An Impatient Customer

Does anybody out there find themselves pretty busy these days?  Maybe a couple of you out there, or maybe a couple hundred or perhaps everyone is having their days filled up with more and more commitments and errands that are eating away at what little free time they can squeak out in a day.  Then again, it could just be a personal issue but something tells me I am not the only one in this rat race.  For me, this has fostered a quest to make the daily activities as efficient as possible.  So assessing the available hours in a typical weekday (5×24 = 120hrs), we have to quickly eliminate the hours dedicated to our employer.  For ease I’m just going to put this at 9hr/day discounting the extra work hours everyone gives throughout the week), which leaves us with 75.  This likely differs for everyone, but my commute total (to and from work) is 1 hr so that leaves 70 discretionary hours a week.  Note, before you ask, I do consider sleep discretionary and not mandatory and is really just an issue of how well your body can function with a specified amount of sleep.  However, let’s just take care of those hours now.  This has been going up along with the age count, but for now I do try to get 7 hrs a night (hey, it’s an optimistic goal).  Now that is a hefty slash in the available count leaving us a mere 35 hrs (5 hrs/day) to get our chores done and any entertainment we want.  In black and white that doesn’t seem to bad, but add in dinner, breakfast and human preening you likely chip away another  2hrs/day.   So there you have it, a long way to simply pointing out that there are roughly 3 hrs a day to get all my grand plans finished….and by my count I just selfishly took about 5 minutes of your day (sorry about that).

If you have time, hit the jump and find out the reason for this time assessment.

Continue reading An Impatient Customer

My Value is Melt[ing]aways

It’s a new year and that means a new set of convictions (to add to my existing set of course).  Over the course of last year I would stumble on some food products that left a bad taste in my mouth.  Generally this was due in part to the ingredients or preparation.  However, every once in awhile something in the product marketing overshadowed how good it might have tasted or just put the experience even further in the hole.  This year I’ve decided to call attention to these situations for a couple of reasons.  If it is a deceptive practice, then you should be aware of it as a consumer.  If I’m just viewing it wrong or missing some aspect of it, I would like to know so I can adjust my opinion appropriately.  No surprise, this particular post is case in point.

hit the jump to see the details of the issue:

Continue reading My Value is Melt[ing]aways

A Lot to Ponder

An interesting thing happened on my way to the car last week.  Intriguing enough that I thought I would share the scenario with you and see what courses of action you might have taken in a similar situation.  I am still going to leave out some background details out of concern for information protection, but let’s just say a number of us were required to spend  time in an area that my presence may not have been appreciated by the some of the inhabitants.  Sufficiently vague?… perfect.

To help alleviate some of the issues, we were requested to leave for the day 30  minutes before the rest of the people in hopes of  relieving congestion.  This worked out great for the first couple of days with a smooth transition to the car and ultimately back home.  Unfortunately on the third day I was working on something that required staying to the normal quitting time.  A little uneasy about this, I headed out to the car validating that there was a lot more traffic than the previous days, but not overly concerned.  This kind of changed as I neared my truck.   The graphic for today is actually a guide to the event so feel free to refer to it as I relate the story.

About 7 vehicles from my truck I noticed 3 people talking in front of a vehicle parked a couple down from me – identified by the second set of purple ‘P’s as you look up from the bottom of the graphic (note, the other 4 people (first set of P’s) were not there yet nor the red car in the middle of the aisle.  Passing them, I noticed there was a person sitting in the car they were talking in front of as well as a person in the car directly South of my destination.  For those keeping track, that is now 5 people in uncomfortable proximity to my vehicle.  As I got into my truck (which was facing the lot fence) I looked to my right and saw another guy sitting in the truck directly North of me.  Now we are at 6.  While giving the engine a little bit of time to warm up (the temp was in the single digits and contrary to this Google Map picture, the lot was covered in snow), the silver vehicle comes up the aisle towards me and stops a few cars down from the first set of people.  The exact count is a little fuzzy, but let’s assume there were two people in the vehicle and at least two other individuals came out to talk to them.  The tally is now 10.  Seconds before putting the truck in reverse, another vehicle drives up the aisle and passes behind me.  The driver was probably in his late 50’s and possibly early 60’s and looked to be driving rather intently (shoulders riding high, double grip high on the steering wheel and eyes straight ahead.  Noting that this particular aisle was a dead end at the  fence line, I made an assumption that he was looking for the last remaining end spot.  In what appeared to be a confirmation of this, he  turned his car into the spot but not at the deep arc you would expect in order to properly hit the space.  Alert to the other people in the area, I started to back out.  Less than a quarter revolution of the tire later, I was on the brakes again because the car starts backing out of his end spot.  Maybe he just wants to fix that angle to provide some additional room away from the other truck beside me?  Another wrong assumption.  The dude proceeds to back up until there is a visible impact on the vehicle parked on the other side of the aisle.  Now my spidey senses were in full alert mode  so pulled back into my space.  All of the other people I could see were now also tuned into the situation and were staring at the driver.  A quick check of him revealed the exact same expression and physical position he had when he passed me, with zero concern for the fact he had just hit another car.  Instead he stutters the car back and forth until he gets his rear in line with his nose.  On the last back up he pulls the wheel to the left to complete the 3 point turnaround.  At this point the guy in the truck to my North gets a little concerned as the car proceeds to bounce off his bumper as it finally completed the 180 degree turn.  By this time, the guy in the parked truck looks over to me with a surprised look and this is now the center of conversation with the rest of the people pointed out earlier.  Expecting to get hit myself, I was extremely relieved when he successfully passed me, but that emotion was replaced by astonishment as the driver proceeded to drive down the aisle and turn left out of the lot with zero intention of taking accountability for his actions.  Just to complete the setup, the driver of the parked truck got out and started inspecting the bumper (that was hit) and then walked over to the rest of the people to join in the discussion.

