Happy Birthday Gary

I'm wanting to wish a very happy birthday to my brother Gary. He is 34 years old (I think) today. Just wanting to wish him a very happy birthday.

A Softball Weekend

We have three games scheduled over a period of 15 hours. Last night we got off to a great start defeating a team full of the 2005 Morgantown High Football team and we played very well as a team. The game only went 4 innings as we kinda crushed them 21-1 running our seasons record to 6-1.

We have a double header scheduled this morning at 10:00 and 11:00. It will probably eb a long day because after our double header I'm thinking about going over and watching my old team when they play a double header this afternoon and my cousin mike has a double header later this afternoon that I would like to see.

I have a Team Schedule posted here. We are Prime Thyme andplay mostly on Fridays.

Friday, July 7th at 9:00 we take on team my cousin sponsers and plays for. We play Top Notch which I guess is a company Michael started. I also got a chance to see and talk to one of my oldest friends Tim Bowser last night, he's playing on Michael's team this year.


***Update***

We took 2 this morning to run our record to 8-1.



Have a good weekend.

Memorial Day

Yesterday was a pretty good memorial day considering the weather really wasn't that cooperative with us. It was nice to see Randy again, he's almost doen with the Mountaineer Challenge Acadamy and will graduate of June 17. He has put on about 30 pounds of pure muscle. I asked him how many push ups he can do now and he said 100 in 2 minutes.

Nothing really eventful about the day other than it was good to see everyone asembled together outside the Country Inn.

First paid day off in 8 years

Woo Hoo, what a day. This is the first time I have been paid and didn't have to be at work since July 4, 1997. WOW, what a stretch.

Star Wars III, Revenge of the Sith

I went and saw the sixth enstallment of the Star Wars series tonight. I was driving home from work and it kept running through my mind, so I drove to the mall and bought a ticket.



I do have to say I think this was my favorite of all six movies, I think I could have sat there and watched it again. 2 Thumbs up!!!

Nice start to a Holiday weekend.

Hump Day Tidbits

* We are getting closer to the weekend. This coming monday will be my first paid holiday since 1997. It's been a long time.

* Randy will be having his third leave this weekend from the Challenge Acadamy, when he goes back it will only be a few weeks to go until he completes the program.

* The morning drive to Frostburg is what I would call Foggy. I drive through some of the densest fog that I can recall.

* Haven't really had a chance to talk to anyone this wee other than George for a couple minutes online. I think he would like to win the Powerball $180 Million jackpot.

* Weather this week has been really bad. Rain, rain and more damn rain.

* At work we have hired an additional eight people, meaning next week my schedule changes. I'll have to be at work at 6:00 AM, which means I'll have to leave by 5:00 AM at the latest to get here ontime.

* When does survivor start again.

* INFOTECH, our parent company has issued a press release about our opening. The Announcement.

Oh, before I forget

A belated happy birthday to my sister Pam. Her birthday was yesterday and her Husband George's birthday is tomorrow (Monday)

Happy Birthday to both of them.

Reformat

About once a year or so, I completely re-do my computer and re-format the hard drive and re-install everything bringing the compuuter back to the "out of the box" version.

For the past couple weeks, my computer has been lagging very bad and something just wasn't right. I had two iexplorer processes running in the background that I could not kill. Adaware didn't pick them up and neither did Nortons.

I guess when a computer gets to a certain point it's good just to clean it out and re-do it. I have a 120 GB slave drive where I save all my files and my C drive is for nothing other than installed programs.

Today, I got tired of seeing the computer lag and just reformatted everything. Now my computer is running like a charm. Something was infesting my computer and I could not track it down to find what it was.

My computer runs a lot faster now.

A post softball game night out

We played softball last night and managed to lose a one run game to Kingdom Entertainment. It was a hard fought game, but when two unbeaten hit the field, one team has to lose. I'm kind of glad they won the game, that means the monkey is on their back instead of ours. Been the top team a few times but never have managed to walk away with a title. Our current record is now 4-1

After the game, the team when out for the second week in a row to our sponsor Prime Thyme.



Of course Paul is his normal camera shy self here. I'm going over to his house tonight with a few other players to hang out with. These are really a great bunch of guys, but don't tell them I said that.



This is the third week in a row we have went to Prime Thyme of Friday night, I didn't make it on the first week because I was running around gathering car parts.

Our next game is this Friday night at 7:00.

Monday Mornings

Blahhh. I hate Monday Mornings. Could someone tell me when it's Friday.

I did have a pretty decent weekend though. Friday night was a blast, we played softball and won our game. We all went up to Prime Thyme after the game and sat out on the deck. I think I'm really going to like playing with these guys.

