No news today.

Sorry I was unable to post today. Work was very busy and cut into my lunch time inspiration time. I promise to be more fruitful tomorrow. Now go away! Unless you want to help me get a free iPod =)

Oscar Time!

I would like to contribute my two cents to all of the “buzz” around the Academy Awards this Sunday.


Who Freakin Cares!

Do you really think I should?

The White Shadow

I shall don a new moniker, from now on you can refer to me as “The White Shadow”, not because I resemble Ken Howard or that I played a white former NBA professional retiree who gets a job as a basketball coach in a predominantly black inner-city high school on television, which I most certainly did. The title addition comes from the fact that I have become aware of the fact that I may have a twin, a doppelganger if you will. My friend Eddie and I are a couple of very similar fellows; both mid thirties, married, kids, conservative Christians, some rocky history in our youth, working for the same company, similar juvenile sense of humor, dashing good looks (though I am quite stunning to look and Eddie is merely handsome) and these are only the obvious issues, I am sure there are more. We were discussing this the other day and all the similarities between us and only came up with one obvious difference between us, but what that was escapes me now.

I have learned my lesson

You every go to extra length to defeat a system that is broken simply to satisfy your own wanton desires? I went to one of our many vending machines this afternoon in order to procure myself a tasty beverage (Mountain Dew, the breakfast of champions!) and the mechanism that allows you to use paper money for this transaction was not functioning. In fact I made sure it was not functioning by attempting to place my dollar in the machine no less than five times, and then bent over in an attempt to pear into the device as if I may be able to see why it is not functioning. At this point some less determined folk would have given up and simply wondered to another part of the building to attempt their commerce activity with a different vendor. I am build with more headstrong material (some refer to this as being stubborn). And getting the opportunity to subvert the system that has been put in place by “the Man” which attempts to force me into more exercise against my will, in order to satiate my caffeine/sugar fix brings me great pleasure. I devised a scheme and simply went to the candy machine located adjacent to the soda machine and inserted my dollar in this machine, under the guise of an intended transaction with the Candy Pimp so as to fool this machine into falling into my plot. Once the second machine had fallen for my ruse and accepted my money, I simply pressed the change return button assuming that the machine would be unable to return paper money and would serve as a Silver for Paper monetary exchange apparatus. All though my plot worked in essence, I was sorely disappointed by the sound of a One Arm Bandit that had hit triple cherries on three wheels, as the pawn in my game began to deposit what sounded like a hundred dimes into a loud tin pan! It took me longer to extract the ten dimes from the small noise amplification device than it would have taken me to take the walk that these machines conspired to put me on. But I still got my Dew and didn’t have to take an extra step to get it. Note to self; if the machine will not take your money fat boy, Keep Walkin.

I almost peed my pants

I was listening to NPR on my way home from work, which I often do because as my wife says, “there is very little hippness left” in me anymore, when the show “All Things Considered” played the story on this link. You will need speakers and a few minutes with minimal distractions but you just might get a chuckle.

Click on the title of this post to navigate to the link.

Phone Nerd

How many of you use your cell phone to its fullest extent? I take a ribbing at work from my co-workers because I use my phone so much. I find this quite odd when I work for a phone company. You would think that most people here would be Technology Dorks. And it's not that I talk on my cell phone a lot, but I use the other functions frequently. My wife and I send text message back and forth as many times as we talk, something like 400 a month. I also use the calendar especially to keep my schedule for Job Part Duex and have the reminder alarm set to make sure I am not late. Plus I use the calculator all the time, more than I do the one setting on my desk. I guess I am a nerd! Man there is really no escaping that. I know I would love to have one of those PDA phones, but who has that kind of money to spend on type of duckets on a glorified toy even if you can use all the features! Heavens knows I don’t I am still trying to get you to help me get a free iPod. Come on tell me how much of a nerd are you?

Back to work slacker!

Okay I am back at the office after taking the morning off. I Had to stay home with the boys while the MRS took her mom, sister and nieces to the airport. So I got to sleep in about 30 min later than a normal Monday. Plus eating Super Sugar Crisp with Josh and watching Jimmy Neutron for an hour or so. I tell you what if you think it’s hard to motivate yourself to roll out and drag your zombie carcass into work on a standard Monday morning; don’t try the half day off thing. I totally did not want to come in today. Then true to form when I do get in there is a major outage going on at one of our sites and everyone looks like they have been pulling their hair out all morning. But the outage had only been going on for 20 min before I walked in.

