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And to think, this time last year I'd just ranted about the Astros offensive ineptitude, but did find a nice restaurant. Todd & Melanie, myself, and my parents will probably eat there in a few weeks: even if they're $1, they're still hot dogs. So here, I am, blogging for a year. I've toed lines, pushed limits, gotten into hot water, and hopefully generally elevated the topics of discussion in BZBlogs. See, all this time, and going forward, it's not been so much about garnering comments, or having a high blog rating (which I do like to think that my blog is one of the best here, and is deserving of more than a 4.43 or so), or even getting blog of the Week (though I do feel validated for getting the honor). It's been about getting people to read what I write. I have lived at least 5 years longer than a good chunk of you guys, and I want you to learn from my experience. I want what I have to say to be relevant to you, yet still come from my mouth. Or fingertips, as it were. Anyway, "From the outskirts of Chocolate City" is officially one year old this hour. Here's to several more years. Oh, and there is this news announcement thing, but I can't imagine why that'd be important. -KIE
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That's what my little brother says when he has to drive through Mississippi. Such a comment is usually met with "ha ha" laughter, but he's one not to find any redeeming qualities about the state to our immediate east. Certainly not with their two major college programs, being the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University. Southern Miss, he's ambivalent. (Speaking of my brother, I wish him good luck: he has an 8:11,000ish chance of getting his name pulled later today for a $1600 grill package. Would go great with the patio I helped start Saturday.) Anyway, this entry is not about my brother. This is about a weekend recap. Yesterday was Memorial Day. A national holiday that I spent at work. No, it's not quite that bad. At Digital, we don't have Memorial Day off, per se, but the afternoon is always called off for a crawfish/shrimp boil, coupled with the annual volleyball match. This year, it was held in Pass Christian, Mississippi, at the home of the Senior VP over the Mississippi office. I ate about three dozen of these huge shrimp (I'd say they were 20's.), and a few crawfish, before warming up for the volleyball. While I was really the weak link, the team I was on won the first four games: 11-1, 11-3, 11-5, 11-5. Then teams were switched up and I was on the losing end: 8-11, 12-14. I guess I warmed up too much and got tired or something. One thing I don't have to guess about was that I got sunburned. Really, really sunburned. My forehead is a slow, throbbing itch, my nose is unbelievably tender, and my lips are blistered. I'd offer a photo, but you'll just have to believe me when I say I've gotten sympathy from everyone I've called attention to. If it stays overcast for the next week & a half, that'd be good. However, being in Mississippi yesterday is not why I feel dirty. As Omi has recently related, I am not a Mac User for Life by my own volition. I did not make a conscious case for said title, to be sure. But alas, some people cannot appreciate the zen of constructing one's own computer. That, and I don't want to run a shell for 93% of the programs I use. Just to clear things up. -KIE, Windows XP user
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Don't mind me, just taking a cue from Turakii. *drumroll for the huge weekend recap* Philosophical question: What would you do if you had more money than you, your brothers & sisters, parents, aunts & uncles, your kids (regardless of whether you have any now) and your grandkids could ever hope to spend, combined? One answer: build a ridiculously tall skyscraper. The lunchtime speaker at the Tulane Engineering Forum on Friday was the lead designer of the Burj Dubai (برج دبي , meaning "Tower of Dubai"), what, upon completion next year, should be the tallest manmade structure in the world. At least 155 stories tall, plus a spire on top, suffice it to say the horizon of the capital of the United Arab Emirates will be notably changed. There's even ads in Vanity Fair, billing it as "the place to be." Rob & I guesstimated the project cost to be around $1 trillion. Maybe $1.2 trillion. Yeah....anyway. Softball game Friday night. Don't have the line score with me, but we jumped out to an early lead and won 10-3. Myself, went 0-2 with a walk & a strikeout. Leading off the bottom of the second, I struck out swinging at a pitch that was going to be called "Ball 