Choices
Habits run on autopilot, so to change one I set a standing order to notice it, then ask “What Would I Do?” as my heroic, values-driven self.
All posts tagged: personal
Sometimes I tag very loosely or obscurely so the link might not be obvious.
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Sprint for Health Millstone
Eighty-six days from my goal, avoiding sweets and grains has been easy because I vividly imagined two futures, one strong at 55 and one in a hospital bed.
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Tomatoes for strength
Three weeks of the Pomodoro Technique have structured my days and improved my productivity, and the push-ups I do during the five-minute breaks are making me stronger.
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I’ll sleep when I’m dead
Sleeping little to get work done only brings that day closer; after studying Paleo sources, I found that a full night’s sleep gives nearly super-human clarity and energy.
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The game of life
I’m committing to get under 200 pounds, starting with 210 by vacation from 238 today, by eating no sugar or grains, playing hard, weighing in daily and writing about it.
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Idea, Fortune, Fame, Hammock
In college my goal was simply to own a hammock and have the freedom to really use it, which meant making enough money to live on the interest.
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Mind Games
Despite every reason to dismiss it, I want to spend my spare time writing video games, the thing that hooked me on programming back on my Dad’s TRS-80.
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Happy One
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Blue-Tongued Blur
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Bike Race Pictures
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College Textbook swindle
My brother bragged about buying a semester of books for $102, so here is my method for beating the textbook racket: buy only what you really need and stash library copies.
Note
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Looking back
I’ve mostly avoided looking at this for years. I assumed the neglect would make me feel bad. But I enjoyed paging through a few of the things I’ve written. And since social media seems to be a disaster lately but I still want an outlet for this sort of self-indulgent stuff I think I’ll try using this again.
Heck maybe I’ll even fire up an RSS reader too. I used to really enjoy the Internet.
Wonder if Alli & Ash will help me by updating the logo and making some other drawings.
Alli doodled the drawing to the left in about 30 seconds to try out my new pencil and iPad. She didn’t give me permission to post it but hopefully she won’t mind.
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Making Plans
For a while now I’ve been trying to do a lot of things and getting many accomplished, but really want some focus on less things that I make tangible progress on. And so I am looking to set myself some constraints in order to actually get things where I want them to be. A few vague plans I have are to ship a game this year. Actually I’d like to ship two games, but I am still floundering in the beginning stages of understanding and putting together a basic 2D OpenGL game engine. So my plan is to have a rough beta version of something that at least works by my birthday. Then I can set a new goal for shipping it. That should help give me some focus.
Also along that front I’m thinking I should blog consistently about the things I do and learn while working on the game so it forces me to really solidify my understanding.
I’d also like to really get my health to a better place. On Saturday Allison’s karate school, East West Karate, had a class for parents of new students to learn a few basics so we can experience some of what they are doing first hand. It really made me miss my training. Now I haven’t been to the gym or done any serious workout in months so I’ve been sore now for two days. But on top of that I’ve gotten the best nights of sleep that I’ve had in recent memory due to actually using my body a bit.
So I’m considering joining their adult classes. As I’ve already earned a black belt, they would allow me to wear it to their school and help me have an accelerated version of their curriculum. But I have mixed feelings about that. I did work hard and earn it, but I am severely out of practice and wouldn’t want to embarrass myself or the school who awarded me my black belt by showing up there next week. Also I’d want to do it only if I really am sure I’m committed to it. So I’m thinking I’ll set myself a target of June to get myself into better shape through a concentrated training program at the gym, and probably 2 or 3 days a week run myself through some exercises trying to recall and practice some of the martial arts skill that I had earned through hard work and let slip away.
Also I have plans to attend a Thinking Directions pilot class in New York City on Saturday from noon — 3, and I’m also very excited about that. I’ll have to see if I know anyone in New York that wants to grab dinner before I catch the NJT back to Trenton.
BIG THINGS COMING YOUR WAY! WATCH OUT!
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The joy of focus
Today I forgot to eat breakfast and got moving very late because I was immersed in what I was doing. Spending so much time being interrupted and allowing myself to be interrupted I had started to forget the pure and simple joy of focused, productive work. I intended to try and achieve that state as often as possible. I need to blow off a few meeting reminders, phone calls and the like. It’s good for the soul.
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Growing Up
Today I was really hit by the fact that one of the hardest parts of parenting isn’t even in the same building as cleaning up bodily fluids or going upstairs to “fix the covers” for the 3rd time in 15 minutes.It’s in encouraging the push for independence, and growth.
My wife sent me a snapshot of Allison before running her to her first day of pre-school. And I felt quite a strong bit of emotion. I am still not sure if it is reluctance, fear, sadness, joy or all of them pushed together.
Happy first day, Allison!
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That’s my girl
Tonight during Monday Night Countdown on ESPN watching a segment called “Jacked Up!” Where they review the top 5 big hits of the football games this weekend. Allison started cracking up during the hits, when we said “boom!” Yeah that’s right, big hits are universally enjoyable, as long as you aren’t the one being hit.
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Happy Birthday Allison
I guess getting old for me means my daughter’s first birthday. What a wonderful year. And an even better **now**. Happy Birthday, Allison!
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Mainstream sports publicity for my Brother
Tom got some real mainstream sports publicity today, he was on Bill Simmons’ links of the day. Big sports fans need not apply, but Simmons is quite a popular online sports writer for ESPN. So maybe his adsense revenue will take a nice jump.
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continuous partial attention
I was lead to the concept of continuous partial attention through an entry about email overload. I am very conflicted on this concept because, I know I am so much more productive when I can concentrate and block out the world. But I also have a tendency to load up my work environment with distractions. IM, email, RSS feeds. So on some level I want to get things done, but on another I guess don’t want to miss anything? When I get into the flow I really get into it, I could go for days barely eating and sleeping because I am so focused on accomplishing something. I can only assume my embracing of distraction has to do with boredom, or not caring enough about the things I am purportedly trying to accomplish. This may be a good time to cast through my mind and find the things that send me into frenzied periods of autistic like concentration, and then find a way to pay the bills doing that. I do have some ideas.
