A few pics from tonight

M-Tech Graduation tonight.

Tonight at 7:00 at the Coliseum M-tech will have their graduation ceremonies. In the past a few family members have graduated from M-Tech. Nick graduated with his certification in HVAC, Abdul graduated with his CISCO certification and Amy has graduated twice previously with two certifications in Child care.

Next year Renee and Angela will enter the Surgical Technician program.

This year we have three people graduating from M-Tech. Amy will be graduating from M-Tech with her third Child care certification, Mary Mascioli will be graduating from the Surgical Technician program and Angela will also be graduating from M-Tech this year also.

A hearty congratulations goes out to all three of this years graduates and a good luck to next years two students that will be entering the program.

Happy (belated) Birthday Pam

A Happy (belated) Birthday to my Sister Pam. You want to know the ironic part of all of this, I was even there yesterday to look at her and forgot to tell her Happy Birthday. You want to know the sad part, I blogged about it not once, but Twice recently in my blogs. Talk about being completely absent minded.

Anyways, a very Happy Birthday wish to my sister Pam for yesterday.

Now while I'm on this, tomorrow is her Husband George's Birthday. So Happy early Birthday George.

Weekend so far

* I had a nice little surprise when I logged on to my website tonight, someone had attacked the server and set up a redirect from my photos to a page that said the account was suspended. Being Coppermine, the software I use, is a piece of software installed on the server rather than a static web page it took me a few minutes to figure out what they had done.

It was an easy fix once I knew what file was infected, and everything else is back up and running before the site was attacked. I don't know when it went down, but it only took about five minutes to trace down the problem and eradicate it. Problem solved and everything is back to normal.

Tonight was a softball night, we played at 7:00 this evening and everyone went to Prime Thyme after the game, however I stuck around the ballpark and started to talking to people and on e thing led to another and I never made it to Prime Thyme. This picture is from last year, and not from tonight. maybe I will have another chance tomorrow.

The game went well, but I found out I did something for the second time in three years on our last game but didn't realize it until tonight. I forgot to put my glove in my bag and ended up losing it. I did this a couple years ago also, so that is two gloves I have lost doing that. Something tells me I will be investing in a new one tomorrow like it or not.

The game went well though, we ended up winning like 28-20. My timing is finally back even after a three week layoff. With not much spring training I never felt like I had my timing on my swing just right, tonight I found it again a few times and hit the ball really well.

Tomorrow is looking like it's going to be a busy day, with my normal Sunday things, moving my old computer, and having to find a new glove and play ball again. Did I ever mention to anyone I really hate snow?

* I noiced Kim has decided to return to Blogger. Welcome back.

TGIF

It is Friday and that means that it is the end of the work week. My week has been pretty good though, I am finishing up my first week of working remotely from home. Believe it or not you can get more things done more efficiently with less distractions. Honestly I think I'm even more productive working from home provided I have the data that I need.

It has also opened up a good deal of free time for me, but I haven't really taken advantage of it as of yet. The weather has been kind of bad this week and with the arrival of my new computer, I've been busy getting it up and running. I was able to retain all my data from my other computer and transfer it to my new system. Things such as my pictures, software, family movies etc were stored on a slave drive on my old system. I managed to get everything transferred though and preserve all my files.

Let's see what's coming up in the next week or so:

Sunday is Pam's Birthday
Tuesday is George's Birthday.
Wed at 7:00 at the coliseum is the Mtech graduation.
Next Saturday is Moke's graduation and a pic nic at Krepps Park.

I have three softball games over the next three days, Saturday at 7:00, Sunday at 3:00 and Monday at 10:00. Our last two games have been rain outs and I missed the second game of the season, so I haven't been able to play in almost three week. I'm looking forward to getting back on the field and seeing my team mates.

It's nice to see that Val has restarted her Blog and Amy has been posting quite reguarly. This really helps keep people interested and involved when so many people update their Blogs. Kim
and Brittany have also been doing great jobs in keeping their blogs active. Readers want to see new material, so with so many of us Blogging, hopefully we can provide our readers with a reason to keep returning.


Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.--Arthur Schopenhauer

And we have another returning blogger

We have another blogger on the internet, mt neice valarie has returned to the wonderful world of blogging. She has named her Blog Hello Again, and I have added it to my sidebar with links to all the other family members who are bloggers.

It'll be nice to be able to keep up with Val, Bobby and Erica jean now that Val is back on the net at home.

A Nice Little Find

I was walking through Wal-Mart yesterday and saw something that got my attention. I was walking around the computer accessories section and noticed a USB phone called Skype. In the last few weeks I have been doing a little research about Vonage and was considering purchasing the service as a phone service for home.

I was walking around yesterday and saw a few phones that were skype compatible. Let's just say curiosity killed the cat and I decided to research it a little. Thinking it was just a way to call another computer, I was wrong. It's a telephone service that runs through your computer and get this. It's free until the end of the year. They are trying to build the service up and you can even buy an incoming number if you want, but I don't really need one.

I downloaded and installed the software and made a few calls from my computer (no phone, just straight computer) and I found it to work. The people I talked to said there was a little bit of an echo, but that was because they were getting feedback from my speakers for lack of a USB phone.

All domestic calls made from the skpye service will be free until the end of the year. That's a good seven months of being able to call people long distance anywhere in the US for free.

Picks from Moke and Angela's Prom

A few pictures from Moke and Angela's prom last night. We met them prior to the prom and got a few pictures and after Moke took her to "Taco Bell" for dinner we got a few more pics. He had her beliving he was taking her to Taco Bell and even pulled into the drive thru. It was a joke and he took her to the Hibatchi Steak House.

A few pics

New computer ordered.

