Saturday, January 26, 2008

I Hate Roger Clemens

Yeah, yeah, I know. If you ask my kids, "hate" is a bad word, but this is a blog, and I don't have to be pretend not to hate things.

Here's an article I just discovered, take it with a grain of salt.

My two other favorite anti-Clemens articles ever:

Rocket failure: I love it

Is Clemens the Anti-Christ

I've always considered printing those two articles out and framing them. I think it's time to get off my duff and do it.

Why am I so concerned with Clemens all of a sudden? No reason. It's just a very slow off season.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Fabulous Movie Review®

Shoot 'Em Up
A no holds barred, take no prisoners, unapologetic, completely implausible and thoroughly enjoyable action movie.

Don't even try to believe that the impossible situations Clive Owen finds himself are evenly remotely possible.

Also stars Paul Giamatti, who I always used to get confused with this guy, as the henpecked bad guy.

Gagknee's grade: B

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Voltage is like water pressure in a pipe

I'm replacing every outlet and switch in my house for two reasons, one, they are almond and I want white and second, because several of them were in this kind of condition:

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This is the outlet that my fridge was plugged into. Its the worst one I've had. Two others looked okay, but disintegrated in my hand as soon as I pulled them out, and then there was the dryer outlet that almost caught on fire.

Here's a tip for all you house flippers out there, free of charge. Spend the extra buck fitty to replace any broken outlets. Heck, spend 20 and replace them ALL.

Snow.

My youngest was very excited to see snow. Too bad it was completely useless for anything you would ever normally use snow for. I didn't have to shovel it, so that's good.

Snow

snow

Eerily Creepy or Creepily Eery

Remember this?

Almost a year later, and in a different house, the birds are back.

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Here's a video I took and another one. I was indoors so you can't hear the birds squawking, just my kids breaking stuff.

As a sidenote, at least I don't have vultures.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Layoffs at Work

<ramble>

People wonder why employees aren't loyal to their companies anymore, and they especially like to point the finger at IT people, jumping from job to job, going to the highest bidder, but heaven forbid sales number drop during the previous quarter and a handful of "non-essential" people are sent packing. Like we couldn't ride out a few months of slow sales and keep a few people employed.

Yeah. Nothing dulls the new job shine like some timely sackings.

Nobody is loyal anymore and it works both ways. If in a year or two I am bored, loyalty won't even be a second thought in my mind.

I had a job once where the boss had to layoff people in order to stay afloat, he used his own money to cover our paychecks a few times, and come to find out from a third party later on, he wasn't even paying himself for long periods of time. Somehow, I don't think the owner of my current company is sweating anything out.

I'm going to get fired. Better not visit gagknee.com at work and have it get stuck in the internet sniffer.

I still like my job. I just get uber annoyed at the business of being employed. But I don't advocate any other system. Owners of companies are free to do as they please, they just can't complain when their employees leave for greener pastures.

</ramble>

Beards Are Cool

Best. Beard. Ever.

More American Gladiator

How fake is that hair attached to his skull cap?

I Smell Blood, I Smell Fear, and I'm Gonna Eat You

I love American Gladiators.

I've been pining for this staple of my high school years to come back to television, and now it has, maybe I can wean myself off of Ninja Warrior. Nah. Why would I want to do that?

Friday, January 11, 2008

I'd Like to Say....

Haha. But that would be crude.

It was all over the news this morning, that they suspected that this girl was still alive, and that she wasn't really missing.

Here's your link.

That "haha" was meant for the news channels, not for the girl, by the way. Because they took some idiots random speculation and ran with it. Not that anyone will call them on it.

I Am Not Always Angry

I like my new job.

After four weeks, with the new guy smell worn off, I have plenty of work to do, my boss appreciates us and isn't a colossal jerk, the work is interesting, coworkers are all nice, there are plenty of places to which to walk and also to eat, I make a lot more money, the commute is cut in half, and I don't have to do anything in VB6.

Life, at this moment in time, is good.

Now, if only I could wear jeans to work...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Because Baseball Writers Know Best

Whatever.

Why is it the BBWAA 'tards are the only people who get to vote on who gets into the Hall of Fame?

Yes. Jim Rice did not make it in again. He was 16 votes shy of the 75% that he needed.

Oh, check out the BBWAA website. You'll love it. Very cutting edge.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Its Always Sunny in Richmond

The weather was so nice on Sunday, we spent a few hours up at Maymont Park. As a sidenote, the weather was even nicer on Monday. Seventy-three degrees, baby! As a sidenote to my sidenote, a guy at work is from Buffalo, and I was looking at the big weather map on weather.com, and at one point on Monday it was actually warmer in Buffalo, 54, than it was in Los Angeles, 53. As a sidenote to my sidenote's sidenote, the company I work for is owned by a company that is owned by the company that owns the Weather channel.

