Archives For personal

getting in touch with my inner librarian

September 19, 2004 — Leave a comment

when you have as many books as we do, you need a way to keep track of them for our own edification as well as insurance purposes.

for the last three months we`ve been making an effort at creating a definitive catalogue for our insurers, it`s been difficult entering each of books by hand in an excel spreadsheet but this weekend to my great joy, i have discovered a new tool that has made my life infinitely easier.

it`s called Books, it`s a tiny little application that; provided with the ISBN and internet connection; will pull in all the book information from a variety of sources not limited to Amazon, the Library of Congress and the British Library. from title to publication date, original price to current price, books provides an fantastic resource for anyone with a library. you can if you so desire acquire a barcode reader for entering your books into the database. the database itself is proprietary but exports to a number common formats including HTML, XML and tab delimitated text

there is even a lending details feature, you can keep track of who has what, for how long and when it`s due back, keeping someone like me who anxiously loans books out extremely happy.

however, the best thing about this wonderful application is that is it completely free. it is mac only but was created under the GNU Public License which means the code is readily available if desire to port it to another platform.

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ridden hard and put up wet

September 17, 2004 — Leave a comment

that`s how i feel today.

i always had respect for flight attendants and after yesterday`s short haul in a monkey suit and uncomfortable shoes, my appreciation increases. the presentation went fairly well and all three blocks of Silver Spring, MD and the sections of highway i observed to and from the airport were all very lovely.

i managed to get back home in one piece despite the inclement weather in Nashville, that was the remnants of Ivan. we got delayed out of Baltimore and then put on an advisory meaning that at the pilot`s discretion we could be diverted to another airport or returned to Baltimore. luckily neither of those things happened and most of the bad weather were the vicious crosswinds just prior to the smoothest landing i have every experienced.

i`m sure i had something intelligent and worthwhile to contribute when i started writing this, but my exhaustion is getting the better of me and i am unable to form coherent thoughts.

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i’m leaving on a jet plane [redux]

September 17, 2004 — Leave a comment

but i only going as far Baltimore, for the day. it`s not a trip i`m entirely thrilled about. i`m going with my boss to a presentation. i`m not sure if it`s the superfluous nature of my presence at this presentation or that i miss my almost daily lunch with vic or the fact that i have to wear a suit and tie all day. i think of the three, the suit might be the greatest irritant, one of the reasons i enjoy my job is that i generally don`t have to dress for success, i can go to work on most days in ratty jeans and flip flops.

i like flying, i`m exceeding comfortable in air planes; i should be, i`ve been doing it for 33 years now. i flow all manner of commercial aircraft excluding the concorde; which is my loss, i believe; and they hold no fear for me. i know smaller aircraft are safer than their bigger compatriots. there used to be a website called amigoingdown.com that i would frequent before i got on a flight and it would calculate the odds of a crash based on airline, type of aircraft, destination and point of departure, sadly it`s no longer around.

in the last four years i`ve logged a lot of frequent flyer miles, in 2000 alone, i logged enough to join bwia`s platinum preferred programme. i think however; between my inability to leave the country, the cost of travel for two adult and a child and wanting to spend as little time as humanly possible away from vic; that my flights are going to be limited to little jaunts like these for a while to come and being a flight junkie, i`m just going to have to take my little fixes where i can.

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we need political correctness like a fish needs a bicycle

September 9, 2004 — Leave a comment

we have become slaves to the thought and language police and lost sight of the most basic and abiding of principles; respect each other, not because we have to or because someone said to, but because it`s the right thing to do.

the rise of political correctness, organisations that appoint themselves to police things for the greater good and the decline of personal responsibility and common sense are intricately tied together. common sense doesn`t seem all too common any more. i`m trying to figure it`s because we stopped using it and allowed people to make decisions for us or if we just used it all up.

we need to stop relying on other people to tell us right from wrong and learn to differentiate for ourselves otherwise there is going to come a time when we`ll believe whatever is told to us and unquestioningly accept it as the truth.

oh wait, isn`t that where we are now?

