11:21 AM
Blogging a bit on a Saturday afternoon before work. Thought I'd share a bit for our 4 known blog readers. By name: Evil Jim, Katie, Summer & Antony. If anyone else is reading the blog, hey let me know so I know I have more than 4 people reading. The e-mail is reallycoolsite@aol.com.

The other day Josh on the Screen Savers shared the link for the Universal Church of Life as the site of the night. They're known for ordaining nearly anyone. As a gag I went though and got ordained. Then I shared with a friend. She did it and shared it with her friends. Her friends all did it and shared with their friends. Evil Jim did it and shared with his friends ... and now I have a feeling they're having a run on ordained ministers from my friends. Not as big as the screen savers run mind you, but it's going to be interesting when I start meeting friends of friends and we all have been ordained as ministers in the Universal Church of Life. LOL.

I don't know if I should tell the computer story or not. I'm bored and in the mood to write and have nothing else to do. Later on I have to do a whole heck of a lot of work so ... oh hell, here goes the abridged story.

Last week: Project was to put in some more ram and a new video card.

After successfully putting both in my system was still majorly funky. Still getting random crashes, running out of RAM, you name it. We're talking a system that now has a great graphics card and 512 megs of memory. I had been having trouble with bad clusters and sectors on the primary hard drive so Thursday morning (the morning of Jim and the GOO and Ray going nuts, recanting his game boy advance review and playing with action figures on the air), I miss doing screen shots because I decided to do a surface test.

Surface test comes up with "dude, your hard drive is dead." Okay, I wish it were to use those terms, but that's what essentially it said. I called Dell and they had me do a diagnostic. I got a woman with an Indian accent who either didn't get my wise cracks or just chose to ignore them as we passed the time waiting for the darn thing to finish. After it didn't finish in a half an hour, she had me hang up and call back when it did. Second call to dell had the hard drive fail the diagnostic and the tech tell me that there's no way my system should be functioning. He sent me a new hard drive.

Since DELL has the great overnight replacement parts policy, I was now stuck. I had let my 2nd hard drive fill up with stuff that I wanted to keep but hadn't yet put on cds yet and there wasn't enough space to back up my primary drive to it. So I went out and got a 30 gig hard drive at staples. I took out the second hard drive, backed everything I needed from the first up to it, then waited for the new DELL hard drive to come in overnight mail.

When the drive got here, to my surprise, DELL had upgraded me to a 40 gig hard drive. I'm hoping this was for free. I'll know when I get my credit card statement. I replaced the dying hard drive with the new hard drive and went about with getting my data back.

What about the 2nd hard drive that I took out of the system? Well ... there's a product called the Quickdrive from h45 technologies (h45.com). It essentially is a case and a USB cord that turns any nearly EIDE hard drive into a USB drive. If you can find one they're neat little things to have. I ordered a new one of those and it should be here any day now. So once it gets here I'll have 40 gigs as my primary hard drive, 30 gigs on the back up, and 20 gigs on a USB device. The USB is slower, but hey, it works and I can back everything up to that disk and use it on my laptop if my main machine was ever to fail again. I've actually used the product in the past but retired it after an unfortunate accident involving a cat, a missed litter box, and a USB cord that was lying on the floor. Cat urine and parts don't mix.

So after getting the system back I turned my attention to getting this site up and going again. That's when problems hit. The ATI All-in-wonder-Radeon is a marvelous card. It has better DVD quality and game quality than the GeForce 256 and the old ATI PCI Capture card I took out of the system. Unfortunately it has one problem: the software for video capturing will not allow you to do easy single stills from live feeds.

The old card was great. All you had to do was click and the thing would capture bmp files in a sequential file name (ie cap001.bmp, cap0002.bmp, etc.), if that's what you wanted it to do. It would retain the size settings you wanted for every capture and even save it in the directory you wanted to save it in automatically. THIS WAS A DREAM. Unfortunately the new software doesn't. Sure you can save it sequentially to your hard drive in bmp format, but the formatting of the captures is a weird 740xsomething pixel setting. The kicker here is THERE IS NO WAY TO CHANGE IT.

The work around that they provide is to save everything to a clipboard like gallery. You then individually click on the shots you want, choose a file name for them and a file size, and it will save it for you. This is a major pain in the rear end. The other day I tried while Sumi was underwater on Fresh Gear. Not only did all the screen shots in the capture area nearly kill my system, it took nearly a half an hour to process just 100 shots. There was no way I was going to do this again.

Becky and Phil on call for help provided some help by doing a segment on stills software. The two products they showed this week were good but I couldn't really get either to do what I needed them to do. So I searched again and found a product called Video Match from http://www.gromada.com/. This program is shareware ($45 after a 30 day trial), and what it does is it converts files from movies to nearly any format you can think of. With it all I have to do now is take mpeg-1 movies of the techtv folks, import them to Video Match, then have the software produce stills for me in the proper size and file format. It's a dream. You can set it for 2 stills a second (instead of 29 frames per second), to save on hard disk space, and it really is doing a bang up job for me.

Part of me wishes that ATI GOT A CLUE and didn't "enhance" their software by disabling essential features and that I didn't have to replace a free program bundled with the card with one that will cost another $45, but hey, that's life.

With that, I'm out for now. I need a nap or some caffeine. Still not sure what.

k9

PSST. In case it's coming up weird, I edited a disgarded blog entry and that's why the last one may say "June 27" instead of "June 30." It was really written on the 29/30th.

k9

10:53 PM
The following blog may be "R" Rated -- if you're under 18 or offended by mild naughty bits, skip on to the next entry. If there's no next entry up, well, go write in my guest book. :)

Friday night and blogging.

Today was a strange day that started with the news that Robyn was going to be on call for help. Finally! A chance to get screen shots of Robyn actually standing up. This is a rare event indeed and worth planning a day around to be home in time to get screen shots for the strip.

Had to leave for some mystery shopping. It's amazing how scary my state is. It got up to 101 degrees (well according to the clocks in front of some of the banks we passed), and all sorts of people were out on the street in short shorts who should never ever EVER think of being in short shorts in public.

Rushed home and barely made it in time to see Robyn make her grand appearance. She was on and she was great but ... well let's face it, she's so tiny that the desk blocked anything but ... the same shot we get when she's sitting at the chat desk.

Dang it, the other day I noticed she has legs. She probably has very nice legs but I was never aware that she actually had legs since they're always blocked by the desk. But the very fact that she has legs blew my mind for some reason. If one day she were to jump up and run around the studio I'd probably faint (and the same goes for Laura & Anne), because it's something new and it'd blow away the way I think of them. Legless and chained to a computer desk no more!