It’s a cruel world out there on the internet.

At this point I have all but given up on getting a free iPod. It seams like such an easy proposition to me; sign up for an offer (one you are likely to do anyway) then find five other people that are willing to do the same. And a company that gets paid based referrals will send you a free iPod. Simple enough, right? Well at this point I only have one person that has gone through with the entire process (she signed up for Block Buster online, which has better offer than you get from their direct site). I got nothing from my friends and family to whom I sent a direct email plea, which hurts! You cut me deep man, you cut me real bad. Not really but you can expect me to see more emails from me to get those of you who share blood and or history with me begging for your participation. My buddy Eddie had a lot of success initially (12 people who registered) when posting on various message board soliciting the kindness of strangers. So I figured I would give it a try and went out to a few boards that I know of and posted a strait forward request to “help me get a free iPod please” and got a few hits from people who at least looked at the offer, and a few less who took the first step to register but have yet to complete an offer which provides no assistance in accomplishing my goal. Still I figured that this was working pretty well. Frankly I expect some flack from strangers when I post on any board and choose to just take the high road and address what I perceive as there main objection without getting into a heated exchange(which is exactly what I think some on these boards are looking for) and ignore the replies that are just spewing hatred. Then I made the mistake of posting to a message board without trolling about a little to see how this sort of post would be received. I made the posting and before I could refresh the page to see if the posting was even being viewed I had been flamed with obscenities by three or four board members, I just took it in stride as always acknowledging the post that appeared to have some valid objection even if it was completely veiled in obscenities, and ignoring the ones attempting to bath me in Hateraide. Before I knew it there were twenty or more venom filled responses to my brief posting. Admittedly I received twenty plus hits on my blog entry that explains the program, before I was banned with prejudice and a pointed obscenity from one of the moderators. Alas this turned out to be a fruitless adventure toward my free iPod effort, but an educational experience none the less. So take a lesson from my foolishness; never wander into a knife fight armed only with a donation bucket.

Mr. Mom

Played hooky from work today, The Mrs had to go to the airport and pick up her Mother, Sister and Twin nieces. And so I am at home with the boys, trying not to make a mess that will get me in trouble when they get back. It should be nice having them in town for a weekend visit. In the mean time we are just trying to keep entertained. I was trying to show my 3year old have to NBA jam on the Xbox(he has learned the Sesame Street games online really quick, so I figured what the hey) but that got boring real fast. I never realized it would be that much anti-fun to beat someone so badly, but I guess the sport is really sucked out of the whole thing when your throwing the beatdown on your own 3 year old son. Oh well maybe we should try some lunch and cartoons.

Stop your sniveling you big baby!

Well I have come to the conclusion that I am a complete baby when it comes to being ill. I am not proud of that fact but I find it near impossible to be chipper or even pleasant with others when I have even the slightest head cold, which is what I believe I have now. I don’t know if I should just go home and crawl into bed but that’s exactly what I want to do, and nothing else. I fear that a “real man” would tough it out and stay on the job. What I really fear is that I will inconvenience some of my peers by making them cover me in my absence, because my job function can not go unmanned as I am completely critical to the operation. Yeah like the guy on the deep fat fryer at McDonald’s. The drive through window for this entire company of 65,000 people would back up for miles if I left my post unmanned!

How does one determine if the symptoms that they are displaying are as a result of a head cold or seasonal allergies? I have never really investigated the detail for the difference. All I know is my nose is not functioning as a method to draw air into my lungs today because it is otherwise preoccupied with the production of snot which it is storing up a great reserve in the open spaces of my cranium to the point where it threatens to leak out my ears as well as my nose!

Two days off worth the price.

