the way it is...

Kind of Blue
a Stranger
an unwelcome Friend
unexpected
anticipation becoming clean up duty
abrupt ends
almost
the Last one Up
that taste in your mouth
wondering
sound asleep
heavy eyes
intriguing
Coltrane and Davis

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Valley Metro

So, I like to ride the bus. Interesting people, saves on gas, don't feel as bad about having a big truck, it's nice to get a mile of walking in every day. I also enjoy not driving in Phoenix. Aimee can definitely tell when I've ridden the bus and when I've driven, because when I get home from work I have a completely different attitude. Plus, it's incredibly convenient in this city. For those of you that haven't lived outside of PHX, there aren't buses roaming around every city like they do here. Matt can attest to that. They have(had) several convenient ways to pay as well. You could buy a monthly pass that basically let you ride as much as you want whenever you want for one low monthly fee (I think it was somewhere between 30 and 45 bucks). For me, the best thing they had going were the 'tickets'. These were books of tickets that were basically one way passes. They didn't expire (hah, yeah right) and you didn't run the risk of using them to buy a coke at work when you were really tired. I think they dropped the price from 1.25 per ride to 1.20 but that wasn't really the impetus for using them. So I haven't really been riding since I had the kids, since I take them to school in the morning but I've been looking forward to riding again this summer.

Well, when my truck was broken I grabbed a few tickets and headed down to my bus stop. Lo and behold, over the winter they revamped their fee-structure and INVALIDATED MY TICKETS! Now that really pisses me off. There is no reason why they couldn't continue to accept them for some REASONABLE amount of time and I can't imagine that they would EVER make it so you couldn't trade them out for the new tickets. Some more info (mainly for Matt, who is probably the only one who cares): One way fare is still 1.25, however they no longer issue transfers so your 1.25 gives you EXACTLY one ride. You get off the bus, you pay again. For 2.50 you can buy an 'all day pass' which lets you ride all day long (duh). So really, this is better for me because I used to pay 2.50 for 2 one way trips each day and if I wanted to ride to the mall or something for lunch I had to pay again. They sell books of one day pass 'tickets' @ 12.50 for 5 (which is basically the same as the 10 ticket books they used to sell. They now also sell 3, 7, and 31 day passes which I guess are good deals if that's what you need. All in all, I think it's a good thing because, frankly, the bus has been too cheap. If you look at a bus ride in any major metropolis I think you'll find that 2.50 for a whole day is still a steal.

So here is my gripe. Dec 2007: new rate plan goes into effect, Valley Metro stops selling tickets. Jan 2008 - March 2008: they 'blast' the (old) media telling people the fares are changing and (supposedly) tell you that you should cash in your old tickets because they are no longer going to work. April 2008: Any tickets you have from the 'old' (3 months ago) system are now garbage. Keep in mind that Phoenix is a city full of people who leave for months at a time. Admittedly, most of these people are here during the winter, but seriously, 3 months? And I never received a letter in the mail even though I purchase tickets all the time? No email, even though they have my email for purchase confirmations? What harm is there in allowing the old tickets to be traded in for, what, a year? Who cares? Even if you just allow them to be traded 2 for 1 for the new all day tickets. These things can represent a serious investment for some people. I bought them 4 books at a time...that was 48 dollars! All of the sudden they're garbage because I didn't ride the bus over the winter? I called in to complain and seek some sort of restitution but, alas, I was told to pound sand. Repeatedly, and by managers 2 levels up. I rode the bus home tuesday in a VERY bad mood (mainly because I had to borrow bus money) :(

Well, let me end this by saying I'm very pleased with Valley Metro (didn't expect that, didja?) I wrote them a letter stating very clearly my position and why I was unhappy with them. I told them that I was an advocate in my professional environment for riding the bus and I felt let down. I told them exactly what I wanted, which was a cashless trade; ticket for ticket. Well this morning, I received a phone call from Andrea, who told me that they would certainly trade me new tickets for old, and they were sorry for any inconvenience. At this point, I don't even care whether or not I get the new tickets (ok, I do) I'm just happy that they aren't completely unreasonable.