I'm weird though. As much as I've grown attached to these people I'm not banking the rest of my life on them. My world doesn't revolve around Robyn, or Laura or Anne or Leo or Michaela or Patrick or ... because I actually try to maintain some sort of life outside of watching a TV channel all the time. It's not a great outside life, but hey, it actually is time away from the unreality of the chat room and TV, and it's probably for the best that I try to maintain a balance. Plus I don't want to be the guy who passes up the chance of real things going on because he's obsessed with the people on TV. I know too many of those types to become one myself.

She's A Beauty
Foster/Lukather/Waybill
Performed by The Tubes

Step right up and don't be shy,
because you will not believe your eyes.
She's right here behind the glass
and you're gonna like her,
'cause she's got class.

I know guys who go to strip clubs. I know guys who try to make friends with the strippers. I realize that this seems to have nothing to do with TechTV, but let me finish. These guys go home empty handed every night. They're alone. Even if they do somehow strike up a conversation with the stripper and end up getting her number or private web page, they never ever close the deal. I know guys who were trying for years at this. Spending thousands of dollars a year getting private dances from these girls, trying like mad to land them ... yet every year they get older and every year they get broker and every Christmas they're alone and every new year's they don't have anyone to kiss.

You can look inside another world.
You get to talk to a pretty girl.
She's everything you dream about...
but don't fall in love...
She's a beauty ---
one in a million girls,
she's a beauty.
Why would I lie?
Why would I lie?

I know guys who have fantasies about the perfect woman. They pursue these B-movie women or wrestling women or strippers and ignore perfectly lovely girls who might have some interest in them because they don't have the 36dd boobs or their butts might not be "perfectly sculpted." Mind you these are 300 lb guys who rarely shave or wear anything but the black t-shirt and jeans. Some go so far as to buy their idol's panties or shoes on the internet. I guess that would be perfectly normal -- except instead of doing what you'd expect them to do with the items -- they frame them and hang them on their walls. Honest to god.

You can say anything you like,
but you can't touch the merchandise.
She'll give you every pennies worth,
but it will cost you a dollar first.

I have nothing against these guys, but let's face it -- they're always going to be alone. You can't take a crush on someone (say a techtv personality), and expect it to turn into something outside of the TV world. If -- at the same time -- you ignore the perfectly great women or men or what have you who you know, or may actually have a chance with in the real world -- it's your own darn fault for being alone. You can do it if you want to, but please, don't waste the chance if someone good comes along in real life because you're holding out for the people on TV. Those TV people may not be as real as you think ...

You can step outside your little world.
You can talk to a pretty girl.
She's everything you dream about...
but don't fall in love...
She's a beauty ---
one in a million girls,
she's a beauty.
Why would I lie?
Why would I lie?

k9

10:30 PM
Blogging a little over a week after our last one, spending some time listening to music and trying not to let work get me down. Here's the line up if you want to play along at home:

Broken by Belly
Building A Mystery by Sarah McLachlane
Dear God by Sarah McLachlan
Silence (aero space trance) by Sarah McLachlan
Strawberry Fields Forever (Beatles Cover) by Peter Gabriel
In Your Eyes (Special Extended Mix) by Peter Gabriel
All You Want by Dido
Here With Me by Dido
Thankyou by Dido
Creep by Radiohead
My Lips Are Sealed [Go-Go's Cover] by Poe
Uninvited by Alanis Morissette
Skateaway by Dire Straits
Don't by Jewel
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Matt's Mix) by Tori Amos
Butterfly by Crazy Town
Surrender by Cheap Trick
Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order

Starting to think about looking for more work or changing jobs. My problem is that I've had 4 jobs in my life and I haven't had to look for extra work or another job in years. So I have no idea what my skill set (term ripped off from Martin Sargent), is and what I'm qualified for or what I'm worth. Plus I still have my dad to take care of and a house full of left-over animals so relocating would be problematic. Where I work now is a dream for that since I can work from home, but you know, lately with all the changes going on -- I'm not at all happy.

Obviously, I have a little creative talent. I'm also a whiz at solving problems. In my off hours I'm constantly asked to help with computer or personal problems from the hundreds of people I've met from being on-line since 1993. I could fill all of my off-hours with those questions if I really wanted to. But I don't, so I won't and no, I won't answer your question either. :)

That brings up a funny story to digress with about my friend Kevin. Kevin is one of those guys who always has a question. No matter what the topic is, no matter what is going on, Kevin has a question to ask. A couple of years ago I noticed that Kevin's computer questions were increasing in frequency. He was going from one or two questions a week to 10 or more. I mean he was asking things about systems I knew he didn't have and I was struggling to find answers to all of them. After a couple of weeks of it I finally broke down and asked him what was up. It turned out he had just started a new job teaching math at a middle school and he had mentioned me to the teachers there. So I was getting every computer question they could think of and providing IT support for free to a school in one of the richest areas in the country. LOL. I was dumb enough to keep answering them as well until they ran out of questions or until Kevin learned enough from me to solve them on their own.

Another quick story of another time. Another teacher was having problems with her CD-RW drive. Kevin went over to her house to help her out. The problem was that it would play the CDs okay but it wouldn't actually burn a CD without constant errors. He checked all the connections for her, checked device manager for a problem and when there was none he was going to try to pull the CD out of the machine and remount it. I stopped him and asked a simple question: "Is the computer on a flat surface?" He says "No, the table is kind of lopsided because one of the legs is broken." Turns out the machine was resting on the computer table at a near 45 degree angle and the cd wasn't lining up properly. I had them move the computer to a flat surface. It worked fine after that. I think I'm still owed a kiss by the other teacher if I ever feel free to collect it.

Last quick story, up until about 1998 or so I was the guy to go to if some pro wrestlers/pro wrestling personalities were having problems with their computers. Wrestlers are kind of cute because they're so big and mean in the ring but a lot of them become total frady-cats when it comes to computers. More than one occasion I'd get a call late late at night from guys who were nearly in tears because their systems were screwy. Right around the big Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 conversion was the best and the worst. None of the guys had Windows 95 and I had already upgraded to it. So many a night I'd be woken up by a phone call to solve problems in windows 3.11 and be lying in bed, half awake, doing setups and changes to their systems from memory. The screens would just sort of appear in the back of my head and we'd always get the problem fixed so I could go back to sleep.

I met a lot of people through my wrestling connections. Both fans and wrestlers. Most names no one is going to remember now. The late Brian Pillman is one I find myself missing a lot lately. Brian and I knew each other, I won't call us great friends and we never met in real life, but we did talk on the phone ever now and then and I think we went down in history together as putting on the first ever Internet Wrestling worked shoot on a message board.

