Less then a week

To the Super Bowl!

I can't wait! The second in two years. The third in four years. eep!

And I just got reservations to the Holiday Inn where the SPACE con is being held this year. The fourth annual Cerebites gathering will be held there. Of course Dave and Gerhard will be there.

Another weekend down

Another weekend gone.

Well, it was a short weekend: we had to work on Saturday. Blech! Luckily I don't have to do laundry until tomorrow. heehe.

The Bye Week - Argh!

This two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, is just too long of a wait. I can't take it. I want the Super Bowl to be tomorrow night! Arghh. I can't wait.

But then again, I can wait. 'Cause after the Super Bowl, there is only the Pro Bowl (ick) and then no more football until next August. The draft in April, but I'd like to see foot ball year round. It feels like Baseball is always going between spring training and then the World Series in October. Every other sports "season" feels longer then football's season, but that is prolly just my biased view. Football and tennis are 'bout the only two sports I really enjoy watching. And Tennis does have a long season - they just started back up with the Aussie Open these past two weeks.

Off to work we go.

On a Saturday nevertheless. Ick.

So it snows this past Saturday night / Sunday morning as you well know if you live in New England or watch the news. And with that 3+ feet of snow in some areas (with drifts even higher) a State of Emergency in both RI and MA was declared for Sunday and both Govenors requested that businesses and schools to be closed on Monday.

So my work was closed on Monday, when I had taken off Monday for the AFC Championship game anyways. Oh well. Free day off right? I mean they couldn't charge me PTO time when the plant was closed down anyways.

Well, they didn't charge me any PTO time, but they did tell us all to come in on Saturday. Argh. And in a Dilbertesque moment, the VP of Engineering sent out meeting invites to the engineering dept for Saturday morning at 9am. At least it wasn't 8am. 'Cause while I normally get in at 7:30 - 7:45am, I think tomorrow I'll sleep into 7am and get to work when I get towork, as long as it is by 9am (prolly be 'bout 8:15am, ohhh, so late. heh.).

More Snow

We got more snow last night / this morning. About 9 to 11 inches depending on your location.

And that was nothing. I woke up this morning and just pulled out of my parking spot, wiped off the passenger side of my car and drove to work. I didn't even need to clear my windshield (already good) or worry about the roads (slushy and/or packed snow like yesterday).

Normally 9 to 11 inches and I'd be thinking they would close work down. Nope.

Snow + Idiots = Headache

A little bit of snow and you think people were idiots. Well, okay over two feet of snow. heh.

A few things 'bout snow:

• Make sure all of it is off your car before you go driving. This includes you headlights, your roof and your trunk. Having the snow blow off your car and onto my windshield is not fun.
• Drive a bit slower and cautiously. Don't tailgate me 'cause I'm doing the speed limit or a couple miles below it. When you spin out on the snow / ice, don't come looking to me for help.
• Just because you might be "trapped" in your house a couple days before you can get out, you don't need to rush to the grocery store the day before and buy milk and bread. Don't you people have pantries and / or fridges?
• It will melt eventually.

I don't hate snow, I just hate dealing with the stupidity it brings out in people.

Money, whats it to ya?

To the White House it must be growing on trees 'cause they sure are spending it faster then they can print it (well, maybe not that fast, it is just a figure of speech). According to an AP wire:

The White House will project that this year's federal deficit will hit $427 billion

$427 Billion. BILLION. Or let me rephase: $427,000,000,000.00 But according to this fellow at the Cato Institute the deficit isn't anything to worry about. Well, how 'bout the National Debt? According to the U.S. National Debt Clock FAQ:

On January 15th 2004, the Outstanding Public Debt jumped $13 billion to $7,001,852,607,623.35. This was the first time in history the U.S. National Debt surpassed the $7 trillion mark and came less than two years after the Debt first passed $6 trillion.

