King Kountry Dancers

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Yep, Sarah has a twin in this one
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Bringing some heat!!!

Without going into a huge discussion of the 'symptoms' that forced the need for the replacement of our 15 year old water heater, a buddy came over Sunday afternoon to help me with the task.

 

15 years ago, the 40 gallon water heater cost about $125-$150.  That price included the water heater, installation parts and labor (my father-in-law & I).  The 50 gallon replacement tank, with installation parts, cost almost $530. No, that is not a typo!  (I won't get into why they are so expensive now. Hint - government and new safety issues)

 

After the installation was completed, and leaks fixed, I set the new thermostat at approximately the same location on the dial as the previous heater had been, realizing that I may have to adjust it slightly up-or-down on Monday.

 

Fast forward to that night and time for my shower:  I set the shower knob at the normal location for the temperature I like (normally a very hot shower) and got in.  The water started off warm (as usual) and began warming up.  I was sitting in my shower chair and reaching for the soap as the water continued to get hotter, very quickly.  Next thing I know, scalding hot water is hitting me ... I screamed like a little girl as I thought I was inflicting my internal organs to third-degree burns!  I have never felt water that hot come from a shower before.  I could have easily cooked pasta in that water.

 

Needless to say, I lowered the thermostat level on the new water heater shortly after I recovered!

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Oliver North book signing event

I did something yesterday I really thought I would never get to do: meet Oliver North!

 

I got an email from mardel.com earlier in the week advising that Oliver North would be in Oklahoma City for a book signing.  Needless to say, I instantly called Renee and let her know about the event.  Once we confirmed we didn't already have plans for Saturday (this would have pre-empted pretty much anything!), I put the event on my calendar.  Without getting into all the details, we arraigned for my nephew Matt to go with us.

 

The signing was scheduled to start at 8:00pm.  Those of you who know me will understand when I share that we got to Mardels at 6:45.  Yes, over an hour early!  Even being that early, we were still back in the line around 20-25 people from the start.

 

Since we had 75 minutes to waste, while standing in one spot, Matt and were chatting about various topics, and checking out the books around us.  I have placed a picture of Matt attempting to look interested in one of the books to the right.  I have another picture of "Matt being Matt" in a Facebook album with several other pictures from the event here.

 

 

 

 

After the long wait, we got out books signed by Oliver North.  While he was signing my book, I said "happy birthday in two days, sir".  When I said this, he stopped signing my book, looked up at me and asked if I was a Marine.  I told him no, but that I have several friends who are and that 10Nov is an important date to me for that reason (10 Nov 1775 is considered the birthday of the US Marines).  Just as he was closing my book, I followed up with "also, happy birthday last month", as his birthday is 07 October.

 

After we were through, Renee Matt and I went to go get a late dinner, but stayed near the Mardel store.  I had hopes of getting a 'real picture' with Oliver North after the crowd had left the area.  When we came back, Oliver North was no where to be found.  Being that the crowd had dispersed, the store management had closed up the signing event.  Oliver North was in the back signing books for the employees.  I shared with one of the managers that my nephew and I had waited until now to get better pictures with Mr North.  The manager said it was too late and where I might be able to see Mr North the next day.  As we prepared to leave, another manager came up to me and asked if I was the one who wish Oliver North the birthday wishes and I said I was.  He then told me that I was the only one that had mentioned the upcoming Marine Corp birthday and told me not to leave, as Oliver North would be out in just a few minutes. 

 

When he came out, Matt and I were able to get pictures with him:

 

(click on the images to see larger copies)

 

Here is what I received from Mardel to let me know about the event

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Media Bias????

How can the many members of the media claim not to be bias when they are reporting information such as this?

 

 

This screen capture was on MSNBC political race widget at 9:00pm (Oklahoma time).  Now I realize that only 4% of the precincts had reported in, but the percentage of votes at the time are Obama at 37% and McCain at 62%.  But they have already turned the state blue in their chart and placed a check mark next to Obama.

 

What is up with that?

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Blast from the past - First "Date"

Due to the wonderful social networking abilities of Facebook, I bring you a "blast from the past" .... a picture of me the evening of my first date!

 

Yep, that is me when I was 15, if I remember right.  My dad drove me to pick up <name withheld to protect her identity> and take us to a "sweetheart" banquet at our church.