I had off both Sunday and Monday this week, I work the second job on Saturday’s and rarely have two days off together. But I put in for the day off a while back to have Valentines Day off from the main job, simply to make points with the Mrs. By coincident was scheduled off the second job as well, I normally work two days aside from Saturday Monday being a common one. So the much loathed little travel alarm which wakes me from slumber more days than not with a “deet, deet, deet” was silenced for two strait days. In it’s place, gratefully at a much later interval in the morning I was roused by a small man say three foot three with as many years, who very much resembles myself, whispering in my ear”daddy what are you dodin?” When it is so uncommon being woken by your first born is quite a pleasurable experience. Opening my eyes from a comfortable sleep to see a sweet face that barely appears over the side of the bed, makes me smile every time.
For the most part the time off was blissfully uneventful, save the quick trip to the park in the early Monday afternoon, to take advantage of the first truly pleasant weather of the year that has fallen on a day when I am not shackled to a desk, And the arrival of a group of DVDs which were not opened until late on the same eve. I do enjoy low intensity days such as these more than I should.
Alas the time enjoyed did not go unmarred; I believe that I have come down with a head cold as I am stuffy, sneezey and ever so slightly miserable, and after speaking to the lovely Mrs, She and the sprouties appear to be afflicted by the same. O well this to shall pass.

Click here and make me feel better

Happy Valentines Day

Staying home with my honey today! I love playing hooky especially when it is on a day for romance! Go out and buy your significant other some flowers, and don’t think that guys don’t like to get flowers too. It makes us feel romantic and we can always dodge not being macho by saying they were a gift. And if you don’t have a significant other go out and buy yourself a small box of real expensive chocolates and keep all to yourself.


Get a free iPod!

Oh man I am spending too much time on this!

Well I guess it is obvious that the focus for the next few days is going to be my effort to get a free iPod. My friend is pretty close to finished. He has more than enough people signed up as referrals he just has to wait and see if the people have accepted one of the offers. There are a bunch of different ones to choose from. Most of them you have seen ads for or even purchased from.

Columbia house DVD club (normal club requirements) this is the one I did because I need some new DVDs anyway.
Citi Platinum Select Card for College Students.
Video Professor (this one is free, I am sure you probably have to pay the postage)
GM Card
Nexiderm ( nice one ad says “beauty without Botox” not one I would want)
USA Today
Blockbuster online (one of my referrals took this offer, she said it’s only $9.95 for the first month and you can cancel after that)
Cheap Trips
Etc etc.

There are twenty different offers to choose from. I heard that the credit card offers take a long time to confirm, but that was just what I read on another message board. I have seen a few articles on line, plus a whole bunch of people on message boards that say they got theirs so I am giving it a shot. Anyway if you want to get an iPod and like me you are too cheap to spend your hard earned ducats check out thelink and get one for free.

I need the help that way I can get it and stop obsessing and move on with the rest of my life!

Free iPods

Lust for inanimate objects!

Why are we so enamored with a television set? Here’s the back story. My job requires that I monitor the performance of thirty-some call centers (no I am not on the phones!) and these call centers are located throughout thirteen different states. Well Weather can be an impact to both the level of attendance in said call centers and the volume of calls into the same. The first part is easy to understand, you get snow in an area like North Carolina or a Hurricane in Florida and naturally people have problems getting to work, or at least a convenient excuse to say that they are. The second part of driving up call volume is a little bit more abstract. It must have part to do with the same idea of people off work at home, with more time to complain about their phone service. In addition local phone service is frequently impacted negatively by the weather, downed lines or water in the old copper lines. There you go long way around. All this mean that I must keep abreast of the weather in virtually the entire United States (our local territories are spread all over). I manage to do this quite well with the resources available on the internet NOAA or Weather imagine that! Well this method is not sufficient for some of the members of my extended group, so they have been lobbying for a Television and access to the Weather channel for some years before I got here (I have only been in this position for 7 mo). Well now they have their wish! A Television set with satellite access was installed last week. Oh joy. Does it enable me to perform my job with any increase in efficiency? No! What does it do that looking at the weather on the internet did not? You ask. It brings in more lookie loos into see the television. With brilliant commentary like “oh T.V., you gonna be watching your soaps in here?” and “alright cool, you got T.V in here. You get ESPN on that thing?” of course I am sure that here are lots of jobs in the world where people are paid exurbanite amounts to watch television programming of their choice. If I were to give that thing even more than a disinterested glance I am sure I would be caught in the act by a passing Vice President and immediately labeled a terminal slacker, and thus blackballed from all future monetary increase or career advancement.

With all this said don’t mistake my attitude toward television I have no animosity for it. in fact it’s quite the opposite at home, asks my lovely wife she hates it and I can’t live without. Hey sign my guest book, or map thingy!

