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2001-11-13 08:59:50 - Sometimes the coffee can't be black enough

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I finished up the first book in the Harry Potter series over the weekend. I was quite reluctant to ever read any of the Potter books but when I started to see the movie trailers I knew I would enjoy the books. I would recommend at least the first one to anyone. It was quite entertaining and a very easy read. After I put down that book I went and got Fellowship of the Rings, the first volume in the Lord of the Rings. I have until December 19th to finish it, when the movie comes out. Good thing too. The type is small and hard to read.

I've been knee deep in wedding stuff for the past month. If you've been looking for me and I haven't be around, I've been doing wedding stuff. This week it's folding Cootie Catchers. I think I've folded around 150 of them.

I used the vegatable steamer for the first time a couple of nights ago. What a difference it makes with rice.

Honestly, there's nothing interesting in my life going on right now. I take joy in doing things for the wedding because it makes Courtney so happy to have some help. I've gotten utterly sick of most everything on television (except, of course, for Boston Public, The Tick, ER, 24, the Simpsons, Malcom in the Middle, Family Guy, Futurama, King of the Hill, and That 70s Show) that I've continued to read anything within arms reach. My computer is a piece of shit. It has started this horrid habit of rebooting when the CD-Rom drive spins. So really, nothing is new with me.

I do have a site redesign in my head that I'm excited about. I haven't taken the time to hack it up yet but I've still got it in my noggin, where it's safe.

The coolest thing I've seen in awhile has been the program Quicken 2002 Deluxe. I LOVE to watch money move around. It absolutely astounds me where,how, and why I spend money. The best part about the application is all the graphs and visual cues it gives about finanaces. What once was a loosely run hack budget has become a Fortune 500 CFO-style finance committee. With Courtney there to help balance out the grinches on the board. *ahem*

As a final note, if you have heard some or, god forbid, all of the previous stories, then you probably hang out with me too much. ;)
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2001-11-08 08:18:12 - THE TICK!

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SPOON! It's finally here! Patrick Warburton portrays the big blue guy tonight on Fox at 7:30pm. I'm not a T.V. guy (okay, that's a blatant lie) but I suggest you all turn on your television's for a half hour tonight and watch the premiere episode of The Tick. I've already seen it and it's worth watching a million times over. I guarantee that the first 5 minutes is worth seeing as the Tick beats up a coffee machine. Sheer genius.
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2001-11-05 15:57:24 - Aftermath of a bridal shower

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Courtney returned home from her first bridal shower on Sunday. Right off the bat we got the vegatable steamer I so desparately wanted! It was like Christmas in November. It was amazing, though, all the traditional knicknacks she received. I'm all for knicknacks except we tend to be a bit more on the modern knicknack side than traditional. We're more for the feng-shui knicknack type than the seasonal snowman type. But it's nice to know that people just want to give. It doesn't really matter what. It's nice to know people care.

I picked up Shrek and Final Fantasy on DVD this weekend. I must say the reviewers were quite hard on Final Fantasy earlier this year. It's a great movie with a very traditional japanimation story line of age-old spirits versus technology. I would suggest japanimation fans give it another try. Shrek,of course, was good.


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2001-10-31 14:08:37 - Mailing

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In a month our wedding invitations will be mailed out. With all the anthrax talk going on lately I feel bad dropping 150+ invites in the mail. I hope people just don't throw them away.

When we bought stamps last weekend we went to a Cub Foods customer counter and kindly asked for 300 stamps. The lady laughed at us. Literally. When she realized we weren't kidding the smile from her face slid off her chin and she said, "You do realize it'll be over a 100 dollars?!" $0.34 x 300 =$102.00. Yes, I'm quite aware of that. Give me the damn stamps.

My anthrax paranoia levels are rising. It has everything to do with the media and our government.

Things I need:
1. A 4-port KVM for my computers.
2. Shrek, due Friday.
3. A smaller appetite.
4. Two more ibuprofen.
5. A newer computer.
6. Wedding party gifts.

