Today I had to put parental controls on my own World of Warcraft account to keep myself from playing it constantly. Not sure if it will work or not, but so far I've stayed off it.

Returned 1 machine, picked another one up and fixed a network due to sweet, sweet spring lightning, the very act of God that puts money in my pocket. Go Nature!

CUBOCC

creepy virtual woman follows mouse. damn.

The sky is clear, but the air is cold. And that cold air busted me up when I tried to run today. Friggin' winter, go away already. It hangs around like a visitor that has overstayed its welcome. Deb was in Flint Friday and Saturday. We held the fort down reasonably well. Today she got home. It's Easter, so we went out to eat at Johnny Carino's. I had spaghetti.

I finished reading On Writing, by Stephen King. Damn good book. It gave clear advice from a guy who has made a boat-load of money writing books.

I bought a new machine for work. I'm starting to get SATA drives, and my 400MHZ Gateway with the IDE controllers can't cut the mustard. I have a converter that works half the time but the transfer rate is for shit and it takes forever to rescue a client's first season of "Desperate Housewives" iTunes files. So I got a new machine.

My March Madness bracket is in the can already, but as of this writing, Brian is on top by three points.

I keep telling myself, spring warm-up is just around the corner, but I'm starting to have my doubts.

I'm still working on my newest bestseller. I'm 90 typewritten pages in and counting.

Rush's "The Fountain of Lamneth" from "Caress of Steel" is a mere 19:58 minutes of geeky fantasy-rock goofiness, but it is still pretty good. I got the iTunes on shuffle.

Well, if you've read this far, I've got to give you credit for hanging in there. This is a hefty blog post, and I appreciate you reading this last sentence.

Oh yeah, Billy Thorp's "Children of the Sun" just came on. I must stop typing now and commence air-guitar. There is nothing more pathetic than a 41 year old man doing air-guitar in his tiny office.

take this test. found at http://www.dvorak.org/blog/

Thanks mark for the link to this image.

I am at the hockey game with dan, don, and matt.

Temperatures are up(today at least). The Stock Market is up(today at least). Business (for me) is up. Spring is almost here. The beer at the Hideout is delicious. Iraq violence is down. Gas prices are up. All in all, I'm happy.

Today (Saturday) The girls had volleyball games in the morning. I bought some food at the grocery store. Took the girls to a Griffins Hockey game. They lost 2-1 to the Lake Erie Monsters. Then I played World of Warcraft.

Bush “Envious” Of Soldiers Serving “Romantic” Mission In Afghanistan

President Bush let his inner adventurer out while discussing the state of the war in Afghanistan with military and civilian personnel. While those in Afghanistan detailed the logistical and diplomatic problems via teleconference, the President took a much more whimsical approach to their mission. Via Reuters:

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”

“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.

Found at http://www.dvorak.org/blog/

On average, since September 2001, 428 Americans are killed by Terrorism every year. 428. This has to be stopped. That's 0.000001427% of the population every year! We have to do whatever it takes to stop Terrorism!

There are around 41,000 traffic deaths per year, but that's not an issue.
There are around 565,650 cancer deaths per year.

But that 428 deaths on average is worth draining the treasury, shredding the Constitution, wrecking air travel, and putting America's standing in the toilet.

Build Bombs, not schools! Invest in weapons, not medicine! Spy on Americans!

Vote Republican!

Bush: Thank God President Bush used his veto power to defend our right as Americans to torture people of other creeds and nations. It is imperative that we are allowed to stoop to the level of our enemies in order to force them to tell us what they think we want to hear. That will make the 300+ million Americans safe from the Terrorists, who so far have failed to terrorize us into changing one iota of our way of life, our freedom of travel, our right to privacy, and our standards for treating prisoners of war.

Books: Dostoyevsky has defeated me. Tried to read Brother's Karamazov and it kicked my ass half-way thought. Every time I picked it up, I was like, "Oh, not this fucker again." Finally I realized that when reading for pleasure isn't pleasure but work, it is time to give up and try something else. I DID get halfway through it.