Saturday I helped George tear down the back side of his house, then managed to go out Saturday night and do my traditional Sunday Morning Grocery shopping. I didn it so I could have one less thing to do so I could go to WVU's commencment on Sunday.

Went to the commencement Sunday, and listened to President Hardesty and Gov. Manchin speak. I thought they both gave great addresses to the graduates.

On to Sunday night and a softball double header which we managed to sweep. That ran our record to 4-0 on the year.

Sunday night was Survivor final (see previous post) and then the weekend was over with.

I did get a little chuckle driving to work this morning, a couple guys I play softball with are morning show personalities on WVAQ. They did a little skit called lower league softball report. Kevin was complaining about getting pulled after we were way up on an team friday night and they came back. Chris, aka hector, didn't want to even talk about it. It's nice that my teams dirty laundry is broadcasted over 50,000 wats statewide. It wqas all in good fun though, this team is a bunch of funloving guys.

Survivor Final!!!!

We swept a double header softball game tonight in time for me to get home and start watching the beginning of Survivor!!!

Let's recap everything, tonight is the final show, they are giving away the Million dollars tonight. We have four survivors left in the game, aka the Final 4.

1. Tom Westman
2. Ian Rosenberger
3. Katie Gallagher
4. Jennifer Lyon

The show starts off with a challenge, Ian knows that he has to beat Tom in the first challenge to get rid of the games strongest player, Tom. To no avail, Tom won a series of untying knots and won and Ian finished second to advance to the last part of the Challenge. In the final challenge Tom out swam Ian and found his combination first to a box that contained his flag, winning him immunity at the nights first tribal council.

Before tribal council, Ian managed to stick his foot in his mouth by admitting to Tom that had Tom not won immunity he was going to vote him out. At tribal council all the pressure was on Ian before the vote. The vote came down to a 2-2 vote and Katie and Tom voted again because neither of them had a vote against them. After the second vote it was tied at 1-1. Going to a tie-breaker challenge between Jen and Ian. They had to build a fire to burn through a rope and raise their flag. Ian won the fire challenge sending Jennifer to the jury.



This is going to make the final immunity challenge a battle between the games two strongest players. Tom and Ian have pretty much dominated the entire game and I'm glad to see that the final challenge to go to the final two will involve them. If Ian wins, he'll take Katie, if Tom wins he'll probably take Katie and if Katie wins she will probably take Ian. Katie is looking good at making the final two.




When they returned from tribal council, Tom gave Ian the third degree over him possibly attempting to betray him and vote him out.

After the little run in, the three remaining players got a chance to reflect upon all players in the game in their rite of passage through the game. After they returned, they went to the final immunity challenge.

It was a bobbing challenge. Who balanced themselves longest wins immunity. Two hours into the game, the wind picked up pretty heavily and rain started. After four hours, all three were still in the game. After 4 hours and 51 minutes, Katie removed herself from the game, leaving Tom and Ian to battle it out. After 8 hours, Tom tried to make Ian a deal, he said if Ian stuck it out and he beat Ian, he was going to take Katie to the finals. If Ian stepped down then, Tom would take Ian to the finals. Ian did not agree with Tom's terms and it was still game on after eight hours. Both seemed very stubborn and neither appeared to want to give an inch.

I do have to say that throughout the game I had a funny feeling it would come down to these two guys, the games strongest players, battling it out to win the final immunity.

After 11 hours and 45 minutes, both players were still going strong. After 11 hours and 55 minutes, Ian pulled probably the games all-time most honorable move. He agreed to step down if Tom would agree to take Katie to the finals. He did it because he wanted to earn both players respect back. Probably the all-time most honorable move in the history of the game. Tom gave Ian a chance to change his mind after they were back on shore, but Ian wanted Tom to honor the agreement and take Katie to the finals. Ian has to just moved himself to the favorite to win the next survivor all-stars.



This makes the finals between Tom and Katie.



Tom



Katie

At the time when the jury was allowed to address each of the fianlists, I almost felt sorry for Katie, because everyone was just hounding on her more than Tom. They all basically called her lazy and worthless and didn't deserve to be there. She actually refused to even answer janu's question that was addressed to her.

After the jury had their say, I'll still have to go with my first instict when the game first started and say Tom will win. I have never called the winner yet eary in the game, but this could very well be a first for me. Tom played probably one of the strongest rounds of survivor ever. If I were on the jury, my vote would go to Tom.

Of course after the voting, Jeff would not read the votes again, leading us into the live New York City Show.

After the votes were tallied, the winner of $1,000,000 was my favorite and the games strongest player, Tom Westman. It only took 5 votes to get a 4-1 majority.

I do have to say this was one of my favorite rounds of survivor that I have watched. Congrats to Tom for playing hard and playing with integrity.

TIMBER!!!!!