I ordered a new computer yesterday, It was time to upgrade to a more modern system for my needs. My current system is fine and runs great, but the work I do just has some ridiculous demands on a computer's system resources.

I have traditionally purchesed Hewlett Packards, the last two I bought were both HP's and I have never had a bit of trouble with them. However this time I purchased a more commercial friendly system, plus a few added perks for personal enjoyment.

Some of it's specs:

* Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)
* 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x1GB) Yes, two GB of RAM. It will be 2 1GB to optimize the opportunites. Stiil leaves me with 2 open slots with this option and no smaller chips that I would just end up discarding if I upgraded.
* 19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1907FP Digital Flat Panel
* 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory
* 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 8MB cache (I also have a 160GB slave drive on my computer that I will transfer over to the new system.
* Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
* Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (My computer can be a TV with all the DVR and Digital cable perks for no charge or no subscription)

It should ship this Friday and arrive the following week.

Last day in Frostburg

Today is my last day working in Frostburg on a physical day to day basis. Starting Monday morning I will be workign remotely from the comforts of my own humble little abode.

This should clear up three to four hours of my day that was committed into drivinng to and from work, time that I would either just get there too early or stayed around to BS or just idle time sitting around waiting to leave.

I'm pretty excited about this, at current gas prices It's going to save me more than $60.00 a week in gas alone. No more early morning drives on a daily basis over mountains, past ski resorts and through more fog than I've ever seen in my life for one region.

I will still make it up here on occasion, but don't need to be here five to six days a week anymore. I put 40,000+ miles on my car in the last year, I'm sure it's ready to relax a little bit too. Maybe I can finally find the time to clean my apartment. LOL


You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.--Yogi Berra

What's in store

As you may have read last week, I made a trip out of town last week to interview with a very large defense contractor to do GIS work. Unknowingly and ironically simultaneously InfoTech/VARGIS presented me with a unique offer, and then later a decent financial package for the next year.

My interview I think went very well, however infotech has presented me with the offer of being able to ...get this...work from home. In my field most of the operations are very computer intensive and you need a super computer to run the majority of them. In Frostburg, I have such a computer.

My initial plan was to purchase a new computer at home that would have been able to perform these tasks. I had one priced from Dell, but learned yesterday I won't have to do that. I was initially thinking that I would need to have the license for my software on my computer, thus needing a high end commercial computer.

Yesterday, I learned the details and I won't need a high end computer, as a matter of fact my computer is up to standards to perform these tasks. I'll be working remotely through a process called VPN. I will be running my Frostburg computer from home on a Virtual Private Network. VPN is kinda new to me, but Kim's been doing it for a while and Robert knows it inside and out.

I already have it installed and set up my accounts on my computer, so I could actually start working from home anytime with complete access to our network at work However I have a meeting tomorrow and I need to get a few things set up and organized in Frostburg before I start working remotely. I will probably continue to commute to Frostburg for the rest of this week and then start working from home next week.

Quality of life had a lot to do with my renewed commitment to my current company. I realize we are still going through some growing pains, but I would also rather be a part of the team that builds something special than be someone who comes in after it's built.

This is going to be a perfect situation for me because I'll be able to work my own schedule. Meaning I don't have to wake up two hours before I start work to fix breakfast, shower, get woke up and drive 68 miles before I start work. Not to mention the drive home. This should open up another 3-4 hours a day for me in dead time, that's time committed to doing work things (driving to, getting ready for, returning from.. etc.) that you are not getting paid for.

I'll still have to make an occasional trip to Frostburg, but not on an every day basis. This will also remove a lot of stress of driving 68 miles in the early morning hours during inclimate weather. There were actually four or five days this past winter that I couldn't make it in because of the weather (two last October). This will no longer be a factor, because I can run the computer from here.


Have a good week.


Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.--Anais Nin

What's coming up

I've done tidbits posts numerous times, how about a what to expect coming up post.

* We have two softball games this week, Monday (tonight) and Thursday nights.

* This Saturday (May 13) is Moke and Angela's prom. I'm hoping to get a few pics of them in this once in a lifetime day for them (even though I went through three of them). I was hoping that I could meet them prior to them going to the prom at a location such as Rails to Trails and we could get a few pictures of the lovely couple.

* Sunday (May 14) is Mother's Day. Mother's day was founded in Grafton, West Virgina by Anna Jarvis for all you history buffs.

* The following weekend both Pam and george celebrate their Birthdays. Pam's is on Sunday the 21st and I can't specifically remember George's date. I'll make an update as soon as I know.

* Saturday May 27th is Moke's graduation. It will be at 10:00 at the Colseum and pam is going to have a little cookout afterwards.

* Amy will be graduating soon also, but I'm not sure of her date.

* Speaking of Graduations, This Sunday in addition to Mother's day is also WVU's commencement. Featured speaker has been announced to be the NBA Logo himself, Jerry West.


The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.-- Frank Lloyd Wright

Whats uppinings

Let me start off by saying I was out of town Thursday evening. I stayed overnight in the northside of Pittsburgh, and near my hotel was a name of a restaurant that I have always heard about, but never been to. Any of you who watch the Pittsburgh Steelers have had to see footage of these big sandwiches that are made in the stadium or around Pittsburgh. Primanti Brothers Restaurant is by far the best sandwich I have ever had in my life.

I can't even start to tell everyone how totally unhealthy this sandwich is, so that should tell you how good it is. If you EVER are in Pittsburgh and you see a Primanti Bros sign, stop in, the extra pounds will be well worth it.

* The reason why I was in Pittsburgh had to do with a Decision I made this January. I pretty much know what I am going to decide, I just am waiting to get all the cards on the table before I make my decision. I couldn't have asked for a better situation than what is happening right now. I've been shown both my marketable value and my worth value from my employer. In baseball terms, Infotech stepped up and hit a big home run with perfect timing. Even though they didn't know. I'll talk more about it at a later date.

