Went to the Buckwheat Festival

I went to the Buckwheat festival tonight in Kingwood with Robert, Kim and Brittany. It's the first time that I have went in a few years, so I was really looking forward to eating some good old fashioned Preston County buckwheat cakes.

I was going to go to the UHS game last night, but the thought of Buckwheat cakes was something I couldn't pass on and just had to go.

It was a cold and rainy night and the weather I think was a little less than favorable. I did get to see Mike Haines who I've played softball with for years and Bridget form my Recourse days. She's looking great and has started her own company doing Voc Rehab.

One of the highlights of the night was me taking my camera and not only being able to see the Budweiser Clydesdales, but being able to get a close up picture of one of their asses. It's not too often people talk and brag about getting a close up picture of a horses ass, but I managed to do it.

There was a nice little surprise that Kim got last night. My nephew Randy was there also and stopped by to say hello. She was really glad to see him and I could tell by the way her face lit up when he showed up. I was reading Amy's BLOG yesterday and was trying to keep an eye out for her, but either she wasn't there last night or I couldn't seem to find her, but then again the weather wasn't the best of conditions last night either.

The night culminated with my indigestion from eating so much and a fireworks display.

Happy Birthday Danielle.

Firefox 2.0 Rc 1 has been released.

The next version of Firefox, the release candidate has been released and is available for download. A word of advice, this is a release candidate and not the official release, so many of your current extensions may not, and probably will not, work with this version.

I would advice anyone who is not technically savvy to avoid downloading this version until the bugs are worked out and that more themes and extensions are updated to help support the new release.

I did download it and am currently using it, there are a few new things and such as the spell checker for any online forums or anywhere you can actually type. For example if I misspell a word in my blog it identifies it and underlines sit much in the way that Microsoft Office would do.

They have combined the Themes and Add ons, so if you are one who likes to change themes or add extensions, you will want to go to the Tools menu and select Add-Ons. This will allow you to manage all your themes and extensions.

Go Vote and Help Steve Slaton

ESPN Heisman Trophy Vote. Go help a WVU player out and give him a chance at being WVU's first Heisman Trophy Winner.

WVU Post Game celebration

A file I found on Youtube, this is the WVU locker room after the Louisville game last year that we won in double overtime.

My Monday

I went over and visited my mom this afternoon. She called me around noon and had her computer torn down and wasn't sure if she put it back together correctly. By the time I got over there she had already had it put back together with the exception of the Printer which had a USB 2 connection.

She was having some connection problems with her DSL, but I called Verizon and got it all straightened out and put her back on track. It had been running extremely slow and something just wasn't right. She is back up to speed and everything is running fine now.

This Friday will be Danielle's 17th birthday.

Shuffle up and Deal

The first round of our Texas Hold Em tournament started last night. This was the first of what will be ten games to accumulate a point total before the Championship Round that will be the 11th game.

This tournament should run into next summer before the championship pot is divided in the final round. There is a point system that Robert and Kim has devised and we are going to adhere to. You get one point for everyone you knock out, place placement points for how finish in each tournament. First place gets 11 points, 2nd place gets 10 points 3rd place gets 9 points and so on down the line until the first person to go out is awarded a single point.

The total of these points will be how many chips you start the championship round with to play for the big pot. We do have a game buy in also that awards the nights winner a pretty decent payout for the night.

On the first round of the tournament, Robert played a great game and managed to pull out the first round victory and and knocked out three other player along the line to managed grab an early point lead with 14 points. He and Jeremy Murray went to heads up (final two players) for the final showdown.

Me, I wasn't getting cards all night long and tried to pull a bluff with an all in to steal a pot, however Ron didn't fall for my bluff and took me out midway through the game.

Facing a dilemma tonight

8:00, CBS Survivor starts. I didn't watch last season, but then again I was getting up at 3:00 to go to Frostburg then.

I think they are kind of jumping the shark with the theory this time, maybe I'll watch the first one and make a judgement from there.

Of course Deal or No Deal comes on at 9:00.

Happy Anniversary Kim and Robert

I would like to take this time to wish my sister Kim a very happy third wedding anniversary. She and Robert were married three years ago today, and have either recently or are still on a extended weekend get away with Robert's parents to Smith Mountain Lake, this is their second consecutive trip and the first for Mark and Martha.

If I know Kim, she will soon be sharing pictures form the extended weekend on her site.

