11/30/2001 at 6:12pm i had a meeting with one of my clients about purchasing a new copier for their business. they produce about 9,700 copies per month. their current copier is a pile. the one in the showroom was pretty top notch, it was a copier, fax machine, optical scanner, and network interface printer with pop3 email capabilities. this thing would do it all...out of all that the only thing that amazed me was that it would staple your copies...imagine that, you make a copy of 50 pages and the thing spits out 50 pages stapled together...technology is so cool!
there may be some fun in store for tonight. inviting some friends over for dinner and a movie, after which the night is open for some debauchery.
friends are good, i haven't been doing the social thing much lately, which is good in regards to saving money and focusing on making money. however, working for oneself one tends to lack the inaction between coworkers and ones social skills begin to diminish. i miss it sometimes.
11/29/2001 at 9:34am i was talking to my father on the cell phone yesterday. the service is cingular wireless and they absolutely suck ass in this area. drop calls are frequent throughout town. it has come to the point where i know where a call will drop which is what was going to happen while talking with my father. i pulled the truck over on a residential street and sat there conversing. after we hung up i needed to turn around to get back on the main road. i pulled into a drive way and noticed that the garage door was open and then discovered there was no car present. an amusing thought popped into my head. 'what if i just pulled into the garage, turned off my truck and started walking to the door'....but i didn’t.
back to work...
11/28/2001 at 6:04pm san luis obispo railroad
my office is located in the railroad square building to the back facing the street. the front of the building faces the train station. walking back to my truck after work i took a few shots with the canon. it was overcast so some shots look washed out. it is supposed to rain tomorrow...yea!
11/27/2001 at 9:21pm today is wonderful. at this moment i hold in my hands [actually, it is on my desk because i am typing this entry] the replacement for my broken handspring visor. with all the foul ups from both handspring and airborne express, i have been without the visor since november 11th. i can't believe how much i rely on this thing when i am out of the office or the house. in any case, i managed to make things work without it. i found my old compaq c120+ clam shell style windows ce machine to see if i could use it in lieu of not having the visor. but, the main battery was dead and the screen has always been very hard to read. i used that thing [before i bought my laptop] to telnet into the servers and check email when i was out of town. i actually got the hang of typing on those chicklet sized keys. at the time [1996] that thing was state of the art and very useful.
hard to believe that this saturday will be the first of december, which is also the last 1st of 2001. this year definitely went by fast, the fastest i have witnessed by far, i need a few days back...
trying to get some christmas shopping done early. money is tight, so i plan on making some gifts and shopping online for some good deals.
on another note, i actually have my business christmas cards designed, now i just need to print 'em, fold 'em and mail 'em off! last year i sent them out and they arrived on dec 26th, 'better late then never' should have been stamped on the outside...
11/26/2001 at 7:00pm just my luck...my handspring visor took a dump and i had to send it back for a replacement. they received my package and sent out the replacement on monday 11/19 second day air. so it should have arrived on wednesday 11/21. which it did not. the tracking info on the airborne express web site just showed it in ohio. same results this morning, so i called airborne and they said 'it looks like we have lost it somewhere in ohio', you are shitting me....how is that? how can you loose a package that is being tracked? i had a strange feeling this would happen, too. lame...so handspring is shipping me another one that was shipped out today. i am not holding my breath...argh! who knows they probably shipped me the wrong visor.
today has not been very productive. i haven't had any motivation to do much. i did some web stuff, answered the phones, looked on ebay and i found this. wow...[if the link has expired here is a photo] just struck me as funny.
also, i am in the process of moving portions of this web site to a different server which should happen tonight and tomorrow. so some things may not be accessable. however, once the smoke clears things will load much faster, especially all the images. sit tight.
