement Bills AGAINST not when the bills are going to get changed in the legislative process anyway. Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #4 Homestead Exemption for Veterans' Spouses AGAINST not interested in changing the state Constitution for the benefit of less than 5 people. Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #5 Forfeiture of Public Retirement Benefits FOR as toothless as this may be, since it's usually the USAO that prosecutes these Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #6 Property Tax Exemption Authority for New Iberia AGAINST Nope. There are better ways to do this, City of New Iberia. If there aren't, you just got unlucky and are going to have to deal with it. Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #7 Membership of Certain Boards and Commissions FOR because it won't make sense otherwise Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #8 Non-Manufacturing Tax Exemption Program AGAINST because I honestly believe we have too many tax exemption programs out there now Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #9 More Notice for Crime Prevention District Bills FOR ...because nobody needs "concerned citizens" end-running around their neighbors. I mean, come on. Local Option Vote #1 Term Limits for St Tammany Parish School Board Members FOR because incorporating new blood is important My vote is my vote, not yours. That said, I am a registered Republican, and will remain a registered Republican. I would appreciate no further thoughts about, as a Republican, my supposed inability to empathize with views not my own. Bring back the melting pot: this composed salad bowl mentality isn't healthy for us as a nation. -KIE
  4. <image to be added at a later date> This time I'm walking to New Orleans I'm walking to New Orleans I'm gonna need two pair o' shoes when I get through walkin' these blues When I get back to New Orleans I got my suitcase in my hand now ain't that a shame I'm leavin' here today yes, I'm going back home to stay yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans you used to be my honey 'til you spent all my money no use for you to cry I'll see you by and by 'cause I'm walking to New Orleans I've got no time for talkin' I've got to keep on walkin' New Orleans is my home that's the reason why I'm goin' yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans I'm walkin' to New Orleans I'm walkin' to New Orleans I'm walkin' to New Orleans
  5. Packing is a most arduous task with a 9-month-old in the house. One person must always be parted off to entertain the girl, and sometimes, one isn't enough. This is a new feature against the 3 previous moves in the past 7 years, and it's a bit of a trip. One that has been constant through the past three moves has been a 10" non-stick skillet. A relatively heavy aluminum number done by Invitations, and I don't know if that's a store brand or what. All I know is that I've had it since my mom gave it to me when I moved out from under my parents' roof in February, 2005. It wasn't party to the first actual cooking I'd ever done. (That was trying to sliver in a clove of garlic into a raw, frozen chicken breast and cooking in the microwave. I ate a can of pasta that night instead.) However, it was my pan when I cooked chicken parmigiana the first time. It was my pan when I did extensive potato/onion experimentation in the art of the mixed hash browns. It was my pan when I first cooked for someone else. It has been my pan for so long, it's as though it's an extension of my cooking skills. Sadly, I must part with it. 7 years of use have worn away at the non-stick coating to the point where aluminum flecks show through in the cooking surface. 7 years of poor cleaning skills have left a mahogany brown coating of oil & grease on the bottom of the pan. I can't clean this off, and I can't cook with it properly: it pains me, but I must retire this skillet. When we pack our belongings this weekend, the 10" Invitations will not be boxed, and will remain as an unannounced gift to the next owner or tenant of this house. *21 cork salute* -KIE
  6. I can't exactly say that I'm a fan of Semisonic, or any of the other bands who may have covered the song "Closing Time", although it is a very appropriate lyric at the moment. We have just gotten back from a whirlwind trip to NOLA, only to be thrust into more acceleration. It is the endgame of my time in Morris. As of 12:30, my wife & I now own (well, mortgaged) a house outside Covington, Louisiana. Yesterday, the Army Corps of Engineers completed the dredging beneath the new bridge, widening the navigation channel by 150%. In other words, we are done here. Not to sound overly cryptic or shifty with my words, but this is the end. Morris is the past: when we arrived in Morris, I was met with McSkillet burritos at McDonald's, Italian Chicken Sandwiches at Burger King, homestyle fries at Arby's, and boysenberry syrup at IHOP. Things that had left my world before I had wanted them to leave. Morris is the future: as we leave Illinois we will not be the two we were when we arrived. Indeed, we are now three, and even just the two of us aren't the same as we were almost two years ago. While we've been up here, I've had the opportunity to download the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Virtual Console, and have played through it a few times. Forgive me if I hear Spirit Temple music in the background until we move next week. -KIE, who won't be publishing his bowl picks this year: no time to transcribe them into a blog entry
