The Daily Diversion Archive For October, 2002

Tuesday October 1, 2002

Oh YES!

For those of you who don't know, the Twins fought off their own jitters and managed to work a win against Oakland in the Division Series. It looked bad early, especially since I really wasn't watching it. When your team goes down 5-1 and the only info you're getting is what your best buddy is sending to your phone, it's pretty depressing. When you get the news in the next phone mail message that your team has committed 3 errors, then things start to not look so bad. It's not Radke, it's a case of collective nerves.

So after spotting the A's a 5'er, the Twins come back and take it.

I'm so happy I could drool!

I've been working like a maniac at work. We're building out a call center and I've been hooking up dumb terminals. I've also been troubleshooting connection issues and trying to keep up on my usual work. Combine all this crap with the usual month end blizzard of stuff, then you might get the picture of what's going on. Yea verily it sucketh.

I do have one thing to say about the game times of the Twins-Oakland series. 3PM? I bet ol' Bud had a hand in this. 2 PM. Day games. I guess only the Bay Area and Minnesota would be watching/listening/caring, but surely there could have been a better start time, yes? I know a night game out West would cause a 9PM start here, but that's not a problem for me. Oh, well. I gotta yell about something.

Tuesday October 8, 2002

Oakland's a goner. In a classic pitchers' duel for the early innings, the Twins won the do or die game 5 of the ALDS in Oakland.

It was tense. It was a one run game for most of it, but in the top of the ninth, AJ came through with a 2-run dinger to put some space between the two teams. They weren't done, though. Yet another run scored on a double by Ortiz and the lead and the game looked secure.

It wasn't to be secured, though. Eddie was a bit wild in the bottom of the frame and let Oakland back in. It was a 3 run shot over the right centerfield wall. I must say that it was antacids for me at that point. Nevertheless, Everyday Eddie settled down and FINALLY got the one player who had been hitting a ton against the Twins. Ray Durham. Durham, who came over from the White Sox after trash talkin' about the Twins earlier in the year. I guess it was somehow appropriate that a weak foul pop up to the right side ended his season. Seeya next year, fellas.

So, needless to say, I'm going to be pretty busy this week. Tuesday and Wednesday night will be spent at the Dome. Go TWINS!

Saturday October 19, 2002

So I'm sitting here watching the 4th game of the Twins/Angels series. I must say that I'm STILL annoyed with Fox's play by play guys. Koskie really needs to get a hit and the announcers just credited Erstad's K to Erstad himself, not to a particularly nasty pitch by Radke. Jerks.

So, the first inning is a pair of 3 up 3 down efforts. It's all good.

So I'm starting to feel like I'm neglecting the site. It might look doubly so if you just take a look at this page. I'm trying to do some updates to the other site. I'm also using the MT interface to post every once in a while. My lack of rigor has more to do with being hugely busy with pre-winter tasks and being really busy at work. I'm certainly not on my writing horse, but I hope to change that somewhat in the coming weeks.

It's doubly good sports news today. The Gopher hockey team is playing Ohio State tonight in their season opener. It's good that hockey season is back. I've been having a hankering to get back into playing hockey and I think this might be my year.

I've got a bit of a job interview on Wednesday. Here's hoping it's not only a good job, but a good interview. I feel pretty confident, yet I still feel kinda empty-headed about answering technical questions about what I do. I didn't feel as if I described my abilities very well in the application, but I find on-line applications really confining. They're supremely convenient, but when I'm sitting here with my laptop answering questions about what I do, I just don't feel like I can adequately describe the stuff I do. I think I'll follow myself around mentally Monday and describe the things I do to myself. Perhaps then I'll feel better about it. I'm just too into what I do to pull back that easily.

Speaking of work, I kicked serious ass at work on Friday. I didn't get interrupted that much and I was able to turn around 5 dead PCs from our other location. They shipped them up to me so that I might take a shot at getting them back in service. Out of 9 dead machines, I was able to fix and piece together 5 machines and rebuild a 6th that went bok mid-way through the day. The best part of Friday was running a warranty check on a dead hard drive and getting it replaced on an RMA on the last day--THE LAST DAY--of its 3 year warranty. That rocked.

I'm afraid for the other 4, it's going to take a trip to EBAY for some appropriate motherboards.

The Gophers are up 1-0.

The Twins and Angels have been trading 3 up 3 down innings.

What the hell is with these 'Thunder Sticks'? Is it because the Dome is loud, the teams we play have to have noisemakers? Wimps. Weak.

So just as the sportscasters are ripping on Dustan Mohr's not-so-pretty sliding abilities, he pops a broken-bat flare into left center field. This is SO typical. Ripping on the Twins, lavishing praise on the other teams. They did it to an embarrassing extent in the Oakland series, now they're still up to it here. Sure, it's better, but it still annoys to no end.

