• “I’m not that interested in fashion… When someone says that lime-green is the new black for this season, you just want to tell them to get a life.” Bruce Oldfield

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Well, I went ahead and did it.

    My artistic side is getting a chance to roam for a while. I had no less than six conversations about my hair today.

    I love it up here – people make conversation with me rather than gawk. (Some gawk too) One lady asked me what band I was in, and I said, “I’m not in a band right now, I teach guitar”. Her (probably 4 year old) son plays drums – I told him to keep at it, that there is something in the water in Texas and EVERYBODY plays guitar.

    Lots and lots and lots and lots of people just walk right up to me: “You have GREEN HAIR!!”

    Me: “You are soooo correct!”

    *laugh*

    One thing I forgot about our trip to Galveston, when I was driving the seawall, I was nearly a third car in a three car collision – my four wheel discs stopped in time, and the first car (that was rear-ended) pulled away and drove off! My zippy little car caught up to them so that we could get their license plate, and we turned around and gave it to car #2. Good deed for the day.


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  • “Babies don’t need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I’ll go over to them and say, ‘What are you doing here, you’ve never worked a day in your life!’.” Stephen Wright

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I’ve been a pretty busy dude.

    Obviously.

    Friday was my last day at work (have already covered that).

    Didn’t really feel like doing anything, but drove out to Houston on Saturday. Monica and I stopped at Mai’s for food – and picked up some for Tam and Chelsea. My daughter ate steak at the Hilton – where I managed to get them a room for the night after the Green Day concert. I think I tried to eat fish the entire weekend. Went to the show –

    which was obviously cool. They blew ticker tape all over the place – it had skulls on it. I think I just washed the few pieces I had. Or I dropped them – I don’t remember. my kid got some, which is really what matters. I got Terry a Green Day sticker (per request) and got a shirt for the kiddo. She loved it.

    Drove to Galveston on Sunday – had a lot of fun. We went to Seawolf Park which was pretty much decimated by the last hurricane. It was all dirt. I got pretty pink in the 20 or 30 minutes we were out uncovered. Got some great pictures in the submarine – but didn’t get to go into the conning tower. Used to be able to look through the periscope when I was a kid. 🙁

    Walked on the beach (2 miles) at night which was really, really cool. Got a lot of exercise walking, but picked up about four pounds over the weekend. 🙁 Since it’s mostly beer, I suspect I’ll lose it by the end of next week. Time to start drinking a lot of water – and quit eating food after seven pm!

    Great news! On the way back from H-town, I decided to tempt fate and contact my GI guy (not the GI Joe guy, the General Internist or whatever he is) and they said that I had “allergic espohatitis“. That’s good – it’s not cancerous. I now have an inhaler that I have to use for the next 6 or 8 weeks – and then we’ll go from there. I will surely laugh at the prospect that it may be coffee that I’m allergic to.

    Got back and then I REALLY got busy. I shipped the IC300 out to be painted, and got some hair bleach at Hot Topic, went to Sally’s Beauty Supply and picked up some Green Manic Panic. Stage One:

    Being unemployed is so freaking cool. (Until the bills roll in……)

    I also picked up some music books and a music stand – getting ready for LESSON # 1!

    LOL.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “Time is shortening. But every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me.” Ingrid Bergman

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    One of the things that I often feel guilty about is not doing anything for cancer research. My father passed away from esophageal cancer on February 11, 2009.

    In an effort to advance cancer research on his behalf (with admittedly little effort on my part) I downloaded Folding@Home which is a computing project that is similar to SETI – in that you download work units to process and then you return the results to a master server. It’s called “distributed computing”. The essential effect is that everyone who downloads the program performs a small part of a larger puzzle, which can then affect the larger whole. Folding@home’s focus is analysis of folding proteins which have links to many diseases – including cancer.

    It’s got some hardware requirements, and since I recently rebuilt two PC’s, I’ve got enough horsepower under the hood to put it on both. If you’ve got an older computer, you might want to check if you can run it – it can slow down your PC if you don’t have the processor or RAM to run it.

    If you’re reading this because you know me, or because you’ve lost someone to cancer, or know someone who has cancer, I would ask that you download Folding@Home and let your PC do some work for solving the cancer puzzle. I built a team so that anyone who knew my father can contribute directly in his name. Once you have downloaded the program, you can configure it so that you belong to team # 169588.

    Thanks for your time.


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  • “The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.” Moliere

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Wow.

    Today was my last day of work. They held a great little luncheon for me, and I cracked jokes pretty much the entire time, probably to try and convince myself that I’m not nervous about the leap I’m taking. Oddly enough, we had some conversations about my age. Apparently pretty much everyone there thought I was in my mid-forties – and were very surprised that I’m not. LOL.

    After it was all over, I came home and passed out for four hours. It honestly was pretty emotionally draining. After spending five long harrowing years pouring blood and sweat into this job – I walked away.

    Some people kept saying, “It’s going to be impossible to fill your shoes”. I don’t truly believe that’s the case, I think there will be a relatively natural evolution that will occur. It will just be different (for them). I didn’t expect the place to go up in flames without me at all. It remained standing as I slowly pulled myself away over this last few….uh…er…..weeks. Ha!

    In other news:

    * I went to a golf driving range last night. The twist? All the balls were RFID’d and you had a monitor next to you that would track how far and how accurately you hit the ball. Since I haven’t golfed in 25 years (pretty close to not ever golfing) it was pretty rough for the first 60 balls. I finally got my swing in a little bit and managed to hit 4 out of 5 balls (in a row) pretty much where I wanted them to go. It was a lot of fun and there were lots of cute girls there too. Apparently driving ranges are the new meat market! Beer helps too…..except when my brother is bellowing “You suck BALLS???”. It was funny though.