Back to Maymont Park. The dead of winter isn't the best time of year to visit, it's still nice, but the best part of the place is the gardens. I can't wait until spring.

They have a lot of suggested donation boxes, too. That makes me laugh. I remember a Simpsons episode...

Here's some pictures:

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Gray fox

Here's a few that my daughter took with her camera.

Maymont Park

Maymont Park

There's more here.

Fabulous Movie Review®


I forgot one, Black Snake Moan, can't imagine why. Oh, yes, because I hated it. It was in our home for a week tying up the Netflix queue, because I could not get through it. Four tries it took. Four. It's lucky I didn't send it back unwatched.

I couldn't even tell you why I don't like it. Maybe it was Justin Timberlake. Yeah. It's his fault.

Samuel L. Jackson's acting was superb, however.

Gagknee's grade: D

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Fabulous Movie Reviews®

We haven't watched too many movies lately. Been tied up with Veronica Mars Season 3 and Lost Season 3. Have you seen Veronica Mars? You should. It's a Hoover dam good show, though it's been cancelled. Stupid CW Network.

This is an amazing movie. Nuff said.

Gagknee's grade: A








This is a library special. That means it was free. Very slow moving, but it picks up at the end. Let me ask you one question. If a gay man was stalking you what would you do?

Gagknee's grade: C-





Wow. Probably the greatest action movie of all time. All time. Combined with the previous two movies, it is cinema heaven. I'm sad the series has ended. When the Blu Ray/HD DVD format saga has ended Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, and Bourne Ultimatum will be the first movies that I buy.

One thing I am grateful for is that in this movie Joan Allen wore a few turtlenecks. I've said before that her neck muscles are distracting and they still are. Lady...gain some WEIGHT! You tip the scales at 94 pounds. In what universe is that attractive?

Gagknee's grade: A+


Michael Cera played my favorite character, George Michael, on the greatest television show ever, Arrested Development. I will watch any movie he is in regardless of the reviews.

This movie is fuh uh uh uh ny. Crude, yes. But there's no nudity so it's safe to watch with your kids! Kidding. You will laugh out loud.

Gagknee's grade: A

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Beards are COOL

I love Letterman's beard and I was disappointed to find out that he is planning to shave it on air. Conan has a beard too, but a brief search couldn't find a picture.


















Some other great beards sported by Patriots linemen, Matt Light, Logan Mankins, and Dan Koppen. Every man should grow a beard like one of these at least once in his life.

Never Assume Part 2

A while back, I discovered that the light switch in my son's room was not on the same circuit as the outlets.

Last week I was replacing 2 light switches in the kitchen. They were in the same box, and again I assumed that they were on the same circuit. Nope. No harm was done this time either.

But, the weirdest thing is that there are two outlets in the kitchen that I was going to replace at the same time. One of those outlets was on the same circuit as one of those light switches. The other outlet wasn't on either circuit. I flipped a few other breakers, including the breaker for the dishwasher, and I couldn't find the right one. I gave up because it was time for dinner, but I'll get back to that one.

So, my kitchen has 5 circuits feeding it. One, for the stove. One for the dishwasher. One for the majority of the outlets and two overhead lights. That same circuit also feeds the upstairs bathroom and the master bedroom (Yes, we trip that breaker on occasion, when the microwave is running). One, for one outlet and one switch. And one, that controls, from what I can tell, one outlet.

My breaker panel doesn't have a main shut off either. Its a main lug panel. I assume the shut off is in the locked box on my electric meter. That's a pain.

Work

I find it hard to post lately. My life has been pretty angst free the past few weeks. The new job is going well, although its been pretty boring. I've completed a few trivial maintenance items that I could do blindfolded. Yesterday, I had a little enhancement where I had to insert links into a datagrid at runtime. It was the most complicated thing I've had to do since I started working there, but sadly it only took me a half an hour, which meant I had 7 1/2 other hours to kill.

I'm not complaining at all. Knowing full well that things will pick up once everyone is back from vacation and I get discovered, I will enjoy this anonymous work existence. Also, once I get more confident and familiar with the software, I'll just start working on stuff on my own that I think needs improvement.

Fabulous Grilled Cheese Sandwiches®

Fontina. Similar in flavor to Edam, but it was softer and melted a little better. The thing I am discovering trying all of these different cheeses, is that they all kind of taste similar. I need to rock the boat a bit. Goat cheese or some variety of blue cheese. Anyway, fontina is good, not great. Flavor is a 7 and meltability is 9.