Leaving for Basic

Tomorrow, George Ellis McClain, aka Moke, leaves for Missouri and the first phase of his basic training. He will go to Pittsburgh tomorrow morning and then will ship out from there on Thursday Morning for Fort Leonard Wood Missouri for his first phase of Basic Training. He will be there for two months and then ships off to Mississippi for the second phase of his training.

He will have the opportunity to return home for one week in December for the Christmas break, and then he will return to Mississippi for the rest of his training that will end at the end of January.

Moke has said that he will provide a mailing address once he gets there so that everyone will be able to write him. I will post the address on here like I did when Randy was at Camp Dawson so that everyone will have the opportunity to write to him while he is away. His only form of communication will basically be writing and an occasional phone call, but I have a feeling those will be reserved for Pam and George and Angela while he is away.

He is a big strong guy now, I'm waiting to see how lean and lean he will be when he finally returns. I have a funny feeling he is going to do quite well during the next few months.

I know I am very proud of him and what he has become. I don't think anyone could have done a better job than what Pam and George have done in instilling discipline, respect, education and competence in this young man. I once had a Boss, Dr. Jerry Fletcher at the NRAC, who once said the biggest compliment you can give a person is stating the fact that they are competent. Moke has more than earned that respect from me. In think he can and will accomplish anything and everything he sets his mind out to do. Good Luck Moke.


To value his own good opinion, a child has to feel that he is a worthwhile person. He has to have confidence in himself as an individual.--Sidonie Gruenberg

Happy Birthday Calvin

It seems like only yesterday that Calvin was born and Dad was holding him. Maybe this is a little reminder on how fast time flies and how much it should be cherished.

Where have all the years gone, now Calvin is growing up into a fine young man. Yesterday Pam and George had a Pic Nic in honor of his birthday at Krepps Park. Every time I turned around I think Calvin wasn't wasting time worrying about the adults, he was busy having fun being a kid.

He is an adventuresome one, one who hates to be bored. Maybe we can all take a moment and learn from him, and his not wanting to waste any time because he is too busy having fun and enjoying life.

If you would ask me today what Calvin likes, it's an easy answer, he loves to play video games. It's been a pleasure watching this young man grow up, from the times when we taught him all the nasty words to say, even though I don't think Pam and George appreciated that too much. I think the first words to ever come out his mouth though is "Can I play the Sony" when he couldn't;t even hold his eyes open. Once again, he was too busy wanting to live life and have fun than to waste time by sleeping. Sometimes I wish I had one half of his energy.

Happy Birthday Calvin.

A pic nic day

We had a little dual purpose pic nic this afternoon at Krepps Park. Pam and George organized a very nice little get together with a dual purpose. Tomorrow is Calvin's Birthday and Moke is leaving for Basic Training on Wed.

Moke will leave for Missouri Wed and will spend a month there before being shipped to Mississippi after one month to complete his training. He will not be back until Christmas, so he had a few friends stop by for one more day of youth before he has to leave. He seems very focused and has a gameplan even though I tend to ride him a little bit. He's got a big future ahead of him and the next phase of it is getting ready to start.

I will provide any contact information for him once he gets there so people can write to him. I wanted to start doing podcasts so he could possibly hear from people at home, but this is the military and he has to leave his iPod at home.

The other reason for today's festivities was tomorrow is Calvin's Birthday. Calvin had a few friends visit him for his birthday party. The sad part of the day was my screw up, I sorted through the hundred or so pictures that I did manage to take and noticed I didn't get many shots of the Birthday Boy. I did get a few, but I got a little sidetracked.

There was an old family tradition renewed to some extent today. Not only were Randy, Moke and Gary wrestling around, Amy and Gary got into a little bit of a classic old food fight. It's been a long time since I've seen one, so it was nice to see everyone having some fun.

The funny part of the day was me trying to BBQ. I think George got a good laugh, hey what can I say I use a frying pan, a toaster and a microwave. Fortunately George is a BBQ master and did the majority of the BBQing at home and brought it to the park.

Morgantown High Beats #1 East Fairmont

Last night I hooked up with a couple old team mates and long time friends John "Smitty" Smith and Richard "Popeye" Johnson and went to see the Morgantown High Mohigans battle the #1 ranked East Fairmont Bees at East West Stadium in Fairmont.

The evening started out at Nick and Terri's bar, it was a little Deja Vu for Smitty and Popeye, in High School A & H Tavern was a big hang out for our team (Drinking age was 18 then). We met with another old team mate Terry West at the bar and enjoyed a few minutes of old memories before the three of us headed to the stadium. It was nice seeing these guys again, Rich lives near DC and only makes it to town a few times a year. I hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was a nice evening with a few old friends.

