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Not quite as planned

I declared Monday’s for Marketing. But this morning I decided that it was important to make some headway on my two projects. Once of them required that I put a new CPU fan on my development server. I headed to CompUSA and bought the wrong fan. Went out a second time to exchange it but left without my wallet. They didn’t have the right fan anyway and fortunately returned my money without asking for id. I finally found the fan in another part of town. It’s now 10pm at night and the machine is finally back together…a process that only took 14 hours.

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Dead hardware

Ugh. My dev server’s cpu fan is dead. I must go to CompUSA and pay way too much for way too little.

If anyone knows someone with $10k or so that they are looking to dump on a good cause, have them contact me. I sure could use a little relief.

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Today’s Names

Heidi Crumb (University of TN, Knoxville)
Patricia Sothman Vinyard (University of TN, Knoxville)
Craig Howard (University of TN, Knoxville)
Joline Johnson (Medford, NJ)
Suzanne Summers (Univeristy of TN, Knoxville)
Earl Harrison Reed “Bucky” (University of TN, Knoxville)
Amy Brace (University of TN, Knoxville)

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Lack of memories

When I was 11 years old I became over the top concerned with the potential loss of memory. By that point in my life we were living in my 4th house and 3rd city and already I felt a lack of permanence. The people around me did not know my stories and had not shared my adventures of previous years so no group memory of clubs, friends and escapades existed. I decided I wanted to start chronicling my life on paper but like my family tree and letters to past friends and family nothing ever materialized until roughly 10 years later when I finally began journaling.

Ironically I have very patchy memories of my teens. The memories are there and come in spurts but its like I’ve blocked them.

I know when I moved to Medford, NJ at 14 years old that I suddenly realized no one knew anything about me, could not verify my stories, and I could become anyone I wanted to be with any past that I so chose to create. I chose the truth and I’d had so many off the wall experiences by that point in my life that even the truth sounded far fetched at times.

At 19 I started blackout drinking and spent the next half a decade give or take with my evening’s actions being commentated to me by others that remembered far more of the night than I ever would. There is one particular 20 minute lapse in my life at 4am in downtown Knoxville with a cute blonde that I’d really like to remember. Am I making a sexual reference? I dunno. It could have been 20 minutes of rejection, sex, smoking or shooting heroin for all I know. (to the best of my knowledge I’ve never shot heroin) I distinctly remember being in the club. I remember the girl. I remember being questioned about where I was and what I was doing but for the life of me I have no recollection of that 20 minutes of my life. Do I want to remember those 20 minutes for the act? No, not really. Mostly I’d like to fill in the blank but that’s just 1 of 1000 such blanks.

Now-a-days names and faces of people that I don’t interact with for two weeks or so quickly fade. It’s very frustrating to recognize someone and not be able to nail down exactly why you know this person or what their name is.

My Alzheimer’s is going to be fun!

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Moose and Squirrel

The dog and the cat are hilarious. The cat is not declawed and the dog just wants to play with the cat. The cat wants the dog to play but by her rules. She typically parks herself within range of the dog, a window sill or bookshelf, and the dog will come up to her and sniff her and lick her. When she’s had enough she plays drums on the dogs nose and for some reason never uses her claws. The dog doesn’t get it and keeps trying to lick her so the cat incorporates both front paws pounding on the dogs nose as fast as she can. It’s a sight I need to video.

Stand up (9.3MB – 37 seconds. I have to figure out how to compress video!)
Get the message (4.4MB – 17 seconds)
Good doggie..have a pet (1.4MB – 5 seconds)

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A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning
I slept like a rock last night with vivid dreams. Yesterday I had close to no productivity and today I’m feeling stressed over it.

Winging life doesn’t work. I don’t even have a short term plan right now. I used to have a 10 year plan, a 5 year plan and short term plans and goals in my life. I used to know to the penny how much money was coming in and going out. I’m a disorganized mess. I have to pull it together!

Today is on-site client support day. I’ll leave the house in a few minutes and be on the road until close of business so I’ll fall further behind on deliverables to out of state clients.

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Great Meeting

Of the 20 scouts, 7 showed and still managed to be a raucous as the full count. We had a great time! We started the meeting with attendance doing the camping game “My name is ___ and I’m taking a backpack.” Next person “My name is ____ and I’m taking a backpack and a hiking staff.” And each consecutive person adds an item. It went over very well. Then we played a memory game where I placed 17 items on a table (should have been about 24) and covered them. I broke the boys into two teams and gave them each 30 seconds to stare at the table. Then they were recovered and the boys had to write down everything they saw. Again. It went over well. We had a discussion and matching game on folklore. And ended the evening with a game of balloon basketball.

Bear Den

Den Meeting

February 10, 2005

Agenda

• Flag Ceremony

• Attendance

• Thomas reads folklore

• Memory Game

• Break into groups (Folklore and Balloon Basketball)

• Closing

Requirements Met

4a Tell in your own words what folklore is. List some folklore stories, folk songs, or historical legends from your own state or part of the country. Play the Folklore Match Game on page 48.

15b Play two organized games with your den.

15c Select a game that your den has never played. Explain the rules. Tell them how to play it, and then play it with them.

Take Home Achievement

4b Name at least five stories about American folklore. Point out on a United States map where they happened.

4c Read two folklore stories and tell your favorite one to your den.

15a Set up the equipment and play any two of these outdoor games with your family or friends.

_____ Backyard golf     _____ Kickball

_____ Badminton    _____ Softball

_____ Croquet    _____ Tetherball

_____ Sidewalk Shuffleboard     _____ Horseshoes

                     _____ Volleyball

Balloon Basketball

Activity Level: Moderate

Needed: Large to medium-sized playing area, any number of players, inflated balloons, empty cardboard box or wastepaper basket.

Use an inflated balloon for the ball, batting it around from player to player, and boxes or wastepaper baskets for the goals. Score as in basketball, except that a broken balloon counts five points off for the side that broke the balloon.