For those who don't know Brian, in the early 90's he came into a league called the WCW. He was right out of football and he was both blessed and cursed with a pretty boy body and good looks. That's baby face material. You know, goodie goodie. Always in the short short tights and playing up to the 12 year old girls in the crowds. Brian HATED it. In his heart he was a bad guy. His idols were all bad guys. In real life he was nothing like his character and there's nothing worse than having to be nice all the time. Especially when you're Brian Pillman. I didn't know him well enough to know all the road stories but now that he's gone, the stories are coming out and I can tell you that the road stories prove that the Brian in real life wasn't the Brian on TV. I'll leave it at that.

It was like a year before Brian got his chance to become a bad guy. He was new to the on-line area and back then I was a first or second year volunteer. Things were looser back then. No one really cared about the rules since we were only a partner to the service and not a "real" area. Brian came up with this idea to get some exposure for the area: I'd give him a message board and he'd go in as a heel (bad guy), and get things rolling to get it some exposure. Brian would be his controversial self and I'd be the straight man, trying to explain why he couldn't go over the line and trying to keep the "loose cannon" in check. It was his way of doing two things -- breaking his baby face curse -- and trying to get the area some exposure.

The plan was to convince everyone that we hated each other but, in reality, like with nearly everything in wrestling, we were working together and playing off each other privately to keep the story line rolling. It was great fun while it lasted ... unfortunately ... we did it too well. People started believing that we hated each other. I'd start getting hate mail from people literally hating me for trying to keep Brian in check. While the lines were never crossed and I'd never let him get away with breaking the rules I had to apply to the area, it ultimately had to stop because the service got wind of it and wondered why I let this crazy person have a folder and I had to stop him from going off on a very high level person at the service. It got weird after that. LOL.

I miss him. It'll be four years in October since his passing. We had lost touch towards the end. He had signed with the WWF and the WWF wouldn't let him play in my area any more and put him on the road a lot. His wife would call every now and then just to talk and share stories of how their kids were just as crazy as their daddy. Still have his two WWF Action figures around here to remind me of those times when working on-line was a lot of fun and Brian was the resident wild man.

More stories at another time, I'm heading to bed.

k9

7:42 AM
Up early on this Monday and still trying to get my brain together so I can go into work a little before having to leave to take Gump to the vet.

Having some problems with my computer lately. I upgraded to 383 megs of ram from 128 earlier in the year but there seems to be a problem either with the DELL ram that came with the computer or the crucial ram that I upgraded it with. Every so often I freeze at start up and lately it's been a PITA when I try to do things that I should be able to do with all this RAM.

When I bought my 256 chip of RAM 3 or 4 months ago it was $105 with tax and shipping. Now it was $62 with tax and shipping. The plan is to put it in and if the other one is defective, send the other one back to crucial for a replacement. If the other one isn't defective and it's the DELL chip that's bad, I'm just going to ignore the DELL chip and I'll have the max 512 megs of RAM that this system can use. Either way, I'm going to have 512 megs of RAM in this system when it's done with it.

I also decided that since a lot of the problems have been due to lock ups when I'm video editing that I'm going to get a new ATI Radeon all in wonder card. I'm going to pull out the old PCI ATI card I use for video capture and my old AGP Geforce 256 and replace both with one card. Hopefully having one dedicated card for graphics and video will free up some ram space and there won't be conflicts with the drivers. Plus from what I hear, the Radeon powered card is a kick ass little gaming chip. I didn't opt for the Radeon with 64 megs of RAM simply for the fact that I wanted all the dedicated ports that come with the all in wonder for video editing. I'm sure it's a way better gamer, but I'm not exactly a game machine these days.

Seriously, the only real game I've been playing is Everquest and I don't play that a lot. I play it when my best friend needs me to find things to help her character do crafts (I'm really good and low level tasks -- need bone chips? I'm your man. LOL). But I never got into Everquest the way others have. I've been in there for 2 years and my primary character is level 26. While I'd like to get him power leveled up to 30 so I can go more places, I'm pretty comfortable playing at the level I play as a casual gamer.

I've never been one who makes a game his life. I'm just not dedicated enough to live and breathe one game or commit to Everquest as a lifestyle -- which you HAVE to do if you're going to get much higher than 30. Grouping becomes a way of life, the calendar becomes filled with quests and hunts and mandatory guild meetings, and just to get the neat-o swords or weapons or anything you have to be part of an uber guild. People bicker and fight and yell and scream over a lot of things in that game, which I'll admit, they do in any game, but they seem to lose touch with the fact that it is just a game. The +20 mana 40dmg 1hs +10ac +5str item means nothing out here in the real world. Sure your character had to slay the great dingo of nort in order to get it, but can you actually pick up non-Everquest playing women that way?

I'm enough of a geek already on my own, thank you very much.

I don't need any more help in proving that!

k9

10:55 PM
Well back from Hershey and we didn't see Tomb Raider. Kevin was running way late with an undisclosed emergency and Evil Jim and I didn't feel like getting off our duffs to go to the movies without him. He especially didn't feel like going out because he was still adjusting to his brand new piercing. I forget the fancy name he used for it but he pierced the spot on his lower lip where the middle strip of a goatee would go. Like a quarter of an inch below the bottom lip.

He looks quite odd but hey, he shaved off the heavy goatee he had for a long long time and you can actually see his face for once. Evil Jim is a handsome guy under the hair and the beard. If he weren't so damn evil he might make a good catch for one of the many women out there who are seeking moody musician types.

Got home and both Bubbagump and Thrashie jumped on me for not being home in time to feed them at 8 PM. So they got food and special attention as soon as I got in the door. I have to take the Gump to the vet tomorrow to have this god awful drain removed from his side, but his collar stays on for another whole week or so. Poor little dude.

Might as well get the names to the rest of the cats out there. They are Kat, Iago and Mayhem. If I mention them again take note for they be the creatures in my neighborhood. Well, until they get their midnight tuna snack then all go back downstairs. Not sure why I'm mentioning them again other than I'm bored and I'm tired and I'm about to fall over.

On that note I'd like to actually hear from you if anyone is actually reading this. Please drop me a line in the guest book. I'll continue Blogging away as much as I can, but if no one's reading there doesn't seem to be a point in doing it. So please keep my guest book active and healthy and the site will stay up for quite a long time.

With that, I'm out of thoughts, I must turn back into a doggie now.

k9

11:53 PM
Blogging a little before bed. Have to get up early to make the two hour drive down to Hershey to hang out with Evil Jim and Kevin.