11/24/2001 at 10:57am
woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain [is that a song lyric?, damn] anyway. it is raining quite hard right now. i grabbed some wood before it became too soaked and started a fire. smells good in the house right now, the scent of burning oak...nice. not sure what is in store for today. i need to buy some new black shoes as my current ones have a cracked soul, broken lace and are unreservedly scuffed beyond repair.
well, my handspring visor never showed up. i called and they told me it would arrive on friday [yesterday]. i checked the tracking online and it shows that it has not left ohio. lame. i need that freakin' thing! i will be pissed on monday.
more bad news, found out yesterday that i need a new muffler in the truck. it is the original one [1988] and the weather here beats things to shit, so it is time. the list as it stands now is:
never ends...and i would love to have a paint job some day.
- replace power steering pump
- tune-up
- new front breaks
- rotate tires and align wheels
- new muffler
it is still coming down outside...windy, too.
11/22/2001 at 3:41pm happy thanksgiving
stuffed...can't move...barely able to type...
loaded up on way too much food. but it was delicious, how could i resist! more cooking, drinking and eating is in store for tonight, an oh yeah drinking...oh wait, i mentioned that.
11/20/2001 at 3:00pm based on the tracking information from airborne express i should receive my handspring visor tomorrow. which is absolutely wonderful! it is amazing how much i use that thing. not having it puts a dent in my routine. however, nothing ever goes 100%. the lady who took down all my information about returning the visor told me to just send in the visor nothing else. well, i didn't think she meant the stylus [the pen used to navigate and write with]. the webs site states for a return to not include anything except the handspring and cover. no cases, stylus, cradles, etc. turns out i am not getting it back with a stylus...bummer...i called them and they are going to ship me one...but it will take about a week. i guess i could use a pen or something.
my parents are coming to my new home this year for thanksgiving. that will be interesting. i am looking forward to all the fantastic smells of food that will emanate from the kitchen.
i am trying to paint a wall by today in time for thanksgiving. hopefully i can find time to do it.
11/18/2001 at 10:27pm a sunday afternoon drive around the mountains behind san luis. this is one of the longer ways to reach avila beach, but a more beautiful view to experience as apposed to highway 1.
11/17/2001 at 4:06pm it seems my last few entries have been about annoying people and accidents. well, here is another one to add to the list.
i was in the vons shopping center grabbing some food - ham, cheese, bread, and milk [in case you were wondering]. i am walking over to my truck and i see this little lady in a huge buick backing out of her space. she was turning too sharp and clipped the bumper of the car to her left. it was quite noticeable that it happened. her car stuttered a bit and the sound of bending metal was very audible. however, this did not deter her from stopping and seeing what had happened. she continued to back out, very easily place the car into drive and drove down the main entrance and off she went. i watched her the entire way because i was getting her license number [should i post it?]. i looked around to see if the owner of the car was around, probably identified by a high vocal level of anger or an ear piercing scream, but.… silence. others around did nothing, and honestly looked as though nothing happened. am i the only one that saw this? was i dreaming? am i still dreaming?
well, i was surprised. i decided to help the victim. i grabbed an envelope from my truck and transcribed the following note -
'hello, i am very sorry i caused some damage to your vehicle. i waited for you to return. however i am running late. i drive a midnight blue buick. my license number is _______, please call the dmv to obtain my phone number and personal information. i would like to resolve this matter. thank you.'
should i have done that? i dunno now. at the time it seemed clever. will this person call the dmv? the bumper is pretty tweaked though. i didn't have time to wait, and frankly, i didn't want to get that involved.
hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. nice things, happy thoughts. we shall see.