::sigh::

Sure thing Cato fellow. The deficit isn't anything to worry 'bout you say, but what 'bout this $7 Trillion debt? That can't be a good thing. And common sense says that if you have a budget deficit, then the debt is going to go up. If you run a budget surplus, then you can use some of that to pay off the debt. Tax breaks are nice, tax refunds are even nicer, but what about paying off this debt?

Or better yet, spend less money on crap we really don't need. Just ask the Citizen's Against Government Waste people:

The Grace Commission made 2,478 recommendations which, if implemented, would save $424.4 billion over three years, an average of $141.5 billion a year all without eliminating essential services.

I'm all for a pruned down, slim government. None of this bloated, wasteful, pork belly (nothing against pigs, good ole Wilbur) back scratching good ole boy (and sometimes girl) antics. Bush may label himself a conservative, but his spending is pure Democrat. gah!

Snow, bikes, and then some more snow.

So my dad and I went to a bike show in New York City this past Saturday. We got up early, had some breakfast at a local restaurant and then went to the train station to catch the early train to NYC.

The show was great. We got to Penn station 'bout 11am and walked a couple blocks to the Javitts Center. At first I was nervous about sitting on the bikes, as I didn't want to hurt them - but then I realized that hey, that is why they bring these bike - they are floor demo models. So I started sitting on every bike I could. From the huge 2300 cc bike to a small 250 cc Ninja - which I surprisingly enough liked. I've sat on "crotch rockets" before, a large 900cc one. This little Ninja felt really good. I like it. I was a bit surprised. And the price is only $3,000. Not too bad. This upcoming spring I've got my KZ400 to ride around on, but I might take one of those Ninjas out for a test drive just to see how a "crotch rocket" handles on the road.

During the show we could see the snow had started, it looked pretty falling down inbetween the skyscrapers. After the bike show we walked though 3 to 4 inches of snow to get to a TGIFs for $16 hamburgers and $8 beers. Then back to Penn station. We got to the station at 5:30pm, the main terminal display said that the 5pm train was delayed by 1.5 hours, there was a 6pm train delayed by a half hour and the 7pm train was on time.

Seeing as how the train would be headed away from the snow, but coming from an area blanketed in snow, we could understand how it would be delayed. Heck, the 2:50pm train to New Orleans was delayed by 4 hours when it finally left. At 6pm we went to the ticket booth to ask if we could trade our tickets in for the delayed 5pm train. The lady at the ticket booth stated we could get on any of the three trains that showed up first.

So when it was announced at 7pm that the 5pm and 6pm trains were boarding on track 10W we rushed over to the track, handed our tickets to the Amtrak worker and made our way on the train. We thought the train would be crowded - seeing as how it was prolly the last train headed north during a blizzard.

But the train was empty. On the display in Penn station before we left the 7pm train was still showing on time. Was this training taking over for all three trains? We finally got to our destination about 11pm and the conductor stated that there were only 100 people on the train, well below the usual amount of passengers.

The highways were in bad condition and the airports were canceling flights, but still the trains continued. It took us a half hour to get to my mom's house in a trip that normally takes 10 minutes. We had to ask a town plow to plow us a trail up the street my mom lives on, as we couldn't make it 3 feet up the street which hadn't been plowed.

And I'm sore from shoveling, but still dreaming of sitting on those bikes and warm winds in my face as I ride down a back country road.

Patriots Win AFC Championship - woohoo!

WooHoo! What a game yesterday. Other then two crappy calls - well, one bad call and one non-call - it was a great game. The catch that was ruled not a catch, I thought was a catch. I also thought the ref said that the Steelers were challenging that the receiver was down by contact, not that it was or wasn't a catch. And then the touch down that Hines Ward had scampered along the sideline and into the end zone wasn't a touch down as his left toe was out of bounds.

So this game should not have been as close as it was. But even then, 41 to 20? I'll take it. woohoo!