  7. What do the Buffalo Sabres, Oakland Raiders, Silkeborg, UMass Minutemen, Lille, Αποελ Nicosia, LSU Tigers, the Ohio State/Michigan game, Mississippi State Bulldogs, and Maurice Jones-Drew have in common? If you said "sports" or "athletics," you're about as close as I would expect anyone to get. For the past two years, I've been playing a game called Streak for the Ca$h on ESPN. It's a simple little game: select one from a series of offered props on sporting events. Sometimes it's a simple as who will win; sometimes it's on an individual's performance. Sometimes, it's something even crazier. However, not once have I ever strung together double-digit wins in this monthly game. Not until this past Sunday. I feel proud of myself, even if you don't. I may never win money with it, but I do feel quite the sense of accomplishment in achieving a blue star once. Even if it took 2 years. -KIE
  8. Ever since I moved out from under my parents' roof in February 2005, Thanksgiving has involved traveling. I [and later Amanda] jumping in a car and driving an appropriate amount on I-10, I-20, I-55, or US 165 and arriving at my parents' [or her parents'] home for a Thanksgiving meal. (Except in 2007: that year we were on baby watch for Oliver in Baton Rouge.) Not so this year. For the first time, family is coming here for Thanksgiving dinner. Our cozy little house of 3 will become 11 in a few short hours, and cooking must be done. Good Eats, don't fail me now. I will be attempting to implement the Good Eats Nobel Prize Pending Roast Turkey recipe found from the 14th episode of the famed cooking show, named "Romancing the Bird." In the absence of time, I will refer you to the Food Network archive of said recipe, although a search of the episode's name will surely elicit 45ish minutes of high quality turkey talk. I will say that as my mother-in-law has an apparent allergy to sage, the sage will be replaced with garlic and/or bay leaves, in a quantity not yet determined. As I have a bajillion other things to get done, both with cooking and with work, I will bid you, dear reader, adieu, and wish you the warmest and heartiest of Thanksgivings, even you Canadans who jumped the gun a month ago. Don't go dropping frozen turkeys into a too-full pot of hot oil. -KIE
  9. Erebus: I remain employed by the New Orleans office, even though I haven't been there in over a year. I'm on a field assignment that relocated be 900 miles away. Once that assignment is done, I report to work in the office. In other words, I will not be looking for work in Illinois, in fact, I will move and not look back. B6: According to the website, it's MLK weekend, not President's Day. We may end up there yet. Pinkie,er, Smeag: The bird will make an entry this year. If a trip to the mid-Atlantic happens this August, it will not include Bonnie: she flew with us only because there was no other way, and we will avoid that until she's older. She may yet be that old in 10 months' time: we'll know then. GNG: Which bridge? Did I actually talk about my bridge here?
  10. Hello there. Have we met? For the many here that don't know me, I go by KIE on these boards, which is short for Kopaka's Ice Engineering. I derived the name from the bridge Kopaka built at the end of the first BIONICLE comic so many years ago. I am a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Louisiana, though right now, I live and work in Illinois. Within the next two months, my family will be moving back to NOLA [greater New Orleans], more properly, the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Hence, I will retain the "Chocolate City" reference in my blog's title, even though we're far closer to the outskirts of Chicago right now. I am 32 years old. I met the woman who would be my wife while we were summer missionaries some 10 years ago in northeast Ohio. It was there I discovered an Onua canister, and wondered aloud why LEGO Bricks weren't this cool when I was in the target age. I became an AFOL at that point, and have nestled into a no-longer-board-active role on staff here at BZPower. I am a father. My daughter Bonnie is 7½ months old at this juncture, and she is just so precious. I must gush, for she is my first child, and we do get a share of comments from random people about how beautiful she is. I like to play around in the kitchen. The 2011 edition of Tryptophantic Advent will include staying home instead of traveling. I'm roasting a turkey, too, this year. Wish me luck. I've worked for the company I work for now for 2 years. They've been in the bridge business since 1893, and the name is synonymous with excellence in bridges. It's funny, though, since 25 months ago, I was laid off from 4+ years modeling and maintaining [in an office role] the sewer system of Jefferson Parish. Admittedly, that has nothing to do with bridges. BUT, it was a bridge design program about 20 years ago, when I was a participant in MATHCounts that led me to engineering, civil engineering even, in the first place. A long, circuitous route to come full circle. I am also open to a line of questioning, if anyone cares to ask anything. If nothing else, expect more to filter in during the coming weeks as we move back south, out of winter's way. Seriously, why is it December outside the door already? -KIE
  11. My my, what have we here? So much dust; so many events; so much life has happened here, I should think I ought take a moment to catch you all up. However, that moment is not immediately. Expect more soon.
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