11/15/2001 at 5:56pm tonight is farmer's market here in slo. once again, i will make my way out into the crowd, look for produce and a tri tip sandwich. as soon as i am satisfied with my items and my fully belly, i may slip into mccarthy's for a drink, just a drink. well, maybe just a drink in both hands....dunno...
they are doing a great deal of road construction in this town. people always seem to relapse into a 16 year old drivers ed student. they freak, they don't understand what the day-glow orange cones mean or why that overpaid guy holding the 'slow' sign is waving them to move forward. today, there was almost an accident that could have resulted in some bloody bodies. two lanes moving in the same direction, the right lane was closed. there was a an elder driver pulling out of a residential area merging into our flow of traffic. a car was next to him in the far lane, i was wondering what he was doing and figured he would just stop after he noticed the lane he turned into in closed. but without batting an eye he accelerated and blinding followed the cones into the far lane. two things happened at that exact moment in time: 1) the car in the far lane had steer into oncoming traffic. 2) on the opposite side of the elder drivers car, a cal-trans worker jumped out of the way to avoid receiving and side mirror to the kidney. crazy...this went down within 5 seconds...
i am behind both of these people when this mishap occurs. the crazy part is the car that swerved to avoid a potential collision with the elder's car sped up and mouthed some words and waved some hand gestures [you are number one i believe]. of course, the two cars meet at the inevitable red stop light ahead. the elder man rolls down his window and mouths something back to the other driver. they both exchange words and finger waves again. the light turns green and that moment will stay with each driver throughout the day. i couldn't help but laugh and wonder if the old man thought he was in the right and the other person was a crazy driver. a laughed out load when i saw the other cars bumper sticker that read 'i'm nucking futs', yes you are i said.
i stopped at avila beach on my way back from a meeting:
11/13/2001 at 7:22pm sunny today no more rain in sight until next week.
i was annoyed by people today. i was on my way to the post office [which explains why i was 'edgy' in the first place because i was hoping for some checks in my po box] and the way the post office is set up the entrance is located right on the corner of a four way stop light. so when everyone decides to come to the post office at 12:30, lunch hour i guess, a traffic jam is sure to ensue. it is always caused by the jackass who wants front row packing and waits right by the entrance. now six cars are behind that person stretching out into the intersection. what a cluster. if the horn in myu truck worked, i would just lay on it...but they wouldn't notice....and would still sit there. geezz..needless to say i was extremely annoyed and decided to drive downtown to by some paper. when i returned to the post office, things were better. i know i shouldn't go there during peak hours, but i really think people should learn that they can't just sit there and wait.
11/12/2001 at 10:15pm wet socks
rain all day....nice...fire in the fireplace, hot coffee. drive out to an airborne express drop box to return my broken handspring visor only to find out it is a drop box for letters, not packages! argh! soaking wet - back in the truck. on that note, replacing this visor is going to cost me about $120! that bytes....
quiet day. not too many phone calls, boring really.
i can't believe the holidays are almost here! another year, gone. wow... i am looking forward to spending the holidays with my friends and family.
11/11/2001 at 8:52pm yesterday was nothing but rain. lots of it, like i said before, i really dig the rain. it was perfect, dark and cloudy with rain into the wee hours of the morning. i cracked my bedroom window just enough to hear it trickling down the drain pipes and off the leaves of the tree onto the concrete below. soothing. took a break today. highly caffeinated, jen and i walked around downtown. i brought my camera along...
11/10/2001 at 2:14pm i won't go into detail about how the installation of win 2000 went on my laptop. however, it did go well until i was checking out the disk partitions and it showed me a new 141 meg partition. so i activated it and formatted it, nice. big mistake, that was the hidden partition that windows me uses to save all the personal settings and registry entries, @!$%. so windows me got hosed on the laptop and i ended up reinstalling only windows 2000. works well, so far.
so that pissed me off. i can never install an operating system only once, or seamlessly for that matter, problems always arise and they are never simple. the biggest problems happen when i think i have completed the install and then 'poof'....shit. wait, did i say i wouldn't go into too much detail or that i would....hold on...scrolling...ahh...i stated i would not...sorry.
actually to make matters worse, my handspring visor decided the laptop was getting all the attention and opted to take a dump, too. it will not start up [tried all the tricks even left the batteries out for 8 hours, when i put them back in, same problem]. the innards are screwed up. so i have to send it back and get it replaced. fun times. the crazy thing is, i use these two things all the time. contacts, notes, tasks, all stored in this little electronic wonder of a pda. i needed some numbers yesterday while i was doing a service call...ended up dialing 411...lame.