Now time for some audience participation – hit the jump to read the rest of the story.

Continue reading A Lot to Ponder

Some Fails to Feast On

This has been a pretty physical week for me to the point where this is probably the first time in years (likely exactly 6 years) that I have come home from work and literally crashed out on the couch – actually let me qualify that a bit – came home, completed my training runs and then crashed out on the couch. I didn’t want you to think I was cheating out on my road to running injury recovery. This week will likely result in some future blog entries (depending on how much I think I can discuss about this week in a public forum). For now, just know this particular week I do not have a chair in my “office”. In light of my fatigue, I figured I would simply post a series of fails that I have either come across myself or obtained from my brother or friends.

I am going to start out with my favorite one. Linda actually alerted me to this one. She was traveling down Rt 91 in Dunlap/Peoria when she noticed this sign. Now keep in mind this is one of those things that has plagued me all my life. I was blessed with a name that really can’t be “cutesied” up which I have appreciated, but there is one very common mistake I still see on a daily basis. I have no idea if this sign is actually right or not, but my guess is this particular Brian has fell victim to this common mistake.

The odd thing is it has been up there for months (I made Linda drive by it so I could get a picture). So either it is right or he has also resigned to it. I always nicely respond with a “thanks for the compliment” when the mistake is made in person.

Hit the jump for the rest of the fail gallery!

Continue reading Some Fails to Feast On

Another Year another Restriction

My brother recently informed me that my rights as a natural citizen of the United States has once again been restricted via state legislation.  Somehow this always seems to result in limitations of my freedoms, yet do I ever get my desire for legal reform (translated ambulance chasers), reduced political term limits, or how about jail sentences for politicians who fail to pay their own taxes (especially those who set tax policies for others)?  Nope, instead I am subject to new laws that went into effect this year like:

  • You cannot use public money to fund a portrait of any governor that has been removed from office (apparently by impeachment or conviction).
  • Hair braiders have to register with the state
  • Driving instructors (family or professional) have to be sober while teaching someone to drive

I am not accountable for the day to day management of the State of Illinois, but I do know that my State is something like $13 BILLION below a balanced budget.  Call me crazy, but this seems like a serious issue worthy of some equal serious attention.  Instead, we apparently have legal concerns about someone wanting to make a portrait of Deputy Dog… I mean Blago.  So somehow this little bit of legislation was crafted, presented, lobbied, voted and scribed into law while our State’s credit rating was getting smacked around by Asian Carp.  As a result I sit in resignation as my income tax rate takes hits of helium (especially annoying seeing as how we also have a tax hit thanks to a new high school referendum that was passed which we will never benefit from).  But all of this was trumped by another new law (and the specific one my brother clued me into).  Apparently as of the first of this year, I can no longer own a monkey!  Chipping away at my income is one thing, but “chimping” me out of my primates is just going to far.

  • What’s going to alert me to bad dates?
  • Who’s going to throw all the dog poo out of my yard?
  • How will I be able to leave the house without knowing my hair is free of lice
  • and most of all, who is going to make drink runs while I am enthralled in a video game?

These are just some of the valuable things that I rely on my den monkey to do for me (pictured above).

