September 28, 2005
Someone doesn't like it
Well, I'm told word verification es caca, so I turned if off. Maybe once it works better I can turn it on again...
We love Alton Brown
And apparently this guy does too: http://www.briansbelly.com/featured/altonbrown/
Thanks to Jen: Here's an excellent link too. http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com
Thanks to Jen: Here's an excellent link too. http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com
I like it!
I am watching two channels from Japan. Jal TV and TFMI, Really interesting! I watched a real estate infomercial and now a program about a restaurant. Wish there were subtitles! :)
September 26, 2005
Ooh, love it!
I wrote that post like minutes ago and I have not gotten the little ring-a-ling on my cell phone that I have a comment which I know is a spam comment*. I hope ya'll don't stop posting comments b/c of the word veri. Sorry!!!
Oh yeah, and here's a blog I was just reading so I can get back to it later.
http://okayseriously.blogspot.com/
*Okay, my secret's out. I'm obsessive about knowing when I have a comment. I setup my phone to let me know when I have one. That's just sad, huh? hehe. I can live with it!!!
Oh yeah, and here's a blog I was just reading so I can get back to it later.
http://okayseriously.blogspot.com/
*Okay, my secret's out. I'm obsessive about knowing when I have a comment. I setup my phone to let me know when I have one. That's just sad, huh? hehe. I can live with it!!!
Last Shelter Visit
I went to the shelter today at lunch to take some signs, and to find out what other signs I needed to make. I got stuck working on a printer, and didn't get back to work on time. Oops.
I went over again after work and stayed until about 10pm, then came home. I didn't do anything of particular note tonight. I have a neat pic on my phone that I am going to put up, thought. I did make sure that the Humane Society rep was well taken care of and I watched over the Transportation Desk quite a bit. I guess the overall theme of this time of volunteering was taking care of pet issues, transportation issues, and of course being the Assistant Peach Engineer! Hehe. Funny thing is that I didn't eat a single peach. I have some in the fridge though, that I may eat tonite.
All in all, it was a great experience. I met so many nice people. Adam first and foremost. Angie and Geri, who I kept confusing. Nicolas, who had really cool wavy hair. Barbara. Karen. Darlene! Aww Darlene was a riot. I have her in the pic I took tonite. That was it I guess. Maybe I'll do it again next disaster. I highly recommend volunteering for Red Cross.
P.S. I had lots of water while working there. Wanna see?
I saw with my own eyes several thousand bottles of this water. The volume of supplies there was astounding.
I went over again after work and stayed until about 10pm, then came home. I didn't do anything of particular note tonight. I have a neat pic on my phone that I am going to put up, thought. I did make sure that the Humane Society rep was well taken care of and I watched over the Transportation Desk quite a bit. I guess the overall theme of this time of volunteering was taking care of pet issues, transportation issues, and of course being the Assistant Peach Engineer! Hehe. Funny thing is that I didn't eat a single peach. I have some in the fridge though, that I may eat tonite.
All in all, it was a great experience. I met so many nice people. Adam first and foremost. Angie and Geri, who I kept confusing. Nicolas, who had really cool wavy hair. Barbara. Karen. Darlene! Aww Darlene was a riot. I have her in the pic I took tonite. That was it I guess. Maybe I'll do it again next disaster. I highly recommend volunteering for Red Cross.
P.S. I had lots of water while working there. Wanna see?
I saw with my own eyes several thousand bottles of this water. The volume of supplies there was astounding.
Word Verification
I hate to turn on Word Verification for comments, but I did. Too many spam comments lately...sry! It's for the better! Really!
The Story of Today
I'll write it later -
- Transportation Desk - 100% success
- Angleton Pets ordeal
- Moving and networking computers (I just can't stay away)
I forgot to eat dinner. Today's food consisted of about 6 bottles of water and 2 packaged pastries. Oh well, I actually did eat a late lunch after already having eaten at home before coming. I had two pieces of KFC fried chicken and m-pot (which is our (Jen's and my) code for mashed potatoes). I hate fried chicken. I was so hungry that I told my lunch partner Geri that it was the best Fried chicken that I'd ever eaten. It was a great day.
Details later...
[Update Jan 2006: Well, I never wrote that post, but I am going to some day sit down and really write it. The Pets story is amazing. I saved 6 dogs from being left at the Animal Shelter by people going home who couldn't go to get them . I will write that some day...]
Early Night
Well, I'm home *early* (see time below) from my 2nd job there at Kelly AFB. Once again, dead. Warrior needs sleep badly.
September 25, 2005
Going back
I just woke up and showered. Now I'm warming up some food and getting ready to go back to the shelter. I ache. I used to be able to stay up all night without any problems. Oh well. hehe.
The Story of Today
I went over to Freeman and got registered to be a volunteer, which is just a matter of (very briefly) finding out if you have any skills and finding a place to send you. I picked KellyUSA building 1536. I could have gone to another shelter, but I have heard that they have some of the biggest warehouses in the world out there and wanted to see. What I heard was right. Imagine 5 Super Wal-Marts end to end and connected. That's how big 1536 is. Gargantuan is an understatement.
