Reality Me

Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

  • Don’t sweat it friend

    It is very interesting to be doing nothing more than typing on a keyboard but to have so much sweat pouring from your body that you fear being electrocuted by your computer.

    A 20-year-old student in Shanghai, China, was electrocuted Monday when he opened his computer’s external case while the machine was still on…apparently opened his PC’s case to prevent its central processing chip from overheating — because he didn’t want to turn his air conditioning on. [Source]

    Thank goodness all my cases are already open! I kid you not! I am sweating more sitting still than I normally do during a tough workout at the gym or climbing a mountain and we haven’t reached anywhere near peak temperatures today. My project notes are barely readable.

  • ISDHIGM Disease

    I feel like a subject in some psychology experiment. "Let’s see what happens when we make his major project over its deadline, then turn the temperature inside the house to 100°F, and take away all his money (ie. Welcome back to school)."

    Today the outside will reach 95°F. Sounds better in Celsius because it’s only 35°C. The inside will either reach equilibrium at 95°F or go 5 to 10 degrees higher. The AC guy is supposed to be here with an estimate this morning and then I’ll run it to the insurance company who is supposed to write me a check on the spot which I will turn around and give to the AC guy who will then purchase the unit and schedule a time to install it provided I have cleaned out the garage enough for him to be able to do his job.

    So today I have to make sure that the client on the overrun project has accepted the work or is requesting any bug fixes/last minute changes. I have to make sure that the client who’s project has a late start due to the overrun project has not given the work to another developer. I have to make sure that another client’s designer has made the necessary changes to wrap up that project. I have to create documentation and a plan of completion for another project. I have to talk to another client about scheduling their work. I have to get caught up on my own paperwork including balancing the books. I have to clean the garage. Want to make a jig to finish the repair on the Jeep (and get the battery charged or replaced). Get Noah to karate. Cook dinner. Get Noah to scouts. And do something with my evening.

    Update: Newscoma, the famous Newscoma, explains ISDHIGM Disease.

    Update: Oh Hell.

    A heat wave will grip the Tennessee Valley this week, with temperatures climbing into the mid-90s and heat index rising between 100 and 105 degrees.

    The National Weather Service issued a special statement this morning, urging caution when outdoors.
    [Source]

  • August Happiness Challenge

    Watching Tommy perform at the STAR annual horse show makes me happy. I am thrilled that he has achieved such success. Seeing him perk up at the winning of a blue ribbon in one category after taking a 5th place in another made me even happier!

    August Happiness Challenge

  • From the mouths of babes

    Granddaddy: "Tommy, I’m taking Sarah, Noah, Amy and Evan to McDonald’s. Want to go?"
    Tommy: "No. I’ll stay here."
    They leave.
    Dad: "Tommy, please find Molly."
    Tommy: "Ok. Is Evan awake?"

  • Don’t ever be nice, just be nice about it

    Stephen R Covey talks about climbing the corporate ladder only to find that its leaning on the wrong wall. Psychologists all over the place have publications explaining why good girls like bad guys. Nice guys do come in last. All my life I have lived very altruistically, and no Dr. Helen, I haven’t wanted anything for my altruism…it’s just a Southern thang. I am generous and kind living by the motto "wrong me once, shame on you; wrong me twice, shame on me." But in business that just gets you used.

    More and more I am beginning to believe that I need to quit being nice. I can still be a nice guy without being a chump. Perhaps if I did less for others and more for myself then those around me would benefit more than having me help them directly. The words "not my problem" just do not roll naturally from my tongue. SEP!

  • Does your body bother you?

    If I lay on my back and put something, like the tv remote, on my stomach, I can watch it pulse in sync with my heartbeat. Am I really supposed to see my heartbeat through my stomach?! This bugs me just a bit because when I notice it, I can’t make it stop!

  • From the mouths of babes

    We found a calculator in Staples with the numbers in a circle like on an old rotary telephone.

    Dad: "Old phones used to have this dial, like a wheel, and you would stick your finger in the hole with the number you wanted then dial it around. That’s why we call it dialing a telephone number.

    Noah: "So like was there an arrow or something so that once the number appeared on the screen you could make the call?"

  • From the mouths of babes

    Cathy: "It’s too loud."
    Tommy shouts back: "What do you mean it’s too loud?"

  • Nothing to say

    Actually I have much to post but when the pressure is on and the heat is up I just do not have time to speak; however, I do have time to babble.

  • Ah the memories!

    Not having A/C and relying on fans has taken me back a bit. There is a distinct smell to a house that is not cooled with A/C. There is a definite humidity not felt under the unnatural A/C. The sounds are different in a house closed from the world to contain the conditioned air. It takes me back to the summers I spent at my grandparent’s apartment in Richmond, VA. It reminds me of the times spent in my great grandmother’s in Wilmington, NC. These are not bad memories. And this is not a bad time. I do not want to go an extended length of time without A/C but living without A/C is not all that terrible.