3". Coming up in the bottom of the fourth, I reached on an errant throw from the third baseman, and then proceeded to get doubled off when I overstepped first base on a pop up. I SWEAR my toe was back down on the bag before I got tagged. In the bottom of the sixth, I drew a four-pitch walk, and was stranded on first when the umpire called the game before the inning had concluded: there were 2 on & 2 out. This coming Friday, we're playing Williams Boulevard Baptist Church, in what is friendly known as the "Battle for Williams Boulevard", as both FBC-K and WBBC are on LA highway 49. Found out that they took last year off to play in the Lasalle Park league, and they embarrassed New Life Tabernacle before our game. Translation: we're going to be 3-1 going into Memorial Day. Got up Saturday morning and drove home for Mother's Day. It was fine, except where my dad had inadvertently plunked my mom with a golfball when they played Tuesday. She still has a computer mouse-sized bruise on her right bicep. My dad wanted that to be a 13-stroke penalty, since she had won that round by a score of 100-112. We called my brother and, if it was unintentional, the ruling is as though she was a member of the gallery: play it as it lies, with no penalties assessed to either player. Sunday, we went out to eat at Olive Garden. Got there for 11:30, and there was a *line* to get a pager. We persevered, however, and got to eat. I had the shrimp & asparagus risotto, which was...interesting. Not nearly as interesting as how the power went out ¾ of the way through the meal. I'd guess they had to close up shop on one of the busiest days of the year, because they never did get the power back on. Fortunately, my dad had cash. Got back to my apartment at around 5:20, in time to watch "Deconstructing Sean O'Hair." Man, you've got to feel bad for the guy, being the only one to put two in the drink on the same day. The worst thing to have happened over the weekend had to be what happened later that evening: my computer spontaneously powered down twice. I'm 90% sure it's the power supply that gave out, as that was hottest and seemed to be the highest concentration of the tell-tale acrid scent of electronics burning out. I've borrowed an old PSU from a computer here at the office as a 3-month stop-gap. If it doesn't work at lunch, well, I'm going to have to buy a new one this afternoon from Newegg and see about getting it rushed here. I don't know what I'll do at night without my computer! Heh. Couldn't get through the whole weekend without at least one smiley. Oh, and I got a haircut: first one since before BrickFest. -KIE
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Truly, a beautiful sound...even if I cannot hear it. The first pictures of my godchild. gallery That is all. -KIE
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La la laaaaaa Storms that ruined the weekend on the southern Atlantic coast [of the US] blew throuh the Gulf coast during the week. Three things to take from this, in addition to how Yale Street turned into a makeshift canal. Flash floods are fun! Lightning is dangerous: A thunderstorm early Friday morning caused a power hiccup on the server, thus voiding the previous two days of computer run. Another setback...blah. Also blew out a network hub. It was an old hub, but it's now going to need to be replaced. Oh, and an electrician is going to check the wiring over the next couple of weeks, just to make sure. Gonna be fun scheduling runs around that. Also, my computer shut down without warning again. I say again, because it's the second time this has happened since I moved to Metairie (This is my personal computer, the 5 year old model.), the first time being in June before Katrina. Power supply overheated, again. So, I took out some parts and manually cleaned the dust (I had JUST gotten a USB vacuum that also came in that brown box from NewEgg with the PSU.). A couple of hours to chill, and it's fine now. Just 3 more months is all I ask.... Flash floods are fun: Not only did Yale Street (which runs in front of my apartment, ZOMG I'm giving out my address on the internet! ) turn into Yale creek, but the softball field became inundated by the storm: Friday's games were rained out, and Saturday's games (including FBC-K @ St. Charles UMC) were called on account of field conditions. The games will not be made up unless they have playoff implications, and only then would they be made up, after the Fourth of July. That was supposed to be the first real barometer for our team. Instead, between first-game-back Grace Presbyterian, first-game-ever Metairie #2, and perennial creampuff FBCNO, we're going to be the softest 