Month: January 2008

Wal-Mart Pain

Ironically after recently titling a post in a positive light for Wal-Mart, I fall victim to one of the stupidest processes I have experienced in awhile.  For my birthday, some friends of mine went in together and bought me BioShock for the Xbox360.  Thanks again for that kind gesture!  Anyway, we were playing Rock Band all night and didn’t get a chance to play it.  This resulted in a bonus as it turned out they bought the game at Wal-Mart and an advertisement came out the next day from Best Buy for $20 less.  I figured I would take it back to Wal-Mart and have the ticket adjusted and therefore save my friends some money (it was on a credit card, so the money would simply be added back on to that account).  

A day or two later I headed over to Wal-Mart at lunch to complete the adjustment.  There was even a printed sign on the door how they honor competitor sale ads.  This should have been a walk in the park, but things quickly derailed when I went up to the service desk.

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Upgrade Completed

Good news everyone!  I have finally completed the upgrade to the latest release of WordPress.  All in all, it was not that difficult, but due to a weak FTP client (WS_FTPro) it took a significant amount of time.  I was unable to find an option on the client that allowed deletion of non-empty directories requiring me to manually go through and delete items from each of the sub-directories.  Unless someone knows how to set this in the FTP client I used, I’ll be switching to something more friendly/useable for the future.  Everything has checked out okay and hopefully no one was impacted by the upgrade.

Yeah for Wal-Mart

Something incredible was happening to Peoria on December 4th 2007.  Were we welcoming home our military cargo/transport heroes home from Iraq.. nope.  Were we completing our multi-year revamp of one of the oldest sections of I-74 to enhance the driving experience for our visitors.. nope.  Hold on to your seats now…. Michigan State’s glorious basketball team was coming to play our Bradley Braves.  I know, I know you’re giddy just thinking about it.  So, Michigan State, representing their 46,045 students ,was coming to take on the Bradley Braves with a 2006 enrollment of 6,127.  Truly a David and Goliath moment.  It was so big that ESPN was going to carry it.  We’ve hit the big time now.  The big night came, the lucky ones got tickets to Carver Arena to witness the historic event in person, while others popped their popcorn, poured their drinks and settled into their favorite chairs.  It was a close game, but the Braves fell short of toppling the mighty Spartans 66-61. …. and then things started taking an ugly turn.

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Etching Behaviors

I am closing out the last remaining hour of my birthday and figured I would go ahead and comment on something I witnessed yesterday.  As I was exiting my workplace I caught a lady out of the corner of my eye (loving the LASIK by the way) on the opposite side of the street.  She was holding onto a young child (probably around 5) and bending down to talk to him.   For an unknown reason, I quickly formulated what was going to happen and this discussion that was taking place was to make sure everyone knew the game plan.  They were actually standing between two parallel parked cars just off the curb in the street.  She pointed to my side of the street a couple of times and motioned her arms in an exaggerated running manner obviously trying to convey speed.  This she reiterated a couple of times until she felt the kid understood the mechanics of what was about to happen.  Keep in mind, that this is a three lane one way street in the middle of downtown and used pretty heavily (flowing from her right to left).  She looked to the right, looked to the left (probably a good thing since more than once I’ve seen someone coming the other way), looked back to the right, clinched the kids hand and they started to sprint across the street. 

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Survey Says…. Bad Timing

Work today ended up being a tad more stressful than usual due to the all to common lack of requirements coupled with well defined timelines.  I only mention that to help frame my mood when my truck hiccupped on my way home.  Probably in the same manner that individuals who live next to train tracks eventually become accustomed to the daily wheels on rails, I pretty much have the rhythm of my truck’s engine tucked deep in the subconscious.  I would be interested in getting some feedback from someone in the train situation, but the microsecond my truck produced a sound that didn’t fit the standard cadence… it jumped up and took front and center in my thoughts.  I somehow managed to instantly block out the non-related sound – no more radio, no more buzz of surrounding cars nothing… just the sound from my engine.  It was matched up now, the pistons were firing in sync, the drive shaft was spinning under my seat… this lasted for a few minutes and then it happened again. 

Continue reading Survey Says…. Bad Timing

Refocused

Well, good news – my LASIK surgery was very successful and I am extremely pleased – yes, I wish I had done this some time ago, but at least I finally went through with it as a birthday present to myself.  Unfortunately, with working on a computer all day, my eyes need more rest at night until they completely heal – which means I need a little more time before getting back in the blogging mode.  Should be fine by the weekend and excited about writing about all the new things I can see!