I went out to the softball fields last night and watched Cool Ride (Mike Toth's team) kick the dogsnot out of the team they were playing 18-4. The looked really good last night and they looked real sharp. Good thing we don't have to beat their pants off again this year. They may be a real good team, but no one is Prime Thyme Softball good.

* I stopped down at Nick and Terri's Bar yesterday afternoon and visited with Terri for a little while. The bar is really starting to look good and they had a nice little crowd during the time that I was there. They should be getting their sandwich machine wired up and running this week.

* I have spoke with Kim a couple of times today. Her and Robert are off to Corpus Christie, Texas. They have met with a couple travel delays so far. Initially she called me from Dallas when they had to land because of a storm. They didn't know if they would be able to catch a their next flight to Houston in time for the final leg to Corpus Christie. She called me from Houston and they didn't know if they could get a flight out today. It's 212 miles and a four hour drive away, so they are considering driving the final leg. I'll let everyone know how they made it there, even if they have to rent a camel.

* I was up early this morning and went for a good brisk walk on Rails to Trails at 6:00 this morning. For any of you potential Job seekers, Civic Development Group was hiring Full Time and Part Time jobs for $9.00 an hour here in Morgantown. The jobs were also advertising medical and dental benefits. If you know anyone looking for a decent paying job, pass this on to them.


Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.--Demosthenes

Softball team starts on a good note

The season has finally began. We played Suncrest Gym tonight in our season opener and came out with a hard fought victory in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The game started out with us losing 1-9 after three innings. But we quckly rallied to take a 11-10 lead. They came back with 4 in the 5th inning and we countered to tie the game up 14-14 going into the 7th inning.

Suncrest Gym scored 2 in the top of the 7th, we counter with 3 runs and no one for the 17-16 Opening game victory. That's 1-0 on the season.

Sunday Morning

It's a perfect time for a early Sunday morning BLOG. I haven't started my day yet, ie my grocery shopping trip to Super Wal-Mart or doing my Laundry yet, but I thought I would do a BLOG this morning.

After reading my Sister Kim's Geeky News blog yesterday it opened my eyes up to a few things. The one thing that really stood out to me was something that Google is doing with Google Base. They continue to push the bar higher and higher for everyone else. Kim pointed out Recipees on her BLOG, I may be using it to find an apartment before long. But that's possibly a later story.

I noticed yesterday that Mon Valley Paintball has updated their website. Yours truly is on the front page of the site with a group of guys that played. I'm on the right side of the picture with the WVAQ guys, my softball team is on the left side of the picture. I will say I have played football, wrestled, bowled, baseball, ran track, played basketball, softball, I've played volleyball, racketball, and probably another half dozen sports that I have forgotten about. I will say that paintball is probably the most intense sport that I have ever taken part in. If I had the time and money (not to mention youth) to play it, I think I would get addicted to this game rather easily. Maybe someday I'll pick up golf instead.

Pam corrected me on a previous post, Moke's day of graduation will be on May 27th, not the 28th as I stated in a previous BLOG. I guess what they say about you losing pieces of your mind when you get older must have some credibility. I don't know what I was thinking when I typed the 28th, I swear I looked at the calendar right before I typed that in the post. Must be some kind of a conspiracy.

I see Amy has made a recent post on her BLOG. I wonder if any of the stale blogs that I have linked on the right will follow her lead and give us a little something to read about.

I'm thinking about taking a nice walk on rails to trails this evening, anyone up to joining me? Let me know, it's very relaxing and could be a good time.

Have a good day



The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.-- Abraham Lincoln

Randal McCloy Jr's letter to Sago victims' families

I found this and felt it shoudl be reposted.



The Associated Press
Updated: 1:02 p.m. ET April 27, 2006

Below is the letter sent to victims’ families this week by Randal McCloy Jr., the sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster. The letter mentions several mining terms: a “man-trip” is a vehicle that transports miners, a “rescuer” is an emergency air pack, and a “coal rib” is a mine wall.


To the families and loved ones of my co-workers, victims of the Sago Mine disaster:

The explosion happened soon after the day shift arrived at the mine face on January 2, right after we got out of the man-trip. I do not recall whether I had started work, nor do I have any memory of the blast. I do remember that the mine filled quickly with fumes and thick smoke, and that breathing conditions were nearly unbearable.

The first thing we did was activate our rescuers, as we had been trained. At least four of the rescuers did not function. I shared my rescuer with Jerry Groves, while Junior Toler, Jesse Jones and Tom Anderson sought help from others. There were not enough rescuers to go around.

We then tried to return to the man-trip, yelling to communicate through the thick smoke. The air was so bad that we had to abandon our escape attempt and return to the coal rib, where we hung a curtain to try to protect ourselves. The curtain created an enclosed area of about 35 feet.

We attempted to signal our location to the surface by beating on the mine bolts and plates. We found a sledgehammer, and for a long time, we took turns pounding away. We had to take off the rescuers in order to hammer as hard as we could. This effort caused us to breathe much harder. We never heard a responsive blast or shot from the surface.

We eventually gave out and quit our attempts at signaling, sitting down behind the curtain on the mine floor, or on buckets or cans that some of us found. The air behind the curtain grew worse, so I tried to lie as low as possible and take shallow breaths. While methane does not have an odor like propane and is considered undetectable, I could tell that it was gassy. We all stayed together behind the curtain from that point on, except for one attempt by Junior Toler and Tom Anderson to find a way out. The heavy smoke and fumes caused them to quickly return. There was just so much gas.