3-0 since before the storm, easily. I apparently make a good pump: With nothing to do Saturday, I drove up to Baton Rouge, and found myself helping take down a fence to install a gate. Well, that's what was going on: I ended up on "water duty": Michael & Brandy (my brother & his wife) had finished taking up a garden in their backyard to install a patio by putting down pavers. In effect, they'd made a hole and we were going to start filling it this past weekend. God had other ideas, as the rains that came through literally filled up the hole. I moved 120 someodd gallons (roughly 500 L) of rainwater through their house, only to dump it down the driveway, 4 gallons (15½ liters) at a time. Suffice it to say, I was tired. This concludes your weekend recap from the outskirts of Chocolate City. -KIE
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Black & Gold nation hereby welcomes: Robert Meachem, junior from the University of Tennessee-KnoxvilleUsama Young, senior from Kent State UniversityAndrew Alleman, senior from the University of AkronAntonio Pittman, junior from the Ohio State UniversityJermon Bushrod, senior from Towson UniversityDavid Jones, senior from Wingate University and Marvin Mitchell, senior from the University of Tennessee-Knoxvilleto the New Orleans Saints football club. Congratulations. Don't think getting drafted means you've got a job lined up. You're going to have to work to get on this team. Oh, and Mr. Meachem, please maintain a better attitude than the last first-round wide out that came from your alma mater to New Orleans, a one Donté Stallworth. These are not the same Saints that he played with. -KIE
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21 Major League seasons, all with one team. 2,722 career appearances 2,944 career base hits 282 career home runs 282 career hit-by-pitches 410 career stolen bases 4,586 career total bases 1,782 career runs scored 1,129 career runs batted in 0 combined career clean post-game jerseys and post-season clean batting helmets Craig Biggio has been one of the great gentlemen of the game. He will likely log 3,000 hits this season, and then retire at the age of 41. Please, send him to San Francisco one last time in mid July. Once more, before a date in Cooperstown next decade. Vote Craig Biggio for the 2007 All-Star game. (C'mon, Torhu. I voted for Mauer & Punto. The least you can do is vote for Biggio on your NL ballot.) -KIE
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If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something....
Kopaka's Ice Engineering posted a blog entry in blogs_blog_100
...I'd say it'd be well worth your time to pick up Rebecca St. James' latest CD, entitled the same as this blog entry. I could say more, but she's already articulated most of it. As I told Lady K last night (I got to talk to Lady K on YIM! I feel so important! *squeee* ), "God Help Me," the first track on said album, is my newest favorite song. It talks of a early-life crisis in the singer's own life. And I can identify with her, as I'm about 4, maybe 5 months younger than she: as I'm careening towards 30, I have to wonder what has become of the front end of "the summer of my lifetime": what, if any, impact I have made, and why I am still nagged with the thought that I've just spun my wheels thus far. 27½ years old gives you a great sense of mortality, especially in the face of the deaths of 30 someodd college students. I don't know anyone that goes to school in Blacksburg. I'm 5 years removed from my own undergraduate studies. Just like Columbine in 1999, my sophomore year of college, it's weird and nothing more. Getting older makes you jaded and walls you up, too. I dunno, this entry was as much for my own reflection as it is for any of your benefit. Take it as you will. -KIE -
196 lb., 23.4% body fat "Opening night? But the Mets went at it in St. Louis 2 weeks ago!" Ah, not MLB opening night, my friend, but the opening night of the Greater New Orleans Church League softball. A twin-billing at Delta #4, Williams Boulevard Baptist at Riverside Baptist, and First Baptist Kenner at Grace Presbyterian. The two Metairie Baptist teams, FBC New Orleans, and St. Charles UMC play tomorrow morning. I'd been working towards tonight since before BrickFest '06. And I dare say it paid off. The line score: FBC Kenner 7 4 2 2 5 18 Grace Presb. 0 0 3 4 0 7 F/5 And in the Kenner box score, batting 10th (out of 11: 10 fielders + a DH) No. Name Pos. H-AB R BI .... 