Tag: Roswell

Categories
Dad Blogs Family

Egads! A meme! Get it off! GET IT OFF!

I was prepared today for another soul-wrenching expose about myself, but ExMi over at “A Bad Mommy’s Blog” hit me with a meme and this one actually looks fun, so I’m gonna go that route rather than sit on the psychiatry couch this morning. If you haven’t checked out “A Bad Mommy’s Blog,” you really should. It’s pretty great.

Anyway, here’s my meme:

IMG_0056

I KNOW it’s a picture, but that’s the point. Here’s the meme rules:

1. Go to your pictures file.
2. Go to the 4th file.
3. Go to the 4th picture.
4. Post it and tell the story.
5. Tag 4 more people.

You might be wondering, “God, THAT’s your fourth picture? Don’t you have like, a family or something?”

Yes, I do, but the way my pictures are organized, what I have just in my “Pictures” file are sort of random leftovers that I have either neglected to file in a sub-file, or neglected to delete altogether.

This picture is the inside of the computer I am currently using. It’s my home computer and I’ve had it for going on five years now. And everyone knows that one computer year is like four dog years or something. So, in the technology realm, this thing is practically geriatric. I took this picture when I had a bad CPU fan and I wasn’t sure whether it needed some weird kind or just a regular one since the one that was in it was branded with the motherboard’s manufacturer (Gigabyte).

Anyway, despite the age of my system, it still kicks butt. In my all-knowing wisdom, when I bought it, I told the shop to put together a computer for me that I can upgrade the hell out of so I don’t have to buy a new one in a couple of years. I also had them put the fastest chip on the market in it, which was a Pentium 4 2.6Ghz with Hyperthreading. Yeah, only a few of you will get what that means, but it’s unimportant.

In the last five years, I’ve made the following upgrades:

  • Installed 2G worth of memory (RAM)
  • Upgraded my 16Mb video card to a 256Mb video card
  • Replaced numerous fans, including the one over the processor that the white arrow is pointing to.
  • Added a new, larger hard drive
  • Added a new DVD burner
  • Added a wireless card
  • and I think that’s it

So yeah, I’m pretty proud of the old girl. She still plays any video game I can stick on it; she plays HD video off the Internet with nary a stutter, and other than sounding like she’s a jet engine taking off from a battlecruiser thanks to all the noisy fans I have in there, she’ll probably keep me going for another couple of years.

There you have it. And now…I’m so sorry, but there are rules:

The following people have been tagged and will be notified appropriately:

– Birdpress (cuz she needs to share more of herself with her readers)

– Pantsfreesia (cuz I’m hoping we’ll get something from one of her recent DragonCon outings)

– That’s What She Blogged (cuz she’s a sucker for these kinds of things and usually has some really great pics)

– Talkin’ Trash with Trisha (cuz her life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get!)

Categories
Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States Society

No words today, just gratitude

Arlington Cemetary

There’s a lot of things I could say today about Veterans and the sacrifices that they, and their families, have made, but sometimes a picture does a better job.

To all my military brothers around the world who fight for peace, I salute you today and I THANK YOU.

May this Veteran’s Day mean something to even those who have never tasted its bittersweet kiss.

Categories
Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States

In just a few years, I will be neither young, nor hip

Old pantsThere comes a time in every man’s life when, either by his own acknowledgment or by the subtle musings of his spouse, he realizes that perhaps it’s time to refresh the old wardrobe. This is not an easy thing for men, for we often labor under the belief that while our bodies may have changed over the years, styles have not.

I came to this conclusion while ironing some pants the other day for work. I had just flipped them over and was pressing the crap out of the iron in a vain attempt at trying to press out a previous crease. You know what I’m talking about…it’s nearly impossible to crease your pants in the same place every time. Anyway, I noticed that each of the “old creases” was now a permanently shiny line in the fabric that was quite visible to the naked eye.

Oh, this will just not do. I mean, I’m not the most fashion-wise man on the block, but I’ve always prided myself on dressing fairly well and I do buy new clothes from time to time. Still, I wasn’t quite sure how this had happened. I thought I was more diligent than this.

Getting a tad apprehensive, I went into my closet and with a critical eye, looked over my options and realized, “Hmmm, this isn’t good.” Not only were my slacks in bad shape, but there were very few nice button-downs left. Mostly, I had golf shirts and jeans.

See, in my industry–high tech and IT stuff–the peons don’t get dressed up. Oh, people like myself are a fashionable step above the guys who write the code and design the products, but still; we don’t meet with customers and on any given day, nobody cares whether we have on jeans or slacks. So, the only times I really get dressed up are for church, Christmas parties, weddings, and the like.

As CareerMom and I were deciding where to go and what to do for our big 9th Anniversary night out, I mentioned my needing new clothes. You should have seen her eyes light up; which got me to wondering how much worse was the situation than even I suspected?

After dinner at a really nice sushi/seafood/steak restaurant called “Goldfish“, we walked over to the mall heading towards Macy’s. As we neared the entrance, CareerMom asked, “Have you ever tried on any pants from Banana Republic?”

I started to guffaw something about metrosexuals but then caught myself and instead said, “Nope, wanna look?”

The excitement on her face said it all, so inside we went.

Now, I generally avoid trendy clothing stores like Banana Republic and Gap, because A) I think they are way overpriced, B) They are geared towards men much…um…leaner and less muscled than I and C) Because they tend to sell flat front pants and I’m a “pleat” kinda guy. I’ve seen too many overweight fellas trying to pull off the flat front pant look and it’s just not pretty. Not that I’m overweight, but I’m no Ryan Reynolds (did you see his physique in Blade 3?) so I didn’t wanna be that guy.

Anyway, CareerMom pulled out several pants for me to try on and I must admit, despite the flatness of the front of the pant and all, with a nice button-down, I looked pretty good. And because she was so excited and liked the way it looked, I “let” her buy me a pair.

And then I went over to Macy’s and bought some with pleats. Hey, what can I say?

Categories
Dad Blogs Family

So smile a while, and give your face a rest…

black hole Did you know that the Lord is going to send a great famine across the U.S. and we’re all going to suffer like something out of an Egyptian plague?

Well, we are according to an e-mail my mom forwarded to me that was purportedly written by a well-respected Christian evangelist. (wait for it…)

This sounded pretty awful, and my first thought was, “Quick, run to the grocery store and start hoarding milk, water and toilet paper!”  A message like this makes one especially sensitive in light of the recent elections and the way many of us feel about our president-elect. But I’ve been around the Internet block for a while and know that a lot of these e-mail are nothing more than bunk. Oh, many of them have a grain of truth, but that’s about it.

Let me introduce you to a spammer’s worst enemy, Snopes.com.

Thanks to Snopes, I was able to determine that the famine this person spoke about was in the context of a seminar she was giving, using the Egyptian plagues as a reference. So, grain of truth, blown completely out of proportion into a complete fabrication…and people like my mom bought it, hook, line and sinker.

And then sent it to everyone she knew.

I’m not sure which I hate worse; getting these e-mail from her all the time, or having to tell her that once again, she’s over-reacting and that God isn’t about to strike us all dead. I love her, but good Lord, couldja verify these things before passing them on?

I could go a couple of different ways with this:

  • Does God get involved anymore?

OR

  • Some of the more interesting spam family have sent me

But, it’s my Anniversary today (our 9th) and I suspect that I should instead, hurry up and get my work done for the day so I can give my wonderful bride the attention she deserves.

So, have a wonderful day and keep an eye out towards the sky in case they get the Hadron Collider operational again ahead of schedule and open up that black hole that’s going to swallow the earth!