Hey check out the new guest book and map

I just added a guest book please take a second to sign it. Tell me how you got to the site, was it by hitting "next blog"? That's how I found yours (most of the time) have you been here before and do you come by often? Oh yeah, put a pin in the guest map to show me where in the world you are. If your not from this world please send me an email with star coordinates. Thanks

Woo Hoo!

I am stoked; I sent out a message to everyone in my Hotmail address list and already have 1 referral for my free iPod! Now I only need 4 more. . I know of a Conga line blog site, and will post a link when it is updated. Click on the link below and to help me, and yourself to a free iPod.

Free iPods Here

Don't want to post

I was dragging my feet about posting anything new today because I didn’t want to move my Free iPod post from yesterday. But I feel somewhat obligated to post something, though this may be all of it. Tonight is “Family Night” so leave the TV off and the PC too and go play with your kids!

Help me get a Free iPod

Okay I have decided that I want an iPod! I very much need your help to get one for free. This is a site where you can sign up to get a FREE iPod, not some cheap knockoff but the real thing. It’s a simple program you sign up, then take one of the offers for a product and some of them are free. All I need it five other people to take advantage of the same deal and I will get a free iPod. here are pictures of people who have already gotten them for free.

This is not a scam, you can read here were people have gotten theirs for free.
So here is the Link to go and check out this program it’s not complicated it’s just a new style of marketing. I will keep you posted on my progress. Email me if you have questions.

Yes, you can really get a free Apple iPod. A marketing company called Gratis Internet has been giving them away at free iPods to anyone who is willing to try an advertiser's offer, and get five friends to do the same.

The site has been getting lots of press, too. Wired.com has written about it, as have many other sites, like NYU's daily student newspaper, NYUNEWS.COM.
If you are interested in getting your free iPod but don't know if you have five friends who will also participate, you are welcome to join our conga line. We'll help each other get our own free iPods!Please read all of the instructions before starting...

Step 1 - Signing up
*Create an e-mail account to use for this offer (Yahoo is good for this, Hotmail doesn't seem to work for this offer). Please be aware that you will receive some junk mail in this mailbox, though I have not recieved much to date.
*Click the link at the bottom of this posting or the banner at the top of the page, and enter the e-mail address you created and a password that you will remember. NOTE - I've recently heard that people are having trouble with their accounts if they sign up from the same computer. To be on the safe side, make sure that you are signing up from a computer that no one else has already used to sign up. They also won't allow two people to have their iPods shipped to the same address.
*Do NOT click yes to any surveys, they are optional(and there are a few of them. Create your account.
Once you're in, close your browser, and go to the e-mail account that you used to register (the one that you created in the first step). You should receive an e-mail asking you to activate your account. Follow the link to activate. You should now be in the "Complete Offer" link. If not, there is a link to it at the top of the page. Now complete one of the offers.

Step 2 - Completing an offerYou must now complete one of the available offers. The available offers have been changing lately, so review each one and pick your favorite!
Once you've done one of the offers, you should receive an e-mail stating you completed your offer, and your 'Check Status' page should change to say 'Congratulations! You have completed your requirements'. [PLEASE NOTE: As this promotion has gotten more popular, it has begun to take longer before you receive credit & confirmation for the offer that you complete. Currently, it is taking 2 to 3 business days to receive credit & confirmation for the offer that you complete.]

Don't try to beat the system!Remember, for the guys who run Gratis Internet (the company that runs the free ipod site) this is their source of income. They want your business, BUT have also gone to great lengths to make sure it's nearly impossible to beat the system they have devised. DO NOT MAKE UP 6 E-MAIL IDENTITIES FOR YOURSELF AND TRY TO GET A FREE GIFT- IT WILL NOT WORK! We found it's much easier to just play by the rules.

Step 3 - Getting your 5 referralsNow you need to get 5 people to sign up, using your referral link, and complete an offer. To help you out with this, We've started the conga line. Once you have complete an offer send me an email with the account name you have used to sign up and I will send you a link to get your information added to the conga line. Once your information is confirmed, you'll be added as the next member of the conga list. Once the person in the #1 spot is finished, they will be removed and everyone will move up. Direct everyone you know to this site, and we should all get our own iPods in no time!
Good luck!!!