47 Foret C 1-3 1 0 Grounded into a fielder's choice (6-5 out at third) to end the top of the first. In the third, I laced a liner between shortstop and third. They tried to pick me off, but instead they hit my cleat. (You're not out unless you're tagged, or hit by a batted ball.) I scored from first on a double on the next pitch. I popped out to shortstop to end the top of the fourth inning, and would've been due up second in the top of the sixth had the game not been called for time. It was very important to get the bats going tonight, as we were hard pressed to score runs all last year. If we keep this up (okay, 18 might be a little difficult to score weekend-in, weekend-out), we could be in a good position come playoff time in July. You all will have to bear with me: I didn't get to play baseball growing up, and the BSU/BCM intramural softball team was usually lucky to win 2 games over the course of a season. This is my rec league, and even in my third year in the league, I still feel like a little kid. Okay, it's well after 12. (Curse you, board statistics!) Time to get some sleep. If possible. -KIE
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Yes he did and no one had better let him out of it! Wow, BrickFest was a blast. It's all mish-mashing in my head right now, so I'll make with the quick-hits before I forget everything. 50° F (10° C) is an overnight low, not a daytime high, for March. Geez, Oregon. It's spring. Get with the program.The scent of a Randazzo even before the bag is opened is as hypnotic as ever.TLG has to open a LEGO store at some point along the Gulf coast. I'll drive to Gulf Shores if necessary; I just can't go to Orlando for one store.Roa McToa is well on her way to being the next Cajun. Not for awesomness of MOCcing per se, but for being the standard-bearer for the legitimacy of BIONICLE among AFOL-dom.SQUIDDIES!Photographs do not fully explain how tall Makaru is.EAURUGYUNUGH!Chris doesn't have my childhood LEGO collection, which means they truly are lost for the ages. Dalek the Dark Hunter Destroyer would be good at a photo scavenger hunt: I think the last couple were in my pocket.Turakii, Roa has the squiddies. Bug her. Aisle seat, heavy-set men in front and behind, colicky baby & kid who apparently had never been on an airplane before: 1 Any hope of KIE getting some sleep on Continental 208 Sunday night: 0 Light rails are fun. If Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard & Plaquemines parishes ever got it together and built a system, it'd be pretty cool. Wouldn't have to be a subway or anything. (The water table in Louisiana is generally 8 feet (2.5 m) below the ground surface, making it pretty difficult to build anything of size underground.) I'd so totally ride it.Fred Meyer: meh. Give me Walmart, blue state socio-economics be darned.Thank you, UCLA, for letting me and my bracket down, right there at the end.Good times. We must do it again. -KIE, enjoying his 80° F (27° C) weather.
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I should be sleeping, and yet I am not. A shame, really, but I must discourse on the events of this weekend. Friday I took off before I was finished with work, but after hours still, to go eat with my brother, his wife, and our parents, while they (my parents) were in Baton Rouge to play golf on Saturday. I'll be frank: I'm sufficiently tired of working on this model. Burned out, as it were. I'm looking forward to something else, even if it's just no-brain maps in ArcMap. But enough about my work (that I did finish up yesterday, I think). We ate at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro, not necessarily a treat for myself, but for my parents since the Copeland's in Lake Charles closed after Rita. They're still upset about it. Michael & Brandy had some pretty big news. Michael went to the golf expo at the River Center (in Baton Rouge) last month, and got a surprise in the mail: he won two passes to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in its return to the TPC of Louisiana in two weeks. But the real news came shortly thereafter: THEY'RE PREGNANT! Brandy is 7 weeks pregnant (far too early to know if it's a boy or girl), and the due date is November 20. What's more, they've asked me to be the child's parrain, or godfather: A task I gladly and blindly accepted. KIE's gonna be an uncle. Look out. Better believe I'm going to get 'em started on LEGO out of the gate. How much do Quatro sets run? Saturday was a bunch of afterglow, and then came Sunday. Sunday, I got a phone call on my way out of church: Bro. T-Jack Tillery, one of the staff at FBC-Moss Bluff (the church I attended before moving here) is in Ochsner's in Jefferson, so I went to go visit. Wouldn't you know it, but they forgot I was over here. *sigh* Everyone does. In any case, Bro. T-Jack's long-term prognosis isn't very