Good times.

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Posted in: friends,work

This gets me every time I see it...

This dude is 4 years old in this video...

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Ummmm

So I was looking for a carpet remnant on craigslist for our storage room (that we're hoping to convert into an office) when I ran across this:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/spo/650040968.html

About which I could only think to myself, "Wow, that seems like a lot for a stripper pole."

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Posted in: friends,interests

Crazy day

Well, today was an interesting day.  Lots happened, it's hard to believe it was only one day's worth of stuff.  First off, my truck was still not working this morning so I just rode the bus.  I found out that they no longer take the tickets I have so I almost didn't get to ride.  Luckily, I had a buck twenty-five and could ride it to work.  I called and bitched out the customer service people and they didn't care. I probably have $30 worth of those darn tickets (thanks Matt).  I wrote the customer service email address and explained why I think it's ridiculous that they won't trade them out at all for the new tickets.  We'll see how that pans out.  

When I got to work I had to give a demo of the project I've been working on to my new manager and the director of our group.  It was kind of a big deal and I was a little nervous but it went well (no crashes and no obvious bugs during the demo).  Aimee got really sick so I had to come home instead of going to church for a meeting (sorry Gena).  I had a bright idea about my truck and went out and just fixed it.  Straight up fixed.  Amen.  I can't believe I didn't see the problem earlier but I'm just glad it's fixed.  I had to go drop off Aimee's homework and pick up some lumber because the guy is coming tomorrow to fill in the window in the living room.  Fun Times!

Meanwhile, I was a little bored at work at the end of the day since I'm in the middle of few different tasks and didn't want to start something new.  So I just randomly decided to search for this guy I used to know on the internet.  A little background; when I was in junior high I had a pretty tight group of friends.  Well, this one guy had to move to Ohio all of the sudden with his family and it was like BAM he was gone.  I was never able to really keep in touch with him and my friends and I always wondered what happened with him.  When I was in college and discovered the web I thought for sure this guy would be on there.  So I searched and searched but couldn't find him.  Every year I got a bug in me and searched for him but never turned anything up.  Well for some reason today my google juice was flowing and I found a posting on a linux user group by a guy with the right name and I just emailed him.  BINGO!  It was crazy, I emailed all of my old group of friends his info and we played catch up.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm gonna get all the rest of the stuff done that I was planning on doing tonight!  

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Posted in: family,florida,friends,home improvement,work

Well...poop

So this has been an all around depressing day. I have been unable to get my truck fixed. For some reason the alternator is just not charging the battery, even though the fine technicians at Pep Boys put it on the machine and verified it. I am pretty sure I am just going to tell them to suck it tomorrow and buy a new one. So, I was messing around with batteries and wiring and what not and I came across a stuck bolt. This bold happened to be a corroded terminal stud that was in my spare battery. So I grabbed my vise grips after having been unsuccessful at getting it off with any wrench (and rounding it off in the process) and start to really put some torque on it. Yay it came loose! Unfortunately, when it came loose my vise grips spun around and made contact with the other terminal of the battery. Fire ensued, the grips got so hot that my hand it burnt up pretty good, and I felt the ole familiar grip of direct current coursing through my arm. Luckily, it was only one arm or it probably would have stopped my heart. The funny thing about DC, and I say that for this reason alone T. Edison can screw off, is that once it gets you it doesn't let go. The reason that AC makes you feel twitchy (like when you get physical therapy and they put those neat little pads on your leg and crank up the juice) is the constant reversal of current causes your muscles to fire in rapid succession thereby giving you an opportunity to 'let go'. The beautiful thing about DC is that when it grabs you, such as when you are foolish enough to bar a vise grip across a 12 volt battery's terminals, it doesn't let go.