Yesterday I went and helped my brother in law George tear down the back side of his house. I think I still owe him 1,234,561 favors, so I have a long way to go to catch up.

Got a few pictures of the process.








I also captures a little Quicktime Movie of the final wall coming down. They have done an amazing amount of work on rebuilding this house.

Survivor Night

We are starting to get down to the nitty gritty. We are now down to our last five survivors.

1. Tom Westman is probably everyone's favorite.
   
2. Ian Rosenberger his toughest competition.
3. Caryn Groedel who deserved the Oscar for last weeks performance.
   
4. Katie Gallagher who could be one of the next two to go.
   
5. Jennifer Lyon who had her game wrecked last week when Gregg was voted off.
   

These are my five rankings in what I feel will be their order of finish and importance.

As a reminder, this is the last Thursday night Survivor for this season. There will be a two hour finale this Sunday at 8:00 and an aftershow party at 10:00 Sunday night.

OK, On to this weeks show.

With the gender numbers down to three women and two strong men, gender just may be an alliance. Tom and Ian know that they have to play the women's alliance off if they have any chance of winning this game.

At the Rewards Challenge, they are playing for a brand new Chevrolet Corvette. The winner gets to drive their new Vet up the road to a luxury hotel for some pampering. Ian won the Corvette and was able to invite someone on his luxury visit and he chose Tom of all people. I don't know if this was the smartest thing to do because now it left the three women behind to talk strategy.

After Tom and Ian returned to the island, it was kind of evident that Ian screwed up by taking Tom rather than Katie. Ian and Katie got into an argument when they got back, plus Caryn called Ian out in front of Tom. Ian made the fatal mistake and it may cost either him or Tom the game.

The immunity challenge was a obstacle course and a memory game. It was a close battle, but Tom won immunity and thus creating what could be a very interesting tribal council. Could Ian's brainfart come back to haunt him?

Nope, Caryn and her big mouth at tribal council sent her packing. I will say Jennifer will go next.

A quick tidbits.

* Congratulations to my niece Amy, she got a job at Lowe's. JD, her next door neighbor helped her get the job, good luck to her with her new job.

* Val and Erica have been a little bit under the weather the past couple days, I'm hoping they are now both feeling a little bit better.

* Finally got my car fixed, or at least the problem I was having with it. Traveling 136 Miles a day and going from 30 MPG to 15 MPG can get rather costly. Turns out it was the coil pack from the spark plug cylinder that blew out a couple weeks ago.

* For anyone I haven't talked to about it yet, you need to get Jean's recipe for Tomato Pie, it's well worth it and it's quite awesome.

* I didn't get a chance to talk to Randy this past weekend, but my mom says he's looking good. Like he has put on 30 pounds since he has went to the academy. I received an MSN message from him, but I was away when he sent it out.

* George and Mokie are making some serious progress on the addition to the house, I think everyone will be very impressed when they finish it.

* A special Thank you to George, Moke, Gary, Jean, Gerald and the guys down at CJ's for helping out with my car.

* My niece Brittany had her interview at Linsly last Friday. Kim said she feels pretty confident she will be admitted and will find out for sure this week.

* I do have to say that the drive to Frostburg can be very relaxing and enjoyable, when the car runs right. It is a picturesque and relaxing drive.

* Have a good hump day.

Mappers move makes economic sense

This is a repost from the Cumberland Times-News


Mappers move makes economic sense
Vargis celebrates first month at Frostburg State incubator

By Michael A. Sawyers, Times-News Staff Writer
Monday, May 9, 2005 10:24 AM EDT
FROSTBURG - Vargis, LLC, a Sterling, Va., digital mapping company, celebrated its first month of operation in the Frostburg State University Technology-based Incubator with a luncheon and ribbon cutting Friday.

The company, pronounced var-jus, uses aerial photographs to provide digital maps that are sold to government agencies and utility companies.

"We have had five employees working during the first month," said Alan Sneyd, chief operating officer. "We will have eight additional employees here by May 23 and will likely peak at 24 employees."

Sneyd said the company realized it would make economic sense to move some work away from its Sterling setting.

"We contacted a number of rural locations in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland and Allegany County was the most consistent responder," he said.
Following visits to the PACE reception in Annapolis and then to a technology showcase on campus in October, Vargis chose FSU.

Greg Tilley, president, said government clients most often use the digital systems created by Vargis to plan infrastructure management for things such as water, sewer and roads. The systems also are used for 911 emergency addressing.

Utility companies find that the systems help to track and pinpoint power distribution and outages.

The FSU office, officially called the Vargis Geospatial Production Facility, is a milestone in the continual transformation of the Mountain Maryland economy, according to Aris Melissaratos, secretary of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development who attended Friday.