So ... 50 strips, huh?

Oh sure I've been slowing down lately and I haven't had a lot of time to devote to it, but somehow we hung in there until the 50th strip came about this morning.

I had actually made the picture of Scott Herriott ages ago. I had planned to pull out Scott Herriott in the shower as the way the strip would ultimately end. You know, a spoof on the great Dallas disaster with Patrick Duffy.

But we're at 50 and I still have more stories to tell, so we're going to keep on going for now. There are 100 other ways to get Scott Herriott back into that shower after all and if it ever becomes too much you'll be seeing some variation of that scene again.

Revised yesterday's season opener because for some reason no one got the fact that Carmine was singing Britney Spears' "Baby one more time." I thought everyone knew that song. I mean I have it stuck in my brain from various trips to wrestling shows in the past where my friend Brett would play it over and over in the car. But I guess not. So if you're too hip to be square, remember that song was Britney Spears' "Baby one more time."

For today's strip, if you didn't get the first gag it was another homage to "Blues Brothers." You'll have to find it in the movie yourself. I love that movie and I think we've paid homage to it about a dozen times so far. You'll have to find all the references to it yourself as I'm not awake enough to explain them all. Plus that will give you something to do as you memorize that movie.

The only other big news of the day was that my mom found an old box containing all the old family pictures. We thought it was lost forever, but it turns out it was stored in with all of my sister's leftover junk. She was probably hoarding it so I'm kind of glad my mom found it and it's back in her care.

Well my care now. I have the pictures upstairs and I'll be scanning some of them for my own collection. A lot of blackmail pictures of myself are in there if anyone cares to get their hands on them. Apparently as a kid I had a lot of Erica Hill hair days.

If you don't get that joke, Erica Hill has had a lot of bad hair days lately. I've been recycling her pictures because I'm hoping and praying that someone combs her hair out and makes her look great again. In fact, if I had money, I'd take a private jet to San Francisco, go to the techlive studios, storm the set and comb her hair, then hop back in the jet and fly home. They might arrest me for doing that, but hey, at least no one else would be bugged with this overwhelming need to comb her hair because she just doesn't look right with her hair so out of place.

Of course I can say that here in this blog, but when presented with the real Erica Hill I'd say nothing about her hair. Let's face it. Erica Hill is intimidating. I have a feeling she was one of those girls you know growing up who you just live in mortal fear of. Why? Because she's smart, she's beautiful, and with three or four words she can so demoralize your psyche that you just want to clutch a security blanket and take a long long dandelion break.

With this type of girl you don't want to be in love with her, you don't want to worship her, you don't want to be enemies with her, you just want to stay out of her way and go on about your day without becoming a target. So if she has funky hair, most men will say nothing, as saying something means you've talked to her and talking to her means you're in her range and her range means you're a target for the three or four demoralizing words that will put you back in the dandelion patch clutching that security blanket once again.

If I were wise I wouldn't have said anything, but mama raised a fool and raised him to be the best little fool he could be. Therefore one day you'll find me, in the patch, with the blanket in a fetal position going "wow, my head really is too big for my body ... my nose has a bump in it ... I never was popular in high school ... mommy!"

So where was I?

Oh yah, bad hair days.

So going through these photos of myself and realizing that my hair was always all over the place. In not one but two school photos -- separated by 5 or 6 years -- I had a hair style that is like a Mohawk. I had a large strip of hair running down the middle of my head. Unfortunately no one shaved the rest of it off so the rest of the hair is every which way and I look totally out there. What's scary is I think it's my hair's natural position because I have it both pictures, after all.

These pictures stop when I was about 15 or 16. that's when I stopped getting them done at school. I didn't want my picture taken. I have never wanted my picture taken. It goes back to when I was a two year old and you'll see there's shots where I deliberately made a face because I hated having my picture taken.

It got to the point in high school where if I was actually in school on the days that pictures were taken, I'd never go down to get them done. In the three years I was in the Maryland high school my proudest accomplishment is that there is only one photo of me in the yearbook and in it's a staged shot from Journalism class.

This posed a problem senior year. I was a TA for two periods of the day. I worked both AV and the library. Mainly because it meant I could use the AV work room as an office during lunch and I'd never have to go to the god awful cafeteria. The teacher in charge of AV had to do a slide show for Senior's night every year and she was required by the school to get a picture of every senior for feature in it. This was in case the senior actually paid the $50 for a ticket to senior's night just to see him or herself in the slide show -- which was the ONLY reason to go to that event.

I didn't care for it. I didn't care for organization. I didn't care for high school and I sure as heck didn't care to have my picture taken. So senior year she and I played this cat and mouse game of trying to get my picture taken. She'd set up elaborate conditions for me to fall into so she could get a shot, I'd find ways to hide my face so she couldn't get the shot she wanted.

The very last time she tried was a killer. She assigned me to do darkroom duties with another guy. We had a lot to do and we were pretty tired from all the work when we finally were able to get out of the dark room. She, being relentless, waited outside the door for the entire time we were in there just in case I'd come out. I didn't suspect a thing. It was a normal assignment and I didn't think twice about it.

So as time comes to leave we open the door and are greeted by a flashbulb going off. She had her shot! She outsmarted me! She won! She won! She won!

Then she noticed I had a handkerchief out and instead of my face in the shot all she had a blur of white moving around in the air. She put the camera down, turned to me, and said "I give up" and that was the end of that.

I didn't go to senior's night but there wasn't a picture of me up that's for sure.

With that I should be heading off to bed. I shall continue with my mortal fear of Erica Hill at another time. :)

k9

8:12 AM
The day starts with Gump on a rampage. I had him locked in the computer room over night because it's the safest room in the house for him. He has a tendency to want to hide in a closet or somewhere where he can find total darkness when the world is pissing him off. In that regards we're a lot a like.

Sadly, for him, there's nothing like that in the computer room. One thing I've learned from all our years together is that his choices of pitch black places to hide usually make it impossible for anyone to reach him without major work. His most recent pre-injury spot was in the back of the far end of the closet in a tiny space where it seemed impossible for anything to fit in. Somehow he got in there and slept for a a while. When I needed to get him out for dinner time he took great delight in knowing that it would take me a half hour to empty the closet just to get him out.

Closets are closed now, just in case. He doesn't like it. But I don't care. He's not getting his headgear stuck in anything on my watch.

Going down to evil Jim's tomorrow to play some video games and probably to go see "Tomb Raider." Kevin, Evil Jim and I have a cool friendship where half the time all we want to do is sit around and lounge. No need to go to the mall or to a bar or to a big production number about hanging out, the college-style hang out of playing video games, eating junk food and vegging from time to time is enough to take away the stresses of the work week.

