I am so tired right now...

I worked for Taunya last night so she could have a scheduled day off for Mother's Day. The only problem with that is that when I got in to work, all of the AS400 order drivers were gone. This meant that we couldn't print any orders, call for invoices, run returns, etc. Everything was stopped. Apparently, some 'l-user' (say it together) tried to run a reorganization of our files, and didn't keep track of it. It never finished, and nothing ever came back up.I tried to get things going by starting things manually, but that didn't work. I called the help desk, and they tried to help, but things didn't start working until 9 or 10 P.M., after we restarted the sytem for the 2nd day in a row.

That's 6 FREAKIN' HOURS! Of hardly anything happening!

Long story short:I got home at 2.15 this morning, and I'm back at work today.

I think I'm gonna go to sleep at 8.30 or 9 tonight.

*feh*

It's a good day so far...

I was driving in to work this morning: all the windows and sunroof open, GnR rockin', sun out, nice temperature. I just thought of how nice it was to be alive at that moment; my wife loves me, I'm gettin' in shape, I have fun things to do, I work at a job that I don't hate/despise/loathe, etc.

It was just nice.

Now, as I'm sure you'll all want to know, I lost all 3 of my racquetball games last night. But, it wasn't heinous: 16-14, 15-9, 15-11. Not too bad for someone who hadn't played for 6 or 7 years.

Then I went and pitched for our ward softball team....I'm not a very good pitcher, but after 5 innings I was figuring it out. We won 12-9, despite my best efforts in the last inning to walk just about everyone on the other team. I'll do better next week. It was still fun.

And yes, I'm sore, but it's a good sore.

P.S. SafetyPoints are things that my work does for us being safe. Every month, depending on if we take CPR refresher courses, fire safety, emergency response training, forklift safety, etc. we get more safety points. I take forklift training and basically stay out of the way. For this I get ~15 points a month. I'm useless in any sort of medical emergency. If a person sliced off their finger, I'd prolly freak out also. Fires- no freak out, but blood and such- FREAK OUT!!!!111 I remember one time when we had a merit-badge Pow Wow in IF, and we were doing 'Emergency Preparedness', and we went into the bathroom. Dad was laying there on the floor with fake burns on him, and fake blood. I remember having that sinking tummy feeling as I got anxious. I remember that feeling so well that I know I couldn't do first-aid on anyone who was in bad shape. I'd panic and prolly mess them up more.

...so, the SafetyPoints are redeemable for lots of cool things. We needed a digital camera, so that's what I got.

Yet another reason to take care of yourself...

...so that you don't need to take OxyContin and get addicted to it.

Purdue Pharmaceuticals just settled for a WHOLE BUTTLOAD OF $$$$$$$$ because they said, 4 years ago, that Oxycontin was less addictive and dangerous that oxycodone, which is highly addictive.

The only problem is that Oxycontin IS oxycodone, so it isn't very safe at all.

Way to increase the profits, people.

I bet the stockholders were happy.

Thursday...

This is my daytime co-worker John.
And this is me, with 'The Fauver Files' in the background.


I'm gonna play racquetball this afternoon. Hopefully I don't suck too much, since I haven't played for at least 6 years. Maybe more. Then, when that is done I'm gonna play ward softball. Then I need to make heart-cards for Dia de madres so I can mail them out tonight.

I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

By the way, the camera I got is a Canon PowerShot A550, with a 7.1 Megapixel resolution. And best of all, it was free! Yay for SafetyPoints!

7.1 Megapixel goodness, finally!

There is the server rack, the AS400, the 2 printers we moved today, and the gaping hole they left on the floor. Look at all of that SPACE!

My desk at work with Blogger on my flat-screen, my blue cup of water and the picture of my hot Goo.

This is the computer room, looking through the door that we usually go in and out of. The door off to the right goes in to the warehouse. There is my green chair along the back wall, in the center.

