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1.30.2003
The server went down for a few hours early this morning. Luckily Dennis was able to take care of it quickly. Of course, the logs offer no insight into what happened. I should really move to Debian one of these years. Or at the very least upgrade the kernel.

It looks like the new Family Feud is finally becoming a decent show. The old theme song is back (guess the public didn't want "modern" after all, despite what the producer said on the E! THS), the questions seem to be a bit less suggestive than they have been recently, and Richard Karn seems to be relaxing a bit - his antics are a bit less "zany" now, and he no longer feels the need to be constantly smiling. All I can say is THANK GOD. Recently that show has been a toilet. It's supposed to be a fun show. Apparently the producers of the new version thought "fun" meant blasting annoying music while watching loud, obnoxious families deal with a host who can't tell a funny joke if his life depended on it. Luckily they seem to be headed back in the right direction.

Of course, nobody will ever compare to Richard Dawson. Although he probably *is* a bit old to host the show again. Then again, he *is* younger than Bob Barker, who's still going at it.

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1.26.2003
Did the Super Bowl suck or what? I didn't really care who won, but damn, it would have been nice if Oakland had actually showed up. They even had a chance to get back in it near the end, and they blew it. What a lame game.

Happy birthday, Henkel. Here's that three weeks out of the year where you get to be older than me (in terms of years, anyway). Sorry you had to deal with such a lame game on your birthday.

I actually managed to get to the dog park today. The temperature wasn't so much of a problem - I was fine initially - but the wind was terrible. Our dog park trip was pretty short, to say the least. The dogs were happy, but I felt like my face was going to fall off.

It looks like I'll be working at the East side Best Buy from now on. I guess the guy that had been working there is a bit of an idiot, and frequently had to leave early, or couldn't make it to work, or whatever. I've been told he's history. This will be much closer (5 minutes away vs. 20), but the big downside is I have to deal with the asshole Canon rep there. This is the guy who came to the West side once, and spent 15 minutes trying to sell someone a photo printer, despite the fact that she *specifically* wanted an all-in-one unit (which of course Canon doesn't make). He's an ass, and I had the misfortune of going to elementary school with him.

I think the world is coming to an end, at least as far as my family goes. First off (as we learned at Christmas), my 59 year-old aunt, who had never had a boyfriend (or even a date) until a year and a half ago, is now engaged. Wedding is set for April of next year. If I could go back in time two years and tell myself this, I'm sure I'd either begin laughing or tell myself I was full of shit. Second, my 38 year-old cousin (other side of the family), who just got married a few years ago, is pregnant. Personally, I had them pegged as "we'll do what we want, not what society tells us to do" lawyers, but I guess you never know. Third, my 34 year-old cousin (brother of the pregnant one) has a girlfriend, or so I'm told. I've never known Mike to have a girlfriend before, or even talk about girls all that much. He's a great guy, but he's really in a world of his own. I guess one can't assume anything...

I better get some LPs in the mail tomorrow, damnit.

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1.25.2003
You'd think this was Amy's blog with the lack of updates...

Let's see. It's COLD. Channel 3 currently shows 16°, which is a bit of a heat wave. Not only are we kind of stuck inside, so are the dogs. I think they've been to the dog park about once in the past 3 weeks. Although, to their credit, they don't seem to be going too crazy.

I went to my new dentist for the first time yesterday. Mind you, the dentist I've had for the past several years is a one man show - he works on your teeth, and there's a receptionist that deals with the office work. The new guy is a totally different story. He's got a handful of assistants, one of whom did 95% of the work in my mouth. His job was essentially 1) look at the X-rays, 2) poke in my mouth for 30 seconds, 3) tell me I've got 2 cavities, but with my teeth chances are they will never be a problem, and 4) tell me they could bleach and smooth my teeth (this seemed to be what he spent the most time on). Mind you, both of those "procedures" are upwards of $250 each, neither covered by insurance. Hmm.

I also went to the eye doctor the other day. It's been about 9 years now with the same pair of contacts, and sure enough, no need to change (since my vision hasn't changed in that time). That's always a good feeling.

Not too much else. I better go get cleaned up and get ready to sell some printers.

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1.19.2003
TiVo just recorded "Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat".

Enough said.

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1.18.2003
So, I ended up going to the ER the other night. My stomach wasn't feeling good again, and it was worse this time. We were going to go to Urgent Care, but upon arriving, they were already closed. So off to Meriter it was. Basically, we spent 3 hours there so they could a) poke me with a lot of needles, b) fill me up with IV fluid, c) not have any idea what was wrong with me, d) send me home.