    Alright, to do list:

    • check to see if the unit is under warranty
    • see if home owner’s insurance will cover the repair
    • see what KUB‘s financing plan looks like

    I have also learned that no one trusts any hvac repair person in Knoxville and that everyone has the guy to call. Yes, that’s right..it’s a contradiction…

  • Hug me

    Evan woke up on the needy side today. I live for these moments. He leaned against me and rested those tiny arms lovingly and securely on my shoulders then laid his head against my neck and shoulder. He wouldn’t let me put him down for about 20 minutes. No urgency. No matter how desperate our situation. No matter what deadline. Nothing could interfere with our moment! This is being a dad!

  • Stoopid American

    My wife finally pointed out to me that for days I have been reporting that our house is maintaining a temperature of 85°C…C as in Celsius. To you Americans, if it was really 85°C then the house would be 185°F…F as in Fahrenheit. To put things in perspective, we all know that water freezes at 32 degrees because that’s when it snows. What we don’t know is if that is 32 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit. I’ll clear that up for you right now. It’s Fahrenheit. And before you get your panties in a wad, we we all know that Fahrenheit means Michael Moore which means that if you get frost bite in freezing weather that you won’t be getting proper medical care unless you mortgage your skyscraper but really the only way to collect that money is to take out an extensive insurance policy on the buildings, help rig an election, then conspire with the president to help an incompetent wanna be terrorist, armed with guns he got in high school, blow up the buildings so that the president can settle daddy’s family feud then invade Iran. And that brings us to boiling which we all know is 100 degrees for water. What we don’t know is if that is 100 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit. Well obviously if we are measuring freezing in Fahrenheit then water must boil in Fahrenheit! And we all know that before Michael Moore, Fahrenheit meant Ray Bradbury (why yes, he is still alive! Just like this guy!) which means we would be measuring the temperature of the water on Mars and since all suspected water on Mars (that red hot planet) is frozen then water on Mars must be 32°F and to measure its boiling point we would have to bring it back to Earth. Re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere is hot, hot, hot and quickly superheats the Martian water to 212°F which boils the water. Since 100° has become available, we will give it up to Celsius so that Celsius can boil water too. On an aside, paper cannot burn in water therefore the flash point of paper has to be greater than the boiling point of water. The flash point of paper just happens to be 451°F; paper cannot burn in Celsius. And concrete melts at 911°F.

    So, in summary, water freezes at 32° or 0° whichever comes first and whichever has the greatest likelihood of canceling school. Water boils at 100° and geeky Trivial Pursuits freaks also know that 212° means something. 451° is how hot we got when forced to read a book at a time we were too young to understand the political implications and too distracted by the 451° cheerleader that we could only daydream about nailing. Celsius? Fahrenheit? Doesn’t matter because I know what I mean and you can bet the jock that got the cheerleader sure as Hell didn’t know the difference either! (btw, temperature in Hell is measured in kelvin)

    See also.

  • Blogfest and Blogathon

    Devil of a wife

    Tonight is a Blogfest! We will be there. Rich, one of our Blogathon partners is already at Bailey’s on his shift.

    Bailey’s holds a special place for Cathy and I because that was where we had our first date. We met for all of 2 minutes at a Halloween party being thrown at my house then 4 months later we were behaving like nervous school kids on a first date over a pool table at Bailey’s. I rapid fired every joke, with increasing naughtiness, I knew to cover my nervousness. Cathy flirted and wow’d me seducing me with her beauty and wit then upping the ante on my innuendos until everyone in the bar had quit playing pool to watch us being suggestive with pool cues, lessons, and across the table exposures. We had a blast! And our friends who got us together to commiserate our similar situations, hoping that we would take some frustrations out on each other and move on, just sat back and enjoyed the show as two grown adults fumbled around trying to remember how to date.

    I almost blew our relationship. I was so overcome by Cathy that I really did not want to screw things up by coming on to hard. So in the parking lot I tried to be all casual and attempted to say, "I don’t want you to feel pressured or rushed into a relationship" but the words came out something like "if you want to get together and have sex without a commitment, I’m your man!" Oh yeah! Smoooooth.

    Heading to Bailey’s! Oh! You can still sponsor us! Pleeaasse! Read more here.

  • To do and not to do

    What I should be doing: Programming frantically.

    What I am doing: technical support, software updates, hardware troubleshooting, air conditioning repair, pressure washing, stump removal, fund raising for STAR, socializing, and jumping whenever Cathy shrieks.

  • Blogathon Starts in 1.5 hours

    Blogathon 2007 starts in an hour and a half and if the AC isn’t doing a better job, I might just have to follow-thru on Cathy’s naked blogging threat just for comfort! It is not too late to sponsor our cause. We will be blogging at least every half hour for the next 24 hours (plus 1.5) at our group blogathon site. Please come comment and cheer us on.