Hobos Landing

Steve Eley, host of The Escape Pod and Podholes podcast has a list of Eley’s Laws of Twitter for people who use twitter.? I think they are all applicable, but I’m sure I have broken at least half of them,? especially

“2.? It’s not a bounded conversation. You don’t need to say “Good morning” and “Goodbye” every time. No one’s keeping track. “

I always say “Good Morning Twitterverse” or “Goodnight Twitterville.”? Oh well, I guess I should give this up so I don’t break the law.

Speaking of Steve Eley, Podholes, with Steve and Michael R. Mennenga was one of my favorite podcasts and it hasn’t been on in a while.? I miss it. ? Bring it back, guys!!

Now I’m not a huge sports fan.? I follow the Spurs, of course.? I enjoy some NFL football during the fall and the occasional college game.? I really enjoy a great boxing match on occasion, but that’s pretty much it as far as main stream sports.? I am a huge fan of Mixed Martial Arts, but I don’t think that counts as a main stream sport just yet (but it should be!)

One mainstream sport I am really not a fan of is baseball.?? Not that I have anything bad to say about it, but it doesn’t hold my interest very long and I definitely don’t keep up with it at all.? So imagine my surprise today when I was listening to NPR and heard a baseball story (that had nothing to do with steroids) that interested me.? Apparently Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is about to hit his 500th career home run…or…maybe he already has…they can’t tell.? My first thought, being a software developer, was ‘computer glitch.’? But this isn’t the case.? He hit what should be his 499th home run in a game Wednesday.? But it may be his 500th.? Apparently he played in a game that was postponed because of rain back in late June.? This missing innings will be made up on Friday.? If he gets a hit, then it’s credited to the game back in June so his 499th hit on Wed is actually his 500th, but if he doesn’t then Wed is his 499th and he has to get another.

This is exactly how a software guy would have approached this problem.? ‘But the hit is not part of data from Friday because Friday actually equals June data so the hit must be deposited into that same data. Even though the Friday data event’s timestamp truly reads Friday, we have to adjust it in the data to read late June because that’s what it’s representing then we need to modify all the count tags on all data subsequent to late June to account for Fridays data that must be re-stamped.? Now should we add a field that would show actual time stamp – vs – credited time stamp?? To the white board, foks!’

This is garbage night, the night I take the garbage to the end of the driveway for the nice garbage men (whose company charges WWAAAYY too much) to pick up.? It’s been raining on and off for several days and I, being the genius (errr…super-genius) that I am, had place the cans in just a position that the rain running off the roof ran into the cans.? Of course I realized this when it was time to drive them up to the road.? (Yes folks, I drive the garbage.? Out here, it’s farther than you think.)

So what do you do when you have a can full of garbage and water?? That’s right!? It’s so obvious!? You tip it just enough that the water all comes out, but the garbage stays in the can.? This can’t be too hard, can it?? I carefully tip the can to let the water slowly run off.? Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems with my plan.

1. Water makes the can very heavy and hard to maneuver.
2. This particular can is the one that had the garbage that the animals got into and now has garbage in it with no bag.

The stage is set.? One idiot and a can full of garbage and water.? So I follow the aforementioned plan and carefully tip the can just a little.? A little becomes a lot very quickly and water soaked garbage flows out on to the ground.? I must say that one of the few things that smells worse than 5 day old garbage, it’s 5 day old garbage that has been soaking in water.? I take that back.? The only thing that smells worse is when you have to pick it all back up for the second time. ??:roll:

I had the hiccups on and off all day yesterday. I finally got a slight break and got to sleep. I woke up this morning and the first thing out of my mouth? HICCUP!! So, send me your best hiccup cures. Just use the ‘Contact Me’ link in the heading. Since I am going to post the one that works, please tell me if you would or wouldn’t like your name included.

A Black Tooth Grin
(The drink choice of Pantera)

3/4 Crown Royal
3/4 Seagram 7
2 splashes of Cola

I just finished watching Michael Verdi’s latest Lumiere style video.? He filmed it out the window while approaching Phoenix.? The clouds and sky are gorgeous, but since I HATE to fly, I had to white knuckle my chair while I was watching!

Yesterday, I attended the monthly meetup of SA Podcasters. This one was pretty mellow, but we had a lot of fun. It was also my daughter, Taylors first meet up. Is there a little podcaster in the making? Not sure yet, but she was able to get a lot of information on one of her favorite things in the world, anime and manga. She also got a bit of great life advice from some people who really know. Just hope she heard it.

The meet-up took place at the Flying Saucer.

I had been there once before when my friends Damon and Tim played a gig there. If you love beer, it’s a great place. They had more different kinds of beer here than I even knew existed. Beer is what makes this place go ’round. But why such an emphasis on beer? The answer was right over the door.

When my daughter read this, she turned several shades of red and remarked “yuk!” I was so proud! =)

Anyway, most of the meeting was spent hearing peoples summer podcasting plans. Personally, my summer podcasting plan was to come off of hiatus and actually have a podcast. I think this event has inspired me to do just that. Although now I have to come up with something to talk about.

Now it’s not a meetup if we aren’t trying to fix something for someone. This month, Jennifer had an odd phenomena occurring on her blog page. The sidebar didn’t start until the main entries stopped so she had kind of an unwanted tiering effect. A drink, a lap top and a wifi connection and we were off to the races.

Several people took shots at it but couldn’t track it down. It was quite elusive. We all had theories, but none seemed to pan out. Our fearless co-leader from The Spurscast, Michael DeLeon wasn’t able to be there in person (Get well soon, Mike! We miss ya!), but had an idea of a misplaced <div> tag which sounds very possible. I’m anxious to hear if that was it. If not, she was going to redesign the site anyway, so if something has to break, this is probably a good time.

Well, I think I hear the train firing up so I better go be a good little hobo and hop the boxcar. See y’all on the return trip!

My podcast buds Jackie and Jennifer over at the Morning Brewcast tagged with a little game. It’s called ’8 things you might not know about me’ so here goes:

1. I have traced my family tree to the early 1400′s in England
2. My dining room table is 12 feet long with both leaves in. It was hand made by my grandfather in the 1920′s when he and my grandmother owned a logging camp. It needs to be refinished now, but it is still gorgeous…and again….HUGE!!!!
3. My grandparents once dined with Al Capone.
4. I am related to President John Quincy Adams but not President John Adams
5. I can’t sleep with out air circulating over me, so I have a fan on me even in the dead of winter.
6. I was a karate instructor in Montana and again in Louisiana
7. I often wish I had the talent to make a living as a writer
8. My first “real” job was as a printer.? This was old school…before computer layout.?? We did layout with scissors, a t-square and a wax machine.? Then ‘burned a plate’ to do the actual printing.? The one thing I really didn’t like printing was funeral programs.? They were quick and easy, but depressing.