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trip from the forebrain

September 7, 2004 — Leave a comment

sometime in the next coupe of months we have to shell out another $500 to the USCIS, to begin my green card application process, this doesn`t include a medical which becomes invalid after one year; bearing in mind that the processing time on this application is two years, i`m going to have to spend this money twice. i also have to apply for advance parole which will theoretically allow me to leave the country; but which they also don`t advise because i may not be able to re-enter the country should i leave anyway.

is anyone sensing a pattern here? good.

in the interim, i`ll probably have to renew my current visa and work authorisation, more money, isn`t this fun, my passport also expires next year, which opens the possibility of having to start a whole new set of applications when i get it renewed.

i`m thrilled to be able to be here with vic. there is no amount of money in the world that can be used to put a value on the joy of being able to share my life with vic, but the bureaucracy just frustrates me so. that and the needless expense. vic and i would like to buy a house in the near future, we have debt to clear up, we don`t need to be throwing money at the government, if we don`t have to.

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albuquerque travelogue

September 3, 2004

apropos a title as any.

last night we took the boychick to see weird al. his birthday is on Monday, so this was part of his birthday present. he was thrilled, we didn`t tell him where we were going until we got there and he didn`t find out who it was until we sat down. he was thrilled, i think we earned a boatload of cool parent points last night.

i think this holiday weekend is appropriately titled, there is going to be a lot of labour involved. we`re driving to my mother in law`s this evening after work to start painting the walls of the play room.

an aside about painting; i love house painting, i think it`s one of the most relaxing things in the world, it`s one of those zen things for me.  in relaxation terms, it`s right up there with doing laundry for me. last weekend while we there i painted the ceiling, i`m tall enough and the ceiling was low enough for me to just stand there with the brush and get it done, this weekend we`re doing the walls. i`ve joked if i became independently wealthy, i`d probably paint houses and pump gas to pass my days. the pumping gas is another tale.

on saturday, we`re off to my brother in law`s for his annual lakeside labour day soiree and then back to my mother in law`s to finish painting the room on sunday. on sunday evening or early monday, we`re back home and there are supposed to be a parade of people through the house to celebrate the actual date of the the boychick`s birth.

this weekend is going to be exciting to say the least. i hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend with special thoughts to the people in Fl.

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this is the fashion police! step away from the ugly clothes and come out appropriately attired.

September 2, 2004 — Leave a comment

i live in Nashville; which aside from the cowboy chic and the usually bad fashion sense of college students dressing themselves away from home for the first time; seems to have a pretty well defined sense of style.

i haven`t had very many scary moments since i`ve been here and that`s good. i however get a sense once you pass a certain size, clothing manufacturers believe that your sense of style is superseded by an overwhelming desire to hide your; obviously disgusting, quivering; flesh in whatever is closest at hand. that is the only explanation that passes for the hideous, overpriced monstrosities that pass for big and tall clothing.

i have this problem with pants. it`s damn near impossible for me to find a pair of pants that fit. i`ve said this before and i will say it until my dying day, i have a huge ass, i inherited it from my mother and passed it on to my children. all the weight i`ve gained in the last eight years have accumulated on my stomach; front not sides; and proportionally on my ass, although for it`s size and mass, it`s still quite firm.

i have a couple of jeans, some pants and suit that fits well. the pants and the jeans are from old navy, yet strangely when i went back to the store, tried on the same size and style they no long fit. i have eventually settled for some generic pants i picked up in target. they fit, but only if i`m standing or sitting, in motion there is a strange pucker in the crotch that is more embarrassing than obscene. i may just have to resort to getting measured and having my tailor reproduce the best fitting pair of pant i own, which he incidentally made.

