A Scattered Brain

Greetings,

So, I’m going to start a new weekly blog that I had planned to start a month ago, but hey, I’m a bit lazy.

To start, I used to be into bowling in a big way until my senior year in college.  The money was tight and I stopped bowling competitively or at all really.  In the past seven years, I had bowled maybe 3 times.  Starting this spring, I had gone bowling with some friends from work, remembered how much I loved it and the bug bit me again.  So, when the next set of leagues came around, I was quick to sign up.  The league has been running for about a month now and currently our team is sitting near the bottom of the heap, but that’s ok.

Starting with tomorrow night’s league, I’ll post a running journal of how I did and how I felt about my games.  For tonight, I’ll just incorporate a table of how the league has gone so far:

I wasn’t able to bowl the first week due to travel for work, so that week doesn’t have any scores.  The * indicates high game/high series.  Right now I’m averaging just below 160.  Not bad for just getting back into things, and if I’d start making my single pin spares more regularly, I’d be up around 180 or at least up to my goal for this league of 170.

So, there is the current round up of where things stand.  I’ll do my best to keep things up to date as I know how you are all sitting on the edge of your seats.

Take care and bowl great!

I heard about this on the radio and while I think it’s hilarious, it is dispicable how AOL treats people when all the guy wants to do is just cancel his account. For all of those using AOL, my sincerest apologies to when you finally decide that it is overpriced and useless in this day.

Here’s the link to the report:

Vincent Ferrari and Matt Lauer Interview

There are places where you can find the full audio of the message, but they keep changing so I won’t bother posting one here. My favorite line was: “The card is mine, it’s in my name; the account is mine, it’s in my name; cancel… the… acount!”

Enjoy!

Spencer

P.S. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I was thinking about starting a weekly bowling blog to go along with my league, but figured most of you wouldn’t care anyway. Have a great day!

Greetings!

Today is the day that illegal immigrants are going to show us how important they really are.  This should and hopefully will completely backfire.  If I owned a company that employed anyone who will not work today (legal or illegal) they would be FIRED if they don’t come into work.

Let’s look at this in different areas.

First, if you are here legally, the immigration reforms don’t affect you!  Stop whining and complaining.  You are here, enjoy it, be happy, and feel blessed for you are in the greatest country in the history of the world.

Second, if you are here illegally, you have no rights!  You are breaking the law and should be sent back from where you came from.  No exceptions, no five year amnesty law, nothing.  Go back and when you get your stuff together, re-enter legally.  I have no problem with people coming in and following the appropriate procedures so by all means come in legally.

Third, stop following like sheep.  Most of the people that aren’t coming into work today don’t even know what the proposed changes are.  And back to step two, you don’t have the right to protest anyway.  All the protests that started a few weeks ago would have been a great way to round up a good portion of illegals and deport them.

Fourth, who came up with May 1st as the day to walk out???  Who actually sat down and thought that the Soviet holiday of May Day was a good day to pull a silly stunt like this?  Yes, let’s pick a Soviet holiday to show our illegal solidarity.  Insane!

And to the point that they’re trying to make; that they’re all important to the U.S. economy, they really aren’t.  Illegals do the work that “Americans won’t do” or so we’re told.  Bullshit!  They take jobs away from Americans who can’t get those jobs because illegals are taking them all away.  If they want to show their importance, come into the country and make a contribution to society legally.  All of the money illegals are making is going back to their families in Mexico.  How does it help the U.S. economy to take money made here and export it without any benefit to this country?

So, go to work, or go back home, when you’re legally here, then I’ll listen to what you have to say.  For now though, become legal or go back home.  And to the ones here legally already, go to work, this doesn’t even concern you.

Being here illegally doesn’t make you an immigrant, it makes you a criminal and you should be deported until which time you make the effort to come in legally.

Ahhhh!!  So after my new printer woes (documented thoroughly in a previous post), I decided that it was time to rebuild our laptop… from scratch.  I’m going to get that printer installed properly, dammit!

I pondered this decision for quite a while weighing all the pros and cons (no need to detail those here and bore you even more) and finally made the leap this week.  On Tuesday I backed up all data files and programs to my MP3 player, which conveniently has the ability to store data files as well, which took a while, of course.  And yesterday, took the plunge and used HP’s nifty little quick restore to format and rebuild the computer to factory settings.

VICTORY!!! Everything came up nicely, got back connected to my wireless and after a few updates to Windows, tried to install the printer.  Bingo, bango, bongo, worked the first time.  Ahhhh… I feel better already.  Uninstalled some of the silly programs that came with the HP, got my and my wife’s profiles started back up and we’re off to the races.

Tonight, I just have to transfer back our data files, install Office and then we’ll be back in business fully as I can add programs I truly used at my own pace.

