Poker Night at the SanJulians Part 4

Well, tonight was the fourth Installment of Poker Night at the SanJulians. I went into the game with much confidence, I told everyone I had purchased my shirt from a Tibetan Monk and that it was hand woven by the dahlia Lama himself. He didn't bring me much luck, because out of ten players, I tied for eighth place. Kirby won his second of the three tournaments that I have been to. My game turned when I forced Ron to go all in and I had three kings with an Ace kicker. He had a Full House and that put me into a corner I couldn't play my way out of.

It was a great evening and I want to thank Robert and Kim for being such great hosts. I'm ready for Poker Night at the SanJulians part 6 and already have my seat reserved.

A few Random pictures and a video of the final hand, enjoy.

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Talk about a nscary looking picture. Actually this is JB, the man who taught me GIS at the NRAC while I was in college and beyond. He left a few months before I did to work in Frostburg, MD where I guess my office is officially at, even though it's my kitchen table now. he left to work for the Appalachian Lab and I work for Infotech (formerly known as VARGIS).

He has been wanting to establish his own domain name and has asked me about mine a few times. He now has JBChurchill.com and WesternMdBirding.com also. He is probably the foremost expert that I have ever met on birding.

He has been very influential to my in my career, he also went to school later in life, but earlier than me. I'm 9 days older than him, we both are GIS people, we both have worked at the NRAC and in Frostburg and we both drive Chevy Cavaliers, although his is new. I'm glad to see he has his own domain, he's also a pretty good programmer, so his site might get interesting.

How about a little humor

Hey everyone, since it's Friday, I thought I would just post some entertaining links.

Brittany Spears

Mythbusters Tree Canon

Fat Kid on a Diving Board

Octopus vs Shark


Border Patrol Game

Larry the Cable guy before he pretended to be a redneck. Redneck wearing Khaki's?


Have a good weekend

One to go!!!

It's Thursday and we are peeking at the weekend again. Four days down and one to go. I will have to say that I have been quite busy this week at work and this week has basically flown by as if it hadn't happened. It still feels like it's monday morning, I guess that's better than it being Thursday and it feeling like monday.

Let's see, what is up for the weekend coming up. First of all BOPARC will be playing another in their series of free movies Friday Night. Zathura: A Space Adventure will be playing this Friday night for anyone who may be interrested in some free family entertainment.

Gary and Renee will be camping this weekend at Chestnut Ridge Park. Gary has invited me to come up, so I'll try to make an appearance at least once this weekend.

I am going to go and win a Texas Hold 'em tournament this Saturday Night. Kim and Robert are once again holding a little tournament and I'm going to go and beat everyone and take their money. I've played in two of their tournaments, and have made it publically known by showing everyone that I don't bluff. I make the point known on every hand that they think I am bluffing that I don't bluff. I guess big question is am I honest or am I setting everyone up to win some money. We'll have to wait and see.

It should be a good weekend, the weather report is calling for heavy thunderstorms tomorrow and a thundershower saturday, so we shall see how the weekend goes and how everything ends up.

A little entertainment for you

Sometimes you don't have much to say, but you still want to keep the BLOG fresh and interesting to give people a reason to keep coming back. Today is one of those days, so just enjoy:




How about an encore

Happy Birthday to my Home

West Virginia is 143 years Old Today

Happy Birthday Erica jean Nicholson

Today is Erica's birthday, but Val and Bobby had a nice little party for her yesterday because it was the weekend. It was just like last year and very, very hot.


Just a few random pictures












I did manage to get a few pictures of Gary's foot and his stitches from where he got his foot caught underneath of the lawn mower. If you want to see that picture though, you need to look HERE

Happy Fathers Day

Pretty Amazing

This makes you think. He can drive 100 miles on 4 oz's of HHO, that is 25 miles per ounce. There are 128 oz's in a gallon, so if you multiply 25 miles times the 128 oz's in a gallon that is 3,200 miles per gallon on the HHO fuel aka WATER.

Woo Hoo It's Friday!!!!

Once again we have made it through another work week and are approaching yet another weekend. It's time to celebrate and have a good time. The weather is nice and it looks as if it is going to be a nice weekend weather wise also.

* Sunday is Fathers Day.

* Sunday is also Erica Jean's 2nd birthday party. The party is going to be at Val's at 2:00 and it'll be nice to see everyone in the same place again. Monday is actually her birthday, but the party will be Sunday.

* Looking at the Morgantown weather report for this weekend, it looks like it is going to be 90 degrees and sunny both days. Have I ever mentioned I hate snow?