It was a great game, and parking wasn't too easy to find. I ended up parking at the corporate office of the Helmick Corp and walked a few blocks to the stadium. East Jumped out to a 6-0 first quarter lead by driving the ball downfield, but seeing how many trick plays they ran during the drive I turned to Smitty and said they blew their load and that was it. They didn't score again and ended the entire game with only 100 yards total offense for a team.

Around mid third quarter the fog started to set in, both teams were throwing the ball downfield and sitting in the stands you lost track of the ball. The play by play announcer got a nice little chuckle when he called one play as covered by "Somebody". Visibility was very poor.

Morgantown managed to run their record to 3-1 on the season by beating East 24-6. It was a nice end to a nice evening with a couple great friends.

Wow, what a game

West Virginia hosted the University of Maryland last night on ESPN's Thursday Night Football. I don't really know how to recall this game, other than simply stating that we kicked the everloving shit out of them 45-24. The score was much closer than the game actually was, after the first quarter of play WVU held a 28-0 lead and Steve Slaton rushed for 149 yards and 2 TD's in the first quarter. How bad was it for Maryland, he would have had 3 TD's, but he fumbled into the endzone and our Brad Palmer jumped on the loose ball for a touchdown.

It was a great night to watch football, this runs our current seasons record to 3-0 and may help us to move up a little bit in the polls.

Rainy Day

I will have to say that I think we have been a little long overdue for a good rainy day, the water table appears to be down and the grass and the trees need a good hearty drink of water.

Outside of my apartment there is an old oak tree. It has been losing it's acorns at a very fast rate, the majority of the acorns have been pretty much undersized. I wonder if this could be as a result of having a pretty dry summer.

Usually during the day while I am working I have my front door wide open and a fan usually blowing out or in to allow for a nice circulation of fresh oxygen into the apartment. Right now there is mild rain outside, and I love the smell of the air after a fresh rainfall. It creates a very aesthetic smell for the senses to enjoy and ease any stress that may be bothering you.



Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.--George Burns

What in the heck is going on?

Do you believe this, this is my third Blog entry for today and I think I have set some kind of a new personal record for posts in one single day.

Made a change to my sidebar menu (that's that stuff on the right), I added a couple live feeds to both my and Kim's podcast pages. I have been trying some new software out and wanted to see how it presented itself when published. I like the ease in editing tools, but I have to question the sound quality of my Third Podcast. It sounds a little low on volume, but maybe I just need to do a little more experimentation to it.

I'm really wanting to get this thing set up before Moke takes off and leaves for Basic Training. Angela bought him an iPod for his birthday last month. Maybe he will have the ability to download a few shows while he is gone and we will be able to send him a few messages from home if this is at all possible.

We'll see and hopefully I can get this fine tuned before he leaves and we can give him a little taste of home.

September 11, 2001

Today is the five year anniversary of one of if not the most tragic day that ever occured on American Soil. A few nutcases decided to Hijack four airliners and crashed two of them into the World Trade Centers, One into the Pentagon and won was brought down in PA by a few brave passengers, that flight believed to be headed towards the White House.

It has been five long years and we still have yet to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice for the deaths of so many Americans five years ago.

A night of insomnia

I knew I shouldn't have taken a nap yesterday afternoon. I took a nice long nap and have not been able to manage to get back to sleep,, I guess you could say that this day is filled with a little insomnia.

No big deal though, I've logged into work and am making the most of my sleeplessness by cranking out a few datasets at work. The people in Sterling are either going to love or hate me when they see how much data I've placed on the server overnight.

So, my day should be over early this morning, not that I intended for this to happen, but I was at least able to make the most of it.

Tidbits

* It's Friday, that means the weekend is about ready to start and a time to relax and have some fun.

* Yesterday, Jean called me and told me that Amy was in a car wreck by the nickels bread store four way stop. She said Amy was fine, but that her car was totaled. You can read about her own first hand account on her MySpace BLOG

* Moke went once again yesterday to Pittsburgh to weigh in for the National Guards. He made weight this time and will leave on September 20th for basic training. Not sure where they are going to ship him to, but I will try to get details later on where he is being shipped to for Basic Training.

* Ironically Moke has also got a job with Teletech and is scheduled to start his training on Monday, he should be able to go through his training and then go to basic training if he wants and have his job waiting on him when he gets back.

* Morgantown High School will play football tonight against Fairmont Sr at 7:30 this evening. Of course I will have to force myself to go watch another football game this season.