This is absolutely the bitter end and it’s time to go dump some tea.  I beg all geeks of the world to stand up for their primate rights and end this injustice.  Hmmm wait just a minute, let me go read that law again.   Yada yada yada, no primates.. yada yada unlawful to own… yada yada yada unless for assisting disabilities yada yada.  Hey, it looks like I have at least two outs.  Clearly my monkey is assisting in a disability capacity (gaming flunky) but in truth, the law seems to only focus on primates and my monkey doesn’t fall into this category because in truth it is a ‘C’ monkey (bada bing).  I guess I’ll call off the tea raid, but politicians beware I’m watching you closely (especially those from Chicago).

    .. and I Have a Problem

    Happy New Year Everyone!  Hope you had a safe return from all your festivities last night and if you are lucky, you are not a Big 10 fan as we took a slaughtering today.  I have not made a decision about the fate of this blog yet, but for now, everything as usual and with that… the first entry of the 2011.

    “Hello, my name is Brian and I have a problem.”  There are those things that kind of bother you and eventually you find time to address them and get them resolved.  Sometimes those things are like icebergs and as long as you accept the part you can see, you don’t get a feeling for how big the issue is under the waterline.  Of course there are issue that are right in your face each and every day until it starts to fill you with disappointment and regret.  In the latter case, I think it is jut better to accept it, come to terms with it, and recommit yourself to lifting that weight off your shoulder.  This is where I am at with my problem so her goes….

    “Hello, my name is Brian and I have a reading problem.”  There, I’ve admitted it.  For clarity sake, it isn’t really a reading problem, but rather a reading BACKLOG problem.  I actually enjoy reading books a lot, but they do take a time commitment of sorts.  I am always finding new titles to read and my hobbies tend to have a prolific amount of written word on them.  My Amazon Wish List always has a number of books on them and I find myself in bookstores from time to time perusing the latest offerings (which generally leads to purchases as well).  As a result, there is a steady flow in, which is great, but that means there needs to be steady flow of information from the book to the brain or you start falling behind…. waaaay behind in my case.  Every day, I walk into my den and look at my bookshelf and sigh.  That is about to end because the new year has brought a new commitment to get through THIS:

    hit the jump to see my 2011 goal:

    Continue reading .. and I Have a Problem

    Another Year of Blogging in the Books

    My how time flies these days.  It seems like less than a year ago I committed to this little project but in reality the end of this month marks my third year in the blogging community.  As probably all commitments that take a time investment, the blog content has morphed and expanded a few times, but the theme has remained steadfast.  It may have more entries on wildlife photography and a few new topics like projects and What is This, but they are all things that still intrigue me and hopefully something you find interesting as well.  To continue a year end tradition, I’m posting this summary of the year’s output (data does include this post as it is the 6th post of the month to hit my quota for another month).

