So I'm up super late scanning in posters that I gave away in a contest, and tonight is my last chance to scan them before mailing them to the winner... And my scanner quits on me. Not a nice thing to happen 1) at three AM in the morning, and 2) just a few weeks after getting the new scanner. I dunno if the thing over heated or what, but all that I had to do was unplug/plug-back-in the USB cord and it started working again.

I have this problem where I will buy something, and then not use it right away. Like my scanner. I think I set it up, scanned in one photo to make sure it worked (I didn't even opt to save the scan), and then didn't touch it again till a few days ago. Now I'm scanning like crazy (I have certain projects that require so). The scanner, so far, is working totally great and I would recommend it: Canon CanoScan N676U. But I also do this with other products like the DVD player (Apex brand, it sucks, skips all the time even on new DVD straight outta the box) I got and sometimes clothing. And by the time I figure out it sucks I can't do anything about it.

I guess I should just be happy that I'm on the last poster (by the way, each poster requires four actual scans, then pasteing them all together in PhotoShop, fun), and that my new son is heathly.

Oh yea... I noticed tonight that my buddy Mike updated his site while he's at sea on vacation. Must having some type of internet access on the cruise ship or at dock.

Doh! I forgot the whole reason I even started this entry, it was particially about the scanner not working, but it was also about how I am using my Wired magazines to be weights on top of the posters to make sure they are firm against the scanner bed. And I am looking at the top Wired and realizing, "I haven't read this one". Then I look at the 2nd one I am using, "I haven't read this one either!". So my thought was this: That I arguabily achieve geek status by having a multi-year subscription to Wired, but I definately acheive dork status by having a multi-year subscription to Wired and not reading it.

Since the birth of my son, I haven't been motivated to write much here, which is weird because there's so much going on I would think I'd want to put it all down. I was able to not miss my weekly bowling session last night. I'm very pleased with that.

My buddy James sent me an uplifting article from The Onion. Enjoy.

So last night was the first night home with our new son (Johnathan / 9 lbs. 2 oz. / 21 1/2 inches). He slept most of the night, but there was a two hour period where he just wanted to be held, and he wanted the lights on. And he spent the time exploring the room. He would just stare at an object in the room and study it, and then move on to another object and studdy it. Quite interesting.

After he got to "explore" his new home, he got a good feeding and then fell asleep. I was already alseep myself, but I guess he woke up when being put to bed and he didn't like that so my wife had me stick my arm out like I was doing the handle on the tea cup song, and she set the baby in the space between my arm and my body. Johnathan and I both slept that way for about 7 hours.

Even with the day off work I still have much to do, like getting some photos on-line of my son, and picking a winner for the contest (see below). So I'm out for now.

My wife is definately in labor. Sleep is hard to get. We might be at the hospital within a few hours from now. We spent the evening miniture golfing and watching the Simpson's 1st season DVD. I guess that sparked something. Gotta go.

Out the door...

So yesterday I took the morning off work to complete some personal errands that I had to run. The day started off with my wife and I going by my friend Mark's house. We were supposed to pick up a VHS tape that he was going to leave in his mailbox. He ended being home and so he didn't leave it in his mailbox, and invited us in. And like John Goodman's character in O' Brother Where Art Thou", Mark is blessed with the "gift of gab". Long story made short... 90 minutes later we leave his house. Longer story made short... my errands took so long my boss told me to take the day as a sick day.

Since now we were blessed with extra time, we stopped by Fry's Electronics. For those out there who don't know about Fry's, it's basically a rad place that you can get Appliances, Electronics, Computers, CD's, DVD's, Software, Magazines, and I don't know what else. All I can say is that I have never heard a girl say, "Hey, let's go to Fry's". Only guys, because it's a "guy" store. Or maybe better yet, a "geek" store. But Fry's has it's down sides. About half the merchandise in the store has been opened and returned. So whenever you buy anything you have to make sure your box doesn't have this little sticker on it that Fry's has to put on all returned boxes. Also, Fry's is notorious for long customer service lines. Also, when you check out you wait in a long line, and at the end of this line you get a person who tells you what cashier to go to. And Fry's doesn't discrimiate against retarded people, but they do make all the tards work the registers. Now that you know the basics of Fry's, on with my story... Every Fry's has a different "theme" going on inside. The local one to my home has a Greek/Roman thing going on, with pillars and stone and stuff. The one close to my work has a huge space shuttle in it, and I guess that was good enough to constitute as theme to them. But this one I went to yesterday was crazy inside, it had a total storybook theme going on with fake hedges carved into shapes and huge playing cards hanging from the ceiling, and cartoon-ish sculptures of characters including a Queen. I completely felt as if I was actually in the Disney movie "Alice in Wonderland". I think Fry's did everything they possibly could to make everyone think that, without actually breaking any Disney trademarks (I assume). Anyways, they did a darn good job of creating a themed enviroment.