Right now our game of choice is the Fire Pro Wrestling D game that I mentioned in a previous blog. I'm not going to kid you, the graphics are 2d and it looks like the old WWF Genesis Games mixed with Nintendo Pro Wrestling and the Arcade WWF Wrestling Challenge. The wrestlers are cartoonish but that's a good thing. To make up for it there are about 1500 moves to make custom wrestlers with, and among them, Evil Jim takes great delight in the 700 or so that drop a guy directly on his head.

Yes, we're geeky enough to make ourselves and our other friends in the game. In fact, the characters we end up playing are primary out of that pool of guys since we can customize them to do the moves we like. For the wrestling fans out there, Evil Jim's favorite move is a Vader style short arm clothesline where he Irish whips the guy towards the rope then pulls the guy back into a clothesline. I don't have a favorite move myself, I use about 6 different characters, and right now I'm still working on getting Robyn, Laura and Anne from Chat into the game.

Robyn's pretty much finished now since she was so easy to do with the anime hair. I think she's a mix of American pro wrestler (that's a style in the game), and power wrestler. She does a lot of awesome little moves designed to make Evil Jim cringe since his massively powerful character is getting beat up by a cute little anime girl.

While I'm going off, there's a reason we have the skill setting at "1." I don't know if the people of Japan have massively great reflexes and timing, but anything more than "1" for skill setting on this game and the computer is guaranteed to kick your butt. Not only kick your butt, kick your butt in such a way that you look at someone or something to blame for it so you can make a little scene while quietly putting the game level back to 1.

Such is life. It's silly, but it's mine.

Out again,

k9

6:16 PM
Friday is going out with a whimper. I still have to sign in to work some tonight and I really need a nap. Instead, I'm sitting here Blogging again.

Bubbagump is home from the vet and has a huge animal collar on to stop him from licking his stitches. Don't ask. The infection was huge and there's a lot of stitches and gross things that probably would make me faint if it were me.

I don't have a stomach for anything. Right now it's hard because this is my cat. He knows I'm going to make things okay but he has exposed stitches and a thing on his side to drain the infection and part of me just wants to scream and run away when I have to look at it or clean his wound off. But I can't. He's my responsibility and I have to get over my lack of a stomach to do what's best for my pet.

I'm sure parents go through this a lot. I hope one day to be a father and hopefully this is good training for that but you know, there's still that part of me deep deep inside that's going "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew" to the thought of facing this with anyone else.

Lara Croft was a big issue today in chat when I was there. Boobs and Guns actually made it to the TechTV airwaves. I thought it was cute that Stacee and Adam saw the movie together to provide a review. Adam had to take the PC approach to the movie because he's out numbered by women 5 to one on that set. It was great that Steve said something so over the line that nearly everyone just gave him a blank stare and I swear Robyn was about to zaaaaaaaaaaap him with those magic eye beams.

Personally, I never saw the point to the tomb raider games. I have a friend who is tre obsessed with Tomb Raider. She loves the puzzles and can figure it out and really get into what Lara is doing. But me? I tried the first game. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I couldn't figure out how to get past some dogs or through a really dumb maze and I spent more time wondering why she's in an ice cavern in short shorts. Okay I know the answer, to get guys like me to buy the game.

Today's coverage was also kind of funny because in describing how ridiculous the movie was with the sexplotation angle Stacee may have actually encouraged more of us to go see the movie. I'm sorry but I'm a guy, I have guy hormones, and when Stacee started going on and on about how Lara took a shower in the film and demonstrated how she arched her back and flaunted herself it came off as, well, kinda steamy. I wanted to see the movie for half a second after that.

I'll probably end up seeing it with my usual group of friends. I don't go to movies that often and there's reasons why. Usually what I see is great FOR ME, but my friends hate it. So in picking a movie, it's best to let them suggest so I can't take the blame for dragging them to see something god awful.

Case in point: Dungeons and Dragons.

I went to see D&D with my friend Evil Jim and my Aerosmith obsessed friend Kevin. Neither really wanted to see the movie but they went because I wanted to see it.

We get to the theatre and Kevin sits on one side of Evil Jim and I sit on the other. This was to prevent Evil Jim from walking out on the picture, which he has a long history of doing.

Two minutes into the movie he turns to me and says "Die."

It continued for two hours.

I'm loving the movie (even if it was a C movie), I'm sitting there with my nachos and my soda and I'm smiling and I'm psyched. But any time I look at Evil Jim he snarls "You are dead."

The only thing that kept me alive at the end of the movie was the fact that throughout the movie I knew I was dead and I knew Evil Jim was a big D&D fan. So I came up with 10 or 12 probing questions about D&D in relation to the movie that got him to talk about the movie in a way that wouldn't end up with him punching me in the face. Which, by nature, he should done have as soon as the lights went on.

I still got punched -- well, in the arm, mind you, and hard -- but at least it wasn't the face and it wasn't in a way that would do any damage.

This time if we go to a movie, it'll be a Kevin suggestion to Evil Jim. That way I'm not blamed for anything that happens as KEVIN suggested the movie, not me, and it's KEVIN who will get punched in the arm -- not me.

Maybe I'm getting wise as I get older. I don't know.

Out for now.

k9

7:48 AM
Got some bad news last night as Patrick & Leo announced that the room was overbooked for NJ on Sunday. That sort of killed plans to go as I was dragging two less than enthusiastic friends with me. If we got there and there were 800 people in a 400 person room, well, that would be the end of two friendships. Plus one booked himself to go to Long Island the night before (knowing weeks in advance that we had these plans in NJ), just so he could feed his obsessive need to see Aerosmith.

You know, I've never been a concert goer. It's just one thing I never had a big interest in. If I did go to concerts I'd probably go see a band I like and that would be it. In this case, my friend is going to see Aerosmith 5 to 8 times this summer. Why? God only knows. Saturday night will be his second show in a week and he paid a god awful amount just to get last minute tickets. I just don't see the point. But that's me.

Thrashie is circling my chair saying "feed me, feed me, please please feed me." Just getting the cat thing out of the way again to certify that I'm a geek. Thrashie is actually my sister's cat. Not sure who officially owns her now, but I feed her and give her shots and I'm the one she yells at if they're not on time. However, she's officially my sister's cat and my sister's responsibility. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Off to shower and get ready for the day. My dad has a CAT scan this morning on his trache tube. Not sure if I'm taking him or if my mom is taking him. Nothing life threatening this time. Just not fitting his throat properly. I'll tell you this now: don't smoke. If you do, stop. You don't want to be 56 years old and with a tube in your throat to breathe. Don't give me that "well at 56, I'll be half dead anyway" stuff ... just stop.