Melissaratos, called Vargis a part of the knowledge-based economy that is to replace the lost smokestack-industry jobs of Western Maryland.
"This is a good example of domestic outsourcing, where jobs leave high-labor areas of the country or state and are taken to areas such as Western Maryland," he said.

FSU President Catherine Gira said that Vargis representatives simply showed up at the technology showcase last fall.

"Little did we think that we would go from that meeting to them being a tenant in the incubator in those few months," she said.

Vargis is housed in 156 Tawes Hall. Sneyd may be contacted at (703) 397-9503. The company's Web page is at http://www.vargis.com.

Happy Mothers Day

History

The first Mother's Day proclamation on a state level was issued by the governor of West Virginia in 1910. And by 1911, other states followed. But it took a couple of years still to obtain the Presidential proclamation.

The House of Representatives in May 1913 unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the President, his cabinet, the members of both Houses and all officials of the federal government to wear a white carnation on Mother's Day. On May 7,1914, a resolution providing that the second Sunday in May be designated Mother's Day was introduced by Representative James T. Heflin of Alabama and Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas. It passed both Houses and on May 9 President Woodrow Wilson issued his Mother's Day Proclamation:

"...Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

Living in West Virginia and driving to Grafton, the home of Anna Jarvis, every Sunday morning brings a special meaning to this day. In my life I have been fortunate to consider three women worthy of this honor.

First, there is my Grandma Hall. A very special person in my life who passed away nearly 25 years ago. Many of my morals and values were bestowed upon me by her. She is missed and I would like to extend a mothers day greeting to her memory.

I have two women alive today that I also bestow that honor upon. My Biological Mother and my step-mother. I have been fortunate to have both of these ladies in my life and they are very much responsible for the molding of who I am and who I will become.

I love them both and thank my lucky stars for each of them.

Happy Mothers Day

Our Official Opening

Yesterday was our official opening at VARGIS. I managed to take a few pics and edited a few of them for the net. It was a very successful day and the future of the Frostburg facility looks very bright with some of the job bids we are winning and the worked that is target for the facility.

I think this is the ground floor of something that is going to be very big.




Here's a picture of my computer, talk about a pretty powerful piece of equipment.



The Frostburg crew.



From left to right, the founder and CEO of our Parent company INFOTECH, BVR Mohan Reddy. Our COO and the man who hired me Alan Sneyd and our company President and founder of VARGIS Greg Tilley.

Survivor Night

Once again it's Thursday night and my favorite night of the week for television. I think I have given one or two subtle hints that I love survivor.

We're down to the final six contestants, I figure after this week there will be one more regular show and then the finale in two weeks.

At the shows start, I think it would be a smart strategic move if they voted off Tom the first chance they get, he could very well win every immunity challenge from here on out. Ian is the only other player that I think is a strong player and could be in danger of going out of the game soon also. I think the other four are nothing short of ungrateful followers who road these two strong players coattails throughout the game.

Since Steph is now gone, I will have to continue to root for my early favorite to win the game (Tom) if they don't gang up against him. On the viewer opinion polls, Tom is winning all three categories: Most popular, Sole Survivor and who's next.

Before the reward challenge starts, I think it's time they are going to be playing for the car. Usually one time during the game they play for a car. Oh well, I was wrong, they are playing for a luxury cruise for the night around the island. Maybe next week they will play for the car. Gregg won the challenge and was allowed to at first take one additional survivor with him so he chose Jennifer, and then Jeff allowed him to pick one additonal player so he chose Katie to tag along and join them.



I should have put a picture of Gregg up, but I think he's a snake in the grass plus Jennifer is much better looking.

During the pampering reward, all three survivors got a chance to surprisingly meet someone from home. All three of them were snuck up upon and didn't know it was going to happen.

Meanwhile, Tom and Ian were strategizing back at the island. I think they are going to hook up with Caryn and the three of them will vote for Gregg. Gregg and the two girls will probably vote off Tom, then Ian depending on how immunity falls. The plan is to force a tie and force the survivors to leave their fate to who draws the right rock out of a bag.

The immunity challenge consisted of a number of previous immunity challenges. All you had to do was not finish last to move on to the next round. Ian and Tom were the last two who were left standing, but it was Oan who was able to knock out his three targets before Tom and win Immunity.



Once again I should have put a picture of Ian up but I didn't. You want to see half naked guys go find them yourself, I'll put up thre pictures of the girls.

OK, now if all holds true from earlier alliance discussions, tribal council shoudl come down to a three to three vote between Tom and Gregg, thus forcing a tie-breaker. The events leading up to tribal councila re good, because Caryn is putting on one heck of an act pretending to be the next one to go. I don't think Gregg is going to know whats about to hit him.