* BOPARC finally announced it's Rain Out Schedule. It looks like both of our rainouts are scheduled for Saturday July 29th. It's nice that they have finally put the entire schedule up for everyone to see on the internet.

* Tonight BOPARC once again does it's free movie at the Hazel Ruby McQuain amphitheater and they will show the Disney movie Madagascar. It's free admission, just bring yourself a lawn chair, blanket or sit on the bleachers and bring your favorite snack and enjoy a free movie outside by the river.

* Saturday the Hillbilly Gypsies will be performing at Chestnut Ridge Park. There is a small fee of $5.00 for a general admission seat. Bring your own lawnchair.



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

And the winning streak continues

Tonight we played against my old team and managed to extend our current winning streak to seven games and run our current record to 8-1 on the season. It was nice to see quite a few former team mates that no longer play but have an association to both teams show up for the contest. We were a little of our pace in run production only scoring 14, but we still played a solid game all around and manged to pull out the win.

After the game, most of the team went out and ate dinner on the deck at Prime Thyme, our sponser. It was a great time to be had by all and as usual it was nice to be around this group of guys.

A little heads up for anyone who is interested. Mon Valley paintball is running a special for the 4th of July weekend if anyone is interested in the thrill of paintball. Either day Saturday or Sunday, play all day for $4.00 and this includes your rental equipment and free air. You will have to buy your own paintballs on site, but if you get enough people to pitch in and buy cases it lowers the cost significantly. A few team mates went out a few weeks ago and between four people went through two cases of paintballs (that's 4,000) throughout the entire day. I've played a lot of sports in my life, but I have never played anythign this intense.

When it rains it pours

Talk about a strange year. Earlier this year I decided to remarket myself just to see what my marketability would be on the open market. To make a long story short, I turned down an offer from a Company in Pittsburgh last week. I've been contacted this year about jobs in Tyson's Corner Virginia, New Hampshire, Charlotte NC, Pittsburgh and now add Raleigh, North Carolina to the list.

I just got off the phone with a company in Raleigh, NC about an Analysts job down their. To end any and all speculation I told them thank you but no thank you. I'm quite happy with the company I am working for now and the quality of life that I am now enjoying being able to work from home.

It's nice to know that I have very good marketability now. Something I did not have either time I was working in a Steel Mill that was shutting down or relocating.

I think it's another Rails to Trails day for me.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.--John Lennon

Some technical stuff

Every once in a while, I guess I should do a little bit of a geeky post to help keep informed on what's new in the world of computers and maybe a few suggestions for everyone to try.

I think my first piece of advice that I could give to anyone is choosing a browser that it the most trouble free and least likely to get tou into any trouble. For any of you who I have not set up your internet account and you are still using Internet Explorer as your browser, I would suggest possibly getting away from browsing using IE and start using Firefox to surf the net with.

Firefox is an open source browser and you can pretty much customize it any way you want with different themes and extensions to fit your surfing needs. I personally use a couple extensions, one is forcastfox and that is a customizable weather station built into your browser.

Another extension that I tried today and actually like is Customize Google. As many of you already know, Google is arguably the best search engine out there on the net. They are at the forefront of internet technology with many of their innovations.

I was talking to Kim, the Queen of the Podcasts yesterday and she told me about a site that I bookmarked and really liked. It's a real estate search engine that ties in with google maps called Zillow that is pretty nice. It is something kind of similar to some things I have seen with some Assessors offices using ArcIMS (Web based GIS), but not to that extreme.

Some more technical stuff for some of you if you either don't have Microsoft Office, don't want to shell out $500 for a full copy of it or don't know anyone who has hacked it (looking away innocently) but would like a software that is just as, if not more powerful. I would suggest Open Office. Like Firefox and most non-microsift related products, it's an open source program (means they publically publish the source code unlike Microsoft) and is free to download and use. Of course if you need a full blown copy of office, I know a guy who has a Website that may help hook you up with a copy.



Let me leave this post with a little humor:


The Procrastinator's Creed:

1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already.

2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses.

3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration.

4. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them.

5. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations.

6. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

7. I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitesmally small, is not exactly zero.

8. If at first I don't succeed, there is always next year.

9. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.

10. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it.

11. I obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task.

12. I know that the work cycle is not plan/start/finish, but is wait/plan/plan.

13. I will never put off until tomorrow, what I can forget about forever.

14. I will become a member of the ancient Order of Two-Headed Turtles (the Procrastinator's Society) if they ever get it organized. --Author Unknown

Softball team does it again.