And there is my supervisor Mark taking invoices off of the printer. The space behind him was cleared out today. There used to be 2 printers there, but the 3 of us(me, him and John) moved them out to make room for better, newer printers. Those will be coming in a month. Also, those are the work tables where we do just about everything, and the extreme fire hazard of about 100 boxes of paper stashed along the far wall.

Methane power...

...and NOT in the form of bean-powered farts!

...a methane rocket. I hope this becomes feasible. That would be pretty sweet.

What a weekend...

Val and I went to IF over the weekend, but had to come back as I had to teach a lesson on Sunday. We went up there with the express purpose of helping out with the back yard: transplanting flowers, trees, etc. and putting sod down. Unfortunately, it decided to snow Saturday A.M. , so we didn't work in the yard. Instead we moved things from downstairs into a storage shed. Some of those things sure were heavy.

Let's see...I got a new pair of shoes Thursday P.M. They're Earth shoes, and they're quite comfortable, at least as far as new shoes go. I used my baby-sitting money to pay for them.

On our way to IF we stopped in Layton, for a 10 minute trip into DI. We found a book that Val wanted, and I found ' Star Wars:Attack of the Clones'. Now I have all 3 books.

While in IF we found a couple of games that Val wanted: Legend of Zelda-4 Swords, and the MegaMan anniversary collection, both for the 'Cube. I also found a strategy guide for JetForce Gemini, which is an N64 game from about 10 years ago. I was surprised to find it for only $6.50. I also picked up Star Trek 3:The Search for Spock 2 disc set for $10. The best scene in there is when they take the Enterprise...

Yes, I am still a Trek geek. I like the music in that part. A lot.

Ummm. I can't really think of anything else that happened this weekend.

I need a real weekend again, soon. I have to work next Sunday, so the weekend will be short.

More thoughts...

Rain is good. Shoes are good. Exercise is good. But exercising in the rain with shoes that have holes in them isn't so good. So, we didn't go out this morning. We'll go out this afternoon.

I saw the cutest thing this morning on the way to work. I passed a car that had those kid sun-shades on the rear passenger windows, and they had elephants on them, each one holding on to the others' tails. No eyes or anything on them, but so cute.

Sleeping is good, and eventually your body will tell you that it needs to sleep, whether you want it to or not. You can't stop it.

Ummmmm. That's all for now...

A few realizations...

First, I'm frustrated that when I need to get new scriptures, I'll only be able to get them in either real leather or bonded leather.

Grrrr. >:(

Second, I like exercising in the morning, especially when I push myself and sweat, because I feel good for the rest of the morning.

Third, I like being able to get into the pool after I exercise. Mmmmmmm. It feels so good. By the way, the pool is at 88 degrees now, so I don't freeze in the morning.

Fourth, I'm gonna need to start getting up at ~5 A.M. so that I can get all the stuff done that I want to in the morning. Things like exercising, hopping in to the pool, showering, playing games, eating breakfast and getting all of my stuff ready for work...

*whew*

That's a lot of stuff to do, now that I think about it...

Have a great day...

Freakin' Monday's....

I feel old, tired, sore, grumpy and.....just 'blah'.

I watched Marcy's 4 boys all day Saturday, with an assist from the mom-in-law. A few observations from that experience: first, I remember why I don't play Legos much anymore. I'm too big and heavy to support myself, looking through a HUGE pile of Legos(thousands, at least), for any extended period of time(more than 5 minutes) on anything other than my feet. Propping myself up with my arms just doesn't cut it. Second, the easy way/cop-out way to watch kids is to put in a movie or let them play video-games to their hearts content. I didn't cop-out very much. I actually tried to get them to do things with me. Third, I'm glad the pool was opened at our house, even if it was at 72. Cold, but fun.

So, now I have had hardly any weekend, and I'm back at work. I'm tired. I feel like I've run a 5K and then didn't stretch when I got done.

P.S. I'm really steamed that my blood pressure hasn't gone down, even with all of my exercising. When they checked on Thursday I was at 154/92. Makes me wonder what the point is in even exercising, even if I know better. If I had angry emoticons, they'd be all over in this post.

Grrrrr. >:(

Honesty pays...