Tribal Council came down to a 4-2 vote, the snake in the grass Gregg was played for a sucker after he realized they just victomized him and voted him out. He even said "you guys are good" when the vote was read. I would say his girlfriend Jennifer will be the next to pack her bags next week. Gregg was the only survivor I didn't want to win the game, especially when was was rather arrogant thinking Caryn was going home.

Hey Gregg, I think your buddies just gave you a final

What's up with this weather?

I was driving to work Monday and actually drove through a snow storm. OK, I'm ready for 80 degree days and girls running around in short shorts. Brrrrrr


Dear Mother Nature,

Please warm everything up. I'm sorry about every negative thing I ever said about you (fingers crossed). Please let it warm up.


Signed,

Me


That should do it. Have a good hump day.

Tidbits

I guess since I haven't posted that much lately that we are in need of a little tidbits section.

* Me and my brother Gary joined our niece Amy's "Walk for Life" team that will be held on June 17th. I think I'll go and walk a few laps. If anyone else would like to join us, contact Amy, she's the one handling everything.

* I went to the Country Inn last night and got a chance to talk with Terri. She said Randy received an award for the most improved Cadet at the Mountaineer Challenge academy. Congrats Randy, we're all proud of you.

* I'm sure he loves hearing from everyone, so once again here's his address:

wvchallenge@wvchallenge.org
Subject: Cadet Hamrick

Send him and e-mail and congratulate him for what he's done. I know I'm real proud of him.

* Had a little car trouble this week, Blew a spark plug out and had to have the hole re-tapped. Yesterday My brother in Law George Changed my fuel filter, all spark plugs and wires. I went to Jiffy Lube and had the oil changed and changed the serpentine belt. Hopefully the fuel injection cleaner I put in will also help. It was very sluggish after the plug blew out, but is slowly returning to normal. Thanks George, now I owe you a billion and two favors.

* I finally got to see the addition George and Moke are working their butts off building. This is going to be a 5,000 Sq. Ft house by the time he finishes. I'm really impressed, they are building it better than a contractor would build it.



This is a view looking out the front of his bedroom window. You definitely have some elevation and a wonderful view from their front window of what will be their bedroom.




This is a view from their back bedroom window. He no longer has his goats, they have cleared out all the brush nicely. The view was breathtaking.

The entire addition, all three floors, is going to add so much room to their house.

* I switched Cell Phone companies yesterday. My phone number is the same but I now have a much better plan and phone. You can send my phone an e-mail by e-mailing 3043227017@mobile.celloneusa.com if you want to send a text message. I would still roam in Morgantown with Ntelos, much less when I'm in Frostburg. With Cell One I don't roam anywhere plus Jean even told me I sound crystal clear with the new phone I now have.

* I'm trying to set my phone up on my MSN messenger, don't know if it's working right though. It sends the messages fine, but it's not giving me the ability to go to change my status to mobile.

* This Friday will be the official opening of VARGIS's Frostburg facility. There are supposed to be a few VIP's show up. I'll try to give an update this weekend after it happens.

* I need to make a CD for Terri of all the pictures that I have taken from the Country Inn to date. I think she's wanting to do a wall of pictures to hang at the bar.

* Speaking of the bar, I need to go down and get a few more pictures. Terri and Nick remodeled the game room. They completely knocked out the wall where the State Gambling Machines used to be and redid the entire room in WV Blue and Gold with WVU trim all around. They added a couple dart boards and a ping pong table and the room is now always busy.

* I will recommed to everyone as I already have, get Jean's recipe fot Tomato Pie. If you have never tried it, you're missing out.

* Have a good weekend.

Survivor Night

As some of you may have noticed, I didn't post my weekly survivor post last Thursday, Blogger wasn't cooperating and I could not log on. If anyone is curious what happened last week, you can go HERE and read about what happened.

This week, the show is on an hour later, so let me run down a few things before the show starts. Stephenie LaGrossa is winning the vote as the most popular survivor with a 90% rating. Tom Westman is running second with a 78% rating. Steph is also in viewer votes on who everyone will be the last standing survivor with 57.8% of all votes. Tom is second is 18.1%. Of course these polls are a couple weeks old, so we;ll have to wait and see. Steph was almost voted off last week had Janu not decided to put her own torch out.

The show starts off with Steph trying to get to the bottom of what happened last week with her four person alliance that she made on the second day. I think everyone is starting to realize what a threat she is right now, and she realizes she has nothing to lose so she is going to try to turn any situation into her advantage.

The rewards challenge was an auction. Survivors were given $500 and were bidding on items for their own personal reward. $120 was paid for a big bowl of ice cream with all the topings. $260 for a Cheeseburger, Fries and a softdrink. $300 for Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and parmesean cheese. $40 for a beer and I missed the rest of them. (talking to George about my car)

The Immunity challenge was tossing coconuts to break plates. Ian Rosenberger won immunity. The pre-vote the girls were talking about forming an immunity and voting out Tom, the games strongest player.