    * I’m having my Ibanez custom painted to look like a White Zombie model that’s no longer in production. I’ve owned a guitar with a floyd rose, and I’ve never been truly excited about getting another one with a Floyd, so I might as well get my cheap stop tail painted custom and save myself $3000.

    The guy that is doing it is pretty excited about it – so am I. I’ve been posting on every guitar forum that I’m looking for one – no go. They’re HARD to find. I even e-mailed Jay Yuenger – since it’s his signature model – to see if he had one, but he didn’t have one to sell! I’m mailing the body off next week – crossing my fingers that all goes well.

    * Green Day is tomorrow. I begin the trek down to Houston tomorrow morning some time. The way that I feel RIGHT NOW is that I’m so worn from this last two weeks, I almost want to crawl into bed for a week or two and not get out. I’m sure I’ll feel differently tomorrow morning, but I’m still mentally a blob right now. We’re going to go to Mai’s for some spring rolls (yay for Mai’s!!) and then hit the show. Heading for Galveston on Sunday, and will be spending the night. Mini-vacation if you will. Coming back Monday to see if anyone tried to test out my Brinks alarm system.

    * One of my former employees is interested in learning guitar (zero experience) so I’m going to use this as an opportunity to try my skills at teaching guitar, which is one thing I’m pretty interested in doing. Being interested in it and doing it are two separate things, so we’ll see how this works out. Should be pretty fun.


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  • “It’s all fun and games, until someone looses an eye…than it’s fun and games you can’t see anymore.” James Hetfield

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    The week is slowly, slowly crawling toward Friday. Not only the end of the week, but the end of my illustrious career at my current employment.

    In talking to one of my employees today, I was invited to a “midget wrestling match” in the next few weeks.

    I agreed – but somehow the “PC” person inside me is thinking, “Whhhhaaaaatttt???”

    All in all, I need to be trying new things – this one should be a doozy!


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  • “Hell, by the time a man scratches his ass, clear his throat, and tells me how smart he is, we’ve already wasted fifteen minutes.” Lyndon B. Johnson

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Tonight was a pretty exciting night.

    Was invited for dinner at Rod’s, and managed to get a large chunk of beef brisket stuck in my throat. I could breathe, but my esophagus was jammed tight.

    I went home, attempting to cough it up and gave up. Went to the ER, and had two sets of drugs pushed into me via IV and then the last resort was “Nitro” – nitroglycerin – before they were calling the GI guy.

    Right after I took the nitro, I managed to hurl the chunk of meat out of my throat and they said I’d be spending the night since they wanted to shove a tube into my insides to look around.

    Awoke at 11 or so to a nurse telling me that they were going to do it in one hour.

    Got completely doped up, had the procedure, then woke up.

    The GI guy said that my lower esophagus was too swollen to do a routine dilation (widening) and that he’d taken a biopsy of some lumps down there. Of course, I’m pretty paranoid since my father recently passed away from esophageal cancer – but he reassured me that these were pretty standard lumps for someone my age and treated with steroids.

    We’ll see what the biopsy says. I’m not overly negative toward it – if they are cancerous, it’s my own damn fault for not getting them checked out sooner.

    Follow up in 8 or so weeks. Guess I’ll be filing for COBRA – since I’m still giving my notice tomorrow.

    Rod picked me up and I’m at home.


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  • “Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid” Kin Hubbard

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I’m pretty excited.

    I talked to someone else at the school and they think that my credits from (a long, long, long) long time ago will still apply which may mean that I’m still a sophomore. I am totally excited that this may be the case – which may mean that I’ve only got about 12 hours for an Associate of Arts, that I’ll transfer to UTA and “make something of myself”.

    Still pretty freaking excited.

    Can’t wait to quit work too. 😉


    📂This entry was posted in School 📎and tagged

  • “Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit” George Carlin

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    They always say, “Never quit while you’re ahead”. Oddly enough, I never hear a corresponding statement for any other occasion. So, henceforth, forthwith, I shall now say, “Never quit while you’re ahead, but get the hell out when you’re behind”.

    As I inch my way toward my impending resignation…….

    Oh.

    Did I not mention?

    I’m giving my two weeks notice on Monday. My last day will be August 7th, the day right before the Green Day concert. I’ve considering going blonde – then lime green for the show, but that might be a little much for a senior as advanced in age as I am. That and I don’t want to “flame out” like I normally do on these work ending occasions. Usually I’ll end up burning some bridges – but this time I think not.

    What will I do with myself? Going Back to School as it were…..

    Can’t find anything else worthwhile to do, so I might as well get an edumacation (again). Maybe I’ll get one of those degrees this time.

    So….I’m thinking this will be pretty much like any other job ending that I’ve had….with the exception that i’ll still have to come up with child support each month. D’OH!

    Have to take a math placement test tomorrow – by the time I get a degree there should be jobs available again. LOL.


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  • “What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.” Angela Davis

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    This pretending to be un-employed in preparation for the real thing is kind of cool.

    Nobody calling me, getting things done, hanging out with my daughter.

    I’m going to head over to the school to re-register and see how many of my class hours evaporated. *Poof*

    I used to be a sophomore….somehow after 20 or so years, this time I’ll probably have to start from scratch.

    What to do, what to do…….

    Awaiting the Brinks alarm installation folks – finally getting around to that.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged