| Thought for the day |
[19 Oct 2006|07:56pm] |
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research.
This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.
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| Word Problem |
[04 Oct 2006|07:57pm] |
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mood |
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 amused |
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You are on a horse, galloping at a constant speed. On your right side is a sharp drop off, and on your left side is an elephant traveling at the same speed as you. Directly in front of you is a galloping kangaroo and your horse is unable to overtake it. Behind you is a lion running at the same speed as you and the Kangaroo. What must you do to safely get out of this highly dangerous situation?
( If you do not know, click here )
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| Mmmm, wine.... |
[30 Mar 2006|08:21pm] |
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mood |
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 drunk |
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music |
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Grimm |
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...left over from the art auction, of course. One of those oh-so-few perks of being a volunteer...!
He's not drunk he's just acting silly...
Nooo, I'm definitely drunk... :-P
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| Last night I had the strangest dream... |
[26 Mar 2006|10:39pm] |
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mood |
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 distressed |
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music |
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"Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder |
] |
I sailed away to China, in a little row boat to find ya,
and you said you had to get your laundry clean...
Yeah I *wish* that's what I'd dreamed about last night. That would've been amusing. My dreams are usually amusing, but this dream wasn't like that at all. This dream was... disturbing...
There's one part I remember vividly: I woke up, and I was in pain. I had to pee, but it hurt a lot more than the typical "gotta pee gotta pee gotta pee" bladder ache. I got up, went to the bathroom to pee, but at first I couldn't. Finally it started to flow, but something was wrong: it didn't feel right. It was thick, sticky, dark red blood... Shocked, I sat down. There was blood all over my hand & on my legs. I remember thinking to myself, "This can't be happening", and at that point suddenly I woke up. Or did I? I was in pain, and I had to pee. I remember thinking to myself, "Am I really awake? Or is this still a dream...?" I finally got up, went to the bathroom...
Boy talk about deja-vu. That really creeped me out. No surprise, considering my track record with issues in that area (see this journal entry for more info). My bladder does ache a bit now, but for all I know that could be anxiety plus an over-active imagination. I wonder what dream-analysis would make of something like that. Probably something totally random like "You were feeling guilty because you were craving pancakes for dinner..." hahaha
On a lighter note, yesterday I worked an art auction fund-raiser for the Gwinnett Humane Society. The auction was held at Regency Fine Art in Norcross. That was fun! My job was to bring items marked for auction up to the auction area, then during the auction I marked items with winning bidder numbers and set them aside for later pickup. I was very impressed with some of the artwork there. There were several pieces that I would've loved to have, but of course those were all in the $750+ range hahaha. They did have some door prizes though. Cris won an 11x17 print of Salvador Dali's Dante Purified, in a beautiful matte frame. I almost begged her for it, but something about the glow in her eyes shut me up. She obviously loves Dali even more than I do. Besides, I should probably hold off on any home decorations until after Kathy & I get married in July. YEA!!!!
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| Great Truths |
[20 Mar 2006|10:07am] |
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mood |
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cheerful |
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GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap
GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree
2) Wrinkles don't hurt
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy
GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD
1) Growing up is mandatory; growing old is optional
2) Forget the health food: I need all the preservatives I can get
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone
THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE
1) You believe in Santa Claus
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus
3) You are Santa Claus
4) You look like Santa Claus
SUCCESS
At age 4 success is......not peeing in your pants
At age 12 success is....having friends
At age 16 success is....having a drivers license
At age 35 success is....having money
At age 50 success is....having money
At age 70 success is....having a drivers license
At age 75 success is....having friends
At age 80 success is....not peeing in your pants
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| psst! Hey buddy.... want a cat? |
[08 Mar 2006|09:21pm] |
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mood |
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 frustrated |
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Tonight was going to be awesome. Yesterday our CIO gave me two suite-level tickets to tonight's Thrashers/Rangers game. I don't care for the Thrashers much but I like the Rangers and I love going to hockey games. The difference between a live hockey game vs. one on TV is kind of like the difference between going to a concert vs. watching MTV. There's no comparison. The tickets were for suite A13 - about as close to the center as you can get. Limited seating, private bathroom, private bar, couches, you get the idea. I was *really* looking forward to going.
What happened? Well, blame it on one of the cats. I recently took in a foster cat named Rolo. According to the release of ownership paperwork Rolo is an unspayed female tuxedo tabby, but in reality he's a neutered tomcat. One of his ears is notched; sometimes rescue groups will do that when they alter a feral cat. He definitely isn't feral, but he is an odd one. He yowls at night like a female in heat. He keeps gettin' jiggy with the couch cushions (note to self: don't lean back). He keeps spraying: it smells but it doesn't stink the way tomcat spray would. Definitely an odd one. Maybe the mystery rescue group goofed when they neutered him. Maybe he's got an undescended testicle. Maybe he really *is* a she, with extra hardware.