When it came down to tribal council, the person who was voted by the viewers was voted out. Steph became the third member of the Jury and the last person of the now gone Ulong tribe to be eliminated from the game.

Can you believe this

I haven't posted in my BLOG much this week because I've been pretty busy. My car blew out a spark plug Tuesday Morning going to work. I managed to get it back home and had to take it to BAMCO to re-tap the spark plug hole. I took Jeans car to work Wed while my car was being worked on.

This morning I was driving to work and my car had no power. It was fine on flat areas, but I had trouble doing 50 MPH up some of the Hills. My car has a 3.1 Liter engine and usually doesn't even start to labor going up those hills. Gary took a quick look at it and seems to think it's a spark plug wire. It should be minor, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh well, It's Survivor night. I turn the TV on George W. Bush is talking. Arrrrggghhhh.
No fear though, I checked the survivor website and it's on at 9:00 tonight so I won't have to miss it.

Tomorrow is Friday, it was a quick event filled workweek. Next Friday our office is having it's official opening to the public. The CEO of Infotech, our parent Company, will be there as well as a few more VIP's. I'm hoping President Bush will come, that way I can tell him Thursdays at 8:00 is a no no for him to go on network television. Doesn't he that it's survivor night?

This looks like it's going to have to be a double post night.

Another Sunday

Yep, it's Sunday morning, one of my favorite times of the week. This Sunday morning Mother Nature is not cooperating and dropped a little bit of that ugly white stuff on the ground last night. Not much, but I've already seen enough snow for this season.


Didn't do much of anything yesterday other than veg out and watched the NFL Draft. Adam "Pac Man" Jones was the first Mountaineer taken when the Tennessee Titans made him the sixth overall pick of the draft. I guess my autographed copy of Morgantown Mahem is now worth a few more bucks.

Chris "I'm a Butthead" Henry was drafted in the third round by the Cincinnati Bengals, closing out the first day of the NFL Draft. Day two of rounds 4-7 are today.

Chatted with Kim a little yesterday morning, she has made some really nice changes to her Website. I really like the way it looks now, I guess she is learning how to manipulate PHP now.

Oh well, off to Super Wal-Mart I go.

BLOGGER is stating to piss me off

Survivor night and their 30 minutes of Maintenance turns into three hours. Oh well, maybe next week.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Wow, doing all the traveling that I have been doing I haven't written in the BLOG as much as I would like to do, so I guess it's time for a Tuesdays Tidbits.

* I guess Randy got a brief chance to come home this weekend. He was given a three hour leave and opted to return home for a few hours. He sent me an IM, but I wasn't home.

* Talked to Amy a little bit last night. I was helping her put together a Resume so she can send it out. I need to fine tune it with her when she gets back to Morgantown. I think together we can get her an effective one together.

* George has been working hard on his addition. He and Moke have now managed to get the back of the house off where the old bathroom was at.



* I was lucky enough to see Brittany not once, but twice this past weekend. Brittany, Ed and myself sat and enjoyed a WVU baseball game Sunday afternoon.

* Pam tells me that Val is doing very well at her new job. I think she would like to get some experience under her belt as a Pharmacy Tech and then try to get a job at Mylan Pharmaceuticals.

* Erica has been hell on wheels in her walker. She has learned to maneuver it when she gets herself in a bind. Maybe a little too well.

* Everything is still going good for me in Frostburg, I still love my job and look forward to the challenges it presents me every day.

* Congrats to my Sister Pam. She has passed some national certification for her job and has just made herself marketable anywhere in the country.

* We had a softball scrimmage tonight against my old team. I think we all had a good time. I think we are playing in the same league this year, so hopefully we will get a chance to play against them this seson.

* I was talking to Bryan Riley after the scrimmage and he tells me Mark and Laura Davis have split up and Mark has moved back to town. Looking forward to seeing him this summer.

* I have talked to Mike Haines today, to me this is now officially softball season!!!

A nice Saturday

Today has been a pretty good day if I do have to say so myself. I initially planned on going to the WVU Football teams spring football game. Right before I went there I managed to run into Ed and Brittany. I went into Burger King and walked out of the restroom, next thing I know this little girl is running up to give me a big hug.





This made my day.

Then I go to the spring game and meet a few posters from Blue and Gold News and tailgate prior to the game. It was a beautiful day weather-wise and I loved it. I did manage to get a few random pics from today.



The team ceremonially entering the field as they traditionally do for every home game, including the spring game. There were a few thousand fans there to cheer them on. All money raised today goes to WVU's Childrens Hospital.



