Archive for February, 2007
2/1/2007
Title of this entry is a lyric from a song written by a guy who has a doctorate in music. Yeah, a doctorate.
your tax dollars at work
I got my vehicle registration bill in the mail yesterday. My first thought was Wow.. I’ve been in Florida that long already? Hm.. guess I have. I examined the bill, which was $46.10. Wow. Cheap. Seriously, that is cheap. In CT the bill was routinely well over $200. Upon further examining the bill, I found I could pay it online. So I did. Bill is paid. No waiting in line at the DMV. How cool is that?
As a small side note, Florida DMV’s kick the living bejeezus out of Connecticut’s. Much more organized.
fun with yahoo! personals
I decided to post a personals ad on Yahoo! Personals yesterday. I posted it with the intent of going in a different direction.
This is my personals ad:
As I sit here writing this, I’m drinking a mug o’ coffee in my oh-so-favorite mug that I acquired years ago. If you like to drink coffee, you’ve got your mug. You know the kind. The one you always use, and if it got broken or lost, you would feel sad about it. And NO ONE drinks out of it but you. Absolutely no one touches your mug. No way. Uh uh. Sitting on top of my computer is my betta fish in his house, that being his fish bowl. His name is Bob. Why Bob? Because that’s the only word he knows how to say. Bob is doing well. I clean bowl once a week like you’re supposed to do. It’s a good thing I don’t own a cat, else Bob would most likely meet his doom in the form of the cat’s tummy sooner or later. Probably sooner. It’s not that I mind cats or dogs, but you know.. cats and fish don’t mix, unless said cat is eating said fish. I sometimes read other girls’ profiles, and that all-too-familiar must-have-sense-of-humor line is in there. I have no idea what that means. I hope it doesn’t mean any movie with Ben Stiller in it. You know that movie called There’s Something About Mary? SUCKED. Ugh.. that movie was SO bad. If you like the ha-ha movies, I’m game as long as Ben Stiller is NOT in it. Wow, I just read over this. This is so long. I should blog this later. Do you blog? If so, huge turn-on. Seriously. Oh, and by the way, compared to every guy you know - I don’t suck. Okay, I’m done. Write soon.
Of course, as said above, I did blog it. I don’t care if anyone knows whether I use the personals or not. I figured I’d make an “anti-ad”; something that’s just completely different from what you normally see (such as what girls write).
If I actually get any response to it.. wow.. what do I do then? Ha! :-)
future projects
My next music project is going to be something orchestral-based. My Fusion has lots of bells and whistles (literally), so.. sounds like something worth doing.
I also plan on re-launching my biz site (no, not richmenga.com, another one) by the end of this month. Haven’t really decided what to offer for services yet. It will be television based, but I don’t have the details ironed out yet.
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2/1/2007
I got back from Inverness a lil’ while ago. It was really windy out. I was getting blown all over the highway. No, not like going on two wheels or anything like that.. just really strong winds. I got to see some lightning; something I haven’t seen in a while. Lightning is neat to watch. No doubt about that.
Remember what I said in my last post about the Yahoo! Personals thing where I said If I actually get any response to it.. wow.. what do I do then?
I got a response.
Seriously, I did.
Amazing.
Will I get a date out of it? No clue. I was just surprised (and pleased, obviously) a girl responded - because I honestly didn’t think anyone would.
Cool beans.
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2/3/2007
Two days ago, a tornado ripped thru an area about fifty miles northwest of Orlando.
In other words, NOWHERE NEAR ME.
But the news on CNN sure made it look like the entire Tampa Bay region got destroyed.
Trust me, it didn’t. There were no cows flying thru the air or anything like that.
Two people contacted me wondering if I was okay. It was very nice that they did, but I was like “Wha..?” because the news made it look like half the state was destroyed. Um… no. :-)
————————-Last night I chatted on instant messenger with a girl for over six hours. Haven’t done that in.. wow I’m dating myself here.. probably six or seven years. It was great, I liked it a lot, and she’s local. Local is
good. We chatted about.. everything. Even my fish. And since she said I could blog this, I’m going to:
if you look like bob when kissing you are doing it wrong
No argument there. :-)
Some other stuff we talked about were the churches in New England. Whether you practice a faith or not, many stone churches are architectural wonders.
A joke Pop said years ago that I still find funny to this day is “Our Lady Of The Bathtub”. This is one of those New-Englander-only jokes because if you look around the churches up that way, there’s always a Virgin Mary statue somewhere that looks like she’s standing in the middle of a bathtub. Sometimes there’s water, sometimes there isn’t, but the tub is always there.
You use the phrase when you’re trying to give directions somewhere but forgot the name of the church:
Head up the street and hang a left right after Our Lady of the Bathtub.
If you really want to go all out, you can say “Our Blessed Lady of the Holy Bathtub”.
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2/5/2007
It’s 12:58am as I write this. Yeah. Going to wake up grumpy tomorrow for sure. Actually, no. I’ll wake up quite happy. Why? I’m officially in a relationship again. Yep. I’m a boyfriend to a very pretty girl. And I think she’s quite the awesome catch if I do say so myself. :-)
Chances this relationship will work out: Good. Reason? We have a lot in common with each other; something I’ve found to be very important. She knows and understand Aries tendencies. And in case you’re wondering, she’s a Gemini. A lovely one.
Another indication the relationship has a good chance of working out:
Her: I wonder what our first fight will be about?
Me: Probably about how I’m right and you’re wrong.
Her: (smacks me on the ass) I don’t think so.
Yeah. It’ll work. :-)
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2/5/2007
Today:
Did an errand run. Needed to buy a few things. Headed to Wal-Mart. Picked up my items. Proceeded to the checkout.