I Trump the Soft Card

I woke up the other day, flipped on the TV and witnessed someone reaching deep inside themselves to reveal a sensitive, emotional, caring soul tortured by all that is wrong in the world.  As this person struggled to overcome the stress of the situation and hold back the tears of frustration, I found myself thinking about two things.  

The first of these centered upon public displays of emotions.   I do not consider myself a cold person,  but I was not raised to let emotions control my actions or influence my decisions.  My father is a role model for rock steady and always a voice of reason or support in any tough situation.  I am sure there were times when he felt scared, saddened or uncertain, but I do not remember a single time when he showed that side of the situation when my brothers and I needed guidance, a helping hand or calming in an uncomfortable situation.  Did he inherit this trait from his parents, is it a byproduct of tougher times, a necessary characteristic of being a soldier in the Korean War, a conscious decision to raise his children to meet the demands of life or a union of all of these?  I honestly don’t know the reason, but what I do know from past experience is to trust the calm, focused and confident individual who found the door out and not the person crying in the corner.  I have also spent many years in martial arts and competed against numerous opponents.  During the seconds we were touching gloves, I was focused on one and only one thing.   If he was looking down, he didn’t want to be there, if he was raging in my face he was likely to fall victim to every feint …. but the guy who locked on to your eyes and seemingly stared right past you had a mission and a confident plan to get there and therefore … a dangerous opponent…

 And then there was the second thing ….

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Weather Alert: γκρίζος

Today I had to drop by an OSF Prompt Care to have something checked (for those that know me, it was not because of another sports injury, but based on my history, that was probably a good guess).  Strangely enough, it was actually about 60 degrees out in the midwest.  I do not believe in Global Warming (along with at least 400 other top scientists), but this just happens to be a little strange for early January, particularly since it was suppose to rain and some dark clouds were rolling in.  While waiting for the nurse to take me back to see the doctor, a piercing siren blast came over the intercom followed by the statement “Weather Alert Grey, Weather Alert Grey” … followed by another siren blast.  I noticed that the various employees really didn’t take any action or for that matter show any real concern.  Curious, I started looking around in hopes of seeing some form of Rosetta Stone to help my decypher what exactly a Grey level alert was.  No such aid existed (at least that I could find during my cursory investigation).  I sat back down and sure enough the exact same alert came over the speakers again.  Finally catching a nurse’s eye, I gave the universal “what gives” command (you know, shoulders scrunched, palms up) in hopes she would give me some kind of clue.  Her response was to not be concerned until in gets to BLACK.  Now I am fascinated.  Not only did I not know what Grey was, there is apparently another color that is even worse – based on the color wheel I am guessing the darker the color the greater the threat to my well being.  “So what is Grey?” I asked and promptly learned that it meant a Tornado Watch…. yes I followed up, Black is a Tornado Warning.  So there you have it, if you are ever in a situation that uses a similar warning system, you can simply refer back to this entry.  I say refer since I doubt you will remember what the two colors I gave you are and what is more alarming to me is that it is not even intuitive.  Would it be too difficult to simply call out the specific alert…. Weather Alert: Dangerous Swirly Wind Thingy Possible.  I guess I may not understand the details on this scale, but what I do know is Grey in this context might as well have been Greek which is not exactly my language of choice in emergency situations.

Any Which Way But In

Last night I decided I require consistency in my life.  I came to this conclusion while attending the incredible Trans Siberian Orchestra concert at the Peoria Civic Center – which by the way is hands down the best rock concert you will ever attend – lights, pyro and high distortion shredding all at a reasonable price.  I’ll probably have an article in the future about my 3rd time seeing them, but my awakening came from a trip to the restroom.   If you recall my first journal entry, pedestrian traffic in the U.S. tends to follow the vehicle traffic which is rightside in, leftside out.  So as expected there are two doors to the men’s bathroom and by habit directed myself to the right side.  Just before entering I notice there are white letters painted on a yellow background that read “OUT”.  At first I was a little startled since I didn’t see them at all from the other side of the hall – then again, white on bright yellow is not the most genius color selection.  Having seen it though, it was very apparent I was about to go in the wrong side which has a tendency to get those waiting in line pretty irate (including yours truly if you have not already noticed my attention to line etiquette).  So, I was left with a self-conscious diversion to the left side door and took my proper place in line. 

Slowly this began nagging at me.  What would compel an architect to design against the standard?

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