I looked behind me and I seen this annoying guy sitting there. The guy in the blue hat was pretending like he knew something about football.



Obviously he doesn't. Look, here he is with his play book asking for play advice from the fans. LOL

Actually, Coach Rodrigeuz was up with the fans the entire game and gave a fan a chance to call the first play of every drive in the game. It was nice having him sit behind me and hearing him call the game among the fans after getting them all involved. I'm sure it created a memory of a lifetime for a few fans and I think it went over quite well. Rich is one of us and he makes himself more visable than any other football coach I've seen here.

He was afraid to ask me for play advice, he knew if he did I would have his job before the day was over with. I think he was obviously intimidated by my vast football knowledge.

Is it Football yet?

What a day this will be for football lovers. Today in Morgantown I will be meeting a few other posters from Blue and Gold News and watching the WVU Football team play its spring football game.

Laat year was a blast, I managed to see a few former classmates who had already graduated and moved on and got to catch up with them and see what they have been doing lately. Hopefully today I will see a few more of my fellow Alumni and let them know whats new with me.

Survivor Night

As some of you may have noticed, there was no Survivor night post last week. Blogger was having some serious problems and I lost my post.

Last week, Ulong was made a one person tribe. If you want to read about last week, Go Here and read about it.

Going into tonight's episode, we are still at two tribes, but the merger has to take place tonight. There are nine people left in the game, eight from Koror and one lone survivor from Ulong. Koror consists of Caryn Groedel, Coby Archa, Gregg Carey, Ian Rosenberger, Janu Tornell, Jennifer Lyon, Katie Gallagher and Tom Westman. Many of these names you don't know, mainly because they have not lost an immunity challenge yet. Ulong has one lone surviving member in Stephenie LaGrossa.

I checked the popularity poll and believe it or not the singing Wanda Shirk. That was a complete surprise, bit she was annoying. Stephanie has also emerged as the favorite to win the entire game. She has to be the sentimental favorite being the only member of Ulong left.



I look for a merge tonight, but you never know what the game holds.

The early part of the show keys on Stephanie and her one person tribe. She had to do everything to keep the camp going, from keeping the fire going to gathering food to doing everything by herself. She received tree-mail to let her know to grab her canoe and paddle to the Koror Tribe. She was in tears, because I think she was afraid of being alone. They are keeping the tribal name Koror.

The tribe soon had a couple local visitors who were there to teach the survivors how to fish Palau style. They all managed to bring in a feast of fish.


The immunity challenge now changes from tribe to individual. The immunity challenge was to stand on a perch in the water. The last person standing on the perch wins individual immunity and won't be the first member selected for the jury.

After three hours, and Jeff tempting people with doughnuts, Chocolate Chip Cookies and finally Pizza, Tom was the last man standing and won the very first individual immunity.



At tribal council the question of what alliances were going to fall into place and who successfully recruited Stephanie into their alliance and got the numbers needed. Personally I think it will either be Coby or Janu going home. Coby has ticked everyone off and Janu hasn't done anything since the game started.

By a 5-1-1 vote Coby was voted off and the first member of the Jury.

A nice Sunday afternnon

I got everything done early and mananged to make it to the WVU-Rutgers Baseball game at Hawley Field. When I first got there Rutgers was ahead 4-0 and had bases loaded. Coach Van Zandt got tossed from the game and it looked like it could be a long day. We shut them down after that and ended up winning 6-4.



It was a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon with baseball and a nice sunny day.

Tidbits

* congratulations to my niece Brittany, she has made the honor roll for the third time this school year. I'm extremely proud of her.

* It's calling for 76 degrees here today, so I want to get a good start on my days chores of grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning so I can enjoy some of the afternoon sun.

* Val started her new job this past Tuesday. She's working with my sister Pam in Sabraton.

* Amy is still in Chicago, she left Tuesday for a three week visit to Nick's sister Samira.

* I went to work yesterday for my first weekend at the NRAC since leaving. My Mailbox was gone, my computer was disconnected and obviously no one was around. We have a project winding down and I don't know how many more times they will need me to come in. I went in and did a little organization of where the project is currently at.

* Got a chance to have a nice little talk with Kim on the phone yesterday moring. She was blogging as I was talking to her. (How ironic)

* Stopped over yesterday afternoon and visited with mom. Sat on the pourch and BS'd for a couple hours.

* I also stopped by Jean's friday evening after work to say hello. Val and Erica Jean were there. Erica Jean has a walker now and is hell on wheels. So knows how to get around in that thing and knows how to navigate it very well. Actually picking it up and turning it when she comes to a dead end.