I'm going to have to get some more team pictures, these ones are getting old. Anyways, we entered tonights game with a 6-1 record and a five game winning streak in Boparc softball. We have managed to mercy rule a few teams in a row and have a bit of confidence going for us right now. Tonight's game started slow in the first few innings, but we caught fire late in the game and won 20-7. This extends our winning streak to six games and runs us to 7-1 on the season. I have missed one game this year and it is the one game we lost.

Thursday is going to be interesting because we are playing against not only mine, but three other team members former team. We play the Kountry Kreme Hillillies thursday night at 7:00. That is the old remaning remnance of the Walnut Lane-Recourse-Judies Lounge-Sports Page softball teams that I used to play for for years, so it will be interesting for me to finally get a chance to hit against a pitcher I worked with for about 15 years. Thursday Night at 7:00 if anyone is interested.

I played pretty decent tonight going 2 for 2 and making a hustling catch on a popup. As a team we are playing pretty decent and aren't making too many if any mental errors.

After the game a group of us went up to Prime Thyme, our sponser, for dinner and a few drinks. I love this time of the year and I am on a team that everyone gets along with one another. It's almost as if it were an extended family.

It was also nice to see Mark Devault's mom and dad make the game, they have always been very supportive of our team and it is a pleasure when they, and actually all of our dedicated fans come out and support this team.

Been a while

Wow, I just realized it has been nearly an entire week since I last did a BLOG post. To my standards that is not really acceptable and I need to get my butt in gear and make a worthwhile post for everyone to read.

Let's see where to start. We ended up not going to the Jimmy Buffett concert this week, Mark couldn't make it and it just wouldn't have been much of a tailgate if I were the only one there. It would have also been very hard to unload tickets for a Tuesday Night Concert on Monday. I heard it was a heck of a concert, but we'll try to do it again next year, maybe with a little more success.

We had another good week of playing softball, I ended the game with a walkoff double to secure a very good hard fought victory. The bat felt light to me that night, but then again I always seem to come up with a big stick when it's cold and raining for some strange but odd reason. I can't complain as we are currently 6-1 and have two games coming up this week including one Thursday against my old team. I'm looking foreword to that one. Hopefully the weather will be a little more cooperative with us than it has been in the past couple weeks, but then again I play well in bad weather for some reason.

As everyone can tell, I spent a few hours on the Rails to trails in the past few weeks. Ever since I started working at home I have had more time to actually spend on the trails and enjoying myself. I can't think of anything more relaxing than real nice weather and having my iPod loaded with my music and enjoying the fresh air on rails to trails. It is by far one of the most aesthetically relaxing things that is part of my schedule. It's because of the inability to do these types of activities that I hate the snow so much and enjoy the warm weather seasons. It helps you clear your mind out, get healthy and put some good clean oxygen into your system.

Ok, what is coming up for the following week:


* Saturday June 17th, The Hillbilly Gypsies, a band that is part of the band that plays at Nick and Terri's every Thursday Night, is playing at Chestnut Ridge Park. A small sample of their Music

Start looking at about 9-5-05 and beyond

* Sunday June 18th is Father's Day

* Monday June 19th is Erica Jean Nicholson's second birthday.

***UPDATE***

Erica's Birthday party will be next Sunday the 18th at 2:00 at Val and Bobby's house. (Thanks for the update Val)


Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.--Carolyn Wells

Happy Birthday Gary

A very happy birthday with to my younger brother Gary. everyone needs to make sure that they give him a call today, his cell phone number is 276-0236, and wish him a very Happy Birthday today. I do have to say that I could not ask for a better brother than what Gary is and he is definately a one of a kind brother.

Happy Birthday Nute



The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.--Thomas Jefferson

Tidbits and whats coming up.

* First off, tomorrow is Gary's birthday. Gary was born June 5th and this will be a little reminder to everyone that tomorrow is his birthday.

* Tuesday, June 6th it will be off to my second Jimmy Buffet concert. I went last year and had a great time at PNC Park. This year the concert is back in Burgettstown and at the Post-Gazette pavilion. If it is half as much fun as last year, it will be well worth it. We are planning on going up early and tailgating most of the afternoon. I should be able to provide a picture or two from the days festivities.

* This coming Thursday I will be in my office in Frostburg. We're trying to iron out the process of a rather large project. We are trying to deliver it in the quickest, most efficient and uniform manner without corrupting any of the data during the process.