Me: Yesterday Deb and I rented a hot-tub. I like soaking in water as hot as possible until I get light-headed. It's a cheap high that won't land you in jail.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

His nickname was "Mr. Clean". Why do the wives of these assholes stand by them while they make their public apology? Why? It's stupid. Why doesn't her DIVORCE LAWYER stand next to him?

If we were really a Chri$tian nation, and we're obviously not, we wouldn't have a credit crunch. Oh America, you nation of Chri$tians, are you really following your bible? I think not:

Exodus 22:25

New American Standard Bible
"If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.

King James Bible
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.

Leviticus 25:36

Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.

I went to the Hideout for the first time in a long time Saturday and somebody brought in a Johnny Quest DVD. Now I know why they don't show "Johnny Quest" anymore. The bad-guys were all Asian stereotypes and their skin was actually colored YELLOW. There voices were done by obvious non-Asians doing horrible fake Asian accents. There was lots of gun violence.

A debate in the bar had to do with a bad-guy named "Dr. Foo" and his collar had an insignia that looked exactly like one of the on some tattoo one of the Foo-Fighters has, the lead singer. So we decided, without any evidence whatsoever, that that was the origin of the name "Foo Fighters" and we would start that rumor whether it was true or not.

Today ran 4 miles. Marathon training . . . commence! I had a call to day from Ravenna, MI. Nice to get out in the country once in awhile. Thanks Mark for the referral

And congrats to Bonnie and Mark, they had a baby girl.

Last night I put up a shelf in Alex's room, and it went smoother than would be expected, cause I am no handyman.

In politics: Hillary and Barack should stop flirting and just combine tickets already. Just flip a coin to see who is prez and vice-prez.

Brian sent me a link to an awesome procrastination flow chart.

The sun is out and I thought, "Today I start training for the marathon". I located my stylish tracksuit my mother-in-law bought me a few years ago, and then I checked the weather channel to see the temperature: 14 miserable degrees (F). Dammit!

Yesterday I dropped checked my cell phone from an altitude of 4 feet. Grand Rapids is 610 feet above sea level, and the check surface was hard tile. I am pleased to report that my Samsung SCH-a870 cell phone passed with flying colors, bouncing approximately 1 foot in the air with an amazing spin rate while I exclaimed "SHIT!" and caught it before the second bounce. Cell phone checks 4.0 after drop check. In short, my phone was on the washer and I knocked it off and it fell.

I Heard some good reviews about a movie "Paranoid Park" on the radio.

Had lunch with a few friends at The Beltline Bar, which amazingly, is not on the Beltline. They make a mean burrito, aptly named "The Famous" and I was scoring some legendary farts later that afternoon.

Doom and gloom in the economic front. Jobs are more scarce, gasoline has hit record highs, and the dollar is sucking ass vs every other currency on the planet.

I've heard a lot of economic experts trying to say whether or not we are in a recession. Let me, Dan Manning, put the question to rest.

Yes, we are in a recession Here is the research to back up my claim:

If you have to ask if you're in a recession, you're in a recession.

OK? Everybody clear now?

I've been playing way too much World of Warcraft. I haven't been writing. At all. Last night Don and I went to see the Griffins play the Toronto Marlies. They won 5-3. After that we stopped in to Hopcat to have a beer. There were people there in very flamboyant pirate hats. That was cool.

At work, a law office was flooded when a pipe burst. A tax preparation office was riddled with spyware. An outlook PST file was corrupt. I did some minor web development. Spyware is making a big comeback. I had to go to my old employer because a contractor there can't get the IT guys to help him with anything. I went into the murky depths of the cubicle farm and was so glad I was no longer a cubicle dweller.

I am going to enter a chess tournament April 5th. I played against the Xbox and realized I suck at chess. Reading chess books is not the same as playing chess.

It's running season again. As spring approaches, I get out my running shoes and let them sit in plain sight for about a week, then I will consider running.

When I went to VA for Jim's retirement, he had this great booze at his house: PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur. God-damn, that's some tasty booze. It will give you a headache.

funny stuff to search on youtube:

"benny lava"
"italian spiderman"
"sarah silverman singing"