good: he had a massive heart attack in 1997 which damaged both lower ventricles. His upper ventricles have since compensated, but over the course of 10 years, they've worn down. The short of it is that he'll eventually need a heart transplant: a procedure his insurance won't cover. But for the time being, his improvement over the course of the week (He checked in last Monday, but I wasn't notified until this afternoon.) means he'll get to head back to Moss Bluff sometime this week, with a return checkup scheduled in a couple of weeks. Still, they've started the transplant-candidate battery of tests. Oh, and since everyone else is doing it... *click* Create your own visitor map! -KIE, who needs to do his taxes this week
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199½ lb, 22.8% body fat (Hey, I guess being sick'll do that for ya.) Okay, now I'm curious. Sunday night, I posted a map, in hopes of seeing a bunch of New Orleans pins, or perhaps a pin in Greece or a few in Canadia (BrickFest joke). Instead, I find pins in the Côte d'Azure (French Riviera) and Italy. But the one pin that intrigues me the most is the one pushed at 9 seconds after 11 AM yesterday: Longville, LA. Folks, I know where Longville is. ATTENTION WHOEVER VISITED MY BLOG IN LONGVILLE: Please register and tell me who you are. I'm very, very curious. I hope it's Big Country (a trumpet-playing electrical engineer with whom I went to college; his name escapes me). I haven't seen him since I was laid off from ReCon in 2004. -KIE, whose sinuses refuse to drain.
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Posted a week ago, but I still wanted to call attention to it here, as the BBC tends to swallow the mediocre quickly. Argaius and his topic. I'm not going to ask for glowing reviews if they're not warranted. In fact, I can't really promise I'll do much MOCing, regardless of feedback. I'd just like to get a feel as to how this is. And if it's "mediocre", I can handle hearing that. Ms. Hedge-Morrell issued an apology in the paper today. She said she wanted to set a good example for the students at the high school she used to principal. Tom, my boss who spent much of this week at Augusta National Golf Course made an astute observation: "More than likely, she's just sorry she was caught. Three times." That said, I'm going to let it drop. -KIE, who is still waiting for his first home run of the fantasy season.
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Now presenting YOUR Moss Bluff Cruisers: Catcher: Kenji Johjima, SEA Iván Rodríguez, DET (also doubles as a first baseman) First Base: Lance Berkman, HOU (also doubles as an outfielder) Carlos Delgado, NYM Second Base: Chase Utley, PHI Short Stop: Michael Young, TEX Third Base: Scott Rolen, STL Garrett Atkins, COL Outfield: Jermaine Dye, CWS Juan Pierre, LAD Johnny Damon, NYY Torii Hunter, MIN Designated Hitter: Travis "Pronk" Hafner, CLE Pitchers: Roy Oswalt, HOU Aaron Harang, CIN Jeremy Bonderman, DET Cole Hamels, PHI Rich Harden, OAK Akinori Otsuka, TEX B.J. Ryan, TOR Billy Wagner, NYM Currently fourth in a five-team rotisserie league. Comments more indepth than "nice team" or "garbage" are welcome. -KIE
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Well, remote relative to New Orleans. I was the only person I saw today with any kind of New Orleans Saints shirt/jersey/something on. Could it have anything to do with being 2 timezones away? Nah. Black & Gold nation all the way. Why didn't I post about BrickFest, CF? Well, for starters, I don't have my own computer up here: I either have to borrow Omi's laptop or use something in the hotel lobby, the latter being the current mode of typing. It's 1 AM here in Portland. I just got back from a 3-hour shopping excursion at the Portland LEGO store. Madhouse, let me tell you. It was as though the throng of BrickFesters pillaged the place, but amazingly, there was stuff left on the shelves. I shared a pick-a-brick canister with a kid from Kansas: most of what I got were 1×4 Metru green Technic bricks, and many more of those than I'll need. I also keep the PAB cup, which will find a home in my pantry, complete with oversized lego stud lid. Earlier in the day, I got to build a story in a corner café set. I forget the set number, but the goal was to build 18 [mini-fig]stories, four sets around. Makaru, Roa McToa, & I each built one, and with our help we reached 12 stories. Still pretty tall for a LEGO structure. Makaru & I are going to register in the Mosaic speed build tomorrow. Just because we're into BIONICLE doesn't mean we don't know our way around SYSTEM. Like I said, it's 1 AM and my brain is fried. I need some sleep.