The Patriots defense stepped up and stopped the Steeler's running game, and made Big Ben give up some big interceptions, one returned for a touch down by Harrison. And Tom and the offense? A near perfect game. They weren't able to run it as much as they'd like, but a couple of huge catches by Branch were amazing. How he managed to hold on to the ball while getting slammed by the Steeler's defense was great.

Now to wait two more weeks to watch the Super Bowl. Go Pats!

meowwcat dot com

So i have several domain names. hwww.cerebusfangirl.com gets the most hits. I also have www.cereb.us 'cause I thought it sounded cool - it just redirects to the Cerebus Fangirl site.

But I have another domain: www.meowwcat.com. my online "handle" is meowwcat. Started when I got online for the first time with AOL (ick!) and hisskitty was taken (now I'm glad I didn't get that one). Meowcat was also taken, so Meowwcat it was. my current homepage has kinda died off since I've gotten the blog, so prehaps I'll redirect the meowwcat.com site here.

but prolly not. I kinda like knowing that no one knows about this blog. well, as far as i know no one reads it but me. prove me wrong, email me. heh.

at any rate - i need to move the meowwcat.com site from yahoo!geocities to my cerebusfangirl.com site where i have tons of space. and a redesign - as my IMHO column isn't really active - I haven't written a new one since May of last year. And now with this blog I don't think I'll write another IMHO. In this blog I can write as much or as little as I want.

Kids. Arggh

They should be in school year round. And the moment a kid starts screaming, crying, or just making a ruckus in general while in public, their parent(s) should attempt to quite them. If they can't quite them, then the parents should take the kid(s) home.

So if you're eating lunch with the kids in a restaurant and your kid:

• starts banging their glass or fork or fist against the table or the common back of the chair (like those booths that adjacent chairs share a back)
• stands up in their seat, turns around and stares at me and my dinner companion
• starts to scream, or yell or make a fuss in general

does any of the above, and you can't control your kid, then you prolly really shouldn't be having kids in the first place. or at least you shouldn't be leaving the house and going into public with the kids. yes, that is the price you have to pay for having a kid.

I have a very low tolerance for kids with no manners. And don't tell me they're just being kids. There is a place and a time for just being kids, in a public restaurant is not one of those places, a playground is one of those places.

So cold! brrr!

Last week when the weather was acting all kinds of nuts, well, it shook itself off and now we're stuck with temps in the single digits. brrr!

One of those cold days that made me glad I wasn't at Fort Drum in upstate New York with the 10th Mountain Division. When I walked outside this morning, I made sure to breath though my nose - breathing though my mouth made my lungs hurt the air was that cold and dry.

Walking from the car to the mall entrance, I could feel my lips freezing. One time at Fort Drum I walked about half a mile from my barracks at reception to the chow hall. With only my BDU hat with the flaps over my ears. I figured that would keep them warm enough. Wrong! My ears hurt so much that I thought I frost bite. brrr!

a bit of html

I can see how coders can get carried away with their programming.

I'm in the middle of doing some HTML for my website - putting Alexx Kay's Cerebus Concordance into HTML. Linking up all the references in the document, linking to pictures of maps, characters, etc. I'd love to link to the Cerebus Rex and scan the intros to the Swords collections and link to those too. I could get so into all the HTMLing.

And then I looked at the clock and it's already 10pm. I've been sitting here for a couple hours. I got so carried away I didnt even notice the time. eep! Instead of music, I've got a dvd in the computer for my "background" noise while I type away. I could do this for 8 or more hours a day. It'd be better if I was sitting on a stationary bike so I could work my hiney while I work. heee.

20 and three? 20 and three? oh yeah!

I'll tell ya the truth. I was worried about this game. The Patriots vs. the Indy Colts. The Colts with the league MVP 49 touch down scoring quarterback. Not to mention his three wide outs with 1000+ yard and 10 touch downs each this season. Their offense was scary. 'Specially up against our "decimated" defense.

heh.

20 and 3. 20 and 3. 20 and 3.

The only one who scored on that amazing team: the place kicker. The guy who opened his mouth and said we were ripe for the picking and how they were going to be headed to the AFC championship game next week.

heh.