Anyways, I came home at lunchtime to grab a change of clothes for the game. On the way back to work I kept noticing a faint musty, stale odor. I finally realized with a shock it was coming from my change of clothes. Sudden stop, quick u-turn, back to the house. That little fucker Rolo had sprayed most of the clothes hanging in my closet -- including most of my dress shirts, a sports coat and a leather jacket.
So I repeat: ANYBODY... want a cat?
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[23 Jan 2006|10:16pm] |
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mood |
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 contemplative |
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| You Are a Seeker Soul | 
You are on a quest for knowledge and life challenges.
You love to be curious and ask a ton of questions.
Since you know so much, you make for an interesting conversationalist.
Mentally alert, you can outwit almost anyone (and have fun doing it!).
Very introspective, you can be silently critical of others.
And your quiet nature makes it difficult for people to get to know you.
You see yourself as a philosopher, and you take everything philosophically.
Your main talent is expressing and communicating ideas.
Souls you are most compatible with: Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul |
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[07 Jan 2006|10:15pm] |
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mood |
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 discontent |
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drip....drip....drip....drip....
That's what I encountered yesterday morning. That steady, monotonous sound.
drip....drip....drip....drip....
I didn't even realize there was a problem until I noticed the cats were acting oddly. They were sitting in a circle, facing inwards, and their heads were all bobbing up & down in unison.
drip....drip....drip....drip....
Their eyes tracked every drop as it fell to the floor, then rose back up to the ceiling in anticipation of the next drop. It was so compulsive I almost started doing it myself. Then it occured to me where I was.
drip....drip....drip....drip....
Downstairs...
...in my dining room...
...right below the upstairs bathroom with the stand-up shower that I just rebuilt...
*SIGH*
Good news is the water was dripping from an A/C vent. No stain on the ceiling that I can see. The vent isn't under the shower, but it *is* in line with where the drain pipe should run. Bad news is I'll have to cut a hole in the ceiling to repair the drain, and my dining room has a tray ceiling. That'll be tricky.
drip......drip........drip............drip................drip....
So... how's YOUR New Year goin'?
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| Here today, gone tomorrow... |
[08 Dec 2005|11:02pm] |
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mood |
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 pensive |
] |
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music |
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Kenna - Freetime |
] |
But wait!!! What happened to yesterday...?
So yeah I've been missing for months now. I'd like to say I was on sabbatical, or maybe a really long vacation, but that's not it at all. The truth be told, I've been experiencing technical difficulties. It seems like that's been the case ever since I moved into this house over a year ago. It took months to get my Internet working reliably, plus countless calls to BellSouth before I finally bailed and switched back to Charter cable. Then my laptop started acting up. It would work fine at work, but at home it'd spontaneously reboot without warning. That was so annoying I gave up on IM & blogs - it just wasn't worth it. I finally got a new laptop, woo hoo, only to start experiencing the exact same problem within a week. I finally tracked that down to a buggy version of DeadAIM, unloaded it, everything works great!!! for maybe a month, then the damn thing died while I was on a business trip. Defective motherboard memory, which corrupted a lot of important files on my hard drive. Took over two weeks to get it repaired, and now I'm reloading everything from scratch.
Two years ago all of this wouldn't've been a problem. I would just pop online in my spare time at work. Of course that was before HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, compliance initiatives, good-bye old CIO, never-ending audits, senseless department changes, upgrade initiatives, acquiring America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, hello new CIO, what's this we're going private, you get the idea. I never thought I'd say this before, but I'm actually beginning to hate my job. It used to be fun: frustrating at times, but never boring. Now it's become Too Much to Manage. There really are a million & one details to worry about. Too many little things that keep getting in the way of the big things. I can't see the forest for the trees! Plus I just found out we're looking at maybe three more acquisitions over the next 12-18 months, oh boy... maybe I should be reevaluating my current job...?
So yeah, the way things are going I'll still be missing months from now. But there IS hope: the new(ly repaired) laptop is finally working well, my vacation starts next week, my year-end bonus is due any day now, and every day it gets a little closer I'm getting married in July!!! That's so much to look forward to, it makes everything else seem puny & insignificant. I love you Kathy!!!
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[11 Sep 2005|12:21am] |
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mood |
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anxious |
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Well the big acquisition is complete. With the addition of America's Best, National Vision, Inc. is now the 4th largest optical company in the nation. Joyous. As the Sr. Systems Administrator, guess who's responsible for making everything electronic work together? Yep, me. Moi. Yah.
My marching orders are very explicit:
1) Link the networks
2) Link the e-mail systems
3) Link the phone systems
...and oh yeah did I mention everything has to be done by Oct 29th...