Sorry to preach, but I've seen what smoking does to people. One of the reasons I'm still around the folks is that he's screwed himself up so much by doing dumbass things over the years that my mom can't take care of him by herself. I'm not going to gloss it over, everything he has could have been avoided if he had used a little common sense when he was young or a little common sense now. Everything.

On that note, finally to the shower and starting the day.

k9

10:17PM
Blogging again for a little bit. Been a busy couple of days as I sit her sorta worried about one of the house's shared cats. I share a big house with my folks, they live downstairs, I live upstairs. It might paint me as the world's biggest geek in the eyes of the world, but the rent is cheap and I'm always around to help with my dad, who is disabled. It's not quite like living together since the house is big enough to consider it two separate places and we don't really see each other that much. The only things we share are the kitchen, the pool (as if I could swim), laundry and the many pets left behind by my sister's family when she moved last year (they're the only things that have free reign on both parts of the house).

Growing up my sister went through this phase where she'd bring animals and people home and quickly adopt them into her life ... for about a week and then they'd either vanish (as in the case with most of the people), or they'd quickly gravitate to me (as in the case of most animals). Not sure why but it would make her angry so she'd just repeat the process until it eventually worked and she's now married to my brother in law. Unfortunately, after adopting all the animals, my brother in law suddenly developed this allergy to cats. So between the floors we share five cats. Two are mine on paper. One I raised from about 4 weeks old and other just sort of showed up on the back door 2 years ago now and decided that he lived here, that I should feed him, and I was now his obedient master. The one I'm worried about is Bubbagump, aka Oberon (his name when he's really really bad), the one I raised.

He got in some sort of fight with an animal last week. He came home well after midnight when I was in the middle of a strip and basically ran in and jumped on my lap to show off his new war wounds. I cleaned him up as best I could but one of the bites seems to have gotten itself infected and $150 later, he's at the vet overnight getting it treated. He's an expensive cat, I'll admit. My folks are still getting over the bill he presented them by breaking his leg a few years back. Heck, I'm still hearing about it (I was a poor broke college kid at the time). But I paid for that in my own way. He had a giant cast on his leg with a a rod sticking through his skin. He couldn't move around too well. I literally spent three weeks taking care of him, helping him stand up when he ate, or worse, when he needed to use the bathroom at 3 am (every night!). You learn a lot about yourself and your pet when you're its sole way of surviving.

Big geek mode off. Just worried about the little guy.

Working on season 4 in the morning. Fading kind of fast and heading off to read a while.

k9

PS To chatgirl Robyn, I hope you're an aunt by now.

10:43 PM
Winding down on the day. Watching "Richard Pryor Live in Concert" on BET's Movie channel and laughing my butt off. It's worth watching even if I've seen it a couple of times (and listened to the MP3 tons of times).

Today was a long day. Resorted to asking my folks to come over and put the AC in since I couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing on my own. My brain just went out the window as soon as I looked at diagram 1, figure 1.

So the AC went into the computer room and I was suppossed to set it to the coldest setting and let it run until it shut off on it's own. I turn it on and it's cold and it's awesome and me and Thrashie are sitting in the room getting cold and just enjoying life.

Then it starts to rain.

I swear it went from 90 to 60 in a matter of minutes. The AC shut itself off and, well, at least I know it can shut itself off. :)

The rest of the day went by without a hitch. No fires so far. Got our 48th strip up and feeling good and with that, I'm so fading that I'm just going to go to bed ...

Night all,

k9

Popping in with a few comments on TechTV's coverage of the Gameboy Advance.

It's a Super Nintendo in your hand. Oh. Wow. Great. 5 out of 5 stars. Yawn.

Here's an alternative:

I had the same thing 2 years ago but it was a Sega Genesis in your hand. It was called the Sega "Nomad" and it was awesome. Even played all of the old Genesis games. I bought mine for $29 back then. I'm sure there are a lot of them still floating around.

If you want to play three year old games in your hand it's worth tracking down a Nomad and some old Genesis games. It's a lot more value and a lot less expensive than the Gameboy Advance.

That's just IMODO.

k9

8:44 AM
Writing as I watch CNN's coverage of reporters giving accounts of Timothy McVeigh's Execution. Not sure how I feel on the whole issue right now. Taking a life as a punishment for something never made much sense to me. In this case though, I'm troubled by the way I feel in regards towards his actions and this sense of anger and "maybe they should hang the bastard" I get when thinking about what he did.

Now I'm a person who won't squash bugs. If there's a bee in the house or a spider on the computer I'll go to the trouble of getting a cup and a piece of paper and I'll capture the critter and take it outside instead of squishing it. Life is too short and too precious to arbitrarily kill anything that gives us the creeps. That's MODO and I'm a bonafide weirdo. I don't expect anyone else to see the world like that and if you catch me flushing the really mean bugs down the toilet in some crazed act of "it bit me so it must die" ... don't hold too much over my head. I'm allowed my faults as well.

Getting back to Timothy McVeigh, the last subject of death will pop up one last time for a while (other than talking about Phil Hartman -- which is coming one of these days). McVeigh was in a situation where he knew he was going to die. He knew the date, the time, the place and who would be watching his final moments on Earth. He also knew that he was either solely responsible (if you believe that theory), or part of a plot (more likely -- there's still A LOT we don't know about this case), that was responsible for killing a lot of people. I mean we're not talking act of passion, not that would matter in this case, but a deliberate action to kill a lot of innocent people just because he was angry over from what I understand, of all things, Janet Reno and the Waco situation.

Note to self, if Janet Reno pissed me off and I'd want to take action against someone to an extreme level, it would be a lot easier to find Janet Reno and punch her in the mouth. Not that I'd advocate such a thing, but why punish everyone else because you're PO'd? A couple of years in jail and a fine compared to ... death and destroying the lives of hundreds of people. Hmm.

If you believe in spirits and the afterlife, I have this feeling there are a lot of people with baseball bats waiting for him at light at the end of the tunnel. The other side of me hopes that maybe there's someone waiting for him who can try to figure out the twisted feelings and emotions that guided his life and bring him to peace.

So last night he sat in a cell. Last night on Earth, knowing that what waits for him on the other side was probably going to be bad. No real compassion there but I wonder what you do when you know that you're going to die and you only have 8 or 9 hours to spend alone? The press reports said he spent the time writing letters to friends and family. I can't picture the situation, I don't want to picture the situation, but again, I hope he used those hours to find peace.