My thoughts now are that I should have done this long ago.  In college, I would generally rebuild once a year to extend the life of the computer (and often times, switch operating systems to my latest choice in Linux, remember I am a total geek!).  This laptop had been going on 3 years without a rebuild.  Now it can go another two or so before we really have to dump it for something new, hopefully; we’ll see how I feel after Windows Vista comes out.

Well, most of you have probably stopped reading by now.  I would have too if I were in your shoes.  Have a great day and keep on keeping on!

The NCAA Tournament is over.  After a wonderful first two weeks, the Final Four and championship games were all a vast disappointment.  Congratulations to Florida on a strong run through the field.

To follow-up from my previous post regarding the tournament, all of my complaints were valid.  None of the automatic bids from small conferences made it all that deep in the tournament, and Bradley was the only one that made it to the Sweet 16.  Even George Mason, while known by few people, was an at-large birth, proving my point that using only at-large picks can still yield Cinderella stories.

Of course, as always, a team from a large conference (SEC) won it all.  I would like to see a smaller school win it all sometime, of course given that they earned their way into the tournament.

Now I will be void of good basketball (the NBA is a show, not a sport, but that’s for another day if at all) for another 8 months give or take.  What will I do with my time?  I’ll find something.

Catch you all later.  Have a wonderful day!

Greetings!

I just came back from my first business trip in over three years and want to talk about airport (illusion of) security. Both airports I had to go through security at upset me and made me really wonder, even more so than ever, are they doing ANY good at all?

First, at the Las Vegas airport they still make you take off your shoes. Airports are not supposed to do that any more, and LAS is the only one that I know of that does. I also say “make” because they don’t leave it as an option. Sure they may say it’s a suggestion, but everyone damn well knows that if you don’t take your shoes off, you’ll be hand wanded and harrassed even further.

At JAX, they don’t ask you to take your shoes off, in fact one person in front of me started to and they told her to leave them on. A little consistency would be nice, but that would be too much to ask. The item that upset me here is the use in a couple of lines (not all of them) of some new ion chamber. I had to go through one today. You step in, place your feet on the yellow mark, and then air gets blown at you from head to toe in little bursts. What the hell does this do??!?!? After being in this machine for about 15 seconds you get to then go through the metal detector. Now going through one machine isn’t enough, you have to go through two? I have no idea what happens in the ion chamber or what it is checking for if anything, but it is very disturbing.

Of course this brings up the entire subject of airport security to begin with. Our rights are being trampled on for the name of security and the airports are the most blatent evidence of this. I have to submit my personal belongings and myself to possibly extensive searching, yet I don’t complain. I’m told to take my shoes off and dance like a monkey (well, not really about the monkey part) and I do it without question. The TSA has complete control and they know it. Why? What if I say something? Complain? Yeah, straight to even more searching and probing and a visit to that back room for questioning. So I say and do nothing but what they ask. And you know what? So do you!

When are Americans going to say enough is enough? Profile!!! Is an 80 year old grandfather and his wife really a threat? Should they have to go through this hassle. Should the rest of us? It’s all an illusion of security; an attempt to make you feel safer. But at what cost? First, we’re not any more secure and second we lose our personal liberty during that time. Large cost, no reward, no thank you.

“But they are trying to make things safer?” I understand that, and they have good intentions despite trampling our rights. But remember, when 9/11 happened, the terrorists used legal items in their attack. The appropriate solution was taken, make more items illegal on planes, that’s a little inconvenient possibly, but not a huge impact on our liberty. But the rest is all for show. I am not safer by taking my shoes off or going through some ion chamber. I’m not safer when they randomly pick me to rifle through my bags to see my underwear and clothes for the next day. I’m not safer when I see them do the same thing to a little old lady. Should they profile? That’s a much bigger issue that is hard to answer, but if I have to, in a word, yes.

Well, I’m pretty tired from a three day trip to spend 6 hours with a client and fly coast to coast twice. Keep on keeping on and have a great day. Stay safe; you are your number one security protection!

Recently, I’ve had a nostalgic look back on one of my favorite past times as a kid, video games.  I was a Nintendo and SNES fan and played the games constantly.  If it had to do with Mario, Link, or Ryu I was there!

Since it has been so long since I’ve played my most loved games, and my old consoles (if my parents even still have them) are back in Colorado, I’ve started downloading emulators and old ROMs for the games I owned and started playing them again.  A number of observations have arisen.

First, I still love these games.  They are classic and timeless.  The graphics aren’t anything compared to what is available today, but it doesn’t matter, the concept of the games far surpasses most of what is avaiable now.  Second, they have gotten a little easier, but still provide for many hours of entertainment.  Super Mario Bros. 3 has most of my attention at the moment.

In order to enjoy these games a little more, I even used a Christmas gift certificate to Fry’s (for those of you not familiar, Fry’s is an electronics store similar to Best Buy but definitely geared more to the computer geek at heart.  I could spend hours in that store and not get bored… I could also probably spend about $10,000 on computer stuff and peripherals without breakin a sweat) to buy a game pad… one that looks exactly like my PS2 controller.  Ahh, it’s almost heaven.  Being able to play my old NES games on my computer with a controller, rock on!