Here's my name tag:
When I first arrived, a nice young lady checked me in and asked me what I wanted to do. I said "I dunno" and so she said, "Wanna do this?" (meaning check people in, not thiiiiisss, hehe). So she gave me a 5 minute training on how to check people in, and then left. I proceeded to kind of do it my own way anyway. I was getting the job done, but I wasn't really enjoying it. I work on computers all day and play on them all night. So, after an hour or so, I got out of that. What I really wanted to do (even before I arrived I thought of this) was to help serve food. So, I went over to the service area and asked to be put to work. Boy did they!!! I moved stuff around and helped organize for the after-lunch snack tables. I got in a work group with 3 or 4 ladies. 1 of them was Annette Ramos, who I had gone to college with, even thought I didn't know her very well then. I served canned peaches with her for about 5 hours until dinner and talked a lot with her. Now, that's a lot of peaches!!! I have been saying that we went through at least 500 gallons of peaches, and I'm not sure if that's a big enough number. It was fun though. Then we get set for dinner. Dinner was Chili Mac, Green Beans, Rolls, and fruit. I was going to count plates with one of those neat little finger clickers, but I got an even better job. In this building, they had tons of that Purell Hand sanitizer gel and they needed someone to make sure that everyone that came thru the line got a squirt of it. I really had a good time with that! I was all chatting and joking with people - "Squirt for your health; Salud!" - Have a little squirt; keep the germs away" - "How about a little squirt for the little squirt?" (for the lil kids) - "Here's a squirt; we want to keep you healthy." I used up my quota of the word squirt for this life, I think. Haha. I was also telling them things like "I hope you have a good meal tonite" and "We're gonna take care of ya'll" - just general good Texas friendly type things. I only had about 8 people refuse a little squirt. I tried not to take no for an answer. That was good and I bet I disinfected about 2500 people.
After that, I connected up with Adam, the shelter manager. He snagged me to do a count of people that needed to go back to Beaumont, which I and an SAPD detective did. It was 440 by the way. Lots of Beaumonters in the shelter. I sat in on a meeting with him, even though I probably shouldn't have, and about 5 of us talked about the counts. They did other cities at the same time as I did Beaumont. Anyway, one of the things that came up was that he wanted to set up a table for Transportation Info. I jumped in and said I'd do it. I was looking for a new job by now (being thoroughly tired of peaches...) and he said "OK." We talked about what we needed and I said that I'd take care of it. With a little info about what he wanted, I went about making it happen.
Aha, at this point I just remembered the thing about the lady that wanted to beat me up. She was in the line to be counted for B-mont, and when I couldn't answer he questions about when they were going home, she got belligerent. Forgive me, but fuck her! She was all chewing me out when she should be thankful that Red Cross gave a damn about getting her lousy ass out of Beaumont! Okay, sorry about that. But anyway, she wanted to chew me out instead of being thankful for the free food and shelter and everything that Red Cross had given her. Finally, after a minute or two of verbal punishment from this bitch, I just interrupted her and said, "I can't talk to you anymore" and I walked away. It's a good think that two police officers closed in and gave her a talking to or I think she might have followed and given me a slap like those penguins out of the Madagascar movie (that was really good, BTW. I highly recommend it)
So, back to the Transportation Desk. I knew that it would take a lot of printing, so I decided that I'd get all my stuff together and just go to my office. It's about 1:30am by now, but that's OK. So, I was just getting ready to do one final check with Adam when some big guy in a pink shirt stopped me from going in the office I'd been going in for the past 3 hours to do stuff (the Red Cross office). I found out that he was Craig and that he was a new shelter manager that had just come on shift. He asked me a lot of questions and ended with "How long have you been here?" "since noon-thirty" was not a good answer, but it was true and it was the one I gave. He said"Go home" flat out and wouldn't listen to anything I had to say which pissed me off. So, I went to find Adam and just left. I told Adam that I wanted to get the fliers back into the building so that they'd be ready first thing in the morning. He made arrangements for me to get another guy to come out to my car and get them so Craig-jerk wouldn't see me back on the premises after having told me to leave. And an hour and a half or so later, they guy did come out and get them. I was happy everything was ready for the Transportation Desk - my Red Cross baby - to be born. Then I went home and crashed...