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Friday Afternoon
Got in to work around 6, haven’t eaten lunch. That means it’s been 9 straight hours of work, and it’s nice out. That also means it’s time for a break and to collect on that 800 - 1000 calories I am owed today*. So I am walking to get a sandwich. I’ll also probably pay the idiot tax while I’m out. *: I had a small banana and 6 bread & butter pickle chips. I estimate that to be around 100 calories.
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Phillies
Thanks to Chris & Jen, Michelle & I went to the Phillies game last night. They whupped the Braves, and our seats were ridiculously good. We sat in the first row of the section in left field. So I could throw things at Burrell if I wanted to. The only disapointment was that the three Homeruns that did go to left were either 1 section toward center, or way over our head, like the Andruw Jones’s 50th on the season, that one was a shot. Anyway It was a nice evening out, and the seats were great. Although the Phillies continue to confound. Just when everyone gives up on them, they sweep the Braves. I had fun and even still managed to go to sleep too late.
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Library Dweller
If you are an avid reader, and want to see my book recommendations and reviews, check them out at Library Dweller. Also to get an idea of my goals for that site check out the first entry. I am looking for feedback, and suggestions for *stuff* I should read also, so either comment, or send me recommendations to mclazarus@gmail.com.
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Concise
Inspired by my brother’s NFL season preview, I am going to strive to be more concise in my explanations, descriptions and opinion expression. From what I can see it brings more interesting response, and sure you will be misinterpreted, but at least you will know people read what you wrote. I know many of my work related emails have been skimmed and archived, because, who has the time.
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Buy my books
So I have been selling a bunch of my old books and some other stuff lately, all proceeds go to pay for me going to Mexico with my family next June to attend my Brother-in-law’s wedding. But I figure I have a few people who read my stuff this, so I might as well see if anyone is interested. If you want to buy it through ebay or amazon go right ahead, **but** if you want to just buy it from me directly I’m hapy to offer a discount. If you want to pay via PayPal, you can take 10% off the price listed, just make sure to tell me first, so I can de-list it from th other site. If you want to pay me directly, cash or whatever (as long as I know you), take a full 15% off, since I don’t have to pay the commission. And of course I’ll charge you exact cost for the shipping instead of the flat rate, or you can pick it up. If you want to buy my books check it out:
* half.com listings * amazon listings
Generally pretty slim pickings. But maybe there is something that tickles your fancy. Let me know.
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Meat in the Fridge
Oh yeah, there’s meat in the fridge, and the birds play tonight!
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making the money work
Tom found $20 and is thinking of *investing* it. That reminds me of the $5000 challenge. Some dude is trying to turn an initial investment of $20 into $5000 in 6 months. I think he is a bit behind, but he has made about $500 in around 2 months now (I think he only has 300 liquid but the rest is working for him in inventory) Here’s his blog: $5000 challenge
Anyway I am trying to do something similar but my goals are a lot less aggressive, $2500 by May 1, 2006, from nothing I will miss, so I can go to Mexico for my brother-in-law’s wedding.
I haven’t been able to get much yet, I listed a bunch of stuff on half.com and amazon.com, but haven’t gotten any hits yet, and I have some plans to sell some stuff on ebay to get the process going. I am going to take an initial $20 which is my cash back bonus from my Discover card and apply that to the fund.
This also reminds me of some story from 1st grade about some eels that were given a pearl by their teacher for a summer project. Some of the more industrious eel’s invested theirs and created underwater lemonade stands or casino’s or some other glamorous cartoony venture. One eel buried his in the sand somewhere, and then dug it up for the next year, and not only was he the only jerk who didn’t make a ton of dough, he probably failed the project too. I think it was based on some biblical parable, but I can’t remember what one.
Here’s hoping some hidden marketable talent emerges from no-where so I don’ t have to be the dumb eel.
**Update**: I found the parable. Mathew 25:14-30
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Happy Birthday, Michelle! I love you.
See, isn’t this better than a real gift?
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rain
looking at the rain, I’d rather be walking outside :-(
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So unless you have been living under a rock somewhere you know it is frowned upon to bring a knife onto an airplane. You also probably know that they have a little lottery to decide if a passenger gets an extra special screening by the TSA. Well I sometimes carry a Swiss Army Knife that was a Christmas Gift from my Aunt Judy, Uncle Dom and Niko. I carry it in my backpack that I use to carry my laptop and what at times is a huge collection of electronics gear (usb drive, ipod, travel alarm clock, headphones, airline headphones, usb mouse, cell phone, wireless pcmcia card, laser pointer pen.) Well I flew out of PHL today and the gear bag was at full capacity. And I won the TSA lottery for extra inspection.
Of course I don’t know the knife is in there. And it turns out they don’t either, even though I noticed the TSA worker looking quizically at my USB drive, and checking out my ipod. It wasn’t until I was talking to Michelle a few minutes ago that I noticed the knife while I was looking for my cell phone charger.
Dammit. I have at least 3 more airplanes to get on. And to pass TSA security at least twice more. A knife has to light up like a christmas tree on the XRay machine, otherwise why the hell is the xray machine there. I could check my bag. What a PITA, especially since my original 2 flights and 1 of my subsequent flights were cancelled today. Where would my laptop end up?
So I decide to try the “At your service” line at the Marriot I am staying in. Well they hook it up, a fedex envelope is filled out and set to be shipped back toward my home, for hopefully not too much money. Now I can avoid becoming a mainstay on the terrorist watch list, or avoid further disgust and embarssment as my tax dollars at work to protect the airways continue to miss finding a knife in my bag.
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Podcasting, Fools and Canadian?
Why does google think I am in Canadian. When I am at work and go to google.com it automatically sends me to Google Canada. I know Jersey is a little strange, but I didn’t know we (the US) were shipping them off to be some other countries problem. Apparently it’s All Fool’s day as evidenced by all the half assed Slashdot stories and the whole assed Google Gulp product announcement.
I guess with it being a Friday I will have to read the the joke RFC too. Side note: If you try really really hard to tell a joke and it really is only mildly amusing, does it still count as a joke?
Also I downloaded ipodder last night and grabbed a few podcasts to listen to on the travel to and from work. Mildly interesting, I guess at least as good as some of the commercial radio around here. The only problem is the people tend to not have a very strict agenda and digress into really boring topics or inside jokes, it’s like college radio where all they talk about is how cool it is to be able to communicate over this wonderous medium that is radio. “And here we are voices coming to you through the air, isn’t radio great! I wish everone would do this.”