colin brought over final fantasy on dvd. wow...the effects and animation are astonishing. the visual effects looked very realistic at times. some portions, i swear, were live motion. but not true. my mind was trying to tell my eyes that this was animation, but my eyes would not believe. unreal. i wonder what films will be like in 2003 [i'll be sure to check this log then and see how stupid this section sounds].
i am off to run errands and stop by linnaeas for some coffee, then i don't know what...
11/08/2001 at 9:37am here i sit, in front of the computer. i just woke up. slept too long, popping bones, fuzzy vision, i must make my way downstairs to start the coffee brewing process. i think an italian roast this morning will do just fine. maybe with some eggs.
i can't believe it is already thursday....[okay took a short break to water the plants and brew some coffee....ahhh....nice]. so yeah, thursday. on the plate for today is work, i have two clients to meet with, the post office, then back to the office for more work and 'water cooler' chatting. once nightfall comes i will head on out to farmers market for some lettuce, oranges, and a tri-tip sandwich. yum.
addendum: 6:04pm
I am taking the lunge and installing windows 2000 professional on my laptop. I am doing a dual boot so if crap happens, I still have windows me [which i loath] to fallback on. wish me luck...
11/06/2001 at 10:39pm what a boring day. so boring that i was nodding off at times. i felt like sleeping all day. i am actually surprised i am awake right now, and in front of the computer for that matter. i just couldn't find anything to do, nothing interested me today. except using this web site web.archive.org to see old versions of current web sites. amazon.com's first home page, cnn.com, my first home page. pretty crazy. just think the whole web has been archived, nothing is lost. oh...that sucks...'i was young, i needed the money!'
blah...blah...i hope tomorrow will be better. i am awaiting a check via fedex, so maybe it will be a better, more productive, fun day. we shall see. tomorrow morning is the executives association meeting that i have on the 1st and 3rd wednesday of every month, bright and early, 6:30am...
11/05/2001 at 10:02pm caution: exploding ant entrails
today was just like any other monday. work was steady, usual amount of phone calls, hot coffee [palermo blend], mass emails. then, i received a phone call. a normal call, it was one of my clients. they had a strange noise coming from one of their computers. 'what do you mean by a strange noise'... i said, 'that is all they told me'...she replied. immediately i thought it was the ball bearing in the computer’s power supply that was going out. a common occurrence and would constitute the explanation of 'a strange noise' from a novice. i told her i could be out by 3:30. i arrived promptly at 4:14.
i made my way over to the back office to see the patient in question. they shut it off by the surge protector. so i turned it on, and sure enough, a high-pitched noise streamed from the computer. i placed my ear next to the power supply and noticed that the sound was not originating from its innards . i pulled the power cord out of the machine, and behold, the noise was still present. amazing.... i thought the fan was still spinning and was just about to slowly stop. but not so. i was in shock that the noise was still there. i was listening more closely and moved my head like a schizophrenic searching for the voices in his head. how could this sound emanate from a object with no power! my eyes locked on the surge protector. it was just sitting there. as i stared at it the sound became louder. i picked it up. ants began to hysterically run for cover. coming out of the sockets and the cracks along the back...ants...hundreds….it was the ants. i remember reading an article about how ants reek havoc on electronic equipment. they are drawn by the emf waves. the ants destroyed this surge protector. astonishing. 'i have only read about this kind of thing, never actually witnessed it' i said.
weird...
now, do i charge them the full hour rate?