Off that subject as I need to start my day. The coolest remake of any song ever is Poe's version of the Go-Go's "Our Lips are Sealed" from the "Gossip" Soundtrack. You might find it listed as "My Lips Are Sealed" by Poe (I've seen it in mp3 searches of both). It just reeks of coolocity and it's currently stuck in my head, not that I mind it much. I love the song ... on the first day it's stuck. It'll probably make me ill in 3 days or so and I'll need to purge it. But until then, cool song and worth listening to.

Another day starts, take care on the day,

k9

10:31 PM or so, writing as I watch the Original Highlander on DVD. I'm a fan of the first movie first and foremost. Never got into the TV series (I'm sorry but the TV series Highlander was too Fabio for me), though I've come to appreciate it after watching the DVD of "Highlander Endgame" (the TV series Highlander was a much better swordsman, I'll give him that).

The original Highlander was one of those early to mid-80's movies like the original "Terminator" where just about any scruffy looking guy could find himself to be the sole savior of the world. All you needed was jeans, sneakers and a leather jacket. Ta-da! You could be anyone from Peter Parker the Amazing Spider-man to Highlander to the guy who fought the Terminator but no one remembers his name.

SPOILER WARNING -- SKIP TO /END SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE: The first Highlander really got a hold on me for the music. Queen's "Who wants to live forever" set to the aging and death of the main character's first wife was touching. A very beautiful little series of scenes set as she grew old and died while he stayed the same. /END SPOILER

I know immortality is a dream for most men. From Vampires to Highlanders to Time Lords, in a lot of our hearts, we'd like nothing more to stay the same forever. Went through that phase in my mid-20's, wishing I could stay the same and dreaming of not having to face death. To be around this reality forever or until god or entropy took time on a course to where it goes when time can't go on.

Right now I don't know if I want to live forever. I mean sure it would be nice, but you know, I think of a problem my barber is going through now. His mom is 88 and all her friends have either passed on or are in conditions where they don't remember her. She just faced having her last good friend have a stroke and forgetting all their years together. Now they're strangers, and while the memories live on, for the able minded one seeing friends in those conditions and having those people die and leave you all alone must be quite painful.

My mom's father is 88 as well, but he keeps alive through family. We have so many second or third cousins and so many things for "Uncle Al" to do (he's always gardening or working in the yard -- no matter what house he's at), he keeps himself refreshed and living. That's how I'd like to live out the last years of my life if or when I get that far. The last thing I'd want to do is be stuck in some nursing home with no power over the last years of my life.

For a long time part of me wished that if I died that I could come back as a ghost. Immortality through death is an ironic concept. I tend to spook myself out with thoughts of that sort of thing, but in the end I ruled that out as an option I'd like as well. I mean think about it. Let's say you die and you're a ghost. You're essentially stuck in one place for the rest of time unless someone or something brings you along to whatever you believe in for the afterlife. I always thought about haunting a mall or some place people come -- but it hit me, even buildings die.

Oh sure if you were to haunt a popular spot at a mall you could get a few years in, but buildings aren't immortal. Malls fail, buildings get torn down, and you'd end up haunting an abandoned spot. Maybe not in the first 10 or 20 or even 50 years, but sometime the place will fail, the world will change and you'll be haunting in silence. Alone forever in the spot you chose.

Even ancient cities like Troy must have had haunted houses. Now where are they? If ghosts are real there's some strange cold spot where a city deemed "immortal" stood where some poor fool stands around wondering where all the people went.

Oh I'm in a weird mood tonight, forgive me. This movie always gets me going.

Ironically enough, Freddie Mercury, Queen's lead singer, died not many years after the end of this film. I hope his spirit or essence or what have you has found happiness where ever it went when it headed for the big gig in the sky.

Another night down, getting ready for bed.

k9

It's 6:30 PM now, sitting here with the instruction guide for my brand new Kenmore Room Air Conditioner. Got it on sale at sears. Not sure about anything other than it has a remote control and I have no real clue about how to get it from the box and into the window.

I'm actually reading the instructions, which is scary, because my little eyes begin to glaze over at the thought of anything to do with this installation. Mind you, I can put expansion cards in my computer or have done just about any sort of upgrade you can think of to computers over the years, but the trying to do anything non-computer and mechanical has always been beyond me. My little brain freezes with putting things together and I end up having to hire someone to do it or resort to my brother in law or my dad having do it.

Right now all I know is that the air conditioner is cool because it has that remote control and that Sears will clean it for me when it stops working next spring. That's two whole steps up from my old air conditioner -- which I got on sale at Wal-Mart a couple of years back -- it was one of those now passe remote control-free models and well, if I tried to take the thing back to Wal-Mart to repair it I have the feeling the only response would be "you bought it, you broke it, go away." It was a floor model after all. I mean buy one of those and it's like you're sure to give up any claims to warranties or damages when it electrocutes you while you sleep.

I harbor serious fears over mechanical appliances anyway. Anything that saws, cuts, drills or presses tends to scare the heck out of me. Heck, it took my best friend's calming voice to guide me through putting my expansion hard drive in for this system after I needed to use ::gasp:: you know like screwdrivers and stuff to put it in. I'm half serious, but I am scarred for life because of an encounter with a table saw in Jr. high, which, if anyone cares to hear the story, I'll share one day. It's why my right thumbprint is basically scar tissue.

Oh, while I'm thinking of it, Sears is heavily discounting Sega Dreamcast software. Picked up "Sliver," "Ready 2 Rumble" and "Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1" for DC for $10 each. Grab them while you can get them because there's some amazing prices for some great games out there.

Take care,

k9

P.S. To earlier, a shout out to Katie-Bear-Okto-Fis, who still has a crush on Zoltan.

It's Sunday morning, close to 9:25 am, looking over my work schedule for the day and dreading it. Have to go to Wal-mart and pick up a new air conditioner today between shifts and hope I can figure out how to install it before it gets any hotter out there.

Right now it's kind of nice out 60's and rain, nice type of weather to wake up to. Even better if I could lie in bed with that special someone and spend the morning ... well listening as she sleeps and catching up on my reading. LOL. I was always like that. I wake up at 8 am on the nose every morning, as a kid it was 6 AM so whenever I'd go to a sleep over or crash on someone's bedroom floor I'd always be awake too darn early. It was nice though, I had a best friend in Jr. High who had a battered copy of nearly every comic book there was on the floor of his room back then. I could literally reach out and grab a brand new issue of something I'd never seen before (or 20), and spend the hours between my wake up time and "the normal SANE wake up time of the rest of the world" (or so he claimed), reading old comics and listening to my headphones.