Here's my name tag:
When I first arrived, a nice young lady checked me in and asked me what I wanted to do. I said "I dunno" and so she said, "Wanna do this?" (meaning check people in, not thiiiiisss, hehe). So she gave me a 5 minute training on how to check people in, and then left. I proceeded to kind of do it my own way anyway. I was getting the job done, but I wasn't really enjoying it. I work on computers all day and play on them all night. So, after an hour or so, I got out of that. What I really wanted to do (even before I arrived I thought of this) was to help serve food. So, I went over to the service area and asked to be put to work. Boy did they!!! I moved stuff around and helped organize for the after-lunch snack tables. I got in a work group with 3 or 4 ladies. 1 of them was Annette Ramos, who I had gone to college with, even thought I didn't know her very well then. I served canned peaches with her for about 5 hours until dinner and talked a lot with her. Now, that's a lot of peaches!!! I have been saying that we went through at least 500 gallons of peaches, and I'm not sure if that's a big enough number. It was fun though. Then we get set for dinner. Dinner was Chili Mac, Green Beans, Rolls, and fruit. I was going to count plates with one of those neat little finger clickers, but I got an even better job. In this building, they had tons of that Purell Hand sanitizer gel and they needed someone to make sure that everyone that came thru the line got a squirt of it. I really had a good time with that! I was all chatting and joking with people - "Squirt for your health; Salud!" - Have a little squirt; keep the germs away" - "How about a little squirt for the little squirt?" (for the lil kids) - "Here's a squirt; we want to keep you healthy." I used up my quota of the word squirt for this life, I think. Haha. I was also telling them things like "I hope you have a good meal tonite" and "We're gonna take care of ya'll" - just general good Texas friendly type things. I only had about 8 people refuse a little squirt. I tried not to take no for an answer. That was good and I bet I disinfected about 2500 people.
After that, I connected up with Adam, the shelter manager. He snagged me to do a count of people that needed to go back to Beaumont, which I and an SAPD detective did. It was 440 by the way. Lots of Beaumonters in the shelter. I sat in on a meeting with him, even though I probably shouldn't have, and about 5 of us talked about the counts. They did other cities at the same time as I did Beaumont. Anyway, one of the things that came up was that he wanted to set up a table for Transportation Info. I jumped in and said I'd do it. I was looking for a new job by now (being thoroughly tired of peaches...) and he said "OK." We talked about what we needed and I said that I'd take care of it. With a little info about what he wanted, I went about making it happen.
Aha, at this point I just remembered the thing about the lady that wanted to beat me up. She was in the line to be counted for B-mont, and when I couldn't answer he questions about when they were going home, she got belligerent. Forgive me, but fuck her! She was all chewing me out when she should be thankful that Red Cross gave a damn about getting her lousy ass out of Beaumont! Okay, sorry about that. But anyway, she wanted to chew me out instead of being thankful for the free food and shelter and everything that Red Cross had given her. Finally, after a minute or two of verbal punishment from this bitch, I just interrupted her and said, "I can't talk to you anymore" and I walked away. It's a good think that two police officers closed in and gave her a talking to or I think she might have followed and given me a slap like those penguins out of the Madagascar movie (that was really good, BTW. I highly recommend it)
So, back to the Transportation Desk. I knew that it would take a lot of printing, so I decided that I'd get all my stuff together and just go to my office. It's about 1:30am by now, but that's OK. So, I was just getting ready to do one final check with Adam when some big guy in a pink shirt stopped me from going in the office I'd been going in for the past 3 hours to do stuff (the Red Cross office). I found out that he was Craig and that he was a new shelter manager that had just come on shift. He asked me a lot of questions and ended with "How long have you been here?" "since noon-thirty" was not a good answer, but it was true and it was the one I gave. He said"Go home" flat out and wouldn't listen to anything I had to say which pissed me off. So, I went to find Adam and just left. I told Adam that I wanted to get the fliers back into the building so that they'd be ready first thing in the morning. He made arrangements for me to get another guy to come out to my car and get them so Craig-jerk wouldn't see me back on the premises after having told me to leave. And an hour and a half or so later, they guy did come out and get them. I was happy everything was ready for the Transportation Desk - my Red Cross baby - to be born. Then I went home and crashed...
I'm home
I just arrived home from volunteering. I had a really amazing day. It was probably one of the most interesting and unique days of my life. I went from data entry clerk, to food server, to sanitizing lotion dispenser, to planning and implementing information table for FEMA, HHS, Salvation Army, etc. What a whirlwind. I have a few pics on my phone to post. I met lots of nice people and almost got beat up by a disgruntled refugee. Good thing I was standing around with two cops. I have to tell this story later. Now, I'm dead. I must sleep so I can go back in 6 or 7 hours. I'm needed, and that's a good feeling.
Here's where I was: Building 1536 at KellyUSA, formerly Kelly AFB. This is a map. The map is sooo not to scale. The building is bigger than this! I walked the length back and forth at least 5 times. Whew!
Here's where I was: Building 1536 at KellyUSA, formerly Kelly AFB. This is a map. The map is sooo not to scale. The building is bigger than this! I walked the length back and forth at least 5 times. Whew!
September 24, 2005
Volunteer
I'm going to Freeman Coliseum to volunteer for the Red Cross. That story later when I return...
http://www.sanantonio.gov/hurricanerelief/volunteers.asp
http://www.sanantonio.gov/hurricanerelief/volunteers.asp
Rita closer, ever closer
Hurricane Rita is seen in this NOAA
satellite image taken Friday, Sept. 23, 2005.