We were worried and afraid, but we began to accept our fate. Junior Toler led us all in the Sinners Prayer. We prayed a little longer, then someone suggested that we each write letters to our loved ones. I wrote a letter to Anna and my children. When I finished writing, I put the letter in Jackie Weaver’s lunch box, where I hoped it would be found.

As time went on, I became very dizzy and lightheaded. Some drifted off into what appeared to be a deep sleep, and one person sitting near me collapsed and fell off his bucket, not moving. It was clear that there was nothing I could do to help him. The last person I remember speaking to was Jackie Weaver, who reassured me that if it was our time to go, then God’s will would be fulfilled. As my trapped co-workers lost consciousness one by one, the room grew still and I continued to sit and wait, unable to do much else. I have no idea how much time went by before I also passed out from the gas and smoke, awaiting rescue.

I cannot begin to express my sorrow for my lost friends and my sympathy for those they left behind. I cannot explain why I was spared while the others perished. I hope that my words will offer some solace to the miners’ families and friends who have endured what no one should ever have to endure.

April 26, 2006

Randal McCloy Jr.

TGIF

Woo Hoo, we have made it to the end of another week, and it's Friday!!!! I have a few minutes at work waiting on some data, so I thought I would take a few minutes out to BLOG. I hope everyone has had a good week.

* I may have a big decision to make here in the next few weeks. I plan on being out of town next Thursday night and Friday day. I'm not going to say anything over the internet as to any specifics, but I am shall we say testing my marketability.

* Speaking of Marketability. Rumors had it this week that WVU head basketball coach John Beilein was leaving WVU and heading to NC State. He never addresses any rumors, but he did manage to officially address this one stating that the rumors were erroneous. We still have the nations best basketball coach in Morgantown for all of those concerned.

* Our softball team finally has its schedule. :

Mon May 1 - 9pm - Whiston vs Suncrest Gym ( Formerly Shockers)
Mon May 8 - 9pm - Liberatore at Webworks ( formerly Kingdom Ent.)
Thu May 11 - 6pm - Ogden at Finish Line Motors
Mon May 15 - 6pm - Ogden vs March Westin
Sat May 20 - 7pm - Whiston at John Howard
Sun May 21 - 3pm - Whiston vs Panrell Construction (formerly WUPA)
Mon May 22 - 10pm - Liberatore at Sunnyside Superette
Thu Jun 1 - 10pm - Whiston vs DP Dough
Mon Jun 5 - 9pm - Whiston vs Advantage
Mon Jun 12 - 7pm - Liberatore at Progressive Industries
Thu Jun 15 - 7pm - Ogden at Kuntry Kreme Hillbillies ( Brian Judy's
team aka my OLD team)
Mon Jun 19 - 7pm - Whiston vs Nutty Cs
Mon Jun 26 - 8pm - Liberatore at Town Hill
Thu Jul 6 - 7pm - Ogden vs Frank's
Mon Jul 10 - 8pm - Liberatore vs Summers
Mon Jul 17 - 10pm - Whiston at Wendy's
Mon Jul 24 - 7pm - Whiston vs Chestnut Ridge Blue
Mon Jul 31 - 6pm - Ogden at Chippy's
Mon Aug 7 - 9pm - Whiston vs Colasante's
Thu Aug 10 - 9pm - Whiston at The Backdoor

Should be a very interesting year.

* The NFL Draft is this weekend. I may be able to ignore it most of the first day, being my team is the defending Super Bowl Champions and will pick last.

* Off the top of my head, I'm not sure what I have planned for this weekend. I think something is planned, but not real sure. I guess that comes with age or hair loss, one of the two.

* Moke will graduate May 27th of this year from Clay Battelle. Make a note on you calender to be there. Maybe I should have told Moke that Frank Skubis was my next door neighbor for years and he was actually my Gym teacher at Suncrest when he left to go to Clay Battelle.

* Amy will also be graduating from MTECH this year also. I believe this will be her third certification from MTECH that she will have completed.

* I officially no longer work for VARGIS, they have merged with our parent company Infotech. Thisn is the official statement:

VARGIS is now Infotech Enterprises America

Sterling, VA 04/21/2006: VARGIS LLC announced today that it is merging its operations with its corporate parent, Infotech Enterprises America, Inc. and will be known by that name beginning April 24th 2006. The complete VARGIS leadership and expert technical staff remain intact, and are now backed by the resources of 4,000 associates, including more than 2,200 geospatial professionals worldwide with expertise in data management, software development, conversion, migration and photogrammetry. Infotech is a recognized leader in geospatial and engineering solutions in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific markets.

Infotech’s geospatial business in North America has witnessed exceptional growth this past year based on major contracts with LA County, the State of New York, Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG), McGraw Hill, GE Energy, Rand McNally and other clients. The company continued its strong penetration within the utilities, government and transportation markets resulting in a 200% increase in new contracts for the fiscal year ended 3/31/06 and a year-on-year revenue growth of 76% for the same period.

Commenting on the company’s new identity and synergy with its parent organization, Greg Tilley, President – Geospatial Solutions Division, said, “The business, technical and execution strengths of the global Infotech Enterprises organization give us greater leverage to deliver expert geospatial solutions in North American markets. Our clients will benefit from the domain and technical expertise, sophisticated processes and global delivery model that have underpinned Infotech’s success with businesses and governments worldwide.”

* I hope everyone has had a good week and they have memorable plans for the weekend.

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.-- Demosthenes

Mountain Valley Paintball

As I have mentioned before, Prime Thyme Softball and WVAQ were scheduled to have a day of paintball battle. Today was that day, and thanks to the very generous hospitality of Mountain Valley Paintball, today was the day of the big showdown. First of all I would like to thank Sean Arthurs and his partners at Mountain Valley Paintball for being very generous hosts and allowing us to partake in their trail run of their park before it officially opens.