* Last night, The Pittsburgh Steelers opened the NFL season with a 28-17 opening game win against the Miami Dolphins. I wasn't going to watch the whole game, but one thing led to another and I watched the whole game. I love my Steelers.

* WVU will play tomorrow against Eastern Washington. The game is not on TV, but should be a blow out. I watched Eastern Washington play last week and I have a funny feeling our backups are going to get a good bit of work for this game.

* Congrats go out to my sister Kim for getting her First Podcast set up and published. I updated my podcasts also, so I will probably be adding another sidebar menu for these items.

Start of the NFL season.

The last pitch of the softball season has been thrown, we're at the time of the year where you're not supposed to wear white and WVU is already back in session.

It's time for the 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers to start playing some football for real. Actually being that the Steelers will play the first game of the NFL season tonight against the Monongah native, Nick Saban led Miami Dolphins. The Steelers are the defending Super Bowl Champions and start their march to repeat tonight, however they will be playing without QB Big Ben Roethlisberger and Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward is listed as questionable for tonights game.

Are YOU ready for some football?

Back to work

Well my nice relaxing five day weekend is finally over with and it was that dreaded back to work day that no one ever looks forward to. I was not the least bit surprised to sign into wok and find a decent amount of work waiting on me.

Honestly, I am one of those types of people who would rather be busy than sitting around bored. I would rather be backed into the corner and under the gun than having trouble deciding how to waste time until the day passes.

My long weekend was no where near as event filled as my Fourth of July holiday weekend, but it was a nice one. I managed to go to Nick and Terri's to watch WVU spank Moo Tech on Saturday, drafted a fantasy football team and went to a Morgantown High football game. It was a rainy and wet weekend so that kind of limited my options on things I planned on doing.

Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.-- Albert Einstein

Podcasting

Hi everyone, I have done podcast #2 for george's Journal and have started to set up the feed so you can read it from iTunes. All you have to do is point your iTunes podcast to http://feeds.feedburner.com/George_test and you will have my feed added to your iTunes.

You cna also go directly to the feedburner by going HERE. I will probably add the audio podcast hyperlinks with pictures and options at a future date, but this is my second time around playing with the podcast. My first attempt was editing the soundfile, my second attempt is to set up a site feed that can be loaded into iTunes or any other podcast reader you may choose to use.

For those of you not wanting to play with iTunes and just want to hear it, just go HERE.

I'm a little late on this.

As many of you may recall if you read my blog on July 18th and once again on August 5th I had spoke about an eleven year old singing sensation by the name of Biana Ryan who had just completely wowed the judges on the TV show America's Got Talent.

She won the Million Dollars and here is her final performance



And the announcemnt

Friday Night

Last night I managed to make it to the Morgantown High v Brooke Game. Morgantown bounced back from last week's loss to handedly beat Brooke by a 42-14 score.

The night was cold and rainy, but I couldn't stay away and just had to go. Last and this week I saw Smitty at the game, only this week I managed to get a picture of him. We played together and have attended many games together through the years, and last night was no exception.

In two weeks we are going to meet up with another friend, Rich "Popeye" Johnson, and we are planning on traveling to Fairmont to watch Morgantown take on the East Fairmont Bees. The three of us played together and have attended many games together, but since Rich lives near DC now, it has been a while since we have went together.

A football weekend

The WVU football season is down to being one day away, but many festivities will kick off tonight with Fan Fest at the WVU Mountainlair at 5:00. There is a lot of excitement entering this season, we finished last season ranked #5 and are once again a pre-season top 5 team again. Last year, the team was very young and was a Freshman and Soph dominated team, which means that there is a lot of talent that will not only be here this year but next year and some even beyond that.

There is going to be a video coming out to the 6'6" 240 song Gold N Blue that I think people are going to get really excited about. The video is going to make its debut on the big screen in front of a sold out Mountaineer Field tomorrow, and possibly the network might even pick it up. If you miss it tomorrow, I'm sure you'll get your chance to see it this season if the season goes as anticipated.

We also had our fantasy football draft last night, Phil Kaskey had the traveling trophy available for all of us who have never won it to see. I think I had a pretty good draft, I'm happy with my team to a certain extent. I deviated slightly from my original gameplan with my second round pick because of who was available, but I think I can make a good run with this team.

This is my second of a five day weekend for me, not too sure what I am going to get into tonight. Morgantown High plays Brooke tonight at Pony Lewis field, and there is fanfest at the Mountainlair at 5:00. I haven't decided yet on whether I may make one or both of those events.

I do know that tomorrow I'm going to be watching WVU and Marshall on TV rather than pay the Scalpers price for a ticket.