FreeiPods

Road Kill

I will meet my demise at the hands of a well groomed thirty-something white female behind the wheel of a large luxury sport utility vehicle. Okay probably not, only the good die young so I will likely live to be a kooky old fart. But lately I have been in fear for my life especially when I first arrive at work. I have mentioned this before but I work in a large building on a large business complex, subsequently we have more than a dozen multi-level parking structures. Because of the thousands of employees who work here all of these facilities become completely full shortly after 9:00 am. With this in mind you can imagine what the competition for prime spots (anything below the third floor in each structure) can be like in the fifteen minutes before 8:00 am. I liken it to the day after thanksgiving in your favorite retail establishment in the pre-Christmas shopping rush. No less than three times in the last two weeks I have found my self jumping back into the “Safe Zone” between parked vehicles to avoid being crushed by the afore mentioned parking zealot. These divers all share some characteristics; a female who has stood on her breaks and offered an “O face” by way of an apology because she was traveling too fast and too focused on scanning for the vacant space where she can cram her seven passenger M-1 Abrams four wheel drive grocery wagon. So if you are one of these drivers please slow down and watch for slow moving pedestrians like me who are too fat to be jumping in between cars or sprinting across the traffic lanes, I know you are running late and I will forgive you for near misses. But I feel certain that I will be much less forgiving once actual contact has been made.

Mondays Killer Animation

Okay I think I have discovered the formula for success for so many other blogs, they are based on one theme. Some are focused on sports or politics and mine has up till now been based on completely random junk.

Well today is the first day of the Keeping Up programming. I was inspired by blogs like,Presrunk , Are you Conservative and a bunch of other sites that I have come across. I am not going to focus totally on one subject. I don’t think I have the energy or web surfing time one would need to devote to that kind of endeavor. But I am going to start programming Mondays with Killer animation. And Yeah I am the only person who gets to determine if the linked file or site is really “killer” so if you don’t like it you may have to start your own blog with links to goofy web animation. Any way Here is the first installment for Mondays Killer Animation.

Is Wal-Mart good for America?

This article talks to what I have been saying for years now.And though it is very long it is very good at the same time. I believe Wal-Mart is bad for America and bad for American towns and workers. There is only one thing to do about it. Don’t buy from Wal-Mart! I know their stuff is cheap, it is often junk too. A young man I worked with a few years back had a motto “one dollar, one vote.” Basically what he was saying is that you condone the things that are linked to how you spend your money. If you buy from companies that exploit children as cheap labor then you are saying “That’s okay as long as I get a good deal.” Well the same thing applies to buying things from Wal-Mart, yeah you can buy things cheaper there and they are the largest employer in the US other than the Federal government but the way they do pay their staff keeps them in an economic state where they can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart. Anyway, that is enough venom spouting for one day. If I don’t post again have a good weekend.

Cleaning house

Okay I have made a couple of little layout changes to my blog incase you didn’t notice. Including adding some links on the sidebar. I have the Chatago tool on the side but I can’t connect when I am at work so you are better off sending me an email or even better use Yahoo IM to send me a message. I think you can send me a message even if you don’t have the software loaded on your end. I am kinda jazzed because I have been working on learning some software so I can build my own site. We have the lame one that I build from a template provided by our internet service provider, but I want to learn how to build a cool one. Maybe this will provide me with the creative outlet I have been looking for.

This one is not for the kiddies

Just incase you are feeling a little down about your life this
should make you feel better knowing that your not alone.

What I need is more toys!

Okay I have pretty much made up may mind that I want an Ipod or some other Mp3 player with a large storage capacity. Well I know it’s a frivolous toy, you don’t have to tell me that! Well no, I don’t have three hundred bucks to blow on something like that (I don’t even have three hundred bucks). You could always get me one. come on you always have that kind of money laying around.
I have seen several websites where you can sign up for this or that unrelated product and refer some people to do the same and they will send you one for free. But I frankly doubt that I know five other people who would be willing to sign up with Columbia house (again) to get a free Ipod, let alone do so to get me one. I am contemplating it I will keep you posted if is decide to sign up. The one thing I know is that I will not be buying one outright, the last frivolous toy I bought (or coursed my wife into getting me for Christmas) was an Xbox and although I like it a lot and enjoy some of the games, I have made little use of it since maybe July. So I know that dog won’t hunt around here. If you know what I mean.

I love the web

Cartoons are one thing that transcends the barriers of language. Here is a site that proves this theory with some good chuckles.