I’ve got the NES working just fine but am having a little trouble with the SNES, specifically not being able to find Super Mario World or Super Mario Kart, two of the greatest games ever made (Kart almost killed my college career, worst two semesters ever!).  So, I may just have to ask my parents if they still have it and if they can send it to me.  Playing those games on my big screen; I’d never want to leave the house, and I’d be fully entertained during those nights Kylah hast to work.

Another good emulator source is MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator) where you can dowload ROMS for many classic and neo-classic video games that you would find in arcades.  Here my attention sways to Killer Instinct 2.  I don’t know why, but of all fighting games, I’ve liked this one the best.  If I can get it working at home, I’ll be going for those Ultra Combos once again.

Ahh, just thinking back to all of these games puts a smile on my face.  What were some of your old favorite video and arcade games??  Post a comment and tell me all about them.  I’m sure I’ve even forgotten some other favorites.

Have a great weekend all and game on!

I’m just sitting here in my cubical looking over my projects and out of no-where, I hear *crack* *boom*.  Thunder in Vegas!!  This doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it’s normally only during monsoon season in the late summer so this is amazing enough to begin with that I decide to take a look outside to see how much, if any, rain is coming down.

Well you guessed it by the title, I didn’t see rain, but rather a snow/sleet mix.  Again, in Vegas??!?! In Spring?? That’s just crazy!  I’ve seen my fair share of snow, I’ve seen my fair share of thunder showers, but never have I seen snow coming down with thunder before.  It’s freaking me out a little!   After the warm January/February I didn’t think I’d see snow this season, but I have now with thunder to boot!

Of course, like all storms in Vegas, this one too has passed quickly, but it was interesting to see/hear.

Catch you all later!

So, today marks the anniversary of our time in Iraq.  The news reports are trying to use this as an attempt to make the entire mission a complete failure and are really touting (hoping, in fact) for an all-out civil war.  Let me give my less pessimistic view.

In 3 years, we have gotten rid of one of the most evil dictators the world has seen since Hitler.  Groups that have never worked together (Kurds, Sunnis, Shi’ites) are at least trying to work together to form a representative government.  The US has lost only 2,400 GI’s.  Of course, any loss is big, but to put things in perspective of wars, this is truly amazing.  If you count all of the American lives that have been lost in car accidents (around 120,000) as well as any number of other sources, 2,400 becomes a much smaller number.  Again, I wish there would be no loss of life, but in this perspective, it is a relatively small number.

Of course, there have been many mistakes and many set backs.  The entire world believed, most likely correctly, that there were large amounts of weapons of mass destruction.  My question isn’t so much of why we haven’t found them, but how did we allow them to get exported to other countries so effortlessly right from under our noses.

On the issue of timing.  In this 30 minute solves everything (e.g. sitcoms) society, people expect and demand that an effort such as this take no longer than a few months to a year to finish.  This is an unreasonable expectation and in no time in the past has a country risen in that short of time.  Even the U.S. took about 11 years to form a constitution from the time that we declared independence.  Germany took well over a decade (and then about another decade after reunification to get back to their full economic prosperity).  Japan took around 40 years to rebuild and become what they are now.  How can we expect to get a country that has been oppressive for thousands of years to change quickly?

Will there be a civil war?  I don’t know.  Should we stay involved if it fully comes to that, I’m of two minds.  We are part of the reason one may start, admittedly, so it is our duty to try to keep the pace.  But civil wars, by definition are ones fought within.  What would have happened if the British had lended a hand to the South during our civil war?  There’s no real way to know.

Remember, we are in this for the long haul, and in time, possibly decades, I believe Iraq can be a source of light in the Arab world.  I support our troops, believe in our mission, and despite some mistakes and set backs believe that everything we are there for is just and right.  Please keep in mind when you hear all of these negative 3 year reports that there is more good going on than is being reported.  Just ask the troops who have been there and you will get a much different story than what you hear on the news.  News is there to make a profit, just like any other business… and good news is not good for profits.  I don’t even need to address how many of these papers / news sources just want to see Bush fall flat on his face (oh well, I guess I did mention it a little )

Have a great day all, and please continue to support and pray for our troops.  Without them, you wouldn’t have the freedoms to do anything that you do, including blogging here on MySpace!

The NCAA Tournament starts today!! I’m so excited (and I just can’t hide it). My pool is huge this year, far exceeding my expectations. I have 60 so far and that could still go up in the next few hours. And to think, I almost didn’t do it this year… p-shaw!

Also, I did get my printer working… for the most part… still can’t use HP’s good scanning software so I’m limited there. I think something is wrong with my Windows installer, but since I’m planning on rebuilding the laptop anyway, I’m not worried anymore.

Have a great day all and enjoy the games. I only wish I could take the day off to watch them (I’m sure my wife would love for me to do that! LOL).