Sound simple? The devil's in the details. The goal is to integrate their systems into our systems without changing their operations. Yep. That's gonna be grand. Funny thing is, I know almost exactly what needs to be done. Every single step has been laid down in a detailed plan that's typed, bound and sitting open at page 1 right in front of my mind's eye. Getting it done by the 29th will take an Army of Me's though, and last time I checked there's only one...
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| I'm lovin' it... |
[02 Aug 2005|11:28pm] |
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mood |
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amused |
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I must say the McDonalds on Old Peachtree is by far the strangest I've ever been in. Marble floor tiles, black leather seats with dark wood, intimate little booths with etched-glass dividers, classical music and even a two-sided fireplace complete with fake fire logs. Strange place; not what you expect from the fast food industry.
OTOH their crew is more like what I'd expect. Especially the night crew. For example, tonight I was driving home from Kathy's and got an urge for a shake. I pulled up to the drive-through speaker box, and sat there... sat there... sat there... and just when I was about to pull away:
McD: "uhm yeah man welcome to McDonalds you want to try a combo meal?"
Me: "No, I just want a small chocolate shake. That's all"
McD: "hey that's cool man pull on to the second window!"
*puzzled frown* as I pull around the corner I can see a puff of smoke coming out of the window. I pull up and there are two lit mini-cigars sitting on the window sill. The smoke smells good, but a bit on the sweet side. The cashier looks really confused. I ask how much, and he looks even more confused. Just then the manager comes around the corner looking really hyper:
Mgr: "Uhm here you go man that's cool, it's on me, go have fun" *handing me a large chocolate shake*
Me: "Uhhhh okay... uhm... could I get a straw?"
Mgr: *laughing* "Oh yeah man that'll be $2.25... haha just kidding here ya go later man..."
*shaking head* I was a little suspicious of the shake, but it was good... at least I'm not feeling anything yet...
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[26 Jul 2005|01:33pm] |
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mood |
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satisfied |
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Wondering where I've been these past few months? So have I!!! A lot of my free time has been spent with my awesome fiancé ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tempusfugit3. My weekends have been busy with volunteering at the Humane Society and at Saint Davids. Pretty much everything else has been taken up by my employer: National Vision, Inc. For better or worse, that last part is about to change...
This morning, National Vision, Inc. announced their intention to buy America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses. In short, America’s 5th largest optical retailer (NVI) is buying America’s 6th largest optical retailer (America’s Best) to become the 4th largest. For me, that means more work integrating & consolidating two network infrastructures.
The purchase is contingent upon a successful tender offer for all NVI shares (i.e. stock) from a Boston based private equity firm called Berkshire Partners at a price of $7.25 per share. If the tender is successful, National Vision will become a private company. For me, that means no longer worrying about whether or not NVI is compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As soon as the ink dries (and the Inc dissapears) SOX compliance will become voluntary instead of mandatory. That's a major workload off my shoulders.
Given that NVI is still a publicly traded company, I can’t say much beyond that for now. See attached for more info:
( PRESS RELEASE )
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[02 Jul 2005|11:30am] |
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mood |
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 ecstatic |
] |
She said YES!!!!
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| woo hoo!!! |
[28 Apr 2005|09:35pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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amused |
] |
Your Taste in Music:
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| 90's Alternative: Highest Influence | | 90's Rock: Highest Influence | | Alternative Rock: Highest Influence | | Progressive Rock: Highest Influence | | 80's Alternative: High Influence | | Hair Bands: High Influence | | Punk: High Influence | | 90's Pop: Medium Influence | | Adult Alternative: Medium Influence | | Heavy Metal: Medium Influence | | 80's Rock: Low Influence | | Classic Rock: Low Influence | | Ska: Low Influence |
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[28 Apr 2005|09:12am] |
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mood |
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 stressed |
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Holy crap it's been a busy month. I haven't even had time to read LJ, much less post updates. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I'm going to ease back into being an LJ regular. Lotsa stuff to update, maybe I'll find time to expand on those things later.
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[29 Mar 2005|10:17pm] |
So yeah the Collective Soul concert Friday night. It was really good. tempusfugit3 covered it pretty well here, but she did leave out some details.
For example, when we first found the balcony it was really crowded. I didn't see any open seats, so we opted for sitting on the ledge just in front of the railing. There was a large group of older women but they didn't mind us sitting in front of them. One of the women looked quite butch but they were friendly enough. Anyways, people kept coming in so we kept scooting down further and further. The last scoot, after I'd sat there for a few seconds, there was a sudden shocking nudge right up my butt. WHOA, turns out I'd sat down on somebody's foot! I looked up and surprise surprise it was that butch lady flexing her toes and grinning. She leered down at me and said "How YOU doin'?"
We moved...
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