Although I think an hour long podcast of just the little 5 - 10 second self-promotional rock and roll intros with ominous voiceovers that each caster inevitably makes for themselves would be fun to hear. It would be like just hearing that little segment of the Rob Zombie song Howard uses to launch his show every day, over and over. (Yeah I know, I am the only one driving around at 6 that hears this. But it sounds cool.) Seriously I think most of the people doing podcasting probably wanted to do it, just because they always liked this really cool part of some song wanted to have it as their intro music, much like the WWE wrestlers have, or that episode of the family guy when Peter wished for theme music to follow him around all the time.
“Ridin’ on the bus. Ridin’ on the bus. Ridin’ on the bus ….”
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Audio books & Moles
The ipod experiment is a success so far. I just finished The Gunslinger by Stephe King. It was pretty good, I guess this is probably the best way for me to read the dark tower series. The only problem I have is now I have to wait until the 17th until I can get another book on my audible.com subscription. I guess I will need to hit up the library to find some books on CD. I also ordered some Moleskine pocket notebooks today. From Moleskineus. One I am going to use as a general purpose notebook. The other I am going to use to start a journal to Allison, something she can read someday and see things I thought about while she was growing up. (Thanks for causing me to snap into action on this Ryan.) Now I just have to make an effort to write in it.
I wonder if it matters what kind of pen/ink I use, I want to make sure it doesn’t fade too much over the years.
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ordered an iPod
Well I am joining the ranks of people who have a way too expensive toy. I had a good experience listening to an audio book during my commute, so I took some birthday money, money saved from cancelling my Investors Business Daily subscription and the offer from audible.com to get $100 toward an audio player for signing up for a 1 year subscription, and got the best deal I could find. I grabbed the iPod photo 40 GB which is discontinued, but is currently available through amazon for $360.00 which is of course only $11 more than the 30 GB iPod photo. And the 40 actually comes with a few more accessories (AV cables most notably). Sure it’s slightly bigger (0.12 inches thicker and 0.5 ounces heavier) but I think I can deal with that. You can make the purchase even more inexpensive for me, by buying one yoruself using my referral code: iPod photo 40. Now I won’t have to try and carry wallet photos around either. I also got the Monster Cable iCarPlay iPod Wireless FM Transmitter so I can listen in my car, which is the whole point.
Hopefully it will be arriving in time for me to spend a long weekend playing with it. Excitement abounds.
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Prodigy
Anyway, It was not a one time fluke either, reports out of Montgomery County are just in saying the feat was repeated this morning, with authority. There are a bunch of short but very large AVIs of her trying to roll over, on the increasingly growing gallery, the snapshot here is from one of her initial attempts.
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Happy Birthday to Me
“The say it’s your birthday ….” Thanks for all the food gifts and well wishes I have gotten.
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No More Homing Pigeons
Well I can now retire the homing pigeons, I have this new fangled technology that allows me to talk to people miles away without shouting. Sure it takes 2 copper wires instead of the preferred 1 string and two tin cans, but boy is it keen. Anyway this is just the follow up to my entry on the absolute bungling of my phone service by CavTel, the Verizon guy came here today and was here for about 10 minutes. I now have phone service. I wondered shouldn’t I be without service for 6 days after he claimed I was turned on? Apparently thats not how they do things.
The only downside is that I have a new phone number, because I didn’t want to be without service forever while the phone companies sorted out the paper work to get me my old number back from limbo. So if you need to call me, get my new phone number; somehow.
Maybe I should send CavTel my cell phone bill and associated brain tumor also.
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Like a lion
The continued snowing is vexing me in my commute and in my desire to not shovel. Luckily one of my neighbors has been using his snow thrower early and often, and over a good portion of my property. So thanks for the hand, Ray. I know you will probably never see this, but hopefully your daughter gave you the cookies my wife baked for you after the 2 feet we got a little while back. I left early today to hopefully keep my work to driving ratio high. And if it keeps snowing all night, I may be sitting in my living room working tomorrow. A guy could get used to working from his recliner. If only this laptop didn’t get so hot.
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The McAllister Nation
My brother of Away Message Fame, has decided to take his brand to a new level. Since someday he has aspirations of living in my basement, and I intent to charge outrageous rent, he will need to make some money to fix it up. Also the money would help for buying of food. Toward that end he has chosen writing as a way of trying to make money, so far I think it has only cost him money and also sleep, brain cells and liver health. But now he is finally, going to publish long winded rants and essays on his web page, that are slightly more thought out then his away messages. In the hopes that someone will recognize his talent and start sending him checks. So check it out read The World According to TMC at least weekly. Put his RSS feed into your favorite aggregator. And by all means send him money, my basement could use some work. You can read about the birth of the McAllister Nation here.
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Sinking In
Today I noticed my carton of orange juice says “SELL BY: DEC 16.” This in itself is not very odd or interesting, but coupled with the knowledge that my child is due on December 5th made me pause for a moment this morning and think, “Damn, I have food in my fridge that could still be there when my life makes a very dramatic change.” It’s pretty funny when you have these big life changing events that you know about in advance. I mean sometimes there are pretty dramatic changes in your life that are either abrupt or take a long time, but they are often unexpected or not noticed until afterward. But some you see coming from way off and just the huge wash of emotions that you go through as they approach is a big part of this experience we call life. My experience just got ratched up a notch in intensity by noticing that date today.
Well, I hope you come soon, baby. I’ll save you some orange juice.
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Currently Reading
The palm reading kick is in high gear. I started We the Media by Dan Gillmor, (Book Site) on Saturday and am about 11% through (I don’t know what page that is, but I am basically into chapter 2 at this point. And I am diggin’ it so far. It’s about the media revolutions and the rise of grassroots journalism through weblogs and reporters who get it. Actually it has been inspiring some ideas which I am hoping to look into a little more in the coming weeks. It’s probably worth a read, especially if you like reading nearly as much as I do.