BEAUMONT, Texas - By TIM WHITMIRE, Associated Press Writer - Hurricane Rita's strongest winds came ashore along the Texas-Louisiana line early Saturday, battering the coast with stinging rain and pounding waves that threatened flooding across the low-lying region. The eyewall — the ring of 120 mph winds surrounding Rita's calm eye — lashed the coastal area between Sabine Pass, Texas, and Cameron, La., according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane's eye was expected to come ashore on a course that could spare Houston and Galveston but slam the oil refining towns of Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, and Lake Charles, La., with a 20-foot storm surge, towering waves and up to 25 inches of rain. Rita weakened during the day into a Category 3 hurricane after raging as a Category 5, 175-mph monster earlier in the week. But it was still a highly dangerous storm.
I just wanted to put this here so that I can have it for the future. Respect to Mr Whitmire for his good work.
Hurricane Ree Tah
Hurricane Rita is about to hit Port Arthur. I'm here at home in San Antonio, safely 3 hours west of the "bullseye". Jen and Bren are in North Texas at my folks place, also safe and sound. I know that my good friend's daughter (a nurse) stayed in Houston to help with recovery if necessary. I hope she's safe.
September 23, 2005
I can't stop!
I just can't stop watching this guy's videos! Somebody hep meh!!!!
ROFL. You go Daily Dancer. Love it. Very amusing stuff!!!
ROFL. You go Daily Dancer. Love it. Very amusing stuff!!!
A funny fellow
Hahahahaha! This guy looks rather like one of my high school buddies. I wonder if said buddy has ever ready my blog? I've read his once or twice...
http://dailydancer.com/
All three of us in the H household dance to this one. Bren likes the song so much that we often listen to it nightly. I must admit that this guy dances to it just about like I do...lots of jumps, spins, and wack-o-ness. He's great! Hey, maybe once we get the video cam setup we could post of video of the three of us doing the Boom Boom dance. Hmmmm.
http://dailydancer.com/
All three of us in the H household dance to this one. Bren likes the song so much that we often listen to it nightly. I must admit that this guy dances to it just about like I do...lots of jumps, spins, and wack-o-ness. He's great! Hey, maybe once we get the video cam setup we could post of video of the three of us doing the Boom Boom dance. Hmmmm.
September 19, 2005
365 Days in Japan: Curse the narrow roads!
http://marugamefranklins.blogspot.com
I am going to start reading this from the beginning today...sounds right up my alley of interest.
I am going to start reading this from the beginning today...sounds right up my alley of interest.
September 18, 2005
This could revolutionize
This could revolutionize the internal combustion engine... Very interesting!
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=cfeb17de-d945-4db4-87a6-090911200e96
Smaller than a DVD player - small enough to sit comfortably under the hood of any truck or car - it could be big enough to solve the world's greenhouse gas emission problems, at least for the near future. In fact, it could make the Kyoto protocol obsolete. Basically, the H2N-Gen contains a small reservoir of distilled water and other chemicals such as potassium hydroxide. A current is run from the car battery through the liquid. This process of electrolysis creates hydrogen and oxygen gases which are then fed into the engine's intake manifold where they mix with the gasoline vapours. It's a scientific fact that adding hydrogen to a combustion chamber will cause a cleaner burn. The challenge has always been to find a way to get the hydrogen gas into the combustion chamber in a safe, reliable and cost-effective way. Williams claims he has achieved this with his H2N-Gen. His product, he said, produces a more complete burn, greatly increasing efficiency and reducing fuel consumption by 10 to 40 per cent - and pollutants by up to 100 per cent. Most internal combustion engines operate at about 35 per cent efficiency. This means that only 35 per cent of the fuel is fully burned. The rest either turns to carbon corroding the engine or goes out the exhaust pipe as greenhouse gases. The H2N-Gen increases burn efficiency to at least 97 per cent, Williams said. This saves fuel and greatly reduces emissions.
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=cfeb17de-d945-4db4-87a6-090911200e96
Smaller than a DVD player - small enough to sit comfortably under the hood of any truck or car - it could be big enough to solve the world's greenhouse gas emission problems, at least for the near future. In fact, it could make the Kyoto protocol obsolete. Basically, the H2N-Gen contains a small reservoir of distilled water and other chemicals such as potassium hydroxide. A current is run from the car battery through the liquid. This process of electrolysis creates hydrogen and oxygen gases which are then fed into the engine's intake manifold where they mix with the gasoline vapours. It's a scientific fact that adding hydrogen to a combustion chamber will cause a cleaner burn. The challenge has always been to find a way to get the hydrogen gas into the combustion chamber in a safe, reliable and cost-effective way. Williams claims he has achieved this with his H2N-Gen. His product, he said, produces a more complete burn, greatly increasing efficiency and reducing fuel consumption by 10 to 40 per cent - and pollutants by up to 100 per cent. Most internal combustion engines operate at about 35 per cent efficiency. This means that only 35 per cent of the fuel is fully burned. The rest either turns to carbon corroding the engine or goes out the exhaust pipe as greenhouse gases. The H2N-Gen increases burn efficiency to at least 97 per cent, Williams said. This saves fuel and greatly reduces emissions.
September 17, 2005
The Tribrid Vehicle Economy
An interesting looking site. I haven't read it, but I am stashing it here so I can...
http://superfueli.blogspot.com/
http://superfueli.blogspot.com/
September 15, 2005
Birthday 05
Today's my birthday! I got this card from Cesar at work. What a nice guy!