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bringing back the 80s one fashion faux pas at a time

August 19, 2004 — Leave a comment

i was a child of the 80s but thank god there are no pictures to prove it. even without the general fashion faux pas that were the 80s, i was the guy who`s mother dressed him, well she was paying so i really didn`t have much choice. although i`m still not sure how i convinced my mother spring for the powder blue suit and espadrilles for my high school graduation.

after i began making my own money, my first serious girlfriend made it a point to find me a tailor. when you have an ass as high and round as mine it`s extremely difficult to find pants off the rack. my other problem at that age is i was tall, thin, with no shoulders; so i also needed to find shirts. all psychoses aside she helped shape my wardrobe and what she didn`t help with, my first wife finished the job.

over the years, i`ve grown; in more ways than one; my shoulders have filled out, i no longer have `bert` arms and i`m more comfortable in my own skin. i can actually dress myself without embarrassing or causing my companions to have some sort of ocular failure. although vic loathes the bright orange t-shirts that i possess, but i think that`s more via association with UT sports than anything else. the orange shirts are a holdover from 2000 when i decided that the navy, grey, black and khaki that primarily made up wardrobe needed to be changed for a more colourful look.

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telling tales

August 17, 2004 — 1 Comment

it`s hard to believe it`s been four years since i first met vic, we can measure our relationship in terms of the summer games. i watched the last summer games at her parents house with her incredibly funny and amazing parents, the very young and very bright boychick and herself.

so much has changed in that time, vic`s dad is no longer with us. i only meet him briefly but he was one of those people i could sit and listen to for hours. in my interactions with vic`s family, i`ve realised one of the reasons i like them so much is the conversation.

in one of the major dichotomies of my personality, the techno-geek in me loves the oral tradition. i love sitting around and listening to stories. i like to think of myself as a collector of tales, it`s one of the reasons i have so many short story anthologies in the library. but as fun as those are, sitting and listening to someone tell a story has a special magic.

vic`s dad was one of those special magicians who could draw you into his own story, most of those weeks from four years ago are pretty much a blur, but i still remember the stories and i have them to pass along to the boychick as well as well as a few of my own.

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an abusive relationship ends

August 13, 2004 — Leave a comment

we have official left aohell, after three months of trying.

this account has had an interesting history, i activated it four years ago when i was coming to meet vic for the first time. i was doing website management and needed an account i could dial up from anywhere with and so began a four year relationship than only soured when i tried to leave.

well that`s not quite true, when i came back to Trinidad in 2001, i wasn`t able to check mail with great regularity and discovered on of the many things that pissed me off about aol. if you don`t check mail via the aol client and save said mail, they dump it from their servers, but i stuck through because the account was useful to have, i got email accounts for my mother and daughters and vic.

in the last year i realised i wasn`t using aol to dial up and the real email we were receiving there minimal, so we switched to the minimum package and after i moved here this year we realised that particular $5 a month could be better spent on coffee or food porn rather than displacing electrons with spam.

now begins the saga, i called one fine day in May to say we wanted out; and this is where it begins to resemble an abusive relationship; i told them i had broadband and i wasn`t particularly happy with the service and i wanted to leave. the person on the other end of the phone, begged and pleaded and cajoled me into giving them another chance, for the next three months on their dime and to avoid the pathetic whining on the phone, i caved. about a month later we receive a letter asking us to confirm that we want out, on our dime no less. we fill out the letter and send it back, thinking it`s over and done with.

as if. about a week before our `free` three months for staying on up, we get another letter asking us if we`re sure we want to cancel. duh. on Wednesday night we get a call asking us if we want to return and i finally discovered the key to being rid of aol forever.

tell them you have mac, i told the guy all the software they keep sending is for a PC running windows and i have a mac, and the conversation went like this

“we don`t support that platform.”

“so i have no reason to come back then?”

“no, i guess not, goodbye.”

free at last. although as of this morning i could still use the newly implemented POP3 access to check my mail.

edit

as of today, monday, my account is disconnected including my access to the IM service, but luckily i had all my aim contacts saved in my mac.com account which supports the aim protocol.

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