    • According to the WordPress Stats: To Date Total Posts 246 and 101 comments
    • According to the WordPress Stats: This Year Total Posts 81 and 52 comments
    • Total blog pages this year (according to MS Word): 340
    • Total number of words this year (according to MS Word): 82,252
    • Post topics (some posts had multiple categories) 2010 / Total
      • Birds: 13 / 33
      • Fail: 0 / 3
      • General: 6 / 25
      • Insects: 2/2
      • Observation: 62 / 172
      • Phoadtography: 3/3
      • Products: 7 / 9
      • Projects: 5/5
      • Ramblings: 1/ 10
      • Recollection: 6 / 16
      • Service: 15 / 41
      • Uncategorized: 0 / 0
      • Wildlife: 29 / 46
      • WIT: 1/1
    • Blogs this year by month
      • Jan: 6
      • Feb: 6
      • Mar: 6
      • Apr: 6
      • May: 7 (bonus month)
      • Jun: 7 (bonus month)
      • Jul: 6
      • Aug: 7 (bonus month)
      • Sep: 6
      • Oct: 6
      • Nov: 6
      • Dec: 6
    • Writing style: conversational (although some service posts took an angry tone)
    • Most common grammatical error: Continuing to leverage Firefox to catch the easy spelling mistakes, but there are still some mistakes getting through.  I also copy all posts to MS Word for backup which does try to detect any grammar errors.  I have noticed a passion to use Do for Due, the misuse of To for Too and my thought stream seems to be outpacing my fairly proficient typing skills causing some small words to be skipped.  This year I decided to re-read all my posts before submitting them (which I ABSOLUTELY hate doing because it feels like I’m back in school) and probably the most helpful, Linda started reading my posts and pointed out a number of mistakes (sometimes with a little too much passion).   Oh, and I do retain all rights to make words up (if Palin can do it, I can do it).
    • Number of WordPress uprades:1 in July – I need to upgrade again, but will make that a task for the new year
    • Number of reference links used: 59
    • Number of images used:  (note, all posts but one had at least one graphic in it hitting my goal – note, missing one was just an update saying my Internet was down and was part of a 7 post month)
      • Wildlife Photos – 206  (oh yeah)
      • Other Photos – 101
      • Custom Graphics – 48
      • TOTAL: 355 (wow)
    • Languages uses: 1 (unless you count Engrish and Brigrish)
    • Completed Life List Items: 6
      • Ran the Steamboat 4mile  – experienced a significant injury this year which held me back on some running goals
      • Ran the BIX7 – (another year another medal)
      • Blogging for a third year hitting my self-imposed 6 post/month quota including three months with an extra post
      • Transforming a portion of my woods into a park setting – including a new trail
      • Constructing a bridge – put the finishing touches on it this year and it is still holding strong
      • Establishing a photo website (http://eddiesoft.smugmug.com)
    • Maintained convictions: 5
      • Never giving Metallica a penny of my money (still not a dime)
      • Ban from RIAA backed musicians
      • Not giving Sprint a dime of my money
      • Lost 12 pounds
      • Made it back from a significant running injury
    • Posted 78 more items than my brother over at Dead Reckonings (he clocked in at 3 again this year) – Of course, this number is significantly skewed when considering quality where his posts make mine look like scraps of trash.  Maybe this year I’ll finally give him a run for the money… yeah, I laughed at that as well.
    • Personal Revelations:
      • My graphic output was definitely through the roof.  A lot of this is due to finally getting my photo website up and running.  From a progression perspective the shots are definitely improving but there is ALWAYs room for improvement.  Having this blog to document the technical aspects and feelings regarding the photos has provided an excellent way to put a historical perspective on the work.
      • My disposition is still on the sarcasm side and my political angst has shown through in a number of posts (there might be a brightspot in the coming year, but I’m not holding my breath)
      • My bad service experiences are still on the rise and the top of that list is my disappointment with BMW.  They have now officially lied to me 3 times (once to my face) regarding a payment they promised and at this point my relationship with the local dealership is all but destroyed.
      • Continue to leverage my elective psychology classes
      • Our woods provides a great amount of enjoyment – it is hard work, but the lot is beginning to resemble the grand plans I made for it after walking the lot the first time trying to decide if this was the right investment for us.
      • Track record for New Year’s resolution is going quite well, but need to fully recover from the running injury to keep meeting those goals

    As was the case last year, I think it was a better product this year.  I would love to have more comments and hoping this year will bring in more subscribers and feedback.  I did hit the century mark for comments this month which was very satisfying.  Next year’s resolutions are still in the percolation stage but blogging will likely be part of it (not sure of the quotas yet since this year it was a struggle each month).   If there is one area that I’d like to improve on is decreasing the time when a blog topic occurs and when it makes it to this post.  Not sure how to do this yet due to the backlog, but I might decided to make my topic list a LIFO queue instead of a FIFO queue.

    In closing, another big thanks to everyone that took the time to check in on my ramblings.  There is some definite energy expended to keep this site going but it is pretty cool to look back and see what had caught my attention during the course of a year.  This is the reason my posts started having a little blurb before getting into the subject matter in order to put a little context into what was going around me at the time.  There are a lot of interesting things (both good and bad) going on in the world and this blog forces me to be a little more aware of that activity.   The odds are this will continue so hopefully you will all make it back to my little space on the i-superhighway.

    A Prophecy Becomes Reality

    Just a short blurb and not even counting this as a real post.  This is just a followup to a recent post of mine regarding a recent experience at Bar Louie located at our local outdoor mall.  If you recall, that experience was not a favorable one and put a slight damper on our special night out.  One thing I didn’t mention is that we ordered an appetizer.  In somewhat of a surprise, our waitress mentioned she didn’t know if they had any of those left … because they had been so busy … but would check on them.  She ended up bringing some out to us and the event was pretty much forgotten.  As I was running on the treadmill today, my wife came down and read the following from the paper:

    “At Bar Louie, which is also at the Shoppes [of Grand Prairie] a small handmade sign at the restaurant said it was closed.  The phone did not ring Tuesday at Bar Louie, and an official with the company that manages the Shoppes at Grand Prairie declined to comment.”