The day started out great, we met at Rich's Farms, and MVP bused us to the site of the Piantball fields. They walked us through the basics of Paintball and instructed us on paintball safety and how to play the game. They also informed us that they are now officially the home field for the West Virginia University Paintball team, which ironically is currently ranked #18 in the country out of 250 teams. We were given an exhibition by them and the owners of MVP later on in the day. See Video footage.

Once we were all informed on how the play and play safely, it was on to the battlefield for the Prime Thyme Softball team. We fought valiantly the first match and won, although I was the first one out. I ran behind a bunker and my hopper on my paintball gun opened up and I lost all my paintballs. Scrambling around trying to reload, and not paying attention the where my body was positioned, I got popped. And for good nature when I was walking off the field of play, I got popped a couple more times to ensure I was killed.

We battles heroically for six rounds, and at the end of six rounds the score was knotted at three a piece. The seventh match would be the all deciding rubber match and who could claim the title of paintball supremacy.

We fought hard and I took a couple WVAQ players out quick and early, but I fired about 6-700 rounds during that final battle and ran out of paintballs. I was a sitting duck. WVAQ managed to defeat us in the rubber match and were allowed to lay the claim of Paintball victors.

The Weeks Wrapup

Let's see, there has been a good bit of things happening this week that I need to talk about. As you can see by the picture, Terri has a new addition to her family. Last week someone gave her a Pot Bellied pig and she is keeping him as a pet. She wants to call him Billy, I suggested a more pig type name, one that can identify him like Bacon. She likes Billy though and I guess Bacons name is going to be Billy.

As you can see Bacon, er I mean Billy has taken a liking to Terri. We were talking that the way he follows her around that Bacon, I mean Billy, is really Tucker reincarnated. Bacon, I mean Billy does have a very demanding personality. Terri said Nick is really attached to him already and Terri feels like a new mother.

Let's see, what else is new. Terri and I went out to dinner again this evening, we went to Wings Ole. This is two Saturdays in a row she has had off, although I have a feeling this may be her last for a while, the bar was swamped this afternoon.

On my own personal side, a few new things. First of all the Company I work for is now Officially Merging with Infotech (our parent company) and as of monday we are adopting their name and laying to rest the VARGIS name.

I did get some good news this past week, I guess I'm going to be able to start working remotely in about another month or two. Instead of me driving to Frostburg every day, it was discussed and presented to me about the opportunity to work from home the majority of the time. It may be another month before all that is set up, I may need to get a new Computer and the ESRI licenses need to be renewed and convertd to a stand alone for me to do this.

I also hear from a couple other companies this past week. One had contacted me before and it's just a followup. Nothing serious, the other appears to be quite interested and I may have an interview set up in a couple weeks in Monroeville Pa.

I don't know how anything is going to turn out, but it's nice to be able to re-explore my options from time to time.

Let's see what other news I have come across. Moke graduates in May, and is also starting or did start to work at Taco Bell. Randy is workign for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Renee and Angela (Moke's girlfirend) have both been accepted into the surgical technician school.

I did get a brief chance to talk with Mom tonight and catch up on what's new with her. Would you believe she accused me of not Blogging? I can't let me readers down.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to do a Prime Thyme Softball vs WVAQ paintball warriors thing at Rich's farms. If I go I'll be sure to get some pics and fill everyone in on how it went.

A little Easter Fun

Easter Weekend

I hope that everyone has had a pretty decent Easter Weekend. Mine has been to say the lease relaxing and fun filled. Yesterday was WVU's annual gold blue game, this is the spring scrimmage for the football team, it's also the last time the football team will assemble until this fall.

My old room mate Greg used to play, and I know what the life of a college football player is like. These guys don't get a break from the time they get on campus a few weeks before everyone else until the spring game. Even after the last game is played, they are still expected to report for winter conditioning and that leads into spring football. After the spring game, the team no longer needs to officially report until the fall again.

Anyways, it was a great day, my guess was there was 15,000 plus fans in attendance. All of the proceeds from this game is donated to the West Virginia Childrens Hospital. Probably the best $5.00 you can spend a year. We look very good and this may be our best team ever once it's all said and done, that is until next year when we basically return everyone again.

After the game I decided to go and visit Terri. It had been some time since I had the opportunity to see her, so I was going to go to the bar, but she had taken the day off and was at home.

I stopped and visited for a while, and took her to Ryan's Steakhouse for her birthday which was last weekend. Jean introduced me to Ryan's last fall and I fell in love with the place, so I took Terri for a nice enjoyable dinner. It was a Steak and Shrimp night, so it was well worth the trip.

Today is Easter Sunday and my schedule has been altered a little because everyone is basically closed. I was smart enough to go grocery shopping last night though, so I was ahead of the game.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter.




For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

A cool interactive Desktop

A neat little interactive desktop that someone showed me today. Desktop Earth is pretty neat, it lights up according to what part of the world the sun is shining in and you can even get it to update a cloud cover for the world.

I'm such a geography geek.

Deal or No Deal

Deal or No Deal (online game) is probably the hottest new game on Television. Howie Mandel hosts the show that starts out with 26 suitcases, goes through a process of elimination, deals to quit and finally a final dollar amount.

This is a prime time NBC show that is starting to get a whole lot of attention lately, kinda like when Who wants to be a Millionaire first came out.

The Show's Official site.

Happy Birthday Terri

Today is my middle sister Terri's birthday. I do believe it's her 21st plus birthday, kind of like the ones that I like to have.

I am very fortunate to have a sister like Terri. She's a very special person in my and everyone elses life. She's always been a person with an open door and one to help someone in need without hesitation.