 

It is hard to tell, but that is a blue denim three-piece suite, with an open neck wide collar shirt.  Oh, yeah ... I was a "styling dude" back then.

 

Now that you have had a good laugh, enjoy the rest of your day!

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You just gotta love technology when it works ....

.... but not completely hate it when it doesn't

I ordered a new ID card printer for the ID Card Production office about a month ago. It finally arrived today. With the whole purchase order process at the university, I'm surprised I got it this quickly. Since this type of printer is completely different than what we currently have in the office, I only ordered one. This will allow me some time to make system and procedural modifications prior to replacing all of our printers.

Let's just say today didn't go smoothly. So much so that I don't even have the printer in my officethis evening. Due to various "ribbon identification" issues, the vendor boxed it back up and took it to their repair site. All in all, the printer model is an absolute workhorse, and I figure mine got a little bit out of whack in the shipping (...hum, if it had worked, would it have been considered "in whack"?).

Due to the technology advancements since we last ordered printers, I will be able to lower the number of printers in the office from seven(7) to three(3) - with the third being a spare printer. I will also be able to reduce the number of card template blanks from five(5) to one(1). The new printer has the ability for duplex printing, so it can print the different back images as needed. Pre-printing card template backs costs me $0.10 per card, but the duplex printing ribbon averages $0.06 per card. This will allow an overall initial savings of $0.04 per card, which will add up considering the thousands of cards we print per semester!
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Joe, this post is for you

Yesterday, while enjoying the OSU lead over Missouri, I got a call from an old friend. Joe M. is a guy I know from a previous life (job responsibility) that I have met in person only a few times, but it seems like we have known each other forever. We talk on the phone several times a year, especially to call each other for birthdays and the like. Renee knows him as the guy who sent the huge basket of brownies when I was in the hospital after my accident (when I say huge, I mean it fed three shifts of nurse, besides all the friends and family that came to see me - yeah - HUGE).

I met Joe when he was trying to sell me some training solutions for our CIS personnel (CIS= Computing & Information Services - Pre IT). While I won't mention the name of the company here, the initials are ML. Joe was in the 'College and University' side of the sales team at time. Since then, he has been moved over to the 'Government' side of the sales department. Joe has the type of personality that never meets a stranger, and gets along great with everyone .... everyone except the new VP of the company it seems.

I guess to be accurate here, the VP seems to be the type that only meets strangers, someone that doesn't communicate well with others and builds his decisions based upon those non-communication moments.

Joe was at the top of his game in regards to sales. In fact, he was at the top of everyone's game, as he has been the leading sales guy within his side of the sales area for a while. But that didn't keep the VP from giving Joe the boot last week, the day after his 12 year anniversary with the company.

Joe has a strong faith in the Lord, and knows that this will all work out for good, but it is still a shock to me.

I doubt any other employees with the company (let's call it, um, BrainGuide) read this blog, but if you do I make the following recommendations:
1. Fire up the word processor of your choice
2. Open your resume (or start one if you don't have a copy)
3. Get it updated
4. Start covertly looking for another job

If Joe wasn't safe there, none of the others are either ... unless you have the word 'president' somewhere within your official title.

Side note: #17 OSU went on to beat #3 ranked Missouri with a final score of 28-23.
GO POKES!
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A new 'member' of our family

I would like to introduce you to Clarisza. She is a beautiful eight year old living in the Philippines.

 

Some history: When Sarah was nine or ten years old and asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said she wanted to sponsor a child through Compassion International. We started the monthly sponsorship in her name and was provided the information for a young girl about Sarah's age named Mary Grace. Over the years Sarah received several letters from Mary Grace keeping her informed of what was going on in her life and village, and Sarah wrote to her as well.

 

Shortly after Sarah left for college, we received our last letter from Mary Grace. She advised she was moving to be with her aunt, as she had an opportunity to attend college near her aunt's house. The move would mean that Mary Grace would no longer be within the Compassion International program. In short, both Sarah and Mary Grace were leaving home to go to college.

 

Enter Clarisza: Renee and I didn't want to end the sponsorship opportunity, and Hope had been expressing an interest helping others, so we started working with Compassion International to change the account over from Sarah's name to Hope's. Renee and Hope went online and found Clarisza. She is about six weeks younger than Hope. Her hobbies of dolls, art/drawing, singing and listening to music match perfectly with many of Hope's hobbies. Renee and I anticipate that we will have another great period of ten years or so of hearing from another sponsored child, as well as helping/encouraging our daughter to communicate with her sponsored child.