We had a lot of fun today. Jen took me out to P.F. Changs and we had some yummy food, including Lettuce Wraps. They're definitely worth it!
We had a lot of fun today. Jen took me out to P.F. Changs and we had some yummy food, including Lettuce Wraps. They're definitely worth it!
September 13, 2005
September 12, 2005
Car of Eeewwwwww
I called in sick today. I was so tired and achy when the alarm went off this morning, that I just didn't feel up to going in. I went back to bed and slept for several more hours. When I woke up, I felt much better. Bren woke up shortly thereafter and came into our room. I heard the garbage truck coming, and Bren and I ran to the window so that I could show it to him. We have these cool automated trash trucks where there is only a driver and a robot arm that picks up the large canister and dumps it in the truck. I love to watch this truck operate, so I wanted to point it out to Bren. I've done that a few times before, but I can't get enough of it, so...
We watched it and cheered. When I put Bren down, he ran out to our room and said "Mama, mama...car of Eeewwwwww" - I guess that trash is ewww yuck, so that's his little brain's way of looking at a trash truck. He's so cute.
We watched it and cheered. When I put Bren down, he ran out to our room and said "Mama, mama...car of Eeewwwwww" - I guess that trash is ewww yuck, so that's his little brain's way of looking at a trash truck. He's so cute.
September 11, 2005
September 11th
Today is the 4th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. I remember the first time I heard anything about it. I was just turning in to the campus where I work. For some reason I went in the west gate that day, and I very rarely do that. On NPR (89.1 KSTX) I heard that a plane had crashed into the WTC. They didn't really specify what it was, but I immediately thought of a little plane like a Cessna or something. I had no idea what was to come. I know that we sat in the cafeteria for a lot of the day watching CNN.
Here's what I was hearing on NPR as I drove in. (Requires Real Player)
At about 8 minutes in, there's an actual news report. It's really worth listening to. The commentator for the first portion is Bob Edwards who is normally very calm and smooth on the air. The fact that he's speaking in broken sentences and faltering shows that he's unsure of what's going on and just doing his best to keep an even keel.
You can skip to 11:14 to continue coverage. There are several minutes of non-attack related coverage in there that aren't really pertinent. It's really very informative even for me to go back and listen to this. President Bush's remarks start at 13:25 in. Another interesting part of this report comes at 25:04. Bob mentions that all air traffic in the US had been grounded. That's hundred of planes. That was an amazing part of this. A powerful part also come at 27 minutes. That's when Bob first saw the collapse of the North Tower. It really affected him strongly.
I really hope that it is available for the forseeable future. Brendan, I hope you're listening to this some day...it was a very important event in US history.
Here is some more info. I didn't listen to all of this, but it might be of interest.
The 9-11 Commission An Audio Chronicle
I've downloaded the full report from the 9-11 Commission (7.5 Meg) in case it somehow becomes unavailable in the future. It's available here.
I have made this post at 7:46 am my time in honor of the first plane strike. It happened at 8:46 NYC time.
Here's what I was hearing on NPR as I drove in. (Requires Real Player)
At about 8 minutes in, there's an actual news report. It's really worth listening to. The commentator for the first portion is Bob Edwards who is normally very calm and smooth on the air. The fact that he's speaking in broken sentences and faltering shows that he's unsure of what's going on and just doing his best to keep an even keel.
You can skip to 11:14 to continue coverage. There are several minutes of non-attack related coverage in there that aren't really pertinent. It's really very informative even for me to go back and listen to this. President Bush's remarks start at 13:25 in. Another interesting part of this report comes at 25:04. Bob mentions that all air traffic in the US had been grounded. That's hundred of planes. That was an amazing part of this. A powerful part also come at 27 minutes. That's when Bob first saw the collapse of the North Tower. It really affected him strongly.
I really hope that it is available for the forseeable future. Brendan, I hope you're listening to this some day...it was a very important event in US history.
Here is some more info. I didn't listen to all of this, but it might be of interest.
The 9-11 Commission An Audio Chronicle
I've downloaded the full report from the 9-11 Commission (7.5 Meg) in case it somehow becomes unavailable in the future. It's available here.
I have made this post at 7:46 am my time in honor of the first plane strike. It happened at 8:46 NYC time.
Big Dogs
I really like the Big Dogs clothing Company. Not only do I enjoy their clothing lines, but I respect their efforts to support the relief effort for hurricane Katrina.
In an email I just got from them, they say:
1) We are sending 100,000 garments and a large quantity of shoes to aid hurricane victims.
2) We are passing the hat amongst all of our employees to contribute to the Red Cross. Remember, everything counts when it comes to charitable giving and no amount is too small.
3) We have printed approximately 20,000 T-shirts to sell in both our store chains and through the internet. We will contribute the profits for all of the T-shirts sold to the Red Cross relief effort.
[ If you're interested in a shirt, go here. ]
Additionally, for our employees affected by the disaster:
We have extended our disaster benefit policy to all our employees affected by Katrina.