Happy Birthday Terri, I hope that all your dreams coem true on this day.

Car problems at the right time I guess

The last couple of days, I have been having some car problems. I took yesterday off and did some minor maintenance to the car, but to no avail. I then took the car the Cool Ride, Michael Toth's shop, to have it diagnosed. Turns out I have a bad Digital EGR valve. You could out your hand on it and it would cook an egg.

They are rather pricely, so we experimented with the idea of simply unplugging it and then running the car. The car ran much better, but the true test was this mornign when I had to top the mountainous regions at 5:00 in the morning.

My car didn't perform that well and I didn't feel safe on driving 70 miles in the early wee hours of the morning. I'm going to have to replace the valve today, and that's bottom line.

However, when I called into work at about the time I would have got there, I was informed that they were in a White Out. The picture is a picture of my office as I'm sure a few of you have seen previously.

Good time to have car problems, almost killed two birds with one stone.

Welcome back Amy

Wow, do you believe it. I have managed to add two Blogs in two days now. My niece Amy who previously published a Blog a couple years ago has decided to re-enter the world of Cyber Blogging and has started Amy's Blog.

She started one a couple years ago but quickly lost interest on Blogging. Hopefully she will keep it active and up to date. When you are a blogger, it's easy to forget that there are actually people out in the cyber world who manage to read your blog from time to time.

It's a great way as I'm sure all of you reading this knows to keep up with what is going on in the lives of some very special people. When we make that commitment to start a blog, we have to go in knowing that your Blog is only as good as you make it. If you're not active, people won't keep visiting to read the same post day after day and month after month.

You you keep an active Blog, you are taking a days thoughts, dreams or observations and capturing it in time for all to share. Every post doesn't have to be dramatic, it could be something simple like I spoke with .... today or I think I want to do this in the near future or simply I'm mad as hell because...

When you do this enough and make it a habit, you build a story, a small piece of history about your life of moments that could very well have been lost in time had it not been for a blog entry.

I've been blogging about a year and a half now. There are archives and stories of my thoughts. I've shared the joys in life, the hardships, the dreams or just the good times over the past eighteen or so months. Look back through my archives to a certain time period and see what was going on a year ago from today. (It was the day I started at VARGIS) or what happened on someone's birthday.

Blog's are a magical gift, they give you the ability to write a very important story. Maybe there most important story in your life because it's about your life. With a small amount of effort once a week or so, you can create a magical story about the time you spent on this earth for you or anyone else to read in the future.

Have a good day.



How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.-- Annie Dillard

New BLOG Added

I was chatting with my mentor in the world of GIS this morning and he told me he has been starting to do some web design and he is also doing an "ACTIVE" Blog. So, I decided to add it to my Sidebar and linked JB's BLOG to mine.

For those of you who don't know, JB is the man who took me under his wing and taught me a good bit of what I know about GIS. I consider myself very lucky to have learned it the way I did, and JB was one of the main reasons I am as good as I am at it today.

Ironically JB lives in Frostburg and used to commute to Morgantown everyday, a few months later the tables were turned and he left the NRAC to work here in Frostburg and I started driving to Frostburg on a daily basis.

Small world, we used to work a couple office down the hall, now we work about a half-mile down the road from each other.

Welcome to the world of Blogging JB.

Poker Night at the SanJulians's Part II

Last night Kim and Robert once again hosted Poker Night at The SanJulians. A group of eight players got together and played a game of Texas Hold'em. For the second time in a row, I finished in 3rd place. There is no money for third place, so there is no honor and there is no glory.

It was an enjoyable game, but even though there wee more players this time, the game seemed to go a little quicker and was pretty interesting. Kim showed me she is a seasoned Texas Hold Em player once again, but she finished in fourth place.

I started to get ready for the night by practicing on my favorite Texas Hold em site, PartyPoker.net. They had an upgrade to the system recently, so I upgraded the software and played a few tournaments to get ready for the nights festivities. I did win the last one that I played in, so I thought I was ready to win this tournament.

This is the final hand when the whole tournament was culminating and a winner was declared.



Thank you Kim and Robert for hosting a great night of entertainment, I'm already anticipating the next game, that I intend of winning.

An example of what I do

A co-worker of mine pointed this site out to me today, this is specifically data that we compiled and I assembled here at work.

Allegany County

Enjoy and hopefully it's educational for you.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Today is Tuesday, and I thought it would be a nice time to do a tidbits since I haven't done one in quite some time.

* Good news from work that will be directly affecting me, we won a vary large contract to Los Angeles County. We have already flown the area and started the processes, this was just the official press release. They are planning on intergrating the information to a web based application, so yours truly will have a lot of work lined up to oversee in the next couple of years. I already wrote what I think is a pretty time effective and fail safe methodology for another project, so if the Planametric data comes my way, and I have a feeling it will, I'll just re-write some of the specifics and some of the code and plug it into this project.

* We have our first official softball practice this evening at 6:00. I'm pretty excited about it, and I'm really anticipating hitting the field with everyone again. I'll take my camera and hopefully I'll get a shot or two.

* Speaking of bringing my camera, yesterday driving to work I saw what I thought as a fantastic photo opportunity. The sun rising in the east, I was going to call it "Dawn of a new day". I brought my camera to work with me this morning, unfortunately it wasn't as clear of a morning as it was yesterday and my timing was wrong. Time changes next week, so I'll have three more days to get the shot.

* Speaking of time changes, remember we set our clocks up an hour this weekend. It's spring foreword, so you'll lose an hour's sleep and it will be a shorter weekend.

* Kim Messaged me yesterday, she's going to try to have another Texas Hold 'Em tournament this weekend. Should be fun, I plan on winning the tournament this time though.