20 and 3.

The Patriots defense stepped up big time. Big time. They shut down Manning and his amazing scoring machine, and our team just kept eating away at the time with Dillion and his running. With Faulk and his running.

What an amazing game. Better then last year's AFC Championship game. 'Specially since all the "experts" were picking the Colts. hahahahaha!

20 and 3.

Take your pick Weather

Gusting winds at 50 mph? 60 plus degrees in January? Pouring torrents of rain? Big snowflakes?

take your pick. We had it all yesterday. In that exact order. Some at the same time. A front must've come through, 'cause the temperature dropped by 'bout 20 degrees in under five hours (going to work NPR said it was 63 degrees F out. going to lunch the thermometer in the car said it was about 40 degrees). And then a couple hours later it was snowing.

Crazy.

Love that polyester-cotton blend?

My first "real" job - one that I got paid for and had to pay federal and state taxes on my income - I had to wear an uniform. A red smock with a name tag. Then I leave that job to join the US Army, the mother of all uniform lovers. I still remember good ole A.R. 670-1 being thrown around in normal dinner conversation or yelled at the top of a drill sergeants lungs. Army Regulation 670-1 is for the "Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia". They're all about that. And then some.

(If I had to choose, I'd say the dress blue uniform was my favorite.)

Then I ETSed (End Term of Service) and left the Army for civilian life. I got rid of my fatigues for a classy (ha!) grey polyester-cotton blend slacks, white button up shirt and a wrap around tie. Argh. Oh, and don't forget the blue blazer. Sporty.

Yes, my security guard uniform. With a name tag and everything. It didn't really bother me, as it was kinda normal clothes compared to my last set of uniforms. But watching the Hewlett Packard employees and their other contractors I realized that you haven't made it if you have to wear an uniform.

Man was I stupid.

Of course I saw myself wearing an uniform, and the janitors, and my other two "uniformed" jobs - minimum wage low paying work. I thought if you had a job where you didn't have to wear a mandated uniform, you were lucky.

So I went to college, to get an education and a decent paying job. And I hoped I didn't have to wear an uniform or name tag again. But I do wear an uniform. Sure, it doesn't have polyester-cotton blend pants, but there is a clothing policy at work. Since I go into the "wet" areas I have to wear closed toe shoes and pants. No sandals or dresses for me. Which suits me fine, I'll stick to my classic Docs and Old Navy pants. As an office employee / engineer I have to wear a collared shirt. It doesn't need to be button up, a rugby shirt is fine.

But still, a uniform of sorts. From the lawyers and their suits, to the doctors and their scrubs, to the police and their blues, we all wear uniforms. From the President on down to the bagger at the grocery store, we all wear uniforms.

Then I realize it - the only way not to wear an uniform is to work at / from home. Like my brother who owns his own company, he works at home - so he can wear whatever he wants.

Sometimes uniforms can be practical, like a firefighter's lifesaving coat and pants and helmet. Or it can be for appearances, like a lawyers expensive suit. I don't want to be practical or dressy for appearance sake. I just want to be comfortable in my yoga pants and tee shirt and flip flops.

Wait a second - I already wore that "uniform" - I spent my last two years of college wearing that outfit.

Grand Theft Auto and Tequilla

Well, i was going to write about work uniforms, and how even just wearing "regular" clothes can still be an uniform, even without a name tag.

but the GTA: Vice City bug has bit me. I need to go car jack and pillage and shoot shoot shoot. weee!

gimme a little CCTV

ahh, it brings me back to my days as a security guard watching 100+ cameras on a closed camera television system.

recently news ran though the blogisophere that a simple google search will produce a ton of web cams that you can click on and just watch random things. some of the links don't work. but someone put up a list of working cams with little thumbnails. i love it! i guess i'm a bit of a voyeur.

sleepy wake wake

Ya know that feeling for about the first half hour after you wake up when you still feel like you're in that dream state kinda? you still haven't woken up totally, you feel as if the dream you just were ripped from could start back up and before you know it?

no? well, i do. almost every morning for the first 15 to 30 minutes i'm "awake". i've been having some really vivid dreams. i should write them down in the morning before i leave this half wake / half asleep state.

