Perfect..

Congratulations Patriots. One of the most entertaining games I have ever seen, and its always fun to be a witness to history.

A two post day?

Yep, I'm making another post today! I need to spend more time with my blog or nobody will ever read it.
Anyway, I came back because I wanted to mention something that happened yesterday. I was at Safeway in Wood Village, and I came around the corner to the beer isle, and these two kids are standing there. The interesting thing was that one had his backpack wide open on his chest , and was stuffing energy drinks in it. They both immediately looked at me and took off at a very fast pace. So I was like "hey you little punks, I saw that!" (but in my head) ;) and I took off after them. Fortunatly, as I began my persuit, an employee who witnessed the incident from behind the deli counter also went after them so I told her what I saw and went back to shopping.

So, I have had many thoughts about this. First of all, I am dumbfounded as to why they were stealing energy drinks, especially when they were right next to the beer and alcoholic energy drinks. Second, why were they so careless. It was so obvious that I thought they were just playing at first. They made no effort whatsoever to be discreet about it, and everybody (which was only me an that one employee) within eyesight became immediately aware as to what was going on.
I don't know, it just didn't make sense. If it was me (not that I do stuff like that anymore) I would have not even thought for a moment about taking energy drinks over beer, and I would have definetly done everything possible to make sure nobody could have seen me. But thats just me.
This also reminded me of when I watched someone rob the bank inside of Troutdale on a very busy Saturday morning. Funny thing was, I was the only one that noticed it! (except for the teller). But I will have tell that story some other time.

Teen pregnancy

Whats all the fuss about Jamie Lynn Spears? How many of our parents were teenagers when we were born. I wish our media would talk about something important.

Christmas party

We had our company Christmas party today. It was fun, but made for a pretty long day for me. They like to have it in the afternoon, and I am usually off work by then.
It was the 22nd year for one of the guys I work with at Cascade. I was trying to imagine what that would be like. Maybe I will know some day.
Anyway, 3 more days and im off work for a week! Cascade shuts the plant down for a couple weeks during Christmas which is nice. We get vacation pay for it, and I probably would not be so happy to get the days off if we didn't.

New website!

So I wanted to host my own website. If your not sure what that means, it is where my website resides on a computer I own. Previously I always had my websites online on my ISP's servers, and most recently on Microsoft's Office Live servers.

I also purchased a new domain name. My site is now www.blackcatgeek.com

When you go to that URL, you are pulling up the website from my own Linux Fedora 7 server sitting in my office! Ya, ya, who cares right? Well, I guess I can be a real geek, because I think its pretty cool, and am having a lot of fun building it. Its fun creating things and sharing them with friends right?

Anyway, feel free to check it out. It is only about 2 days old, so I have a ways to go, and some things may not work right yet, but please keep checking back to see my progress.
Oh, and if you have any suggestions please let me know. I am always open to a different perspective!

Nothing.. Nada

So, nothing stuck below about 1,500 feet. We did get to see some impressive snow flakes at home though. To bad they evaporated the moment they hit the ground.

Here is a quote from Mark Nelson at the KPTV weather blog regarding the lack of snow... "milkshakes are getting ready to be thrown at passing meteorologists this afternoon!" I love it!

The Weather...

Once again it is the time of year when people get excited about the weather. And also once again it is time for false hope and disappointment.
If you try to watch the news stations in Portland to get an idea about what the weather is going to do, then you know what I mean. The last two nights have been prime examples, and I think everyone is in for a big disappointment come Saturday Dec. 1.
Wednesday night we saw a bit of snow falling, and everybody started buzzing about how much snow we were going to get. I was sitting there looking at the temperature, and could only think "they are all crazy!". It didn't look like anything was going to happen with the temperature around 35 or so... and what do you know; I wake up the next morning at 3:00.. and its 45 degrees! I was imagining all the disappointment for the people waking up expecting snow on the ground.
Last night was the same thing. The temp started dropping as the sun went down, and it dropped to 38 at our house in Troutdale. In the back of my mind I knew I would wake up and it would still be 38, but I WANTED to believe the predictions of upper 20's or around 30 degrees overnight. It was 38 when I woke up.
Now for Saturday... they say 4 inches of snow in the metro area. I say none. I say none below 500 ft, and probably more like none below 1,000. If we do get a dusting, it will be melted within a couple hours.