On a lighter note, we went to the ReStore today. For those of you not familiar with the concept, Habitat For Humanity gives this store leftovers from projects and stuff it ripped out of buildings. A lot of junk, but also some good bargains if you come at the right time. I lucked out today - there was several hundred feet of CAT-5 cable that had apparently been ripped out of some building. Cut in several lengths, mind you, but still a *lot* of cable. All for $10. Since that's how much a single 20 foot patch cable can run, I'd say we got a pretty good deal. Now it's time to get some keystone outlets and wire up the house.

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1.15.2003
Long time no blog. Things are looking up a little in terms of jobs. The Lexmark thing is brining in a steady (if not heavy) source of cash, and there's the possibility of the aforementioned Mac tech position. In addition, I just got a call about doing new Mac installs on an as-needed basis. Ie, some school or business needs some Macs installed, they work with Apple, who calls this company, who sends me out to do it. I guess starting out it would just be occasional stuff, but the pay is really good, and of course there's the chance it could lead to something more.

All of this recent Pete Townshend news is pretty stupid, really. The media is clearly reporting what they think will sell. Those wanting to get more of the story should really go read Pete's letter from a year ago, A Different Bomb.

So, Amy got me one of these (the model 1.0). I'll be busy doing some LP -> CD transfers. Now she wants a TiVo 2. We'll see.

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1.08.2003
Damn, it felt like spring outside today. Good weather for going to the dog park. Now why can't it stay like this till April?

This is kind of spooky. Last night we were watching a show on plane crashes, and I was thinking "I just read that the US hasn't had a fatal plane crash in over a year or something." Me and my big mouth. Today there were plane crashes in North Carolina and Turkey (yes, I'm aware that Turkey isn't in the US). Hmmm.

Not too much else. Work has been pretty slow. Speaking of work, there's a part-time Mac tech position open at a company in town. Hopefully something will happen with that. More income would be nice.

It's a good thing I haven't written my blog engine yet - Dennis killed MySQL the other day. He didn't delete any actual data, but essentially nobody could access the data. I think I've fixed it, after staying up a few extra hours the other night. The joys of running a server. Then again, I'd rather be in a position to fix it myself, rather than hope some other idiot will get around to it.

Back to listening to my Beatles albums.

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1.04.2003
JESUS CHRIST. Could the Packers suck any more than they did tonight?

I guess we won't find out this season.

Crap-ass-football-game

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1.02.2003
Hmm...01/02/03 - isn't that interesting?

Let's see. The last of the company finally left today - Derek went back to stay with his parents. So I guess the house will be quiet once again for awhile. At least as long as people don't ring the doorbell, that is.

Today for lunch I was going to go to the Monroe Street location of a Madison chain who's slogan is "Bigger Burgers. Better Custard." Upon arriving, however, I was informed that this location didn't have hamburgers. This despite the fact that the shirt of the employee telling me this said "Bigger Burgers. Better Custard." Yeah...

For New Year's we went to Stearns' house. The basement looked really nice. It kind of gave me an idea of how I want our basement to look in a few years. New drywall, new lights, a bathroom...

Speaking of the basement, I tore down the ceiling around the beam and ducts that go into the laundry area. Finally I don't have to worry about knocking my head when walking back there. Of course, the next step is to clean up the pile of wood and drywall on the floor.

Not much else new, I don't think. I've developed an unhealthy obsession with German Beatles LPs as of late. I found a couple at a shop in town, and well, there's eBay. Amy says I can't have any more, though. We'll see.

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The Simpsons Archive

Vital stats:
DOB 2/16/79. I'm a web developer at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. I like lots of old music, including The Who. I spend a lot of time working with computers. And my favorite TV show (when I actually decide to watch TV, that is), obviously, is The Simpsons.

Education:
In May 2002 I officially graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BS in computer science. In 1997 (man that seems like a long time ago) I graduated from Washington Park HS. Yes, I know, that site isn't very impressive, and no, I haven't touched it for several years.

WFS Logo

WFS:
One of the best experiences I have ever had was on a trip called Western Field Studies. This is a 33 day adventure throughout the western United States. Students travel on a school bus to national parks, monuments, forests, and places of historical interest and camp out (in tents or under the stars). I was a part of trip 25, which took place in the summer of 1996. A first for WFS was we took along a laptop computer and kept up a web site. That link will take you to the 1996 site, where there is a link to the current site.