So there I stood, gazing down at a burning rubber insulator willing myself to let go yet somehow unable to. I managed to come out of my state of shock long enough to punch my right arm with my left arm and knock it loose from the wrench. This was about the time that Aimee came out to see me in agony. I then punched off the vice grips, hopefully preventing the destruction of the battery and the burning down of my house. Interestingly enough, at that same time the guy coming to give us an estimate for an air conditioning (HAH - A/C, how appropriate) vent in our laundry room rolled up. He probably thought I was crazy, as I walked over to shake his hand and introduce myself. My heart was beating about 12093803948203984 beats per second and I'm sure I had a little bit of the crazy eye going. It was a good estimate and he could have done it today but we had to leave the house.

Then we went to the doctor.

Then I had to hurry home and, thinking I had fixed my truck I drove over to pick up some furniture this family at the church was giving us for the kids bedroom. Very cute stuff, very nice furniture. On the way, I kept my eye on the voltmeter and sure enough, about 5 minutes from church it started dropping down really low. The alternator wasn't charging. Some really funny things happen when the voltage starts dropping. For one, when it hit about 9 volts, the speedometer would start pulsing up and down as I slowed...it was strange. It was fine as I was driving but as I braked it would bounce up and down. Kind of funny actually. Then at about 8 volts, the engine started lugging a little bit and the door locks started locking and unlocking on their own. I can only imagine that the computer was freaking out. Heh heh, kind of funny.

So I made it to church and pulled into the parking lot. I called Aimes and had her bring me the spare battery and my tools and the charger and eventually after she got there I got it switched out and tried to readjust the wiring and what not hoping that something was just loose. It looks like it might have worked as the truck stayed charged while I was driving home with the load of furniture. I hope so, I am tired of working on it. I was really wishing that Rooster was around, not really so he could fix it but just so I could shoot the sh*t with him while I fumbled around with things. I'll talk more about it later, but I really miss Rooster lately. We had a really good time together while we were in Florida the first time. I think we might have bonded again after a few years of not being too close. Anyways, I'm home now and put the kids in bed. Aimee has had a rough few weeks and the last few days have been hard so I told her to go out and have some fun tonight. I think she is hanging out with Emily and maybe Brittany.

Hopefully my day tomorrow will be better, but I don't know...Tuesdays suck and I have a lot of work to do tonight for school. Pray for me!

Oh, about the doctor. I found out that I'm effed up and we probably won't be able to have a baby because of me. You think of a way that someone's sperm can be deficient and I gotcha covered!  

On a lighter note, right after the doctor told me that, she told me I need to get a bunch of blood work done and see a urologist to make sure I don't have cancer or some other condition which could kill me.  At least I wasn't ONLY worried about not being able to ever have kids! Yay!

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Posted in: family,friends,home improvement,interests

Amazing new TV show on PBS

One of the fantastic things about Tivo is the way it learns about you. I know this might seem creepy to some people but I am into software and this is a bit like software I have worked on in the past. I will say that Tivo knows their stuff, it is very good software. Anyways, my Tivo pointed me in the direction of a new reality series/documentary that PBS has done called Carrier. I downloaded (free!) a 25 minute preview from Amazon Unbox onto the Tivo and realized at the end my jaw was just hanging. The footage was beautiful, the people that they have built the show around are just regular joes, and the concept is just amazing. There are 10 episodes and each one focuses on a different theme. The one that got me was the one on faith, they apparently focused an episode on faith in God, faith in the USA, faith in their mission, faith in each other. It was amazing. I'm not going to lie here, I have always regretted not joining the military out of high school (I was about two heartbeats away from joining the Marine Corps) and this was really pulling at my heart strings.

Anyways, it looks like they have/will have all of the episodes online and you should be able to pick it up for free over the air. I would suggest watching it!

Linky

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Posted in: interests