My FO summed it up. The rest is small stuff. We were bemoaning our running late. — We have jobs and nobody is shooting at us.
All posts by cs
anniversary
This month marks a one year culmination of personal blogs on strombotne.com. I’ve tried to put into words interesting happenings (or tried to make them seem interesting anyway :)) daily highlights inspired by current events or local drama. These blogs offer a perspective of my life flavored by family and others who are near-and-dear to me. I would like to thank my wonderful loved ones, my ISP, my Hosting Service, Allaire CF, Microsoft spell check, members of the academy… Hi Mom!
techno 2
Recently added to this site – cutting edge stuff: RSS Feed. This is a form of XML, an extension of HTML tags, allowing any system or platform to access and render my information on their web site, PDA, cell phone etc. One can collocate various RSS feeds from independent newsites for inclusion in one central web page. Rather then visit numerous bookmarked websites, downloading all of the fluff (banner ads, graphics, errata) cut right to the chase. I use a feedreader app aka a news aggregator. No programing skills required. Merely subscribe to the [geek] news that you want to read.
first ski ride
The season has not begun quite yet but it’s fun to test the waters. I have a half suit for that purpose and it works really well. Exposed appendages told me -wait a couple more weeks. It was cee oh el dee! And just as I had screwed up my courage and plunged in my driver/spotter says ‘wait! hold it a minute…’ and goes blind from the pine pollen interfering with her contact lenses. (this is actually a favorite prank on the skier who is anxious to get going) “Ah–come on yer killin’ me here.” We launch and I don’t know if she can see to navigate but the run is a success and I feel the macho man.
techno 1
With some PHP code from emptypages I’ve added a weather module to this site. The data is pulled from the National Weather Service so it does not arrive encumbered with ad banners or logo. As another neat feature the data is archive cached in a MySQL database for a length of time so that repeated hits don’t burden the NOAA server.
busted
So I’ve selected the Group 65 DieHard and the clerk has asked me for credit card, which I furnish, and phone number. The phone number is the first field on his check-out screen and I see no valid reason to add mine to his list which gets sold to telemarketers. Most folks give it up and so do I except mine is bogus. (kind of like lying about ones age, eh?) What happened next I didn’t expect because his computer system actually ran a check on the number and reported back in the space of a few seconds that it belongs to a local motel!? It does indeed — the perfect pay-back, because it’s one digit off from mine and sometimes we get their calls. So, I use it without bad feeling on occasion to remain incognito. But now I’m discovered. In my best agent Maxwell Smart voice: “Would you believe it if I told you that I live at the Days Inn? Awww shucks! Just leave that part blank – would ya?
VIVA
Favorite daughter child is enjoying her spring break in one of the seven cities of gold ( Las Vegas ). She and her traveling compadres were undeterred by the threat to homeland and on the eve of conflict braved the airlines and ventured forth. The reward is that they seemingly have the hotel to themselves. It is unknown that this is because:
- it’s a weekday
- it’s cloudy rainy
- there’s a war on soon
- their accommodations have a distinct Parisian theme
Anyhow, I’m proud of them for not fearing fear.
Salt in the wound
On the anniversary of our new car purchase the manufacturer’s distributor has sent us one of those little appreciative desktop knickknacks. Following this gift was a telemarket call from someone from somewhere with a local dialect asking if we’d like to trade-up. Nay. “The ’03 models are much improved in the reliability department and…” Oh! Puhleez. We know that the NEW ones have the bugs resolved. OURS was their test mule. I have a litany of repair order forms as proof 😮
Reversal
I’m shocked. Given the pathetic state of the airline industry, where there are many unfortunates who have lost jobs or are about to be displaced, we had a visitor ask us ( humbly )about employment prospects. This was a first. I have never… It’s always the apprentice wanting to move ‘up’ to the network carrier! Never the other way around. ( save for the father type wanting a place for son or daughter to get their career start off ) I whispered to my crew that we know that our world is turned upside-down ( headstand ) when a mainline guy asks US about getting on with OUR company.
faire l’amour
Caution: subtitles. A distraction at first but later you didn’t notice. We watched the foreign language (FRENCH) film (on DVD): AMELIE from Montmartre. (shortened for the USA release otherwise the stupide amercaine would not go to a movie that they could not pronounce 😉 Creative artful cinematography with a romantic storyline. A refreshing change from the vapid gratuitous violence and hatred from Hollywood. Despite their contrary adversarial anti-war stratagem, it gave us the warm and fuzzies for French peoples. You see there is a higher calling then money or politics and that would be art and culture. Oui even learned some French words.