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Six Times
In the past week more than six times as many messages were delivered to my spam folder by spamassassin than my inbox. (not counting mailing list traffic). I also probably had about 10 - 15 spammy messages sneak through to my inbox. So thats:
- 59 to INBOX
- 373 to the caughtspam folder
- 10 misses
- 0 false alarms
That means I got 7.8 times as much spam as I got messages in my inbox. I am sure there are much greater horror stories out there, but damn, I really am not going to buy a rolex or prescription drugs based on an email that looks like a ransom note, because of all the interspersed mispellings and numbers to try and make it through my filters.
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Rhetoric 101
Background: My brother, Tom, is teaching a college freshman rhetoric course and has recently shown Farhenheit 9/11 in his class and apparently asked for some sort of reaction paper to be written. There also was a paper comparing the rhetorical techniques of Gandhi and Malcom X. Seen in Tom’s away message:
In grading student papers over the weekend, I’ve learned the following:
- It’s not fair to remove a president from office before he finishes a war he’s started.
- The war on Iraq was unjust, the president doesn’t seem qualified, and the facts presented in “Fahrenheit 9/11” are disturbing, but it’s unpatriotic to question the president and wrong to vote against him.
- Gandhi was a “coward and a suck-up” and “soft”
- During the 1960s, “some slavery” was beginning to be abolished.
- Americans never get to hear Bush’s side of the story
- Direct quotes: “you are a liar” (to me), and “Michael Moore can eat *&@!”
- Gandhi is more like a “Care Bear” than Malcolm X
- It’s “fucking awesome” that Bush was a cocaine addict and alcoholic
Those are the building blocks of some fine arguments.
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Two and Oh!
E - A - G - L - E - S! EAGLES!!!!!!
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Register to vote, win cash!
Hey everyone, exercise your right to vote, do not disenfranchise yourself. People in the short but storied history of the US have given their lives for the right to vote, so exercise it. Please go sign up to vote, to do so, go here and click on the Rock the Vote link. This is part of a contest that the guys from HotOrNot.org are running, apparently they want to get people to vote, and drum up publicity for themselves. So I got suckered in, why not? So while you are on that page sign up to win 100K, if you use my referal link and win, then I will win 100K also. I signed up a couple weeks ago, I haven’t gotten any spam as a result, therefore feel free. Plus money is good. Register at VoteOrNot.org. If people actually use my link I’ll post back here about how many people I ended up referring. Plus after you sign up, you will get your own referal page you can use to have other people sign up and increase your chances of winning.
But if you don’t want to participate in that, at least register to vote in the general election and do it.
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Lookout Iowa
In a few hours my brother should be rolling into Iowa after his 24 hour stint of driving a 14 foot box truck with 92 Honda Civic in tow. Well he has two friends helping out, Thanks Pat and Ian. I would have liked to go out there for a few days and help him get settled, but since I got the kid on the way around Christmas, I am hoarding vacation days and money. Since he hasn’t chosen an ISP yet he probably won’t be seeing this for a while, but good luck, Tom. You will be missed around here while you are learnin’ how to write all fancy at the fancy writin’ school.
PS: don’t ever rent a UHaul using the internet, it is nothing but trouble, they haven’t figured out how to coordinate the reservations and they always end up screwing it up in some manner, hell, they won’t even tell you where or when you will be getting the truck until the day before. You are much better served paging through the phone book and calling your local UHaul locations. They know their own inventory and schedule and will hold the truck for you. They will even attempt to service special requests. The experience may be different for Ryder or Budget, but I had that experience renting a truck three years ago, and my brother and brother-in-law both had similar troubles this year.
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Philadelphia Fans
The Great Philadelphia Fan Book by Glen Macnow and Anthony Gargano, offers a great insight into the psyche of the Philadelphia Fan in this excerpt:
Through the 1920s, booing remained our little secret. There were no outside reporters of the Michael Wilbon ilk to label us America’s nastiest fans. But that all ended when the A’s hosted the St. Louis Cardinals for Game 2 of the World Series on October 2, 1930.
Among the 32,000 fans on hand that sunny afternoon was President Herbert Hoover, looking for a few hours of escape from the gloomy economic news of the time. In those days—despite the Depression and Prohibition—heckling a president was unheard of. But as Hoover’s limousine drove onto the field near third base, the murmurs began. And when Hoover stepped onto the field and tipped his top-hat, the crowd, let loose.
From everywhere in the park the boos came, said Horvitz. I never heard such booing in my life. Then they started yelling, We want beer. It reverberated over the whole park.
Just started reading the book. So far, so good.
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Jennings!
Ken Jennings has won $376,158 so far on Jeopardy! and he is still going. It is impressive to watch as he hits a groove and runs 3 whole categories in Double Jeopardy! getting both daily doubles. Continued luck, Ken. And way to represent the software engineers of the world.
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Thanks, Michelle
Over the last few days my wife has been awesome. She took care of a bunch of stuff, like having the heater serviced and cleaned, securing reservations for Fourth of July weekend at my Uncle’s in Maryland, along with making a sandwich for my lunch almost every day. On top of that yesterday she woke me up for work with pancakes and bacon warm and waiting. And today she drove me into work, because my car is at Bruce’s for inspection, oil change, etc. And a bunch of other stuff she does to make my life awesome.
Thanks, Michelle, I love you.
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Bike Race Aught-Four
The Manayunk Drinking competition is coming up fast. June 6th is the Wachovia USPRO Championship. And since it is likely that this year may be the last where my brother has a house along the route he has stepped up admirably. To go along with the standard fare of 2 kegs of beer, and various dead animals, there is the centerpiece dead animal, a 40 lb. roast pig. They will be getting this from Cannuli’s Meats in South Philly that specializes in the preparation of these delicacies for similair unholy celebrations. The drinking starts at 6:30 AM, and the definition of “Bike Race Drunk” becomes evident by about noon. There are also rumors that some kind of athletic competition will be ongoing, but I am skeptical. You can read my review of the debauchery from 2003. There are also some crappy pictures. I am hoping to repair my Aiptek pen cam in time to get some better pictures this year. And I am also hoping to hang in without getting totally wrecked, but only time will tell.
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Graduation Cogratulations
My Brother, Tom, graduated from LaSalle University yesterday with a BA in English, Maxima Cum Laude (which means a 3.9 or better GPA). I also witnessed him receive a fistful of honors in the past couple of weeks, including the top student in the English department, where the Professor bestowing the honor indicated that they had run out of awards to give to him.