11/04/2001 at 9:05pm very productive weekend i must say. party friday night till the wee hours. saturday was mostly devoted to house and yard work, then dinner and a movie [monsters, inc.]. today, sunday, was devoted to finishing up some work for monday morning, but i took a needed break and went grocery shopping. now it is time to wind down a bit.
i have just been reading other blogs and web sites for the past hour. seems everyone saw monsters, inc. too, they are all pretty much commenting on it, so i guess i will too. it was a really fun and entertaining movie. go see it if you have not. i was amazed by the detail generated by the computers. the fur on the main character was unreal!
i am currently reading two books. the queen of the damned [it has taken me way too long to read this book!] and glamorama. i will pick one and end my night reading.
11/03/2001 at 1:31pm well another bright sunny day on the central coast. the art show and wine tasting turned out to be quite fun. it was hosted at a local custom framing store that was actually their one year anniversary in the new building. many people showed up, ate, drank, and schmoozed. as the owner john commented on how many people showed up: 'it was packed, yeah, butts to nuts'... classic. many of the local older crowd was there, in other words, jen and i were the only ones under 30. many bottles of wine were consumed before we showed up. an observation i always make is how people in their 40's, 50's, 60's just get completely sauced off booze. it is a different type of drunk than my peers. it is definitely a happy kind of drunk but the complete physical collapse of their body’s is amusing to watch. almost like watching a small child walk knowing that the next second they may fall on their ass.
after the show was over, jen and i were invited to follow the owners and their friends to gralapogos, the newest italian restaurant here in slo. [a side note, we have too many italian trattorias in this town]. so 6 drunk people [jen was not drinking, and i am always on my best behavior when i drink : )] trying to order food amidst the incoherent conversation to one another and the inevitable sudden loss of hearing. this is a waiter's worst nightmare. one of many reasons why i hated being a waiter. i wasn't hungry and ordered, of course, a vodka martini - straight up, two olives. jen just had water, we had a big dinner prior to the art show. they ordered strange types of dishes, i am still not sure what the richotto shrimp bowl consisted of. more drinking ensued, they orderd 2 bottles of wine. at first i am sure the waiter misunderstood how drunk these people were as he stated the 97 merlot was $4.95 per glass and the table's overwhelming response was 'NO, the whole bottle!'. it was amazing to see these sophisticated people become so inept. it was fun to watch though. usually older drunk people get on my nerves, but not last night. that was a relief.
like i said it is nice and sunny here, although i did make a fire in the fireplace last night and this morning. i love a fireplace. it is not so much the warmth, as the fire itself. i have the ability to make a descent fire that will not die out. i like watching the fire grow from a smoldering flame to a powerful blaze. i never loose site of its danger. watching the flames lick at the open air almost as if they are dancing. quite a show. looking forward to more fireplace moments in the future.
today is off to a good start, i did yard work, cleaned the house, and now i will run some errands then...back to work.
11/02/2001 at 5:07pm digressing back to my entry regarding the rain that poured down on tuesday today looks like it will rain, or should have at least. tuesday's rain wasn't really much, enough to get things dirty. now we need another rain to wash the dirt and muck away! but, no rain insight. bummer... tuesday was still a great day anyway, the rain makes everything better!
i have a wine tasting and art show to attend tonight. I completely spaced on it. jennifer called to see if i was still going. 'of course', i said.... : ) art and wine, i would be a fool not to be there!
11/01/2001 at 5:44pm trick or
treatdentist?my teeth hurt. that is what happens when you buy a lot of candy because you live in a quite neighborhood that has many kids and you think those kids would come to your house to trick or treat. no, not this year. there were about 8 kids total that came to the door for candy. to the entire neighborhood for that matter. 8 kids to about 10 bags of suckers, sours, tootsie rolls, blow pops, life savers, choco pops, clark bars, oh the horror..
strange, this is my first halloween in this neighborhood, was it the terrorist thing? so needless to say, with all this candy i sorta ate a few, then a few more, and then just one more. they are just sitting there, right there. i do move the bowel, but it is somehow always within reach. i should have went to the office today to get away from the candy bowl, but i didn't. tummy hurts, too.
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