 

If you aren't currently involved in a sponsorship program, such as Compassion International, World Vision, or any of the other programs, please take the time to think/pray about it as well as research the opportunity. For the price of one evening out a month at a really nice restaurant and movie, you can help change the life of a child and their family. In Clarisza's area, most adults work as day laborers and earn the equivalent of $95 per month.

 

Also, if you would add Clarisza (health, education, family, etc) and Hope to your prayer list (their future pen-pal relationship), I would be eternally grateful.

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Shirt Alert .... shirt alert

Yesterday's mail brought the most recent copy of Wireless Catalog.  This is the amazing catalog that always has numerous new shirts that I would love to have in my closet.  But, instead of filling my closet with the great designs, I am only able to fill my blog with them. 

 

The choices of the ones to share were hard to choose from, but here are some of the ones that made the cut for this post:

 

 

Feel free to visit the site and pick a few of your favorites!!!!

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Possible virus alert ...

If you get an email with the subject line of "Nude photos of Sara Palin", don't open it as it may contain a virus.

If you get an email with the subject line of "Nude photos of Hillary Clinton", don't open it as it may contain nude pictures of Hillary Clinton.

This was found in my inbox from sender unknown and has not been confirmed with snopes.com.
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Yes, I am a HERO!

Ok, ok ....  I only donated blood, but I got a shirt that says I am a hero.

 

It seems there is a blood donation drive on campus every month.  Both the Red Cross and the Oklahoma Blood Institute show up for the drives (but not at the same time).  Today's visit was by OBI.  Being that they were setup in the Student Union Starlight Terrace right across from my office, I decided to use my lunch break to donate blood.

 

Instead of just a normal visit for blood donation, when a donor simply "bleeds into a bag", I opted for an apheresis donation. 

 

From OBI's web site:

Apheresis (a-fe-REE-sis) is a special automated type of blood donation that involves collecting whole blood from a donor, but instead of separating components in the lab, the components are automatically separated online while you donate. Since the majority of patients are treated with only one particular blood component, an apheresis donation is more efficient and beneficial to the donor. Apheresis allows a single donor to provide more of the single component needed by a patient. By reducing the number of donors needed to meet a patient's need, the chances of a patient reaction or rejection are decreased.

 

This process took a little more time than normal - I was hooked up for about 35 minutes, as opposed to my normal donation time of 12-15 minutes.  However, considering the result (... allows a single donor to provide more of the single component needed by a patient), the extra time is worth it.

 

I don't know where/when tradition of giving t-shirts to blood donors started, but the image above is the shirt that was being handed out today.  I've got a few other donor shirts at home, and even had one on the day I broke my leg (which later lead to the amputation). 

 

The nurses at the ER went to extreme lengths not to cut that shirt off, since they said they like people to wear donor shirts to get the word out to donate blood.  And, after the fifteen (15) units of blood I received in 2001, I am grateful for blood donors as well.

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Consider yourself Barack-Rolled

 

Someone with a lot of time on their hands, as well as some mad clip-editing skills has put together a Barack-Roll video, overtop the normal Rick-Roll music ... and they did a quality job.

 

Following the creation of the above video, it was later spliced into video from the RNC tape of McCain's speech, making it appear that McCain got Barack-Rolled (see below)

 

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Enable multiple monitor support in Remote Desktop

Multiple monitor support is available in Remote Desktop as long as the monitors are the same resolution and aligned side-by-side.

1. Open the command prompt by clicking the Start button, All Programs, Accessories, and then open Command Prompt.
2. Type Mstsc /span and then press Enter on your keyboard.
3. Now you can connect to a remote computer using Remote Desktop with multiple monitor support.

Another method involves already having an .rdp file saved to connect to another machine.  Create a shortcut with the following command properties:

               mstsc.exe ShortcutToMyComputer.rdp /span

(change the info to point to the proper rdp file)

 

Note: If you are using a computer with multiple monitors, you can drag the width of the RDP session across the width of both monitors, so that you actually make full use of the span command.  If not, you will just have to scroll left/right to see everything.