I have only lived here for 6 years or so, but I came from a place (Dufur OR) where we often see snow around Halloween. From my experience, to see snow on the ground, and definetly to see it stay you need to have a few days of 20-30 degrees. Then when the moisture rolls in and it warms up into the upper 20's and low 30's... thats when it snow, and you will see snow on the ground for more than a day. Thats what it takes, and that is something we have not seen yet this year in Portland. I think its to early.

So my point is, we should all ignore the weather forecasts we see on the news. They don't seem to know what they are talking about, and are not usually right unless its a 100% deal. They try to generate excitement (and viewers.. money) by saying what everybody wants to hear. If you don't want disappointment, turn it off. But if you are anything like me.. its easier said than done.

If you want snow, move. It happens every once in a while, but its actually pretty rare here in the city. I use to live in a house that did not see the sun from Nov to March, and it was at about 1500 ft elevation. It sat on the side of a hill in Dufur Valley, and all winter when the sun dropped to the south, it would go behind that hill. Many in the area knew it as "The Ice House". We saw icicles that you could not wrap your arms around that were as tall as an NBA player, and we saw them every year hanging off the eves. When it snowed in Oct, it stayed until spring. It would be the only stretch of road in Dufur valley that didn't thaw when the sun came out (until spring).
Call me crazy, but I miss it. Can you tell?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Say goodbye to gasoline...

http://www.teslamotors.com/

You may have heard of it already, and it is here. If not, go to the link above. These people have created what will become the end of gasoline vehicles. They have created a sports car that is 100% electric, and faster than nearly anything on the road. They are taking all the money they get from selling these sports cars, and they are putting it into creating an affordable mass market version of the car. This will most likely prompt all the major automakers to come up with there own version very soon.
To me this makes the cars we are driving around look like Dinosaurs. It makes me ask why. It seems like we should have been driving electric cars 50 years ago. The problem was rechargeable battery technology, which has now caught up to the point that this is possible.
Within the next 10 years our cars will be obsolete. All I can say about that is... goodbye, and good riddance. The internal combustion engine belongs in a museum, and will soon be there.

Who is Ron Paul?

I dont really know yet, but I like what I have heard so far. As far as Republicans go, he seems to have the right idea on what it means to be President.
Check out --> www.ronpaul2008.com/issues

Al Gore..

This is in response to "35 things Al Gore forgot to mention"...
http://troutdale.blogspot.com/2007/10/35-things-al-gore-forgot-to-mention.html

My question is, where do you get this information? Where is your evidence?
Many of us have seen Gore's evidence, or have noticed that his evidence was validated by the the Nobel Prize he won (half of).
If you are trying to make an argument, or a point, you have not done very well. It takes a bit more than unfounded preaching to convince people with minds of their own that your argument is valid.
I just get tired of seeing people try to do something good, and then getting attacked by the mindless (often) Republican drones.

Do it yourself!

As some of you know, I got a 50 inch rear projection LCD HDTV for my birthday. We went with the projection because they are much cheaper, but the picture is just as good. The only downfall is that you cant hang it on the wall (who cares), and you have to replace the "bulb" ever 2-4 years or so. The nice thing about the bulb type tv is that after replacing the bulb the picture looks as good as new. With Plasma or regular LCD tv's the picture degrades over time.

So anyway, a few weeks back we had a power outage, and when it came back on the tv started telling me I needed to replace the bulb and the picture looked horrible! Its only been 6 months, so we were pretty upset. The cost of the bulb is around $200, and whatever it takes to diagnose/replace it. Well, a normal person would have probably called a tech, or got a new bulb and just replaced it. I am just not one to fork over tons of $$ for something that with a little research could be done yourself. So, I thought... maybe I will pull the bulb out myself and look at it. I was a little reluctant because its an expensive tv, and I didnt want to screw it up and end up ruining it. I pulled the bulb out, and decided it looked fine. So I plugged it back into the tv just to see what would happen, and what do you know! It works fine, and has been ever since! I am guessing that the power outage had somehow tripped an alarm or something and confused the tv, and by resetting the bulb I reset the alarm.