Billy Koch from the A's needs to settle the fuck down. He's got all off season to work out whatever he has up his ass about AJ. Have a nice winter, jerk-ass.

We're going to get rid of our boat. We got it from my dad when he died, but I just haven't been able to do anything with it. I got a head of steam up the spring before last, but then we decided to move. All my energies were then directed towards packing, fixing and worrying. This spring was spent buying furniture, getting my bikes ready to ride (a dismal failure), and unpacking. Since I no longer have a public water access nearby and I've really cooled on the boating thing, the boat's gotta go. Going with it will be the motor, two gas tanks and a bunch of other stuff. The next big thing to get lost is the woodstove from the old garage. It's going back to it's owner. When that's gone, then it's just the radial arm saw that I have to make a decision on. I suspect that after owning it for 7 years, it might be time to say good bye to it as well.

The reason for all this is that we're going to reclaim the basement as a rec room. This will roughly coincide with the furnace/central air/ductwork project. We're hoping to roll the financing for all this stuff into one loan. I hope it works.

Saturday October 19, 2002

I can't believe how busy I was at work this week. It's not that it sucked, mind you, it was more that I just don't like to be that busy. It seemed that every day I got fatigued just trying to remember all the things I was doing at one time. Just call me Mr. Effiency.

The job interview last week didn't go all that well. I didn't prepare enough before hand and I think I really didn't impress. Also, I was nervous as hell. I have to remember that I used to give tours for a living and I used to lecture safety to a room full of people who didn't want to be there. I didn't have a lot invested in this interview--I still have a job--so it wasn't a crushing blow. Still, I'd have liked to have been called back. It wasn't a positive experience this week, but I'll KILL them next time around. I know this because I did just about everything I could do wrong wrong in this interview.

It's also been a busy week here at home. Today I made a run to the appliance graveyard and shelled out some dough to get rid of a broken air conditioner and a broken dehumidifier. I then brought my radial arm saw over to my buddy's place and he gave me a computer in trade. It was a good deal for both of us.

Fall is upon us. I don't know if I should be turning cartwheels of joy for the fact that it won't be stinkin' hot until next summer, or if I should just go to bed for the next 6 months to avoid the nasty weather.

I've been going through the mental gettin' ready for winter checklist of late:

Cars gonna make it?

Check

House gonna make it?

Hmm... Get the furnace/central air/ductwork thing done and that's a check

Snowblowers ready?

Hmm... Gotta start the big one and gotta get a lower cowl for the little one. Then they should be good to go.

Dog gonna make it?

Duh

The list goes on, but I've found myself kinda behind on things I'd like to have done before winter.

We're going to try to reclaim the basement rec-room area. That'll be where I hang wit' my dawgs at. It'll also be where I get my TV watchin' on. Oh yesh, bling, bling and all dat.

Okay, even I'm nauseating myself.

I'm going to start a few auctions tomorrow. I need some extra scratch, and ditching my motomags should pick me up a couple of bux. Wish me luck.

Wednesday October 23, 2002

I've been a get shit done mood of late.

I've got a ton of stuff done at work. I've done a ton of stuff at home and I'm starting to get my act together motivation-wise. Why this sudden burst of energy? Dunno. I'm not going to ask it questions, I'm just gonna ride this motherfucker until it's over or until I drop. Or go broke.

Before we moved, I resolved to my self that I would either fix my broken stuff or get rid of it. So far, I've gotten rid of more than I've fixed, but that's OK. I now have more room and less projects screaming for my attention. It was very difficult to make that decision. I like my stuff. I really do. However, there comes a time when your stuff starts to oppress you. Well, there came a time when my stuff started to oppress me. It was either be buried mentally by all the stuff and start to live in a garbage house, or start kickin' stuff to the curb and take control of it. So far, the war has been very long and tough. I've made a lot of hard decisions. I've regretted some of it, but once again, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't.

I think a huge part of this process is trying to figure out what's worth keeping and what's not. Ebay has helped enormously with this process. If I want to know if something's worth anything, I can just go on Ebay, find it, track it, and at the end of that particular auction's time, I know what it's worth. I know what someone out there in the universe will pay for this thing. This is important, because I know what my time is worth and I know how much space costs as a function of storing other things. If a thing is really cool, but it takes up a ton of space, then I have to figure out if it's worth paying the price for it in space. My time is limited and my space is limited and these two tools help me determine what's going to work for me, and what isn't.

Another cool thing that helps out tons is having my lovely wife completely on-board for this project. I don't give her a hard time when she throws stuff out, and she doesn't give me a hard time when I throw stuff out. Losing the moral/guilt/waste/value baggage helps me (and her, I suspect) make value judgments without the extra baggage our upbringings force us to deal with.

