Am I Still Good? November 28, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Squirrels, Picture of the Day, Castle , 1 comment so far
Ain’t That The Truth November 27, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Squirrels, Picture of the Day, Marketing, Castle , add a comment
Darth Vader Meets LDS November 26, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Puter Stuff, Squirrels, Picture of the Day, Religion , 1 comment so far
So Thankful It Hurts November 23, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Squirrels, Must Listen, Insider, Family, TimeWaster, TimeKillers, Castle, Friends , 5commentsI’m immobile. Perhaps permanently confined to my lazy-boy and a soon to be 60 Minutes or Oprah special on obesity. A gluttonous mountain of hot Latino, stuffed with such tastiness I fear the police may come knocking to question the legality.
My mom really outdid herself this year, every dish was superb. The turkey wasn’t dry, the mashed potatoes weren’t lumpy and the gravy… oh the gravy! Such delectable roasted flightless fowl juice! It challenges my refreshing Sprite for the tile of ‘Sweet Nectar of the Gods’. I find myself drooling at the memory of it. Too many trips back for more, I lose count and just keep calling them “seconds”, I might have blacked out from the pain and joy. The bottles of wine might have played a part as well.
Slowly I recover from the feeding frenzy as the gravy lust subsides. My body finally forces me to stop, the laws of physics call. The new jeans I wear, which were too big, are now much too tight. I fear the lining of my stomach may tear apart if I move too suddenly. Internal organs bathed in masticated flesh and vegetables…no I must not think that. The horror of all that wasted gravy….
Sitting here, unable to reach the remote - I think of what I’m thankful for. My old co-worker Sue would call them blessings, my dear friend Jason would call it luck - the good fortune I’ve been allotted has taken many forms and shapes, sometimes not so obvious and other times so delightful I feel wrapped in joyx.
The engineers who designed this chair to hold my massive girth come to mind. As do the engineers from Nissan who designed the crumple zone of that Nissan Sentra which kept me alive many years ago. Of the emergency room witchdoctors which may have saved my life when I had chest pains. Pam the nurse who assisted when my daughter was born.
I think of the true friends I have in my life - old and new. David McInnis who’s taught me many things about business, management and generosity. Willybob for always being true and understanding. The Bonz for mentoring and forgiving me. Travis for being the poster child for a life-long boyhood friend and McGerr for not making me listen to his music. Carl I can’t imagine my life without you in it. My dear talented Penguins whom I judge all others against. Cari & Terry who let me vent, make me laugh and think my “quirks” are adorable.
And of course shout outs: Paolo you’ve shown me there’s hope yet for mankind. Jiyan, Robin, and Ryan - for showing me that creative and intelligent people do exist on the East coast. Bob & Mark of Vocus, I learned a few things about surviving in a large, public company. Mike & Joe who claim that not every gay man wants me. Chris for entertaining me by being a closet Mexican and Matt for not being a Latino.
My family, well most of them - you guys aren’t all that bad. I’m thankful for my animals - as Izzy and WeeWee play fight at my feet. The only thing that would make that scene better is if the Star Trek fight music was playing as they circle one another… Izzy becomes distracted and attacks a wall outlet. I love that damn cat.
It’s been a long time since I’ve reflected on what I’m thankful for. I also skimmed over a few people, but my greasy sausage like fingers are tired of typing. The gravy is taking its final hold on me, time to sleep.
Fishierea November 21, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Picture of the Day , 1 comment so far
Kitten Snuggling Bear November 19, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Picture of the Day, Castle, Friends , 2commentsThis picture reminds me of my kitten.
ThinkFree Office Suite Not Compatible With Apples Leopard November 18, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Puter Stuff, gnash-teeth, OSX, Marketing , 1 comment so farI don’t have much need to create documents, presentations or spreadsheets so the purchase of an outdated version (2004) of Microsoft Office for the Mac at $400 was not an option. I do often receive and need to read such documents and had purchased a copy of ThinkFree Desktop Edition which worked as well as expected before the Leopard upgrade. For the most part it could open simple word documents and spreadsheets, better than OpenOffice and did not require X11 to be running.
Of course the day after I upgrade OSX I needed to open up a few documents and spreadsheets. The native application TextEdit actually can open most word documents - minus any fanciness. The contents of the spreadsheet was a bit more problematic, but I did discover I could cheat. Leopards document coverflow actually allows you to view a file without opening it. In this way I was able to read the Excel file.
Downloading and reinstalling ThinkFree didn’t fix anything and the debugging tool provided zero useful information. A search for ‘leopard’ on their site yielded no results.
My next move as an interm solution, (unless I find the application useful) is running NeoOffice. It’s based off the work of OpenOffice.org office suite and is written in the OSX native Cocoa language. NeoOffice also makes use of some built in applications such as the Apple Address book, spell checker, fonts, and printing support. Being native allows for drag and drop, copy and paste, and not needing to run X11.
I’ll post comments if it’s a viable alternative.
A Dead Segway is a Expensive Segway November 17, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Segway, gnash-teeth, Castle , add a commentI received another call from the Scooter shop in Fairhaven. Apparently the Segway despite being an older model, was upgraded to the newer lithium-ion batters. Which means the previously quoted price is about half as much. 800 clams for each of the batteries.
I’m thinking I might just sit on it until after the holidays. $1600 is more than a quarter of the sticker price for the unit. Crazy.
Long Days Pay Off November 13, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : Puter Stuff, gnash-teeth, OSX , 2commentsI’ve been slaving away literally 10+ hours a day, including weekends, banging my head against digital walls. Combing through news groups, mailing lists, and forums trying to find tips, clues or even solutions to some of the cooler things I want to do with OSX Leopard Server. These things just don’t work like the sparse documentation says. I get obsessed when I know I’m capable of figuring something out but can’t quite get it to work the first try.
It’s mainly been through trail and error of trying to tie four major services together - the number of permutations of sequence of events is mind numbing. Anyways, after starting over from the beginning more than a dozen times and ignoring the poor documentation I’ve made OSX my bitch.
I really should post to all those forums and mailing lists to help those other poor saps out, but damnit I’m tired now.
Camouflage - Fashion For Men November 10, 2007
Posted by Al Castle in : gnash-teeth, Fashion, Friends , 3commentsCamouflage clothing is acceptable for military and outdoors usage for both sexes provided that the clothing is being worn to, from, or during military/outdoor activities.
Camouflage should not be worn, ever, by men as casual-wear. That is, it should not be included in the rotation of your street clothes. Cutting them off into shorts or the sleeves off a jacket - you look like an idiot.
While I’m at it - women should also avoid camouflage, chances are pretty good you’re simply not hot enough to pull it off.
That is all.