Lesson learned. Dont pay someone to do something you can do yourself. Pay yourself!
By the way, the whole procedure for changing the bulb took about 2 minutes, and could probably be done by a well trained monkey.

Nascar..

If you are not a Nascar fan you probably wont want to read this.
I just wanted to comment about the race this weekend. This was the first "restricter plate" race in the new car, and there were a lot of worries about how it would go. Now all said and done, It turns out that it was a very uneventful race. Most of the Monday morning Nascar headlines were about how boring the race was, and how things "must be changed" in order to make it more interesting! Well, as a die-hard Nascar fan, I have to say... not much has changed. As usual, the last 20 laps or so were the most exciting, and this is exactly how it was before. Dont get me wrong, I did watch the whole race as usual, and had a pretty good time, and I very much so was on the edge of my seat for the conclusion of the race like every week. The long strung out lines at Talladega are not anything new. Just the fact that the winner from the spring race with the old car was the same winner of this race in the new car tells you how much things have NOT changed as far as racing at Talladega goes. If Dale Earnhardt Jr had not blown his engine and had went on to win the race, many people would be saying how it was so much more exciting with the new car, and how much of a success it was. Jeff Gordon winning races is nothing new, and not very exciting either. So all in all, it turns out all the fuss this weekend was just the media, doing what the media does. Making something out of nothing. The race was exciting in the end, and it was fun to watch. Nascar just needs to listen a little closer to its most popular driver when he says "these things should really be about 100 to 200 laps shorter". All those extra laps just cause the drivers to end up riding around the track waiting for the last 20 laps as the fans sit around waiting for them also. The only people who are actually befittingly from a 4 hour race are the advertisers, and thats not likely to change.

Things will change...

Things will change...
I was thinking this morning while in the shower about the wars we have had in this country. The great wars, and the ones before them were very different than the ones we have now. The great wars were about defending ourselves. We were attacked by a great power, and we responded, I mean the government responded with overwhelming support from us, the people. This is the recipe for success.
The new wars, and the one we have today could have been avoided. Our country was not truly threatened until 911, and had not been since the cold war (by Russia), and before that WW2 by Japan. The cold war was resolved without military action, and was in my opinion the perfect response to a great threat. A resolution without true War. Thats one out of the last 4.
So anyway, I think a lot in the shower as you can see! Here is the conclusion I came to about the war in Iraq. It cannot be won. The reason I say this is because first of all Iraq was not a true threat to our country. Second, Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 911. And third, Iraq was not becoming a threat to our country. The true threat is terrorism, It is Radical Muslims/Islamics, not a country. This is a very different thing.
My other thoughts were on how this started. In my opinion it started because this country is still run, and strongly influenced by the "religious right". What is this "religious right" you might ask? Well, Wikipedia does a much better job of defining it than I could, and also take note what religious groups Wiki mentions when defining it. Christianity and Islamics!
The people running this country, the Baby Boomers and their surviving parents are very much a part of the Christian religious right. I do realize this is a generalization but hear me out. Why is George Bush Jr. our president? It is because of them, they are still the majority, but barely. Many of us voted for Gore, and then Kerry. Yes, many of us, meaning, a majority of this country. Many will debate that but check the history books. It is fact. George Bush Jr. is a religious fanatic, and it influences his every decision. So, when you put 2 + 2 together, you get the situation today. The religious right is at war, the Christians and the Islamics, and they have been for thousands of years.
If we hadn't ran around the world trying to convert people to "our way", our religion, and our way of life (which the Christians and Islamics have been doing forever), these people wouldn't have attacked us. They attacked the Christian religious right,.. which is a dying breed in our country, and is barely if at all, a majority of our citizens. Ya, this is going to offend somebody, and they are going to close off all thought other than what their religious upbringing allows them, and they are going to think I need to be "shown the way", and/or converted. AND THIS IS THE PROBLEM. This is why we are in the situation we are in today. This is why we are fighting a war that has no end, and goes back to ancient history. This is why we are wasting thousands of lives, many of whom wonder "why" up until the moment they are wiped away by a roadside bomb planted by a cowardly radical Islamic on his/her own soil.
The answer is to stop fighting this unwinable war, start protecting our own country, our own soil, and our own people. If 100% of our military power and money was spent on protecting our own soil we would be nearly invincible. It seems profound, but think about it. We are spread to thin, we are stretching our arms to far, and we are losing. Bring those arms in, wrap them around this country, and just let somebody try to hurt us.
And for those who think I am a "liberal", and "atheist" or whatever, I am not. I could write another 10 pages on why I am not, but it would fall on deaf ears. You would be too narrow minded to even start to consider how someone could think this way and not be "one of them". All I have to say to you in the end is this... You are a dying breed. You are going to lose. Yes, you may win the next election, but it will again be very close, and soon, that hair will be gone, and you will lose. The younger generation of this country might be lazy, might be dumb, or whatever, but we know one thing. We know how to lose a war! We have been shown how not to do it. We are going to have to clean up this mess, and we will. I like to think, someday soon when our generation is in power, Things will change. We will lead by example, we will be open minded, and we will be strong.

