The Empirical Manifesto

Had an absolute blast last night. As soon as I signed off work I readied the "Candy Deployment Area" with a comfy high-tensile folding camping armchair, a footlocker as a table holding a freaking vat of almost 1000 pieces of candy ("mini" versions of the popular candy bars as well as enough Smarties for every kid to huff - its what kids these days are doing with them - crushing, then huffing them), a decorative pumpkin, far too-bright LED rope light across the entire brick-rail of the porch, and a cooler with cans of things like Guinness, Stella, Smithwick, Tecate, Heineken, Modelo and the like. Not that I sat. I stood there grinning from ear-to-ear passing out candy like a retard.

I had the front door open and my spooky mixes playing (by the way, matching the tremolo from The Walking Dead as a segue into Downton Abbey...? Yeah, NOT spooky. That was my bad. I will likely remaster the mix without it and re-upload). I was shocked at how many kids told me I had a nice house after peering inside. I also discovered all the kids, no matter how young or how old appreciated me knowing who/what they were dressed as. They were all genuinely thankful. As dusk fell and night drew on, key neighbors who had been coordinated with ahead of time stopped by to partake from the cooler, including some neighbors who'd moved away recently but returned for Halloween. It was particularly nice since I don't really socialize much, the last time being with these same neighbors on the Fourth.

Lastly, since I'd intended to take a pic of my awesome set-up but failed to, here's the picture I submitted to lj_photophile's Halloween post - my kids from Halloween 2011 - which seemed to be the favorite based on comments alone. Click the pic for full-size goodness. There you go, Jules :)

1:43

( Brrrrains! )


Mennonites and zombies, oh my! Our own little bedroom town of Newton, Kansas is hosting its own ZOMBIEFEST!

Join us for the 2nd Annual Zombie Fest! This year we're bringing more to the table and moving it to Athletic Park, adding more events and entertainment and running longer! Stage shows, fire dancers, a bed of nails and a brain eating contest to name a few things! Just $5 admission to benefit Newton Community Theater!

I took the cover picture outside my front door a little after 2130 on the 27th of September - spooky!

Per HOA regulations, I'm going to stain my fence. I've never been a part of an HOA, nor had an unstained fence. I had no idea that stain was that expensive. The good stuff goes for $120. Yikes. I settled for a five-gallon bucket at $85. I was also overwhelmed at the variety of colors. We ended up with "Cederwood." Now that I have a compressor I can get cool things like a gravity fed spray gun, which should minimize my actual "work" time on this project. I'll let you know how that goes.

I've been on and off line since Thursday. I've never had cable modem before, and after this six-day run, I may never again. I'm just waiting for fiber. Biding my time. And making multiple calls into the helpdesk. Of course by this time I've flat out refused to "restart my computer" to see if it comes back up. Christ, I'm running four different operating systems at home. Why do they always want me to reboot my XP box?

Speaking of Microsoft, remember the CAN-YOU-RUN-VISTA program you could download? The one which told you which "number" your system was?

1. Your system cannot run Vista.


2. Your system can run some core components of Vista.


3. Your system can run Vista, but many features will be disabled.


4. Your system can run Vista with most, but not all features enabled.


5. There is no hardware available today to run a full version of Vista with everything turned on.

I like Apple's approach better:

Leopard will run faster than Tiger, even on your old equipment.

Its the opposite of 'bloatware' and we, as cattle, don't know how to handle this information. We don't understand because its completely antithetical to our way of thinking. Microsoft has brainwashed us into thinking that security flaws and poor code are simply a way of life.

Which reminds me, drax0r found an independent study which names the fastest Vista laptop on the market today: The MacBook Pro. Dumbasses - http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136649-page,3-c,notebooks/article.html

This past weekend drax0r and I attended an all-day party at the Grand Opening of Anna Fine Wines & Spirits. There was a classic car show, a 20-foot smoker filled with sausage and brisket, and plenty of wine, vodka, and tequila tasting all day long. My favorites were the Daytona/Superbird twins:



Afterwards was a Tribal Council meeting. A meeting among private citizens of Anna to drink and discuss the merits of drinking. Everyone was there. I was the grill co-pilot to Retired Boom Operator and the entire operation was a rousing success.

Until his wife fell face first into the pavement.

With the wine glass between her face and the pavement.

Ouch. She was a real trooper though. The only thing she wanted was a new glass for her wine.

Took some time out to sit and watch National Lampoon's Vacation this weekend. Yes, the original. Hadn't seen it in years. So funny. Cousin Eddie at his darkest (instead of the goofy Cousin Eddie of later shows), the jaw-dropping incestuous & masturbatory remarks (unusual in a comedy), and a young Beverly D'Angelo's breasts. Twice. Good stuff. I want to see European Vacation now. Its getting close to that time that we start our annual viewing of Christmas Vacation.

I was at Wal-Mart, wandering aimlessly down the isles as I am wont to do while my wife is perusing the DVD selection. I spy an old Gen-1 512MB iPod Shuffle. PERFECT. My wife's been wanting a portable mp3 player, and though I refuse to buy one which forces me to use that most horrific of interfaces, Windows Media Player that greatly limits my choices. BAM! This was it - the answer! I inquire to the price. It was $10 less than the shiny new 1GB 2nd Generation Shuffle. I ask the saleslady if she understands why this is not a good deal.

I've got strict instructions to be home by 1700 and I don't know why. I think it may have something to do with Halloween.