As a further testament to his ability he has been accepted into and will be attending The Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. For those who don’t know, being accepted to this program is a very high honor. Evidenced by their selection policy summed up on the workshop’s history page:
Though we agree in part with the popular insistence that writing cannot be taught, we exist and proceed on the assumption that talent can be developed, and we see our possibilities and limitations as a school in that light. If one can “learn” to play the violin or to paint, one can “learn” to write, though no processes of externally induced training can ensure that one will do it well. Accordingly, the fact that the Workshop can claim as alumni nationally and internationally prominent poets, novelists, and short story writers is, we believe, more the result of what they brought here than of what they gained from us. We continue to look for the most promising talent in the country, in our conviction that writing cannot be taught but that writers can be encouraged.
So Congratulations and Good Luck, Tom.
When I get a chance I will put some of Tom’s more recent writing samples up here.
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Philly Sports
Updated NFL Power Rankings. Again the Birds are almost on top. Now they just have to continue to perform. And way to take one for the team Sami Kappanen and drag yourself to the bench to clear the way for JR to vanquish the Leafs. That OT period last night made for some good watchin'.
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A long walk
This weekend aside from cutting a mountain of grass I participated in the MS Walk with some friends. I had fun, and I narrowly avoided a foot blister (have to remember to wear better fitting socks when walking several miles), Bob wrote about it here. And while there was discussion of the game we played: The Settlers of Catan:
I really enjoyed taking an emotionally relaxing walk through Tyler State Park with Tara and her parents, Dave, Dave’s friend Kevin, Pat, Tim, and Dia. Afterward we had exactly four people left for a game of Settlers, and Tara fed us well.
I noted it was suspiciously omitted who actually won in this ultimate battle of wits. It was the first time I had played the game, and it was a pretty cool game, much more fun than Scrabble or Yatzee (burn). And it was I, Dave’s friend Kevin, who triumphantly and most accidentally declared victory after a couple of hours.
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Zygote
“A zygote is a gamete’s way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the Universe.” -Robert A. Heinlein For those that don’t already know, Michelle is now about 9 weeks pregnant. Also for those who don’t already know, how come we don’t talk anymore… But seriously, I’m gonna be a Daddy.
I am very excited, and slightly nervous or maybe nervous isn’t the right word, it is more a feeling of awareness. I am slightly more aware of things that I need to do to improve myself, to prepare for the coming of my child.
I just hope I can do for my child a mere fraction of the wonderful life my parents provided for me. Thanks again, Michelle, for making my life even more amazing.
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New and Improved
So which is it? Is it new, or is it the same thing, just improved in some way? Is there some kind of anti-logic class that is required to get a degree in marketing?
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Eagles
Well despite my best efforts, the Eagles didn’t win the SuperBowl this year. Congratulations to the Birds for another excellent season. But like every fan, and gamer addicted to Madden Franchise mode, I have my suggestions for offseason talent aquisition priorities.
- Wide Reciever
- Solid Linebacker (Dawkins can’t make every tackle)
- Running Back (Duce and Buck are both Free Agents)
- Corner Back
Probably a bunch of other stuff..
But thanks for an exciting season.
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Holidays
Merry Christmas Happy New Year!!!
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Return of the King
One of the cardinal rules of filmmaking:
Any movie where one large group of people with swords runs at an opposing group of people with swords is awesome.
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King employs this trick about 172 times, therefore making it whatever awesome times 172 is.
-Tom (my brother in an away message)
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I Cite
Цитирую <- (The actual russian word will show up here if your browser and OS don’t suck.) Apparently the preceding Russian means literally translated (by a computer): “I cite.” As in an attribution at the begining of an email quote.
I really need to learn some other languages.
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My Wife Rules
She stole my car! Ordinarily that wouldn’t make much sense, but in this case it was the exact right thing to do. I asked her to find me somewhere to get my oil changed and my windsheild fixed or replaced. So she did, she tried to get a hold of me but I was busy in meetings this morning, and left my cell phone in my jacket. So she came and stole my car to get the oil changed and get the windshield inspected.
Luckily she thought to leave me the keys to her car so I can get home. Anyway, Michelle is the best!
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Thanksgiving re-cap
Thanksgiving with Mom, Tom and my wife was great, I missed having my dad there, but I love spending time with my Mom. Breakfast with the in-law’s for three straight days was good, it made sure that I got my fill of eggs and bacon those days. And Michelle and her Mom spent Friday and Saturday baking about a million Christmas cookies at my house. It gave me time to run the new phone lines to my office, and to get quite a bit of Madden franchise time in. I won the superbowl and then started trading all my old players for draft picks and young players. (Note: always keep the signing bonus money as low as possible, unless you are sure you will keep the player through the end of the contract, even if it means a higher overall salary)
Then the Eagles continued to be awesome with their 7th straight victory. Thank goodness that Fox forgot how to use timeouts and Kasay forgot how to kick field goals.
Then I helped Frank move some of his new (used) furniture from his cousin’s condo into his new condo. All in all a busy, yet oftentimes restful long weekend.
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Moblog
So I finally found a fun use for my useless camera phone. TextAmerica has a neat feature where you can send the image from your phone and it will post it onto a weblog. And they have some canned javascript so it will suck it down and stick it on some other site too. So I have created my Moblog that I will probably update a whole lot at first and then slowly neglect as I continue to be busy with work and other fun things. Maybe I’ll find some free time and make the templates between the two sites match up, and if I had even more free time, I could search for and integrate some code, so I could just do the same thing here. But more than likely I will just use their stuff, as it is already done, and works well enough.
But enjoy it while it lasts.
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How doth the little crocodileImprove his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in, With gently smiling jaws! - Lewis Carrol Against Idleness and Mischief How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell! How neat she spreads the wax! And labours hard to store it well With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labour or of skill, I would be busy too; For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthful play, Let my first years be passed, That I may give for every day Some good account at last - Isaac Watts
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Catchup
Well I hadn’t written in some time, primarily because I have been very busy. At work we are fast approaching the release of our product, so the unexpected emergencies combined with the already tight schedule keeps me at the appropriate stress level.