 

Appropriate disclaimers:

• If you do not understand, or cannot read, all directions, cautions and warnings, do not use this product.
• This product is meant for educational purposes only.
• Subject to change without notice
• Some assembly required.
• Your mileage may vary

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This looks like an absolute BLAST!

Toilet Paper Game
Perhaps one of the most recognized athletic traditions at JBU is the annual Toilet Paper Game. At the first home men’s basketball game each season, on the first FIELD GOAL by JBU, toilet paper is tossed onto the floor by fans. (see accompanying video) This is an exciting event and draws many fans and brings on the first technical foul of the year.

 

 

Other videos of the tradition can be seen here (YouTube) or here (JBU - wmv file) 

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I am officially a "Golden Eagles" fan!

Sarah is now at John Brown University (wikipedia entry) in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.  As such, she is a Golden Eagle and that automatically makes me a Golden Eagle fan.

 

Being the techno-geek I am, I had to make an appropriate wallpaper for my Nokia 6555 cell phone.  The 6555 is a clam-shell (flip) phone, so there is both an internal and external screen.  Since the internal screen is cluttered with short-cut icons, calendar entries, inspirational notes, etc ... I decided to make the wallpaper for the 128x160 pixel external screen.

 

The image to the right is a mock-up of the wallpaper as it is displayed on my phone, with the signal strength, battery level, AT&T carrier info and date/time displayed on the screen.

 

Other JBU Golden Eagle fans:

If you stumbled across my blog while searching for a cell phone wallpaper, you can download the actual wallpaper image I am using here.

 

Go Golden Eagles!

 

 

Note: These logos are registered trademarks of John Brown University and are used with permission.

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Can we stop the clock (calendar)?

Alternate title: I don't want tomorrow to get here!

 

Tomorrow is the last time we will drive to Sarah's college as four, but return as three ... and I am not looking forward to it.

 

All the girls (Renee, Sarah and Hope) have been sad for the last couple of weeks as moving plans have been being finalized, but I have tried to maintain a firm facade.  But with it being approx 24 hours until we start the drive, it is very hard for me to keep my composure. Today is going to be a LONG day!

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I don't seem to remember these Olympic moments

Enjoy:

 

 

Commentary is in French (sorry):

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Who is in your speed-dial?

I found my own personal method for setting up the majority of the entries on my cell phone speed-dial:
1 - Voice Mail (set by manufacturer)
2 (abc) - Renee (wife - #1 was taken by v-mail)
3 (def) - Henry
4 (ghi) - Home
5 (jkl) - Joe (buddy)
6 (mno) - Mom
7 (pqrs) - Sarah
8 (tuv) - Todd (buddy)
9 (wxyz) - GOOG-411

 

My method (except for 1,2,3 & 9) is to tie one of the letters from each button to the first letter of the person it is assigned to.  I would have put Renee on #1 (since she is my #1), but that was taken by v-mail, so she got #2.  If you know Henry, you would know why he doesn't fit into any normal mold, so he got #3.

 

If you don't know about Goog411, you need to learn about it!  Calling information (411) from a cell phone normally costs well over a dollar a call.  How would you like a free option (except cell time use) that can:
- automatically connect you to the number you are looking for
- send you a text message with business name, phone number, address and map link

- doesn't play about 30-45 seconds of advertising to 'pay' for itself

 

For more information, via the GOOG-411 homepage or watch the video below:

 

I use the TEXT MESSAGE option just about every time I call, so I will have the phone number I am looking for at a later time.  After Goog411 acknowledges it sent a text message, it then connects you with the number.

 

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How NOT to win friends and influence enemies!

I believe the old saying of When in Rome, do as the Romans doesn't apply to making "Chinese eyes" when in China.  That is exactly what Spain's Olympic basketball team is doing below during a photo-shoot for some courier company. 

 

The sad part of the story:  This is the image that was used in the sports daily Marca, Spain's best-selling newspaper.

 

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I feel like a one legged man at a butt-kicking party ...

... and I know for a fact that 50% of that statement is correct.

 

With the recent resignation of the IDCP (ID Card Production) supervisor, I have been tasked to provide the day-to-day supervision of that office along with all of the other duties I have.  Between that and a couple sets of days of annual leave for family time before Sarah leaves for college, I just haven't really had time to blog.

 

And now with the Olympics starting, there is another great blog-blocker!

 

As Lt Gen Douglas MacArthur stated in 1942:  I Shall Return!

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