We will provide shoes and clothing to our employees and their families.
Administrative support to help process applications for aid from agencies like FEMA.
We’re making jobs open to all our dislocated employees willing to relocate.
We’re offering financial assistance to employees on a case by case basis.
This was signed by
Andrew D. Feshbach
CEO, Big Dog Holdings Inc.
Sounds like a good man to me.
In an email I just got from them, they say:
1) We are sending 100,000 garments and a large quantity of shoes to aid hurricane victims.
2) We are passing the hat amongst all of our employees to contribute to the Red Cross. Remember, everything counts when it comes to charitable giving and no amount is too small.
3) We have printed approximately 20,000 T-shirts to sell in both our store chains and through the internet. We will contribute the profits for all of the T-shirts sold to the Red Cross relief effort.
[ If you're interested in a shirt, go here. ]
Additionally, for our employees affected by the disaster:
We have extended our disaster benefit policy to all our employees affected by Katrina.
We will provide shoes and clothing to our employees and their families.
Administrative support to help process applications for aid from agencies like FEMA.
We’re making jobs open to all our dislocated employees willing to relocate.
We’re offering financial assistance to employees on a case by case basis.
This was signed by
Andrew D. Feshbach
CEO, Big Dog Holdings Inc.
Sounds like a good man to me.
September 10, 2005
The Palms
I was just looking for info on The Palms, a giant land reclamation project in the United Arab Emirates.
I found this and this first, and then finally landed on what I was looking for. Interesting and ambitious project. This is not anything official, but it has a really good animation of what it should look like eventually. Here's a news item on the official website about it.
Pretty amazing to look at it. I'd like to go there some day...
Something I ran across here is "Take wisdom from the wise - not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey." A good piece of advice...it should be remembered when having someone work on one's computer and car, I think! :)
I found this and this first, and then finally landed on what I was looking for. Interesting and ambitious project. This is not anything official, but it has a really good animation of what it should look like eventually. Here's a news item on the official website about it.
Pretty amazing to look at it. I'd like to go there some day...
Something I ran across here is "Take wisdom from the wise - not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey." A good piece of advice...it should be remembered when having someone work on one's computer and car, I think! :)
A Baby Shower
We went to a baby shower about a week ago at work and among the "activities" was a baby food ID contest. Jen apparently had done this one before but I had only heard of it. I wasn't certain about how I felt about the prospect of tasting pureed mush, but I did it anyway.
What you had to do was try a little taste of each of 10 things of varying colors, odors, and textures and then decide what it was in its previous life. You wrote down your guess (everyone did #1 at the same time, and so on) and at the end traded papers with someone (other than our spouse) and checked each other.
Here's was my poor attempt...
And here's Jen's "been-there-done-that" list.
I couldn't help but be humorous! I have to admit that I didn't taste #3. Yech! It smelled just like motor oil to me... Jen said she had trouble on 5, but she did finally figure it out. 5 must have been the worst tasting thing I've ever eaten that was supposed to be food. Man this stuff was just nasty!!! :) Now #2 - that was some good stuff. I'ma gonna have to git me summa that!!!
Jen brought home the trophy for the baby food contest and I brought home the one for the "drinking Sprite out of a sippy cup quickly" contest. We knocked em dead. I guess we're old hands at parenting now. Hehe.
What you had to do was try a little taste of each of 10 things of varying colors, odors, and textures and then decide what it was in its previous life. You wrote down your guess (everyone did #1 at the same time, and so on) and at the end traded papers with someone (other than our spouse) and checked each other.
Here's was my poor attempt...
And here's Jen's "been-there-done-that" list.
I couldn't help but be humorous! I have to admit that I didn't taste #3. Yech! It smelled just like motor oil to me... Jen said she had trouble on 5, but she did finally figure it out. 5 must have been the worst tasting thing I've ever eaten that was supposed to be food. Man this stuff was just nasty!!! :) Now #2 - that was some good stuff. I'ma gonna have to git me summa that!!!
Jen brought home the trophy for the baby food contest and I brought home the one for the "drinking Sprite out of a sippy cup quickly" contest. We knocked em dead. I guess we're old hands at parenting now. Hehe.
DVD-Only Distribution Planned for Exchange 12
I'm a nerd. This is nerd stuff. I'm interested.
DVD-Only Distribution Planned for Exchange 12September 6, 2005 • by Scott BekkerThe distribution media for Exchange 12 will be exclusively DVD, Microsoft announced in a blog posting Tuesday.
"Exchange will likely be one of the first products to make the switch to only DVD, but we aren't doing this without good reason and without carefully weighing the pros and cons," KC Lemson, a program manager with the Exchange Server team, wrote on the Exchange blog.
The main reason to switch to DVD is the massive text-to-speech engines required for unified messaging, which is a key new feature of Exchange 12. "These engines will allow you to call up your server on your phone and have it read your e-mail and appointments over the phone to you," Lemson wrote. "We estimate that the final size of each language of these engines … will be around a couple hundred megs and we are working on including as many languages as we can."