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203 lb., 25.8% body fat (what the frell?) Cab's here. See y'all at BrickFest. -KIE
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Taking time out from BrickFest PDX to post this pre-typed blog entry. My car turns 1 year old today. Well, not exactly today. I don't know when it was manufactured, but a year ago today, I bought the dark blue metallic 2006 Chevrolet Malibu LT parked inside the gates at the apartment complex. Although the paper I signed said it had 5 or fewer miles on it, it actually had 10. I didn't complain, however. This entry's title is the current mileage. Thirteen thousand, two hundred and eighty-six of those miles were logged before June 26, 2006, so I figure the mileage rate will taper off in the next few years. I'd gotten a 72 month financing plan that required $217 per month to pay it off: I was able to eke out a deal $500 above invoice (what the dealer pays for the car, check the NADA website for more details), and put down about $4,300 down payment. I initially was offered a 60 month financing plan at $255 per month, but I didn't think I could budget $255 immediately, so I went for the 6-year plan. I've still been able to pay $250 a month, and $850 in January, on the heels of my Christmas bonus. I'll deviate from the subject to say how wonderful it is to have a blog, that you can catalogue an entire year. and have it handy to link like that. Anyway, back to the festivities. With any luck, there'll be time today or tomorrow to go throw the discs I brought at Pier Park. Roa McToa and Omi are supposed to come with. -KIE
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Well, it's 7:45 PDT, and my flight leaves in about, hrm... 9 hours. What am I doing still up? Can't sleep. I didn't get everything done on the model. I'm not officially in limbo, as I discovered two things. Jefferson Parish marked the wrong drawings as record drawings, and left off a vital piece of information in a semi-inconsequential lift station in Bucktown. Net result is that I have to design pump controls on the fly when I get back. I forgot to import some lines from the G5-7 lift station area from the database before going gung-ho on initial flows.All that said, that's about a day's work (It's ALWAYS "a day's work". AUGH.) more and then I'm just waiting on pump data. Translation: Bryan, if you're reading this, I was *hoping* to run dry calibrations while I'm gone, but that's not going to happen now. This is gonna get ugly. The rest of youse guys, well, be glad you're not in my situation. I've been browsing for a motherboard as the next Vital Component of the "tower of the gods" I'm building. I see this one, and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts they'd be willing to share on it. -KIE, who will now attempt to get some sleep.
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"random" Award Of Indeterminate Period Of Time #1
Kopaka's Ice Engineering posted a blog entry in blogs_blog_100
201¾ lb., 24.7% body fat An award, hurrah. I'm such a bandwagonner. I finished the preliminary flow input for Helios/Galleria. It took about 3 weeks of coming in every day to get it done, but I got it done. And then I discovered I still had wet well GPS and pump controls left to do. I HAVE to get this done today, so I can actually leave Thursday morning. Thus I give you the random award. Award #1 goes to....Albequr...Albaque... uh, a city in New Mexico notorious for eliciting wrong turns from Bugs Bunny. -KIE P.S. 'Raga, why, of all things, SHREDDED PAPER?! *cries* I hate you. -
The title is from a sound bite in Red Alert 2. I figure, since everyone is doing it, I ought to have a Q&A entry in my blog. That is, in case anyone wants to know more about me. If no one asks any questions, I'll know I've scared everyone off. Either that, or I have overexposed myself here. With that said, ask away! Every question will get a response, and most will have answers. -KIE
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^The song I've got playing in the former KexPod. "Could you stay for a while?" Funny email time! My computer case arrives Thursday. I'll find time to take pics with a camera here at the office, and post an entry. -KIE