My home purchase will be completed on Friday, and I am moving on Saturday. So working on last minute details, packing and buying furniture and appliances has chewed into my time. Luckily my wife is great and has born the brunt of the work here. But borrowing tons of money and buying lots of stuff has a way of sucking in many hours of work.
In Karate I have just earned my green belt. I now am officially an advanced student. Although that acknowlegement of accomplishment is tempered with the commonly heard description of a black belt as a “serious beginner.”
I still have been attempting to hit the gym in the mornings. Its going pretty well.
The Eagles are 0 - 2 :-( Primarily looks to me like they are pressing too hard to perform. Everyone is trying to overplay their position to the level that they are no longer even competent at their regular duties. I guess the self pressure of a season framed as “do or die for the super bowl” can cause you to self destruct, regardless of your talent level. Hopefully they can get it turned around.
And finally adding to my personal time commitments is Fantasy Football. As this seems to be my lowest priority time wise, it has shown, I am currently 0 - 3 in both of the leagues I am playing in. Luckily I haven’t spent much time on this, so maybe I can acheive the dubious distinction of going 0 - 13 in two different leagues. I still believe in one of my teams, the other would require quite a bit of luck to do well. Basically my first draft served as my research for the second draft.
Well next up, sign the papers and start the *home* improvement fest!
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Wood is expensive
No, this is not a rant about viagra or levitra prices. It’s a rant about bedroom furniture. Turns out it is pretty darn expensive for real solid wood clad construction. So my decision easily swung to veneer finished solid pieces. Which means there is some solid wood in there, and it is glued together or something. Although from examining it closehand it seems the drawers are solid clad wood with the dovetail joints, and most of it looks pretty sturdy. I imagine it lasting for quite some time.
One of the sales guys tried to sell me on the solid clad that it would last about a million years or so. My big argument is that Michelle has been using a dresser that is about 17 years old, that appears to have been done of even lesser quality and looks to me like it will continue to last into the next century. Or until I dump it somewhere.
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Eagles in HDTV
But this is HDTV. It’s got better resolution than the real world. -Fry (Futurama) The Eagles won their opening game of the “for fake” season. And I watched it at Dave’s in HDTV. It is extremely crisp and a very good picture that does make quite a difference in the viewing experience, however it certainly is not worth more than $500 to me, at least at this point in my financial history. But if given the opportunity, I will try and catch more high definition games. I imagine it is really great for watching ice hockey.
By the way, the Eagles are going to be awesome again because of the following reasons:
- The Offensive line is very, very good
- Donovan McNabb
- The defensive backs are probably the best group out there
- They have 3 really good defensive tackles, Darwin Walker, Corey Simon, and Hollis Thomas (who looked very quick.)
- The recieving core is deeper, more talented, and more confident than a year ago when they played well
- Ritchie is a bad-ass
- Many other reasons that will become evident as the season progresses
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Ticketmaster woes
Busy signals and all other manner of errors the phone spits out at you are quite irritating. Well I guess lesson learned, next time stand in line somewhere.
Eagles tickets are completely sold out at this point.
Luckily Tom’s friends were able to score 8 tickets to each of the Patriots and Saints games. Hopefully they are feeling generous and want to share in the love. I am just asking to purchase two tickets.
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Philadelphia Eagles
The best season of the year is again starting up. Football season! And the best team in the league is getting ready to play their first preseason game Monday night against the Saints. I can’t wait to get tickets to The Linc, to see the Eagles play some football. And tickets go on sale tomorrow!
My brother and his friends have decided their best bet is to get in line a day in advance at the local Ticketmaster outlet. I am going to try my luck on the phone. Hopefully I am successful, for the sole reason that they are my wife’s birthday present.
E - A - G - L - E - S EAGLES!!!!
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Futurama
According to the following quote it is apparent to me that I didn’t give Futurama much of a chance back when I watched those couple of episodes, when they tried to put it on a cozy pre or post Simpson’s timeslot. Must be time to go home and set the ReplayTV. And while I am at it might as well record The Family Guy too. Float like a floatbox, sting like an automatic stingin’ machine. –Bender
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Happy Birthday Michelle
Today is my wife’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mrs. McAllister, I love you!
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Married Life
Well its been 11 days, and so far so good. The wedding went great, The people at Cedarbrook Hill Country Club did an exemplary job. The supporting cast was also good, particularly the videographer who got some of the best compliments from people, those being, “I don’t remember the videographer at all.” So he did a great job staying out of the way. Thanks to all my friends and family who made the day great. Honeymoon: Disney World was awesome, the AAA Romance package is worth it, especially if you are going to eat at a fine restaraunt like “The Yachtsman Club” at the Epcot resorts, the filet mignon was tremendous, and the Oyster’s Rockafeller were very good. And Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba was quite an interesting and entertaining time of living it up. I also recommend the Wilderness Lodge as it was a great place to stay. And I got to ride the new Epcot attraction which isn’t scheduled to open until August 15, Mission: SPACE.
All I can say is: it is one of the top 3 rides in all of Walt Disney World, it is up there with the Tower of Terror, and the Rockin Rollercoaster, although not quite as extreme as those two. It involves clever repurposing of the old carnival concept of spinning you fast so that you stick to the wall. But with all the requisite Disney Imagineering to make it from a simple ride into an experience. And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that it starred Lieutenant Dan.
I have a bunch of pictures that will be added to my gallery when I get a chance. I had a great time, and I am sorry to have it end. Of course if it didn’t end, a couple more days of paying for food in Disney would surely have bankrupt me.
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Marriage
Well the time is almost upon me. It was December of 2001 when I proposed to Michelle, and the wedding date is tomorrow. Despite my outward appearance and my frequent denials, I am starting to get excited. As far as I can tell the plans have all come together and all of Michelle’s hard work in planning this wedding will finally come to fruition. Its a very strange thing; all this many months of planning and hiring people to perform different tasks which are woven together into a 5 or 6 hour tapestry (or maybe wirlwind) of heart touching ceremony, friends, family and a big, loud, noisy party which will be over almost as quickly as it has come. I hope Michelle and I are able to heed the advice of all the married veterans who have told me to focus on enjoying the day, and not worrying about the minor things that may have gone awry. Because this important day, like so many in our life, will flow past with such speed and remind us again of our regretfully limited memory if we don’t stop staring at the overwhelming minutiae and try and enjoy the whole of what is happening.