A standard CD-ROM can hold about 650-700 MB of data. A single-layer DVD can hold about seven times as much data as a standard CD-ROM.
Microsoft is announcing the DVD requirement more than a year in advance to give customers time to ensure they have a DVD drive available for installing Exchange 12 or for copying the file to a network share.
According to Lemson's blog posting, Microsoft took feedback over the blog and through other channels. Customers told Microsoft they rarely install from media, Lemson said: "We heard time and time again that a common practice is to copy the data from the media onto a network share from a desktop machine, and install each of the servers over the network … [E]ven today it's very difficult to find an organization without a single DVD drive on a machine hooked up to the network that could perform this one-time operation."
(source: Redmond Magazine)
I've never read the Exchange Blog, but I should. It is http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/. These guys are just like me. I LOL at the title of their blog - "You Had Me At EHLO..."
LOL LOL LOL ROFL cough snort snicker
One of their logo-type things from CafePress is
Mapi does make me happy. Mapi Rox!
DVD-Only Distribution Planned for Exchange 12September 6, 2005 • by Scott BekkerThe distribution media for Exchange 12 will be exclusively DVD, Microsoft announced in a blog posting Tuesday.
"Exchange will likely be one of the first products to make the switch to only DVD, but we aren't doing this without good reason and without carefully weighing the pros and cons," KC Lemson, a program manager with the Exchange Server team, wrote on the Exchange blog.
The main reason to switch to DVD is the massive text-to-speech engines required for unified messaging, which is a key new feature of Exchange 12. "These engines will allow you to call up your server on your phone and have it read your e-mail and appointments over the phone to you," Lemson wrote. "We estimate that the final size of each language of these engines … will be around a couple hundred megs and we are working on including as many languages as we can."
A standard CD-ROM can hold about 650-700 MB of data. A single-layer DVD can hold about seven times as much data as a standard CD-ROM.
Microsoft is announcing the DVD requirement more than a year in advance to give customers time to ensure they have a DVD drive available for installing Exchange 12 or for copying the file to a network share.
According to Lemson's blog posting, Microsoft took feedback over the blog and through other channels. Customers told Microsoft they rarely install from media, Lemson said: "We heard time and time again that a common practice is to copy the data from the media onto a network share from a desktop machine, and install each of the servers over the network … [E]ven today it's very difficult to find an organization without a single DVD drive on a machine hooked up to the network that could perform this one-time operation."
(source: Redmond Magazine)
I've never read the Exchange Blog, but I should. It is http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/. These guys are just like me. I LOL at the title of their blog - "You Had Me At EHLO..."
LOL LOL LOL ROFL cough snort snicker
One of their logo-type things from CafePress is
Mapi does make me happy. Mapi Rox!
My early morning
I don't know why this happens, but often I'll wake up on a Saturday way too early. Jen is annoyed by it, but I can't help it. So, after going to bed at about 1:45 am, I woke up at precisely 8am. I'm tired. Stayed up too late playing RuneScape, of course. This morning I'm clearing out my hotmail. I haven't checked my hotmail/yahoo/gmail in about 3 months. They are totally getting full of stuff. So, I'm right now trying to get thru particularly my MyPoints messages. I have allllllmost 10,000 points which is what I want to get to before I redeem. I'm going to blow out all 10,000 at that point if I can. For instance, I can get seven $10 Red Lobster gift cards with that (they're 1,400 points each). I could go and eat two freakin lobsters and still have GCs left over! Mwahahahahahaha!
I'm also listening to some music from http://blueroom.sbc.com. I 've been hearing about that for months on the radio, but haven't ever visited it. It's good! I watched two videos of Staind that were shot here at one of the radio stations that I listen to - K-Rock, 102.7 in San Antonio. Gin Blossoms are on now, and Josh Kelley was a few minutes ago. This is good stuff. Josh Kelly had some interviews that I watched too. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. He actually reminds me of Heath, who went to school with me. A genuinely nice guy with a very ornery streak in him. Hmm, ornery is not a word I see typed very often. hehe.
Well, I've exhausted all the music I want to listen to on there, so now I'm playing around in WinAmp. I like the XRM radio, as I mentioned before. I've seen that they have some streaming video in Winamp too. There are a lot of things in there. I'm watching (sort of) a stream called Jpopsuki Tv right now. Japanese pop music videos. It's upbeat stuff. ^_^. There's also some rather graphic stuff in there, so...We just won't go there.
We had a fairly good anime club meeting yesterday. I don't think I've mentioned that I've setup a blog for the club. http://mizuumi.org. The funny thing is that we have a lot of weirdos that come to the meeting. In fact all the members are some kind of weird. Except me. :p Hmmmm. That's funny.
Well, I'm tired of typing for now. More later...
I'm also listening to some music from http://blueroom.sbc.com. I 've been hearing about that for months on the radio, but haven't ever visited it. It's good! I watched two videos of Staind that were shot here at one of the radio stations that I listen to - K-Rock, 102.7 in San Antonio. Gin Blossoms are on now, and Josh Kelley was a few minutes ago. This is good stuff. Josh Kelly had some interviews that I watched too. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. He actually reminds me of Heath, who went to school with me. A genuinely nice guy with a very ornery streak in him. Hmm, ornery is not a word I see typed very often. hehe.