* I'm starting to look into other cell phone companies and plans. Ntelos just doesn't seem to have the ability to reach past Cheat Lake without going into either Analog or Digital roam. I'm leaning towards Cell One, but thats not a definate yet.

* I did manage to send Randy an e-mail this past week. I need to send another one soon. I'm very proud of him.

After the first week

After my first week at VARGIS, I absolutely love the job and everything about it. It's in my degree, what I was trained to do in college and it's quite interesting to do what we are doing.

It's a job that I actually look forward to going to daily. I don't know if it's the 762 mile drive each way that gives you a good chance to reflect on the upcoming day or just wind down after a long day. Maybe it's me getting a chance to learn a new marketable skill in GIS, I don't know, but I like the entire situation right now.

It's almost as if this is the light at the end of the tunnel that I had to travel through in college. While you are in college you do things blindly with the hope of finding a light at the end of that tunnel, I was fortunate enough to find it. It was a long journey, but well worth it.

A Quick Tidbits

* This is going to be a short, quick tidbits, I have to go to work in a few minutes.

* Tonight is my first softball practice of the year, I'm going to go and play with some friends this year and leave my old team. It's just no longer the same. The new team also has two other guys who I have played with before also joining the team. I don't know how much I can play this year, but I'm looking forward to this season.

* Amy sent me an IM from Chicago last night, she said she took my advice and had some of the Giadonna's Pizza my sister Kim advised me to eat when I went to Chicago, she said she loved it.

* My commute to work is an hour long, but this time of the year it has been a pleasant and enjoyable drive. Lots of scenery and it really is a stress free drive. Almost relaxing. Let's see what I say after the weather gets bad though.

* Got my first hands on chance to work with Stereogrammetric images yesterday. The best way for me to describe it is using your computer screen as one of the old 3-D View finders we had as kids, only intensified to the extreme. It's amazing that you can see a guy in 3D peeing in his back yard, and be able to zoom it to the stream. (LOL)

* It feels different for me having to dress up for work, but I actually enjoy picking out my wardrobe every morning. Already wanting to buy more Dockers, threy are a little expensive for what I'm used to wearing, but well worth the price.

* Gotta Run. Have a good day.

First day at new job

I started the rest of my life today. It was my first day working for VARGIS and I feel better than ever about my decision to join this team. I really like what I see and as far as potential, the sky is the limit.

The computer I have is an absolute state of the art Dell, 3.6 Ghz with 2 300 GB Hard drives and a 40 GB hard drive. Dual DVD drives, one a writer and two 20" monitors. What a set up, even for a computer geek like me I was completely shocked.

If you go HERE and watch long enough, you may see me on the camera during working hours.



The building on the lower right is the commons. It has a Taco Bell, Chic Fil-a, Pizza Shop, Starbucks, Rib place, a place that makes wraps like blackbear and a salad bar. On the other side of the walkway (sidewalk crossing the picture) is my office.

I'm really excited now for what the future holds.

Sunday Mornings

I just love early Sunday mornings, they are so peaceful and quiet. This Sunday morning is no different. I woke up at my normal time of about 5:00 AM, but recently it's been 4:00 AM for the past few weeks. Thankfully we move the clocks ahead an hour today so my bodies natural clock is back on it's normal schedule.

Being this is Final Four weekend, it would not be complete with out me watching my all time favorite basketball movie Hoosiers. I don't know how many times during WVU"s NCAA run that lines from this movie ran through my head. It's not a true to life movie, but based on the 1954 Milan High Schoolteam that won the Indiana State Championship.

I'll watch the movie and probably start my normal Sunday routine of grocery shopping and laundry.

A ceremonial walk of passage.

Today is April 1, but it is more than April Fools day to me. It is a day that I feel that I take a ceremonial walk of passage in to the next chapter of my life while officially closing out the current one.

Part of my daily routine is to drive the WVU Coliseum and park my car for the day. It has been he beginning of my day for about six years now. I would park there and either walk to the PRT or to the Ag Sciences building to go to work. Since I graduated last May, it has primarily been me walking to work.

It has been a relaxing walk that actually has a breath taking view on some mornings.



Today is my last day to work at the NRAC and thus will be my last day to make this walk, I start working for VARGIS this coming Monday. It is going to be the final day of my college years you could say, even though I have already graduated. West Virginia University for the first time since 1999 will not be a part of my daily routine.

It is all going to come to a conclusion today when the work day is over. When I have to walk out of the NRAC and start that final walk to the Coliseum. That final walk is going to be a ceremonial walk of passage of me not only closing one chapter of my life, but starting the next chapter.



Although I am going to miss working with some people that have been very influential on my life, I look forward with great anticipation to what the future holds. It's also nice to not leave a job that I have worked at for any length of time for a better career opportunity rather than a company closing their doors and putting everyone out of work.