Thank you to all of my large group of family and friends who have supported us throughout our entire lives. You have made this joy possible, and I am proud that you will be there to share my greatest day.
And then Sunday: Walt Disney World or bust!
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The Incredible Hulk
This movie was great. I caught it at 7PM last night, and all I can say is wow. There was a great story, I really liked the production effort put into trying to make it more like a comic book, with the split views and vibrant colors. And everyone who thought the CG hulk was going to be too cartoonish, no way. I mean come on, do you want Lou Ferrigno to play him some more? He is more cut out for security guard work than anything else. But seriously it was quite easy to suspend disbelief for that big monster. And guess what, they had a pretty good story going on too. So enjoy.
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Highway Driving
Attention All morons who think the only way to slow your vehicle, particularly on a high-speed roadway, is to apply the brake: Please stop by at your convenience so I can punch you in the head. On a related note, anyone who wants to assist in handing out head punches, apply within.
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Wachovia USPRO Championship
So I started drinking at 8:50 AM on Sunday June 8th. My brother rents a house in Manayunk, which is a section of Philadelphia that was originally a real blue colar town when my parents were growing up there, now it is a strange mixture of a shopping attraction, convenient (and high priced) living area for people who work in and around the city, and there are still the roots of hard working grit. Manayunk has become a trendy area for the rich to live in very old houses and try and find a place to park their many SUVs and expensive cars, there is also the college element as it is centrally located to LaSalle, Drexel, UPenn, Villanova, St. Joes and others. And of course there is Main street which is littered with overpriced resturants, bars and nick-nack shops squeezed in between container factories and some other industrial plants, all butted up against the Canal that used to be the lifeblood of the town. Anyway the point of this description was to give you a feel for a neighborhood that is a mixture of college life, rusty grit, high polish, lots of bars and lots of cars squeezed into a layout that was designed for a few horses and buggies to pass through.
So I showed up in Manayunk with 35 lbs of ice to help keep the keg of Michelob and the keg of highlife cold, so we could have a full day of drinking, cooking dead animals and oh yeah, I think there was a bike race too.
Drinking went on for the whole day, starting at 8:50 AM when the highlife was tapped. There was lots of yelling and some beer pong, and some racially motivated diatribes from some of my less tactful friends.
I documented a fair amount of the activity with my Sanyo 8100 camera phone, and put it up on my Photo Gallery. So you can check out a low resolution view of the events. And since my brain was addled with alcohol the resolution of the pictures matches my recolection exactly. Oh and I think someone won the race too.
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Scrawlings Update
I just finished updating my brother’s writing repository. There are now two distinct sections, one is creative work, the other is Academic or Research type writing. Now you have your readings of: “Lamenting Murph,” “Seeing Uncle Mike,” “Hunger Pains,” “Cooking the Sacred Cow,” “Hidden Tears,” and two essays written as part of an application for a scholarship. Of course “History Repeated” is still available there as well. I threw a very short description of the story there if I had read it. Enjoy. And if you are in a position to give my brother a job writing, then do it. So head over to Scrawlings of Tom McAllister and get reading.
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Tom McAllister’s Writings
I have been granted permission by my brother to publish some of his work on my site. It will remain his Copyright and he retains the rights to his work. But he is making his opinion available, and the first published work there is History Repeated: A research paper comparing the rise in power of George W. Bush to that of Adolph Hitler.
I have always been impressed with my brother’s ability to express himself in writing, and have always enjoyed reading his work. In my opinion it is usually quite excellent, and his short stories are nothing short of phenomenal, particularly when it comes to character development. So I have at long last created a repository to share his work with the world.
Currently that is the only work available there, however I plan to get more stuff up there shortly. So feel free to check out Scrawlings of Tom McAllister.
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Matrix Poll
Which character are you from the Matrix? Apperently I am Agent Smith.
You are Agent Smith, from “The Matrix.”
No one would ever want to run into you in a
dark alley. Cold as steel, tough as a rock,
things are your way or the highway.
What Matrix Persona Are You?Saw the flick on Saturday, going at noon on the next week after release is the way to miss the crowds and not be packed into a little theatre. But I liked it, basically I was going for the big noises and shiny things, so I certainly got that. But I also saw some of the effect of having a huger budget to make this movie. There were scenes in there that were meant to spend budget rather than tell story. But all in all I enjoyed it, and the martial arts were pretty cool to watch, specifically because most of it was made up of basic strikes and kicks that I have already learned in my Karate studies, so I could enjoy the perspective that if I was about 100 times faster and not subject to the laws of physics I could do the same amount of damage. But for a more in depth negative review, you can see Matrix Reloaded Reviewed.
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Marc Soda speaks on The Matrix
My good friend Marc gave his opinion on the Matrix today. I met Marc at ASPRE, he is a damn fine hacker and one of the best security guys I know, so if you want to hire a top notch CISSP, just send me an email an I can put you in touch. Anyway his comments follow:
The first Matrix was done in such a way that it could be a stand alone film or left open for sequels, just like the original Star Wars. Now that it’s a trilogy, people need to take Reloaded in that context. The great thing about the original was the deep thought behind it, the incredible action and effects where just the icing on the cake. If everyone is expecting some great new philosophy mind fuck to emerge from this one, or even the third, then they’ll be disappointed. Reloaded is building on a story already told, not writing a new one.
Keep in mind I haven’t seen it yet and it might really suck.
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Rest In Peace
Joseph E. McAllister (October 27, 1948 - May 2, 2003)
McALLISTER JOSEPH E., May 2, 2003, beloved husband of Patricia A. (nee Mitros), McAllister, loving father of Kevin and Thomas McAllister, son of the late Thomas and Mickey (nee Duffy) McAllister, brother of Michael and the late Molly McAllister. Family and friends are invited to his Funeral Tues. 8:30 A.M. FITZPATRICK FUNERAL HOME, 425 Lyceum Ave., Rox. and to participate in his Funeral Mass 10 A.M. Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. Int. Westminster Cem. Friends may call Mon. eve 7 to 9 P.M. (www.fitzpatrickfuneral.com) Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia Daily News on 5/4/2003.
I will miss you, Dad. I Love you.
Thanks to all who have provided thier love and support for my family.