While we bought stamps this past weekend we also applied for our passports and marriage license. Before going to the licensing bureau Courtney made a wise decision to locate our birth certificates which we assumed we would need to either get out of the country or get married. I had misplaced mine for a short while. 30 minutes of searching turned it up in my filing cabinet under "Medical Info." At one time it was filed under, "Birth Certificate." I have no idea why I moved it. So off to the government building we went. After waiting forever (it really was forever. I checked the clock) we spent 30 more minutes filling out forms. Upon completion of forms the lady asked for our birth certificates for our passport appilications. She then told us our original birth certificates had to be mailed in with the application and we would get it back with our passports. The only record that I ever was born is now in some federal government building being contaminated with anthrax and will be returned to me through our fail-safe federal mail system. I hope the government learns something from all of this.

Seriously, our lives could be made much simpler if the internet was used for what it's built for. Did you know that state licensing databases are not connected? Why the hell do I need a national ID card? I have enough cards as it is. Social Security card, driver's license. Don't any of these systems talk to each other? Get with it, U.S.
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2001-10-29 07:20:12 - Touch of death

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I firmly believe that I have inherited my mother's bad luck with anything that falls under my caretaking. With the arrival of Courtney in my life though, I've been able to discover my green thumb. I've been able to keep a guinea pig alive. I have a thriving bamboo tree. Well it all came to a grinding halt on Sunday when we brought two fish home from her parents house. Courtney's parents have a pond that that stock with gold fish over the summer. Typically in the winter they just let the fish "hibernate" and then scoop out the dead carcasses in the spring. This fall the decided to do the humane thing and try to save the fish. We gladly offered to take a few of them home with us. So we went out and got the fish tank and filter and rocks and all the goodies. We got the fish home, filled the tank with the wonderful Minnapolis city water and dumped the fish in. As quickly as you could bat an eye the two we had started swimming sideways and resting at the bottom of the tank. Courtney's concern for their life began to grow while I reassured her the fish would be okay. 20 minutes later it was quite apparent that these fish were not going to make it. Courtney quickly rushed to the store and picked up some distilled water and the fish slept in the milk jug of water over night. This morning we had to bury one of the fish but we did manage to save the other one.

Now before you go jumping down my throat about how to properly care for a fish let me remind you that I've successfully had many fish tanks in my life. I know that tap water needs to sit for 24 hours for it to distill. We had the distiller solution which we added to the water. I am certain though, that the screwed up pH balance in the Minneapolis water was the murderer of these fish. We had everything in place.

Nonetheless it was sad to flush a fish down the toilet this morning. It's not a good way to start off a week.
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2001-10-24 14:54:44 - Search engine optimization

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Yet another great keyword search that computerjargon.com is associated with:

picture of my ass

Boy I would love to meet the person who found my site looking for his own ass. I guarantee he found some ass, just not his own.

Let's get one thing straight, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is not a great movie. It took me a couple of months to admit it but I finally got over it in late '99. So when the VHS was released last year about this time I didn't run out to get it but I did reluctantly pick it up because in the end I'm still a Star Wars fan. This week I got my grubby hands on the 2-disc DVD set recently released. And boy, does a DVD make a difference. I still can't overlook the horrid acting of Jake Lloyd or the shortcomings of Jar-Jar Binks. But what the DVD brings to the table is a second disc filled with behind-the-scenes film and tidbit secrets from the filming. You get to see when Lucas makes the mistake of hiring Jake Lloyd and all his lackys kissing his ass for making a great decision. You get to see Ewan McGregor (one of my personal favorite actors) chop all his hair off and bitch about his light sabre in a scottish accent. All in all, I would have to say all the extras in the 2-disc set make up for the shitty movie. This DVD is a must-have for any collector.
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2001-10-22 15:13:46 - The numbers don't lie

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I installed some logging software last week to watch my traffic numbers. I was surprised to find out that the second most used keyword entered in search engines to locate computerjargon.com is humping. I tried google but couldn't find computerjargon.com under humping.
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