On attempt to use American Express.. “Card Not Accepted”.
Huh?
I voided all the items and left.
Same day:
Went to K-Mart. Bought same items. Used American Express card.
Went right thru. No problems at all.
I can only assume Wal-Mart either doesn’t accept AMEX cards, or AMEX refuses to do business with them.
K-Mart, on the other hand, accepts just about everything.
Very interesting.
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2/5/2007
Above: Your tax dollars at work. I sent the payment for my vehicle registration on February 1, 2007. It was mailed February 2, 2007 and received today.
Holy shit was that fast.
Very nice.
————————-While my sister was in town, she rented a
GPS from Enterprise rent-a-car. And yes, you can do that. You can rent these things. She received the exact same
GPS I have, the Garmin StreetPilot c340. When I was messing around with it, I noticed she had more choices for voices, like British accents, Australian accents and so on.
Hm.. must mean I can get these too?
Yep. A lot of ‘em.
I also noticed a software update. I checked mine to see what version I had. I was way behind.. 2.10. So I downloaded 3.70 and updated.
And holy crap were there a ton of updates since v2.10. I’m glad I did the update.
The best part was installing the voice (American English) “Jack”. It sounds way better than “Jill” does. Much more intelligible. I’ll stick with Jack for a while and see if I like it. If not, I’ll go back to Jill.
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2/6/2007
Title of this entry is influenced by two movies someone lent me, Confidence and Mansfield Park. I’ve seen half of Confidence so far and haven’t watched the other one yet. And honestly speaking, I have no clue what Mansfield Park is about.. maybe it’s good, I dunno. Hopefully there’ll be some boobs in it. Boobs are good. I’ll report on that later.
————————-
I picked up my JVC camcorder back from warranty repair today. The DV port is now functional again. I can only hope that it lasts a while, because it’s safe to say I don’t exactly have confidence in the product (considering it broke in less than a month).
————————-
While going to Largo today to pick up my camcorder, I decided to try the “Jack” voice out on my StreetPilot c340. Not bad, but I’m very used to the “Jill” voice, so.. I switched it back to her.
Oh, and a few other GPS updates:
As I said previously, upgrading the software in the c340 to v3.70 was a wise move. I can definitely notice the improvements. Calculation, recalculation and boot time are all significantly faster.
Only one problem has happened with my c340 (totally unrelated to the software upgrade). The battery has been stone dead for some time now. It absolutely will not charge. The unit still works when plugged in on USB or the car charger, which is good, but still.. a lithium ion battery shouldn’t crap out this fast. Because the battery is embedded in the unit, there’s no way to change it. Granted, it’s well over a year old, but it would be nice if I could at least swap out the battery for another.
And in case you’re wondering, yes I did reset the unit. Didn’t help.
Bummer.
But like I said, it still works, and works well as always.
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2/8/2007
Title of this entry is a lyric from a song that, quite possibly, has the coolest intro ever.
————————-
Yesterday I finished shooting the initial raw footage for an upcoming tutorial how-to DVD that I have to complete later. Very long shoot. About six hours, plus a lil’ extra time to run to the store for miniDV videocassettes. I was happy to get it done because now I can import the footage to my computer and start editing away.
This would have been done three weeks ago had it not been for continuously failing video equipment, so… I was extra happy the footage is now just done, done, done.
————————-
I will be visiting the girlfriend sometime today (maybe, depending on her schedule), then heading up north to Inverness to see Pop.
————————-
I’ve also learned that I really, really don’t like explaining myself to people.
Example:
What’s your favorite color?
Green.
Why is it your favorite color?
I don’t know.
Oh, come on.. you must like it for some reason..
I don’t know.
But..
I DON’T FUCKING KNOW. I JUST LIKE IT. GOT IT? GOOD. GLAD WE HAD THAT CHAT.
That last part I don’t actually say.. but I think it. :-)
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2/10/2007
Today was not a good day. Reason? I had to face myself. Once again, I was reminded in grand fashion that I don’t feel (as in “to feel”) the way others do. As much as I try to convince myself and others that I’m a very easy person to understand, it never comes across that way. Never. Maybe it’s best that I’m labeled (by my own admission) as “difficult”.
At this moment in time I feel terrible. Heartsick. A very low feeling. The kind where you know you’ve made a decision that’s for the best, but at the same time really hurt to do it. That’s the part where you face yourself and have to live with the decisions you make.
Earlier this evening I called Pop. We didn’t talk about my xenophobic tendencies, but rather my idiosyncrasies. We talked about things such as how I’m quick to anger, quick to offend and that I just don’t understand sarcasm.
My father full well understands that sarcasm, to me, is insulting. I don’t “get it”. Never have. Never will. I’m okay with that. Pop said it best in the way that I feel sarcasm is, as he put it, a “challenge to my existence”. Oh yes, Pop is a wise man. No doubt about that.
But then again he’s known me since I was born.
Bob has been quite active today and is swimming around his bowl quite a bit. Every now and then he bops his nose (or what would be his nose) where the bowl ends, as if he’s trying to escape. No matter what size bowl he’s in, there will always be a barrier somewhere. That’s the limitations of his existence.
I sort of feel like that right now. I’m in my own little apartment, surrounded by four walls and very set in my ways. But compared to Bob, I do have a choice. I can get out. And I do. Maybe it’s not very often, but I’m slowly but surely breaking the bubble. I’m still in a phase of adjustment concerning where I live. Florida is still very new to me and I still don’t know very many people. But at least I’m making an effort. That’s what counts.
With that said, I’m going to Pop’s place to sleep there this evening. I really shouldn’t waste gas like this, but.. hmph. I just need to be on the road for a while.
And he’s got cable. :-)
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2/11/2007
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