Yes, I've kept stuff that I probably should toss. I'm keeping my slot car sets. I'm keeping my teddy bear. I'm keeping my 12" records for now. I will pare the collection down soon, but only when I'm good and damn well ready. I've kept my two wooden model airplanes. I've gotten rid of tons of other stuff that at one point or other in the past I haven't had the heart or guts to get rid of.

Now I suppose I could go into the reasons I think I need all this stuff, but I'm not going to. I have some ideas as to why I find it difficult to part with my stuff, but I couldn't be less interested. I've simply found a way to get around all the barriers I've constructed in the past. A growth experience? A revelation? Strong drugs? Perhaps all of the above, but for now I'm working on it.

I've decided that Mongolia would be a cool place to visit. There and New Zealand.

What's cool?

I'm going to a wine tasting tonight to taste some of Peterson's wines. The last time Fred was in town, it was a good time.

What sucks?

Having to go to work tomorrow.

Saturday October 26, 2002

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone D-MN died in a plane crash near Eveleth airport in northern Minnesota.

I'd like to take this time to express my condolences to the surviving members of Senator Wellstone's family, the families of the campaign workers and the families of the pilots of the airplane. May you find comfort in this terrible time.

I voted for Senator Wellstone. I voted for him twice and I was going to vote for him a third time. Why? It's been said repeatedly in the news surrounding his death that he was a man of integrity, courage and dedication. He was a statesman. That his politics were farther to the left than mine on most issues didn't bother me. I believed that he told me the truth when he said he'd fight for the little guy. I believed he would be a voice of reason when it came to fighting runaway corporate greed. I believed the country needed a member of the Senate that could be counted on not to vote the sensible, safe middle. I believed that our country needed a Senator who wasn't in the back pocket of some corporation, PAC or special-interest group. I believed our country needed a Senator with a PHD in something other than law or business.

Senator Wellstone was exciting. Although I might not have been on board 100% with his ideas, I still believe the country could use a bit of a move to the left. Senator Wellstone made me want to get out and spread the word. Senator Wellstone was not afraid to point at the idiocy of demonizing the "welfare mother" when we give several hundred times more money to U.S. corporations in the form of tax breaks and other assistance. Senator Wellstone was one of the few members of our Congress who didn't think that poverty was a moral failure. Senator Wellstone was against reforming our bankruptcy laws because they were already too pro-credit card company. With Senator Wellstone in Washington, I never feared that I would lose my rights or that I would be thrown to the wolves of corporate avarice.

I'm not saying he was one of the greatest Senators that has ever lived. I'm saying that he was the first elected official I felt comfortable voting for. It's all me. It had to do with my comfort level. He couldn't be bought. He did what he thought was right. He did what he thought was best for the good of the nation. I never thought of him as a person who would vote to make the nation a better place for business as a way to pay back a favor. I realize that quid pro quo is how a lot of government works. I realize the heavy price that comes from accepting gifts. I know how bargaining works. I trusted Paul Wellstone to start the bargaining process with a position that was farther toward the left than most folks would start. All this is now gone.

It's not as if it will never be replaced. I expect that I will never trust a legislator more than Senator Paul Wellstone.

Goodbye Senator. Godspeed.

Wednesday October 30, 2002

I miss you, Dad.

I just thought I'd drop by and remind the world that it's the third anniversary of my Dad's death.

I'm starting to take a keen dislike towards the month of October. Baseball ends in October. Death happens in October. Fuck October.

As you can probably guess, I'm one cranky sonofabitch lately. I think I'll be far more relaxed when snow starts to fall. That will at least give me something to struggle against in the here and now. Fall is so sneaky. It doesn't put up any front to fight against. Sure, there's leaves, but leaves are kinda fun. Except when you're braking on a motorcycle. That can suck. Snow is kinda fun too, except that you MUST remove snow from a few surfaces around the house or else life becomes a suckfest. You pretty much have to do the walks. You pretty much have to chop a way to the cars. Those of us that have them must do the driveway. Snow is a chore. Snow is useless for fun when it's super cold and when you don't have skis on your feet.

So.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can't wait for it to be November.

Thursday October 31, 2002

Happy Halloween!

I got told to go away today.

I just about lost it.

I had spent nearly a whole day readying a system for this person. All I needed was their password to complete the configuration.

Nameless: Hello?

TH: Hi Nameless, I'm close to done with your new machine and I need your password to finish it up.

Nameless: Do you have any idea what day it is?

TH: What? Halloween? Thursday?

Nameless: It's the end of the month. Go away. CLICK

Urge to kill rising...

I got over it. Unfortunately this isn't too uncommon from this particular person. Nameless can be a nice person and they are occasionally witty, however, abrasiveness is certainly within their norm.

I am glad October's over. I'm going to go home tonight, pull up a chair in front of the PC and do a bunch of junk. Oh yes, and dodge the trick-or-treaters.