* Things are a little slow at work right now, but I should be bombarded in work as soon as one of our subcontractors makes a delivery.

* Hey, I've tried my hot air popcorn popper out a few times. This thing is great and I love it. I may just put home made ice cream on the agenda this summer.

* I found out from Kim yesterday what her big surprise is that she is getting. I'm not going to spoil it, so readers of her BLOG will just have to pay attention for updates.

* I haven't talked to Nick or Terri lately, so I guess I'll need to maybe stop by the bar one day later this week.

* Have a good day, I'm going to.


If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.- Anne Bradstreet

The Weekend

It's been a great weekend for me so far, even though my beloved WVU Mountaineers are not playing today with a chance to advance to the Final 4. Ironically we have played both teams who are already in the final four and we have played the two number one seeds that play today with a chance to go to the final four. So, there is a good chance that we will have played all four teams left in the NCAA Basketball tournament at one time or another during the regular season and have a 2-2 record against these four teams.
Last night we had our fantasy baseball draft. It's going to be a pure trophy league this year and the guys that are in my league are all members of my softball team with the exception one owner. It was a great time last night getting together with the guys I will be spending this summer with playing softball.

It's a continual process for us, Softball and then when that's over Mountaineer football starts, when that's over Mountaineer Basketball starts and when that is over we return to Softball. I had a blast playing with these guys last year, and I'm looking foreword to playing with them again this season.

We are going to have our first practice this Tuesday, so I'm a little excited about being about being able to hit the field again this season with these guys.

I did get a chance to talk to Chris and he informed me that we are picking up a new player this season who owns a paintball battle ground at Rich's Farms. He's toying with the idea of having a private day late in April where we are going to do a Prime Thyme Softball v WVAQ paintball battle. They are eying up like April 22 at Rich's Farms for the potential day and date. Chris (Hector) told Kevin last night that we will see where his loyalty lies, however Chris is also on the morning show and might be setting us up. We'll have to wait and see.

I was really happy with how my draft ended up. I'm traditionally the guy who comes in last place. Remember that these guys are all in radio and television or have worked for a team, so I'm usually in trouble every year. I feel confident this year though that the Morgantown Fantasy Baseball trophy (you can see the football trophy in one of the pics) will be residing at my place come October.

I did buy myself a nice little toy this morning. I was in the mood for some popcorn and was with all the Micro-Wave popcorn. I noticed a jar of Orville Redenbacher sitting there. It's been a really long time since I would have "Real Popcorn" at home. Seems like we always go for convenience and get the microwave stuff. It never seems to pop right, gets burnt or is dried out too much. So, I went and bought a hot air popcorn popper.

I don't think I have had real home made popcorn in over a decade or better. You know the kind, where you Melt the butter and pour it over top a big bowl of freshly popped pop corn. Well worth the minimal investment (I think I paid $16.00 for the popper), other than movie theatre, this is the best popcorn I've had in years.

Maybe this summer I will venture into making Home Made Ice Cream.

It's amazing how we forget the simpler and finer things in life.

Hope you've had a great weekend.

My Little Home in West Virginia

This is an old movie file that I did a couple years ago, but just never published. I came across it this morning on my computer and had forgotten all about it.

The Music is a song my grandfather recorded for RCA Victor in either the late 40's or early 50's called My Little Home in West Virginia. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Amy

Today is my Neice Amy's birthday. It has been a true joy watching her grown up and develop into the very lovely young lady that she is today. She is a very loving individual who loves to be in the presence of kids, and from about every observation I have ever made, she is a kid magnet. Young Children just seem to adore her.














Happy Birthday Amy




"We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth." -- Mary Antin, 1912

It's Been a good weekend so far.

I will say that it has been a fairly decent weekend for me so far. It started Friday and my 68 mile drive home from work when WVU beat Southern Illinois 64-46 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. We play Northwestern State this afternoon in the second round. The winner will advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Basketball tournament in Atlanta. I will say it has been a pleasure to watch these seniors play the past four seasons.

Saturday was a decent day, I went to Jean's and took a few pictures of her for her new pet, an African Grey named Gussy. Gussy is pictured with Bunkey, Jean's toy poodle that she also has. Gussy has an already very large vocabulary and just being around her is very entertaining. She states her previous owners address and telephone number for sta
rters. Jean told me a little story that she usually gets up by 5:00 and decided to sleep in one morning. A little after 5:00 Bunky was barking so Jean got out of bed, as soon as she got out she looked down and there was Gussy walking into her bedroom. Gussy looks up at her and states....."What's Your Problem?" I have a funny feeling Gussy will touch a few peoples lives over the years.

I did have a nice little pleasant surprise yesterday in a phone call from my best friend throughout college Ginger. Her and Tony were in town yesterday morning, and will be returning in a couple months. Hopefully the next time they come back into town we can all go out to dinner or something. She did however tell me that they bought a new house and will have DSL at their new house. I'm really lloking foreward to being back in contact with her with MSN again. If you find a friend like this once in your lifetime, you are pretty lucky.

I'm not sure what the rest of my weekend holds in store other than my typical day, but if it's anything like the first part of the weekend it's going to be a good day.


"Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."--George Washington

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone is wearing a touch of green today, because it is St. Patricks Day. Watch me be the one that screws around and forgets to wear it when I get ready for work in a few minutes.

Today is also the day of of an attempt at a record breaking Guinness Toast. BRILLIANT!




Here is wishing everyone a Happy, Safe, and Green FRIDAY and St. Patricks Day.

The snow this morning

Was nothing short of a figment of everyone's imagination. There was NOT any snow on the road this morning when I was driving to Frostburg and there was NOT snow falling from the sky. It was just a very bad dream, summer is right around the corner and it's been six weeks since that rat saw his shadow in Punxsutawney. Please resume with your normal summertime plans.