So I have meetings with this group of guys on a semi-regular basis. And last weekend one of the guys suggested for us to get together at 7 PM on Thursday night (yesterday). I e-mailed back on Monday saying I can't be there between the hours of 6 PM and 8 PM, but outside of that I am available. So all week long I wait and get no reply back until 5:30 PM Thursday night, and it suggests that we wait until this weekend or next week to hold our meeting. So I assume that there is no meeting that night. On my drive home from my prior engagement (roughly 7:30) I call some friends of ours and invite them over to watch, ironically, the television show "Friends" (due to the fact that they had invited over to their place last week, but we already had plans, so we wanted to make up for time not shared). So at 8:15 PM, during "Friends", I get a phone call that goes a little something like this:

Me: "Hello"
Anonymous: "Hey, are you coming to our meeting we're having right now?"
Me: "I didn't know that we were having the meeting. Where's it at and I'll be right there."
Anonymous: "We aren't having our meeting. I'm just bugging you. I called because I knew "Friends" was on and you said that you'd be available at 8 for our meeting and then you made plans to watch "Friends" with friends."

[The rest of the phone call has been omitted because either it has nothing to do with my point or because I forgot the rest.]

Ok, so the above phone call really bugged me. Reading the text it seems as if the person was just kidding with me, but the person was not just kidding. He was serious. And during the phone call I was just thinking, "How dare he try and make me feel bad for making plans for my free time". I don't know if my life moves a little faster than others around me, but if you don't solidify a meeting with at least a few hours to spare, you can't possibly expect people to not start making other plans. I felt as if he was excusing me of never actually even on planning to attend the meeting that I committed myself to.

I never thought that our baby wouldn't be born yet. I ran this contest for a web site I run, where kids could vote when my kid would be born, and I was so sure that he/she would be born by now, that the last date you could select was the 15th. I did however throw in the backup option of "After Oct. 15th" which a surprising 6% choose. Lucky them. Now I just got to wait and determine the sex of the kid to pick a winner. Our Dr. said that he wont let the baby go past the 20th. So if the baby isn't here by Saturday, he'll induce labor.

So I wake up this morning, and browse a few web pages that I frequent, and I see a post on a message board explaining that a solo artist I really like, Dashboard Confessional, played last night on The Late Late Show. I missed it. I missed it and I'm really upset. Even my friend who turned me onto DC missed it. Why did we miss it? Because we didn't know about it.

What I am looking for is a better "push" of relevant information on the internet. My hotmail accounts fill up daily with junk mail. I hope for a day when equal amounts of information that really interests me arrive as well. I know the junk mail isn't going to stop, and that's not what I ask for. I get a few things being pushed my way currently: Wired News, Epitaph News, GameSpot Spotlight, and the occasional NFG newsletter. I used to get Suck Daily sent to me, I think it's RIP now. I also get Amazon showing me stuff that I think might be tailored to my past purchases, and that's cool. But the internet needs more. I want to know when the a single individual is going to be strumming his guitar at 2 AM so I can choose to watch.

I'm guilty. I run a few web sites, for instance the official Guttermouth site, and I don't maintain a newsletter for the band. I used to, but it was used in rare cases like when a new album was being released. In the near future I am going to change all that. I will strive to keep fans more up-to-speed so that they don't miss any event as I have just done.

Hopefully the karma will return full circle.

For all you curious people: "No, my brand new kid has not arrived yet. I am very upset at the postman. If the tike doesn't come over the weekend I'm thinking about filing a formal complaint with the USPS."

So today is the last probable day for me to have a binary baby. That is, to have a baby born with the birth date of 10/11/01. Which just so happens to be a palindrome (reading the same forwards and backwards).

Since my wife is not showing any signs of labor, I doubt my kid will be out of it's retreat this day. The day is young though, I have my shoe laces crossed!

Note to geeks: I fully understand that the next *true* binary date will take place on 01/01/10000. And that we'll all be dead when it takes place.

So we're bombing the hell outta targets in Afghanistan. That's cool. In the coming days my wife is going to give birth to our first kid. It hit me Saturday that I'm not prepared for this. I feel totally prepared to be a father, but for getting the phone call (or however it's going to happen), and rushing to the hospital, and being in the delievery room, that's a totally foreign idea to me.

I am completely looking forward to the day when my little kid crawls all over me and pushes the buttons on my laptop while I am trying to work, or calls Japan on my cell phone, or crawls under our desk and flips the switch on the power strip (as long as it doesn't cause a hard drive crash). Those are the types of things I expect to happen as a dad. And that's cool to me. I want a kid who is into stuff.

As a side note: I played football on Saturday, and that night we sat around and called off our pain levels. I said I was at a 1 (scale of 0 to 5, 5 being the highest level of pain). I'd now like to upgrade that to a 2.5. It's sad to say at the young age of 22 that I feel like an old man.

How come it is $0.30 cheaper to buy a combo at Carl's Jr. featuring a Dlb. Western Bacon Cheeseburger / Criss-cut fries / and a small drink, than it is to buy just a Dlb. Western Bacon Cheeseburger and Criss-cut fries? I can understand the combo being cheaper than buying all three items seperatly, but cheaper than buying two items seperately? That's just plain silly.

If anyone of you are interested in beefing up your ColdFusion programming skills, I recommend a book by my muchacho Michael, which I was the Technical Editor for. That means that I had to read the book and make sure it is "technically sound". And that means that I had to test all of his code, and make sure any time he gaves steps on how to use a particular piece of software, that his menu names and steps were correct. It was quite a good experience. You can pick the book up at any of the major bookstore chains, or on-line at such places like Amazon.com.

This is pretty twisted. Thank you JibJab.

I finally took the advice of my good-natured friend Michael and turned this mess into a blogger. In previous versions it was just a portal to the different sites I was currently working on, but now I can bore you while you are not impressed with my HTML skills.