...except when you are dishonset about your schooling. Then getting canned from the Admissions Dept of MIT is the only reasonable thing to do. Isn't it?

On to a different topic: I gave blood for the first time last night. The stake was having a blood drive, and Val was gonna go at 3PM. But she didn't make it at 3, so we both went at 7. Originally I was going to support her, since she was apprehensive. This was gonna be her first blood-giving also. But I decided before we left the house that I would do it anyway. Long story short: Val wasn't able to donate due to her iron level not being high enough. I was able to do it, and didn't have any problems until it was all done and I got a look at the FREAKIN' HUGE NEEDLE STUCK IN MY ARM!!!!!11111

...seeing that made we a tiny bit woozy, but I made it. It was a rather out-of-body experience to see the red stuff coming out of me, through a tube, and being collected in a bag underneath me, and knowing that my bodily supply was diminishing. I didn't have a problem with the needle stick, except that I couldn't look as she was doing it. The stick didn't hurt at all. I don't even think I'm gonna bruise. The irony of it is that I have great veins, but I hate needles.

Both of us were very brave, together...

Well, apparently no one is reading this blog anymore...

...except for me. So I suppose I just won't worry about posting with any great frequency. Only when something interesting happens.

*sigh*

Oh well. It'll be all right.

Pot smokers unite!

I'm not one, but here is the 'Snopes' article on "National Pot Day".

A great way to kill brain cells, in my opinion. Right up there with smokin' tobacco.

*sigh*

Oh well.

Taxes are due today...

...so I hope you've either recieved your return, or are mailing out your 1040's today.

Val and I got our return in February. It's nice not to have to worry about it.

Red Supergiant...

" This Hubble Space Telescope image of the star V838 Monocerotis reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, unveiled never-before-seen dust patterns when the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.A light echo is light from a stellar explosion echoing off dust surrounding the star that produces enough energy in a brief flash to illuminate surrounding dust. The star presumably ejected the illuminated dust shells in previous outbursts. Light from the latest outburst travels to the dust and then is reflected to Earth.The phenomena is similar to that of a nova. A typical nova is a normal star that dumps hydrogen onto a compact white-dwarf companion star. The hydrogen piles up until it spontaneously explodes by nuclear fusion -- like a titanic hydrogen bomb -- exposing a searing stellar core with a temperature of hundreds of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit.By contrast, V838 Monocerotis did not expel its outer layers. Instead, it grew enormously in size. Its surface temperature dropped to temperatures that were not much hotter than a light bulb. This behavior of ballooning to an immense size, but not losing its outer layers, is very unusual and completely unlike an ordinary nova explosion.The outburst may represent a transitory stage in a star's evolution that is rarely seen. The star has some similarities to highly unstable aging stars called eruptive variables, which suddenly and unpredictably increase in brightness.V838 Monocerotis is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy.Image credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) "

Link to picture

Hello again...

Not as cute as the first one, but sill worthy.

I still have trouble believing it...

...Mom and Dad say they are moving to Hanford Washington. Dad is gonna still be working for the DoE, and he needs to be there by May 18, and Mom will follow along after the house sells. I suppose an extra $30k a year is a difficult enticement to reject.

I guess this means I'll rarely, if ever, visit IF again, as there is no free place to stay. Unless Joel gets his own place...Paying for a motel gets kinda pricey...

Hello!

1 year ago...

...I found out that Bernie had died. I had come home from church and saw that John had called twice, and Penny once. When John told me what had happened, I thought it was a horrible joke. But, John had never called me before then...

*sigh*

A lot has happened in that year. Val and I veganized ourselves, and we started working out. Mark replaced Bernie, and I've turned 29.

Rarely a day goes by that I don't think of him, or the things he taught John and I. He was a good teacher, even if his temper left a lot to be desired.

I hope he's happy.

XP vs. Vista

OK, a little gory, but I wonder just how accurate this is of public sentiment. I, for one, am in no rush to upgrade to Vista. I would like to rush an upgrade on my PC, but not on the OS (operating system).

Link