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Shizzolate it
Don’t like my site, or any site for that matter, then as my brother says: Have snoop make any web page a million times cooler., using Tha Shizzolator
Here is an example from Mindless Banter:
I ran down da back alley, ’n wuz afiable “free” my teammates, ’n as da game goes, that shiznit wuz time “haul ass” outta there, know what I’m sayin’? This is where da dream gots weird n’ shit.
As I wuz running down da alley, I thought myself “christ, I’ve never run this fast before.” " Slowly, I began feel my feet lifting of da ground higher ’n higher." And before I knew that shiznit, I wuz completely off da ground, still travelling forward n’ shit.
I wuz flying!
Thanks to the procrastination of Tom for this wonderful find.
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Monkey Business
None of that biased, lying, garbage on Fox or CNN is news, this is:
Green Bay police are on the lookout for a monkey named Jasper, who they say isn’t armed but might be dangerous. Jasper dashed out the back door of a tavern where he and his owner are regulars, Lt. Mark Hellmann said Monday. Hellmann described Jasper as small, dark and hairy, but didn’t know what species he is. The police department’s humane officer said Jasper may try to harm people if he’s scared and advised anyone who sees him use caution.
Since the war is over, we might as well pass around the soma and get back to our happiness.
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True Toughness
I have been going through a rough patch based on the health of my father recently. That combined with the hectic schedule at CentraView has limited my expression here for a short while.
While talking with my father someone said to him: You’re tough, you get better now. And his response showed, what I can only very inaccurately call, true toughness and expressed one of the underlying principles of how life should be lived:
Tough’s got nothing to do with it. This is how it is, you deal with it.
My father is a great inspiration and the source of much of my life outlook. His example of how he lives his life is worth more to me than almost anything else I have been able to experience. Thank you, Dad, and get well soon.
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Happy Birthday Niko
Well today is my cousin’s Niko’s birthday.
I spent the day there learning about the unending energy that a just-turned 8 year old can muster.
Hopefully he enjoyed the day, and the opportunity to cobine the sports of wrestling, soccer and football into one mahem filled activity in his basement
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Happy Birthday to ..
ME!
March 7, 1976 I was born.
So you wonder what I am doing today, well I am going to a huge celebration, but it is not entirely for me. Michelle’s brother Chris is getting married to Jen. So I am guessing the focus of the celebration will be on them, not on me. Unless my suspicions are true and the marriage and their child Madison are all a big ruse just to throw me off the trail of a surprise party.
Congratulations Chris and Jen, thanks for the big party.
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Focus
I find that my focus is sometimes really strong, and then for apparently no reason it diverges to nothing, and suddenly I am writing a senseless entry on this site. I am really into the work I am doing, but then out of nowhere I can’t focus and start looking around for things to do.
I think just stronger mental discipline will cure it, just force myself back to work and I will cause my interest to peak again, as soon as I see a neat problem or situation that I need to solve.
Diving back in!
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Joining Together
I just wanted take a moment and blog an entry about the girl, with whom, I plan to share forever
Michelle Young, hailing from Bristol, PA is the one of the most wonderful people I have ever met. She is beautiful, intelligent and best of all she puts up with me.
She has an uncanny ability to simply know exactly the right way to interpret a situation, things I may have to ponder for days , years or months, she just knows by default; like the fact that we should get married. I think she knew almost weeks (maybe less) after we started dating. But it took me a while to even convince myself that marriage was a worthwhile thing to do. I am grateful for her patience. On December 21, 2001 I asked her to share forever with me, and she immediately accepted. So on July 12, 2003 just 134 days from today, we will be performing the ceremony so all our friends and family can celebrate our joining together.
Thanks Michelle, I love you.
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Unskilled and Unaware
Dan has brought an interesting article to my attention: Unskilled and Unaware of it. This article is great! Granted, I have only read the Abstract, but it gets my seal of approval (thus far).
I know a list of people who are essentially described within the article, unfortunately the point (and even the point of my sending it) would be entirely lost on them.
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Word of mouth
Through my new interest in keeping a weblog journal, I couldn’t help but spout off about it to a few friends. Well it seems I may have given a final nudge to a couple of them onto the blogging scene.
Mike King also just launched his and personally credits me for some of his decision.
Also Dan Kalowsky, who does a lot of work on PHP among other things, recently lauched his weblog too. I think he was already decided to launch one but was not sure which tool to use, I shared some of my initial experience with MovableType and he followed into the fold with his weblog titled bacon grease drippings.
Now they will be added into my ever growing blogroll, and hopefully we can all benefit from Darxus’ Google Juice.
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A dustpan is not a shovel
I finally realized first hand why I might need a shovel when living in an apartment.
- The maintenance here generally is subpar
- It snowed approximately 2 feet last night
Anyway, I attempted at noon to dig out our cars, after 30 minutes I had broken my dustpan and my broom. I managed to clear a good deal of snow off the cars, but there was still 2 feet of snow around and in front of the cars. And I was disgusted.
Luckily when I went out to beg for a shovel, around 6:00 PM, a neighbor, Keith, was kind enough to lend me one and help me dig out the cars. He then went out of his way to help me shovel out the cars. This encourages me to make an effort to talk to my neighbors more often.
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Blogging
After putting it off for a long time I have finally begun working on my web presence. I originally had a lame web site in 1995 when I lived in Drexel’s dorms. It must have been there for a good 50 or 60 days before I decided the 16 MB of ram in my PowerMac 7100/66 would do better not running Netpresenz. It was really cutting into my marathon performance. Anyway since that day I had vowed to build myself a website. Well you know how it is, you either don’t have time, aren’t motivated, or don’t want to do anything half-assed. Well turns out the only way anything every gets done is half-assed, at least at first. For a discussion of that see Joels commentary on Fire and Motion. So my entry site LIVES: Kevin D. McAllister, Engineer, and I am launching this weblog at the same time. And yes it is half-assed and yes, I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Not because I think people care, but because I am lazy and opinionated. This way I don’t have to talk to people, I can just provide links to my rants. Also I have found that I keep redoing and relearning the same things. So eventually, I can just google my archives, and spend the free time playing basketball. Anyway, I am going to give this a shot for a while, it seems to be addictive to those that do it. So, maybe someone will find it useful.