Here a blog there a blog, every where a blog blog

Blogs. Everywhere. Yesterday, last night actually, while I was listening to Dead Like Me (like I am right now) I was "surfing the web". Really. I was skipping link to link to link to link. Some links came back to a previous link. Others trailed off into dead ends. Well, okay - it wasn't link to link to link as much as it was blog to blog to blog. I surfed the blogisophere. It was very entertaining. To a point. Some blogs were just yak yak yak on politics. Those "blogs" that blockquote like three paragraphs of a news wire story and then have like two or three sentences of actual new content.

blech!

the more entertaining blogs were those that dealt with a person's life, kinda like reality teevee without the teevee and the editors. just straight on full person. like reading someone's journal. though here they meant for you to read it, so it isn't quite as fun as doing it while they didn't know about it.

those were the fun ones.

there are only two blogs i visit on a daily basis:

LinkMachineGo - one of the last true weblogs. updated daily though the week (takes weekends off) - and always before I get up at 6am - with interesting links. Okay, I'm a bit biased has he has linked to my site a couple times, but hey, i do visit daily.

and the other blog:

The Rude Pundit - i like it 'cause it's sassy. take no shit. a bit political with a bit biography and lots of saucy language.

Sunday Night Routine

Yeah, I have a Sunday night rountine like I have a Sunday morning rountine. I really prefer the morning to the night, but one follows the next. And as they say in Futurama, you've got to do what you've got to do.

My Sunday night rountine:

• listen to some DVDs - I pop a DVD of something I've seen before just so I can have some background noise going. I don't have a teevee, so I need background noise. Music isn't good 'cause I'd put something in and I'd actually want to listen to it. My DVDs I've seen trillions of times, well, okay, a few hundred times and I know the words by heart and the scene shots in line. . .and I don't get into them as much as I would with a CD. And I need the background noise to distract me from the ever ticking clock. so while i do other things on Sunday night, there is always some noise in the background.
  
• do my laundry - Sunday is almost always laundry time. i only have a finite amount of work pants / clothes - so at the end of the week I need to wash them. i can go about a week and a half before washing is absolutly necessary, but i almost always do it on Sunday 'cause I really don't feel like doing laundry on a weekday after work. ick.

Okay. So there isn't really much to my Sunday nights. oh yeah, and set up the automatic coffee machine to come on at 6am (hopefully before I wake up) so i can wake up to the smell of yummy coffee.

Big News?

Since I don't have a teevee, I get the majority of my news online, and some thru print publications. So when this "headline" popped up today:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Superstar Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have separated after 4 1/2 years of marriage

I was more suprised at this:

including reports that Pitt, 41, wanted to become a father but Aniston, 35, was reluctant to start a family.

No! Not that Brad wanted to have kids and Jen didn't. I could care less about their personal lifes - I was amazed that Brad is 41! 41 years old! He doesn't look 41. I figured the story had a typo so I checked IMDB's Brad Pitt page and he is indeed 41. Amazing.

eeee!

okay, that was a totally girly thing to say.

but hey, I just read Dave Sim's words on the Cerebus Yahoo!Group:

The Internet Archive

The preservation of Cerebus material on the Internet, I think we can all safely acknowledge, is and will be under the jurisdiction of Margaret L. with her cerebusfangirl website and that she should be officially designated as what she is: Official Cerebus Archivist.

wowza. He has a bit more to say, so I better keep reading. my heart is pounding. that would so be a dream job - to be immense in Cerebus lore all day long. ALL DAY LONG. a dream job!

Snowy Morning

So we did get that 4 inches of snow last night. More like 5 inches, but enough to make a mess of the roads this morning on the way to work.