Another move and another time, high school, I'd wake up every morning at 4 am. I switched things around because I was having horrible headaches in the afternoons from eye strain and allergies and my parents wouldn't take me to get glasses until I passed the Driver's exam. Yes, it made no sense then, and it still makes no sense, all it did was give me headaches and keep me from driving (legally anyway), until my early 20's. Anyway, I'd get up at 4 am and do homework until it was time to go to school. If I didn't finish by school time, I simply wouldn't go to school. Easy enough. My folks didn't care, and senior year after missing 45+ days of school I still somehow graduated 8th in my class. I guess that's saying something about the school system, my lack of regard to rules, and my parents. But such was life.

4 am and HBO was always a good mix back then. In that move we had gone from the Seattle area, where to get cable you had to rip up your entire front yard because the cables were under ground, to a "planned community" (ie. rich folks don want nobody weird living there), near Baltimore, where the wires were like "normal people" -- hanging from poles in front of the house. Cable meant we had more than 5 channels for the first time in our lives and cable meant a whole host of moves I had never seen before. There's nothing like a bad movie at 4 am. I mean cult classics like "Better off Dead" and "Howard the Duck" only really shine if you're watching them at 4 am.

I'll babble about movies and my attitude at another time, but for now I'm about to be late for another shift. Which would be especially bad as I currently set my own hours ...

Quick shout outs:

To Summer: Congrats on getting out of the jail known as California High School. We can all breathe a lot easier now that you're out of the "exciting education environment" provided by the California school system. Good job and good luck.

To the Guy who almost went to jail because his neighbors were going to call the cops as he was laughing so hard over the Jessica strips: More power to you man!

To Robyn: Girl, Bombdiggity, we've got to get you into a chat 12 step program.

To everyone else: have a great Sunday. New strip went up last night, trying for 2 new ones this afternoon to end the third season. Hopefully anyway.

k9

LOL now that I have a blog I'm compelled to write again.

It's 7:06 PM as I write this, sitting in my office looking out on another evening in the country. It's the time of year where it's daylight for an eternity so I usually don't get anything productive done until after 9 PM when the sun goes down.

Thrashie the diabetic cat is at my side. It's almost time for her 8 PM ritual of food and a shot. Before she was diagnosed I could never imagine giving anyone a shot or even touching a needle. Heck, I'd turn green if the subject was brought up. Now I'm giving her two shots a day. Strange how life works that way. Still turning green when I talk about it, but it's not hampering her schedule.

Right now I'm burning a friend's copy of Dire Straits "Making Movies" into MP3 file format. I love Dire Straits. They have some of the most haunting little songs that I've ever encountered. This album is special to me for the song "Skateaway." I remember it was one of the first videos I ever saw on MTV. It was late late night and I couldn't sleep, popped on MTV to find a girl roller skating through life to a very haunting little video. Didn't catch the name of the group or the name of the song, but it stuck with me because the words and the music fit each other so well. Great video, great song.

"She gets rock n roll, on a rock n roll station, and a rock n roll dream ... she's making movies, on location, she don't know what it means ... and the music makes her want to be the story, and the story was whatever was the song, what it was ... roller girl don't worry, dj plays the movies ... all night long, all night long ..."

Hey it's my blog, I can be silly if I want to.

Another current favorite artist is Eva Cassidy. Hopefully you've heard that name by now.

Basic story is that she was a relatively unknown singer who died of cancer a few years ago. A radio executive in England heard one of her albums last year and was compelled to put her version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the air. It went to #1 almost overnight. I can't put words to how that song sounds. Forget every cheesy rendition of that song you've ever heard -- and that goes to you tough guys out there who rolled your eyes when I brought up the song name -- you will never forget her voice after hearing that song. If Tori Amos can make you shed a tear, Eva Cassidy will make you openly weep, big guy.

It makes you wonder a lot about how the music industry works these days. I mean, seriously, the immediate reaction when I play her songs for people is "wow, why didn't she make it?" or "where can I get more of this?" I guess she was hard to classify -- she did everything from torch songs to rock to jazz and blues -- her voice just fit nearly anything it touched. From most accounts she was just one of those people who enjoyed what she did and never pushed for fame or to be a star. She was just happy to be her and happy to be making music for better or for worse.

Other good songs by Eva Cassidy include "Anniversary Song" (it literally gives me cold chills), and her renditions of "Time After Time," "Fields of Gold," "People Get Ready" and "What a Wonderful World." They simply blow any other rendition of those songs away. They become hers and you'll never forget them.

Sun starting to set, thankfully, still have an allergy headache from earlier so I'm going to let the Eva's version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" take me out for another night.

Take care all,

k9

Popping back in with a PS ...

While I'm thinking about it, to Mrs. Burstein, I hope your toe gets better and you get about to answering e-mail one of these days.

k9

Well, since you clicked on it, you can see that I'm in the process of adding a blog to this site.

When sitting down at this I'm thinking to myself "Yes, a blog will be great -- I update it daily! I can put my thoughts down whenever I like without having to do the html updates! It'll be awesome! I'll keep up with it, yes I will!"

But it reality ... well, we all know how this goes. Entries will come as I have something worthwhile to write about.

Still mucking around with the blogger.com software to see what I can actually do with one of these.

Some site news:

* I can't believe the we're getting pretty close to our 50th strip already. That just boggles my mind. We're getting back into the flow of things as we can and yes, I'm working on getting us jump started again and hopefully life has started to be less stressful so I can sneak back into doing this as I can.

* Also, I'm planning on attending Patrick and Leo's stop in New Jersey next week to see them both speak. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully my friends won't back out at the last minute. As much as I love TechTV, the 4 or 5 hour ride by myself is going to be killer. Hope to see some of you there.

* A lot of questions about the game I used to create Robyn with under "Silly Stuff." The game is called Fire Pro Wrestling D and it's a Japanese import for Sega Dreamcast. Variations of the game are floating around for a lot of systems (including Saturn and Playstation 1), but so far this is the best one I've played. The game is a lot like the old WWF Wrestling Challenge mixed with the ever classic Nintendo Pro Wrestling. You need to either mod your Dreamcast or get a Gameshark or DC-X disk to run it as it's an import game. Note: IT TAKES A LOT OF MEMORY BLOCKS, so go stock up on memory cards while you can still find them. IT IS WORTH BUYING.

I have Laura and Anne in the works, however, since it's a Japanese wrestling game, they'll either look distinctly Japanese or look like Chyna. That's just the limits on the game.

With that, thank you again for reading and this blog is officially under way!

k9