We are two days away from St. Patricks's day and less than a week away from the Vernal Equinox, so that means we can't have any more snow. It's the start of Spring and leading into summer, and everyone knows it doesn't snow during the summer. Sheesh.

Ok, everyone think warm thoughts. Think about being on the lake or walking outside in warm weather and shorts. Think about cookouts and summer Holidays, and let's not forget that Christmas is three months behind us, the Super Bowl was played a month and a half ago and NASCAR is in full motion.

It's softball weather, not snowball weather. Think warm thoughts.

Tragic News

By ERIN CARLSON
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion.

Hayes, who has played the ladies' man/school cook in the animated Comedy Central satire since 1997, said in a statement Monday that he feels a line has been crossed.

"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said.

"Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored," he continued. "As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

"South Park" co-creator Matt Stone responded sharply in an interview with The Associated Press Monday, saying, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem -- and he's cashed plenty of checks -- with our show making fun of Christians."

Last November, "South Park" targeted the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, in a top-rated episode called "Trapped in the Closet." In the episode, Stan, one of the show's four mischievous fourth graders, is hailed as a reluctant savior by Scientology leaders, while a cartoon Cruise locks himself in a closet and won't come out.

Stone told The AP he and co-creator Trey Parker "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."




NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Is this the end for the envelope pushing cartoon?

Winter is unofficially over

Winter has to unofficially be over with. It's been in the 70's or planning on being in the 70's the entire weekend and into early next week.

I secured my Jimmy Buffett ticket for his Pittsburgh Concert this summer, I spent the day walking around in shorts, t-shirt and sandals and there was actually a co-ed softball tournament this weekend at Boparc.

Softball, shorts, Sandals, Buffett. Yep, I would have to say that better weather days are just around the corner. Day's when girls will start walking around in shorts and tank tops, and when we can finally put the winter jacket up for the season.

Even in Frostburg you can notice all the birds starting to migrate back to the area. Mother Nature could be playing a nasty trick on me, but I don't think that she is this time. I think Spring is starting to roll in a little early.

Temps going up, days are starting to get noticeably longer and noticing people wearing shorts.

I will have to say that with the exception of this past October when Mother Nature threw us a strange and heavy early storm that this did turn out to be a fairly mild winter. I hit a couple days when traveling in the early morning was pretty treacherous, but those days were pretty much few and far between.

Hopefully this will be a great summer.

Got My Ticket!!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!






EDIT:


Just checked again 45 minutes after they went on sale....SOLD OUT!!!

T - 30 Minutes

Jimmy Buffett tickets go on sale in 30, no make that 28 minutes. Got my fingers crossed on this one, they are hard to get.

Would you say these people are having a good time?

WOW

I just got what I would consider the ultimate professional compliment. As everyone know's I am a Geographer and my specialty is in a field called GIS. What GIS is is basically manipulatable computer maps, with a huge database on the back end. I have been working in the GIS field for five years now. I'm the lead GIS guy for my company that ironically has GIS in it's name. Part of the reason possibly I was named Employee of the Year for 2005.

In every field, especially in computers and software there are companies that are leaders in the industry. Obviously if you think computers, you think Microsoft. They basically revolutionized the computer operating system and and could honestly be considered the leaders of computer operating systems. I'm sure there are those who will disagree with me, but for the most part it's Microsoft.

In the Field of GIS, the innovators of the discipline is a company called ESRI. They manufacture and developed the software, those produce all kinds of data for anyone to use and they the support, the lifeblood and the very breath of GIS. They are it's heartbeat.

I got an e-mail today from ESRI expressing interest in me to be an ESRI instructor Tysons Corner, Virginia. The ironic part, this is them contacting me and not the other way around. They are inquiring about what it would take for me to relocate.

Talk about the ultimate professional compliment.

New Blog Added

I just updated my Blogger page, I had to add Kim's Yahoo 360 page because this is the one she is primarily using at the moment. I did have the honor of adding a new Blog, my niece Brittany Dae has decided to enter the world of Blogging. It will be nice to be able to keep up with her and what she has been up to. I know that currently she is in town for Spring Break. She attends Linsley Prep in Wheeling and is in her Freshman year there.

Jimmy Buffett concert announced

yes, it's that magical time of the year again when local parrot heads scramble to get tickets to see Jimmy Buffett in concert at their local venue.

Last year was my first time at going to a Buffett concert at PNC Park, and I will say it was one of the best concerts that I had ever attended. I went with Mark and Denise DeVault and had a blast in the 90+ degree day in downtown Pittsburgh that was simucast.

If anyone gets a chance, they shoudl make every attempt possible in going to see this once in a lifetime type of show.

Goodbye Mike, we'll miss you

Today, VARGIS lost our facilities manager. As I said earlier this was Mike's last day, as I am writing this he is on transit back home to San Antonio, Texas where he sent his wife and daughters a few weeks ago. All the corporate personel showed up including Ram from India, he is the #2 man at our parent company InfoTech. Our President and Production Manager showed up from the VARGIS corporate office to square a few things away.

Texas was home to Mike and his family, even though he was a transplanted New Yorker, he says he is a Texan and I have a place to stay if I ever want to visit San Antonio. Mike we wish you well in your new ventures.

Our company President told us that we are going to have a company name change in the next few months to be similar with out parent company InfoTech. Damn, I even broke out the VARGIS shirt today too.

No real changes at our facility other than the name on the door, we have some pretty large contracts that we have won, so if anything the place will be getting bigger. There are still a few growing pains as a company, but I think that this is going to be a solid company for years to come, whether I am there or not.

Other than that, it's been a pretty nice day.