* Our softball team is off to another great start this season. We have managed to pull out victories in our last four games and have ran our current record to 5-1. There are two teams in our league that are still undefeated. One of which is our one loss and the other is a team we were scheduled to play and we had a rainout. We scrimmaged them earlier in the year and handled them quite easily that day, but we'll see how it goes when it actually counts.

* I was planning on working part of today and take off part of Tuesday for the concert, but the IT guys have the network all tied up right now. Probably the main reason why I am blogging rather than testing a few scripts.

* School is now officially out for the summer for all of the kids. If you know a kid that just completed the year, give them a pat on the back and encourage them.


* The weather isn't very good today, it's not really that warm and it's not really that cold. If the IT guys don't hurry up it's going to be a good day to visit rails to trails. They have been doing some construction this summer on one of the main parts of the trail as you can see by this picture. The detours not that bad and walks you through the streets of the Wharf District.

* For those of you not being able to make it to the Jimmy Buffett Concert this Tuesday, there will be a Jimmy Buffett tribute band playing later this week.

* For you bread lovers, and unfortunately I am one of them, Daily Kneads has their website back up and running.


Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.--Buddha

A night at the ballpark

A fun little night at the softball field tonight. I went out a little early, we were scheduled to start at 10:00, but I went out a couple hours early. I saw my old team and decided to stop in and say hello. Seems like one of our old teamm ates, Josh Judy who started playing outfield for us is being looked at heavily by the Seattle Mariners in this June's draft. I blogged about Josh a couple years ago when he signed with Indiana Tech. I guess if this happens I will have to become a Mariners fan.

Our softball team hit the field at 10:00, there were a few mild sprinkles, but by the time the game was over, it was a full thunderstorm. We managed to win 16-4 in the swamp and ran our current record to 5-1 on the season.

I did get a chance to run into an old NRAC co-worker at the game. Kelly Street was there and keeping the books for our opponent DP Dough. It was nice to catch up with her, we will eb adding each other to our instant messengers tomorrow.

Uh Oh again

That magical word has presented itself at work. They must really want to see me in Hyderabad, because I was asked again today of I would like to visit India.

I said maybe in January when it's snowing here and it's cooled down to 80 degrees there. Have I ever mentioned that I hate snow? It would be a nice little cultural vacation for me if this ever happens. I've got a friend or two over there that will make sure I wont get bored if I go.

I have a funny feeling that before I retire or leave Infotech, I will be making the 26 hour journey to the other side of this rock. I'll have to get a bigger memory stick for my camera.

A day back in Frostburg

For the first time since I started working remotely two weeks ago, I returned to my Frostburg Office today to work. I had to be there to go over the specs of a new phase of a project we have been working on.

It was great to see everyone again, however it was like 96 degrees today and I think it was a little warmer in the office. Even our personel from India thought it was a little too warm for comfort.

I'll be working remotely from home the rest of the week. It was nice however to visit the people in the office for a day.

Some Highlights of Mokes graduation

His official walk.

Graduation Day for Moke

This morning at 10:00 at the WVU Coliseum George Ellis McClain will officially finish his pre-college education and graduate from Clay Battelle High School.

The last few years he has became very focused and motivated and has really started to excell academically and has a solid gameplan for the completion of his education. he will be entering Fairmont State University this fall where he has already been admitted. He is wanting to study engineering, but my advice would be to go find out all the possibilities of a major before you commit.

He's also come up with a solid gameplan to have his education paid for. He will also be joining the National Guard and they will be payign for his education, he will just need to make a commmitment to them for a few years post college graduation.

I, as well as everyone else is very proud of him. He has a dream, a gameplan to accomplish that dream and the willpower and motivation to accept any challenge that is placed in front of him to achieve his dream.

With his focus, dedication and the morals that Pam and George have bestowed upon him, he's got all the ingrediants for success.

Congrats Moke, we are all very proud of you


The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.--Bill Beattie

Family Night Under the Stars

For those of you looking for cheap or free entertainment tonight in Morgantown, BOPARC offers something every Friday Night at the Ruby McQuain Ampitheatre called Family Night Under the Stars.

Tonight is the first night of a summer long series of movies that includes the following schedule:


May 26- Chicken Little
June 2- The Legend of Zorro
June 16-Madagascar
June 23-Zathura
July 7- March of the Penguins
July 21-Harry Potter
August 11- Dreamer


The movies are free and open to the public, might even give you that old time family drive in movie feel.

Showtime is 8:30

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.