I woke up before 6am, lord knows what time i didn't look, to some idiot scraping his car windows. Great, I thought, I'm going to have fun doing that before I head off to work this morning. Then the apartment complex's plows came by - again and again and again. Thanks for clearing the parking lot, and for waking me up with that racket. seesh.

So I got up early, figured I could use the extra time to scrape my windows off, and drive a bit slowly to work. So I leave the apartment at 6:30am and head off for work. And lo and behold, Idiot #1 today: the guy scraping: the snow was thick, heavy, but there was no ice any where. what the hell was he scraping?

whatever. So I make it out the parking lot and onto the roads. Which weren't that bad - a bit slushy but alright. Then to the next town, the roads were still slushy, and then into the next town, where there was packed snow on the roads.

And hello Idiot #2: I was following behind some guy in a SUV who was only doing 25 - 30 mph. About right for the driving conditions. Then Idiot #2 who had been following me for about the last five miles passed me and was quickly catching up on the guy ahead of me and was going to pass him too - but, hahhahah, a school bus stopped in front of him so he had to pull in behind the school bus ahead of the SUV driver .

What kinda of Jackass passes someone when it is snowing and the roads are packed snow? A mile or so up the road some car had hit a tree and was shot to heck. I was hoping it was Idiot #2, no such luck.

Luckily, two idiots were all that I had to deal with this morning.

Leaving for work a bit earlier then usual, coupled with the snow - the sky wasn't too light yet and everything had a blue tinge to it.

Snowy Nights

They glow orange. The sky is lighter then the trees, but yet the trees glisten with white thick heavy snow. It stopped a couple hours earlier, when it was still light out, and now the car headlights glimmer off the snow covered buildings.

The forecasters say we'll get a couple more inches of snow tonight. Umm.

why so early?

So I went to bad last night fairly early. About 9pm or so. I usually go to bed 'bout 10 / 10:30 pm. I was thinking I'd get a good 9.5 hours of sleep rather then the usual 8 or 7.5 hours.

Nope. I woke up bout 5am and laid in bed for a few minutes. After tossing and turning and realizing I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, I just got up. Made myself some coffee. Came online to check email.

bah. I better not go to sleep early again tonight.

The Perfect Night?

Well, prolly not to a lot of people. My perfect night would have Neve Campbell involved, but otherwise: beer, simpsons, peace and quiet. switch simpsons with buffy and that would be a very close second. or beer with tequilla.

The Year In Review

Well, not really.

Everyone else is doing their top ten lists for 2004 or Best of / Worst of lists for the past year. Part of me is glad is over and I look forward to the new year, and part of me is sad to see it go, and thinks of all the good things that happened.

I'm just amazed at how fast it went by. Sure, it was a full year like all others (except the 2.something microseconds lost after the earthquake in the Indian Ocean which caused that tidal wave that killed so far about 120,000 people), but it feels like it went by so much quicker.

Before I know it, 2005 will be over and it'll be 2031. Oy vey.

Ahhh, the Patriots.

From Fox Sports:

The Chuck Bednarik Trophy:

Best Two-Way Performance

The runners-up: Peppers, DE/TE (athletic enough to draw coverage); Mike Vrabel, OLB/TE, Patriots (still talking about his Super Bowl TD); Richard Seymour, DE/FB, Patriots (new kind of run stuffer); Adam Vinatieri, K/QB Patriots (also the league's highest scorer).

The winner is: Troy Brown, WR/PR/CB, Patriots. This guy does everything his team needs for him to do to win games. He is the epitome of Bill Belichick's unselfish, two-time Super Bowl champs. Brown leads all corners in receptions (16) and all wide receivers in interceptions (3).

Read that list again. 3 of the 4 on the list, and the winner, are all Patriots players. They could've put a few more Patriots players in there too.

But Troy. Man, oh man. Just amazing as far as being able to play both sides of the ball. And the whole Patriots team this season, I think is better then last season.