Finished!

Well, the fence is finished! The main part anyway (the side that the home owners association was complaining about). I definitely learned some good lessons, and fortunately the fence didn't suffer from my inexperience. It turned out very nice!
Now I really need to concentrate on our lawn before the rain starts up. My goal is to have it nice and green before we get any bad freezing so that by next spring it is well on its way. I have to finish ripping out the old sod, mix in some new top soil and compost, and get the seeds out and rooted.
Its a lot of work, but hopefully the payoff will be the nicest lawn in the neighborhood!

Price of labor...

Our fence is falling down! So, before the east wind picks up and carries what is left of it away, I am replacing it.
Rick's Custom Fencing in Gresham has a package for a basic Ceder fence that would cost almost $2500 for the length we need (80 ft), but luckily they also offer a "materials only" package that would cost us just over $1,000. So, this is pretty much a no brainer.
The cost of labor seems ridiculous to me. $1500 for a days work!?!?
I got the parts Friday, and spent most of the weekend digging the post holes. I hit some very rough patches of gravel under about 8 inches of dirt, so it took me quite some time. I am hoping to have it mostly completed within the next couple weeks. It is a lot of work, but I am somewhat confused why Rick's doesnt just lower the cost of labor... would he not make more in the long run? I know people like me with low funds, but plenty of cahonas to take on a new project, might be a little more willing to fork over their hard earned $$ if it was a bit more reasonable. But no, they have to charge a ridiculous price for labor... and well... its their loss! And it will be even more loss for them when I help the next guy whom wants to use some of the lessons I learned!
But, now that I think about it, there are probably enough people around here with money coming out their ears that the little guy isn't affecting Rick's bottom line much. Doh!

Where was I...

Where was I on 9-11-01?
I was in the Marine Corps, in Camp Pendleton California.
We had just arrived at the football field for our morning PT (physical training) session which that morning was going to be a game of flag football.
One of the guys mentioned that he had heard something about a plane crash in New York, and might have mentioned that it was the World Trade Center, although I had no idea what that was. I have never been to New York, and didn't really know much about it other than the Statue of Liberty and what not.
I remember clearly that in my mind at that moment I visualized a small airplane, like a 2 to 4 person plane accidentally crashing into a building, and it not being a very big deal.
I don't remember exactly what happened after that, but at some point, I left the football field, and walked by the lounge (where the only tv with Cable was), and couldent help but notice that there was an unusually large group of people watching the tv. I think that was the first time I saw the video of the first Jet crashing into the tower.
The next thing I clearly remember about that morning is that I went to my truck and turned on the radio. I liked to listen to Howard Stern in the morning whenever possible, and I thought I would go see what he was saying about what was going on. This was before the second plane crash, and I sat there listening while most of the events that morning transpired.
The thing that was the most frightening for me was that I was leaving for home the very next Monday, and was not returning. I was to be on "leave" (vacation) for the next two months, and then was to be honorably discharged.
I remember sitting there thinking how this was war, and I was in the Marine Corps, and I was going to be involved.
For the next four years (I had four years left on my contract as a Reserve) I wondered every day whether I was going to get the call, and was going to be shipped off to Iraq.
As most of you already know, that never happened, and I have very mixed emotions about that. I wont really get into it, but just know, as a Marine, I feel like it is my responsibility to be over there with my "brothers". It is a strange thing to feel those emotions, and also feel good that I am able to live the life I now have, as I surely would not be able to do if I had gotten the "call". When I see the photo of a Marine I served with on that list of those killed in the war, I feel like, well,... I cant really describe it more than just a mix of relief and failure, at the same time.
Anyway, I have gotten a bit off topic now, so I need to conclude.
Some of the memories of that day have faded from my mind now, but others I am sure never will. We are no closer today to the end of this war then we were when it started, and it may get worse before it gets better, but I know someday when I am old, I will look back and remember... I was there, and I.. we made it.