    Well, there you have it and needless to say, neither of us are surprised.  The depressing thing is while we were there I think someone came in and ordered two $25 gift cards.  I did not hear all of the conversation, but I did hear “would you like that as two ?$ or one $50.  The response was two and the bartender went to the register.  I sure hope this guy wasn’t stuck with those as a result of this closing and if that bartender knew the situation beforehand he’s as guilty of theft as the owner is.  Oh, as I was wondering aloud if the new Jillian’s at that mall might have caused their closing, Linda responded with:  “By they way, they [Jillian’s] were  in the paper recently for failing their health inspection”.

    Things don’t seem to be so “Grand” anymore at that particular mall.

    Phoadtography Gallery: Maine Trip 2010 Pt 2

    Time to close out this year’s posts.  With only the remaining year end summary left, this post essentially puts the finishing touches on the 2010 blog entries.  As with Part I of this Phoadtography Gallery this set comes with a healthy dose of photos as well.  The good news is this closes out all the road shots from the Maine trip allowing me to start fresh with the new year.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get through all the Maine photos (off the road) and now even farther behind with the recent Vegas/Mt Zion trip we took a month ago.   Oh well, plenty in the hopper for 2011 (should I choose to continue this activity for next year). Time’s a wasting, let’s get to the shots.

    This should not be a surprise, but I have an affinity towards bridges.  The exact reason is difficult to tell since it is difficult to pin down exactly when I started admiring these structures.  Having built one now, this appreciation has definitely increased.  If pressed, I’d have to say that the fusion of artistic characteristics and functional purpose entwined in physics and math is the compelling factor.  This might be similar to some people’s fascination with sundials seeing how ornate and complex those functional timepieces can be.  This particular bridge has all of the classic features of bridge with its arches, triangles (notice the vertical beams are not straight up and down) and the cross hatch underneath to keep it rigid.  With the height of this beast, there are probably large ships traversing this waterway.

    This particular bridge still confuses me in the sense I am unable to figure out the functional component.  It appears to go absolutely nowhere and the railing on the end suggests there was no plan for it to go anywhere.  The metal structure towards the middle of the bridge is interesting as well.  First thought was it rotated in some manner and connected up to another span allowing for easy traversal of the waterway.  This sounds good in theory, but there did not seem to be a pivot point or any span to hook up to.  It is a mystery and if anyone is near 194.75 and knows anything about this, please leave a comment.

    Hit the jump to see the rest of the Phoadtography gallery.

    Continue reading Phoadtography Gallery: Maine Trip 2010 Pt 2

    A Christmas Scorn

    Merry Christmas Everyone! Best wishes for a safe and happy holidays. Our plans for today were altered slightly due to a Linda’s mom coming down a little ill, so figured I’d make a quick post. In honor of the season, thought it would be a perfect time to post on a funny situation that occurred a mere two days ago. Linda and I decided to go out for our Christmas dinner a few nights early since the weather was looking a little iffy (ended up getting at least 6″ yesterday and even plowed for a second time today as it continued to fall well into the night). Electing to go with casual attire, we chose to eat at Bar Louie in our outdoor mall. Convinced that the wait would be extensive, it would also give us a chance to pick up some last minute gifts. The first oddity of the night occurred when we walked into the establishment. The wait time ended up being the length of time it took to tell the hostess whether we wanted a booth or a table. There were at most 10 people in the whole place with most of those sitting at the bar. If we had to guess there were at least 30 empty tables. We both looked at each other and both had a flash we had missed a health report or something. Committed, we sat down and made our order noting that it was special day so both our diets were out the door. In the end it didn’t matter since I only ate half of my food and ended up eating some of Linda’s instead (note, if the hamburger is too charbroiled for me to eat, it isn’t fit to be served – especially annoying since they didn’t even ask me how I wanted it cooked). The “lack of customers” mystery was quickly solved.

    It did allow us plenty of time to shop afterward. The ever-efficient shopper Linda was either feeling the effects of the supper or was just in a good mood knowing her shopping responsibilities had already been completed. This manifested in a night of sarcastic comments and humor as I desperately tried to find the perfect Christmas gift. I was also trying to get Linda to pick out few gifts for herself, since she gave me a wish list with a whopping 6 or 7 items on it that I was forced to give to others who were looking for gifts. I had threatened a Chia Pet or The Clapper if she didn’t give me any additional ideas. After a few stops we ended up at Barnes and Noble and by that time Linda was on a roll pointing out a number of gift options in jest. As we turned the corner Linda spots this:

    hit the jump to see the rest of the story.

    Continue reading A Christmas Scorn