Well, I've exhausted all the music I want to listen to on there, so now I'm playing around in WinAmp. I like the XRM radio, as I mentioned before. I've seen that they have some streaming video in Winamp too. There are a lot of things in there. I'm watching (sort of) a stream called Jpopsuki Tv right now. Japanese pop music videos. It's upbeat stuff. ^_^. There's also some rather graphic stuff in there, so...We just won't go there.
We had a fairly good anime club meeting yesterday. I don't think I've mentioned that I've setup a blog for the club. http://mizuumi.org. The funny thing is that we have a lot of weirdos that come to the meeting. In fact all the members are some kind of weird. Except me. :p Hmmmm. That's funny.
Well, I'm tired of typing for now. More later...
September 8, 2005
Freakin
What's more funny is that Blogger's spell checker (which is near and dear to my heart) sees "freakin" and doesn't understand it. It thinks I meant "foreskin"! I've never typed or even said foreskin in my entire life until today!
My view on BK
This sums up all of my thoughts on Burger King after all of my visits there. The most recent of course is what triggered the upcoming tirade.
"Phenomenal Cosmic Innovation, Itty-Bitty Quality"
We went there last evening to both use some coupons and let the child play on the germ laden indoor jungle gym. The coupons were for the Angus Steak Burger and the BK Chicken Fries. Phenomenal Cosmic Innovation (which I really think they are good at), Itty-Bitty Quality (which they are also really good at, unfortunately).
The Chicken fries were very low quality elongated chicken nuggets. The didn't taste bad, but they really didn't taste good either. They were kind of like a breaded fried gummy worm, but a bit less gummy, and not nearly as enjoyable going down. hehe. The burger was OK, I thought, but Jen didn't like hers much. What annoys me on that one is the name - Angus Steak Burger. Are there people out there, and there must be, who don't know what Angus means??? Try our new Cow Beef Burger!!! I mean, Angus Steak is just redundant. Very annoying to me.
On top of poor food, the employees are too stupid to even work at McDonald's. Jen ordered with her coupon one Shroom and Swiss Angus Steak Burger and one Grilled Onion Angus Steak Burger. The coupon was "buy one get one free - Any Angus steak burger". AND THE CASHIER WAS SO DUMB THAT SHE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT BOTH OF THOSE WERE VARIETIES OF ANGUS STEAK BURGER. She didn't want to let J have it, and we had to call a manager to make her do it. What a freakin moron! I'm ranting here, so I'll stop, but for the love of god, BK get some decent employees.
In support of my less-than-glowing opinion of them Jen says "They can broil themselves."
She's so funny. :p
"Phenomenal Cosmic Innovation, Itty-Bitty Quality"
We went there last evening to both use some coupons and let the child play on the germ laden indoor jungle gym. The coupons were for the Angus Steak Burger and the BK Chicken Fries. Phenomenal Cosmic Innovation (which I really think they are good at), Itty-Bitty Quality (which they are also really good at, unfortunately).
The Chicken fries were very low quality elongated chicken nuggets. The didn't taste bad, but they really didn't taste good either. They were kind of like a breaded fried gummy worm, but a bit less gummy, and not nearly as enjoyable going down. hehe. The burger was OK, I thought, but Jen didn't like hers much. What annoys me on that one is the name - Angus Steak Burger. Are there people out there, and there must be, who don't know what Angus means??? Try our new Cow Beef Burger!!! I mean, Angus Steak is just redundant. Very annoying to me.
On top of poor food, the employees are too stupid to even work at McDonald's. Jen ordered with her coupon one Shroom and Swiss Angus Steak Burger and one Grilled Onion Angus Steak Burger. The coupon was "buy one get one free - Any Angus steak burger". AND THE CASHIER WAS SO DUMB THAT SHE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT BOTH OF THOSE WERE VARIETIES OF ANGUS STEAK BURGER. She didn't want to let J have it, and we had to call a manager to make her do it. What a freakin moron! I'm ranting here, so I'll stop, but for the love of god, BK get some decent employees.
In support of my less-than-glowing opinion of them Jen says "They can broil themselves."
She's so funny. :p
September 7, 2005
Dear anonymous...
Don't worry...I live! I'm just being a lazy bum. My apologies. I will write something soon. Maybe even this month! Haha, no, maybe even this week!!!
I have been having h-e-double hockey stick with my Dodge Durango. It's been in to the shop 7 times in the last several weeks and still isn't fixed. It's really getting me down. :(
The latest trip, the service manager told me they were going to subcontract it to the dealership to see if they could fix it. Hallelujah!!! I hopeful.
More soon! -Dgh
I have been having h-e-double hockey stick with my Dodge Durango. It's been in to the shop 7 times in the last several weeks and still isn't fixed. It's really getting me down. :(
The latest trip, the service manager told me they were going to subcontract it to the dealership to see if they could fix it. Hallelujah!!! I hopeful.
More soon! -Dgh
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)