What could we do with a Half-Trillion dollars?

Hmm, after reading this article...
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=1629118
I cant help but think that a Half-Trillion dollars could make this country pretty dang safe. Just think if we had spent it on homeland security, instead of a war, what we might have accomplished.
or...
What if we had spent it on education, cures for diseases, green technologies (like electric autos, renewable energy, etc), or a number of other things?
The US of A would be back to her old self, leading the world and setting the example,.. instead of breading hate, killing people and destroying nations, cultures, relationships, history, and whatever else that Half-Trillion dollars has funded.

Little Crater Lake

We went camping recently at Little Crater Lake. The campsite was very nice, very quiet, and the sites (16 in all) are quite large and wooded.

If you dont know, the campground is a few miles north of Timothy Lake, and a 30 minute walk brings you to the North end of Timothy lake. There are some great biking areas, but beware that the main trails have signs on them that tell bikers to either walk their bikes, or leave the trail. One such sign actually redirects bikers up a very steep rocky hill which eventually after a couple miles leaves you on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. This is very irritating because it sends you about 5 miles out of the way, when otherwise you would be reaching Timothy lake within a mile on the main trail. It is very ridiculous, so much so that you see many bikers just ignoring the signs.

Other than that, the only other complaint I had about the campground is that it does not have a Host that resides in the campground itself. The Host for the campground actually stays at another campsite (North End campground) which is several miles away down a very rough gravel road. I had to go find him to resolve an issue about our campsite, and I felt like I was very lucky to stumble on his campsite after driving down a road with no signs. You just all of a sudden (if you take the right turns which somehow I did) come up on the entrance to the campground.

So anyway, all things considered, I would happily return to Little Crater Lake campground for future camping, and would recommend it to anyone else that likes to avoid the metropolis that Timothy lake has become. Just make sure to avoid site 15 (its mere feet from the bathroom), unless you like the aroma of human feces, and site 16 seems a bit small as well. We had site 4, and it was very nice. It is so secluded you can barely see any other campsites until the lanterns come on, and then you can only see two or three.

Sorry about the spelling...

Just a warning, my spelling is horrible if I forget to use the spell check (which is often). Over the years of always having spell check, I have become a horrible speller. Along with that, from always having a calculator close at hand, my math is horrible. I suppose there are other downfalls of technology, but those two seem to have affected me the most.
I just though I would try to beat you to the punch, if you were thinking about commenting on my spelling! HA!

This is my Blog...

So anyway, now that I got that rant out of the way,...

Welcome! this is my blog!

I have never done one of these before, so I am giving it a try. I must say,.. I am amazed at all the offerings Google has, and for free! I love Picasa, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Maps. Hopefully I will like Blogger as much as those.

So, my hope with this blog is that I can rant about a few things, let people know whats going on with my life, and just basically see what it is like to Blog!
If you have any thoughts, please leave comments (good or bad, I can handle it!), and thanks for stopping by!

"Ping me"...

I had to look this one up.
Recently a co-worker started using this term to refer to sending her an IM. For me, "ping" is a computer network tool used to send an echo request to a host.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping
I wonder how many people using this term "ping me" actually knows what it means... or use to mean. I cannot imagine a true techie using it in this way and I expect that it irritates them as much as it does me.
I think it will become one of my top 5 pet peeves (hmm, I will actually have to construct this list and publish it.