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The KexPod arrived yesterday. After about 5 months of waiting (Okay, you can scratch all of that before January: I was holding hope that I'd get one for Christmas.), several PMs and hint-dropping blog entries, the KexPod has arrived. Yeah, it was only 4 business days, but what it took to get it mailed was ridiculous. (By the way, I still owe Kex $50 (or lifetime premier membership) for the iPod, but that's on hold until his PayPal account is un-hung-up.) Kex left me a smattering of hits on the playlist before sending it, and, I must say I'm very behind the times, rock music-wise. The only song I recognized was "Kryptonite", by Three Doors Down. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any nice way to take the songs off the iPod and into iTunes, so many of them will probably be given a token listen-to, and deleted: I rip my mp3s at 160 instead of 128, so space is marginally more an issue. One of the CDs I was holding off on ripping: Devotion by the Newsboys, wouldn't read on my computer. That makes me sad. I'm going to have to find someone else to rip tracks 1 & 2 for me now, or buy a new CD. Also on the "to get" list: something by Shawn McDonald ("Take my hand"), and MuteMath. ANYWAY, work trudges along. The pace I kept yesterday was disturbingly slow, and will not cut it henceforth. -KIE
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201¾ lb. 24.1% body fat I have three sets of picks this year. My best set is 14-2, and my worst is 12-4, but I didn't lose a single Sweet 16 team. However, the first Friday has always been the ends of my runs, not the first Thursday. How I do today will determine if this is a banner year or a "same-old-story" year. In other news, my inbox has been popping lately. Not my PM box but my real, email inbox. Lots of messages RE: BrickFest '07, since we've hit the last 2 weeks before the show in Portland (and I'm on staff, remember?), and the usual share of "cheap pharmaceuticals" spam. One thing that's been noticeably absent, however, has been stock tip spam. Oh, I still get one or two, but not the heavy hitters like, um, GDKI, CGDC, and others that wonderfully escape my memory. And Tuesday, I found out why: The Securities & Exchange Commission shut 'em down. Read more in Press Release 2007-34, as the article itself is too long to actually copy & paste. This is a victory for everyone who has an orange & purple sticker on their blog (and I know I'm not the only one, just the first B) ). Glasses of sparkling white grape juice to my friends on BZP whose blogs fight spam! -KIE
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My little brother turns 25 today. They grow up so fast... *sniffle* I'm making plans to go to a baseball game. Astros vs. Phillies Wednesday, July 4, 2007. 1:05 PM CDT start. Heck, I might even get back to the apartment for midnight and go to work on Thursday, thus not taking a day of vacation! It's a win! Gonna get some good seats, too, if I can get the plans settled quickly. (If anyone else is in Houston, and is going to go to that game, let me know.) I'll leave you with an article I got via email: Next thing you know, they'll have "transparent aluminum." -KIE
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201¾ lb., 25.1% fat I said there would be no offseason for softball. I lost too many steps and had gotten a bit porky. I was sucking wind too quickly. Okay, I may not have said it in those words, but I did allude to it here. FBC-K softball practice starts tomorrow, and I'm going to miss it for a wedding. Worse things have happened, though. I kind of like where I am right now, as some weight training has added a little zip to my starts at the plate (I did some test running last weekend at the field where we play.), and I've done 25 20-lb. dumbbell curls 6 days a week (each arm; that's a lot of weight for someone who got such a late start in bulking up). I'd want that body fat number to be under 24%, not above 25%. But hey, I can't have everything now. I've been thinking about a BowFlex, but I neither have the money nor the space in the apartment right now. Anyway, back to softball. By my count, we have 9 players, which is bad, because that means no rover and no bench. That may be solved in short order, or it might be the second week of the season before that gets rectified. We're just here to play, and play well. Winning is secondary to a Christ-like attitude, unlike a couple of players on other teams. Oh, and I'm officially retracting my offer to drive and pick up your MOCs for BrickFest. No one has taken up the offer, and I need the time from here on out. You can still send me your MOCs for BrickFest, however. PM me for details. (That includes you, ChocolateFrogs. ) -KIE, more or less signing off until Monday