1. Date someone from your school?
No. I was more like Finch from American Pie.

2. Marry someone from your high school?
No. I was more like Finch from American Pie.

3. Car pool to school?
Bussed until my Senior Year. Then I drove.

4. What kind of car did you have?
1968 Dodge Coronet 440

5. What kind of car do you have now?
2007 Tiburon GT

6. ‘Tis Friday night...where are you now?
Sitting in front of my computer.

7. It is a Friday night...where were you then?
Sitting in front of my computer.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?
I worked at a small, privately owned Mexican restaurant one summer. Hard work, that. Never worked during the summer months again.

9. What kind of job do you do now?
IS/IT

10. Were you a party animal?
I've always preferred drinking to excess in small, social circles, one in where you could bare your soul to the group and mesh with others of the same ilk in a more intimate environment. I was more like Finch from American Pie.

11. Were you considered a flirt?
It took many years of skill and practice to reach the levels I have today, and while I started in High School, it wasn't on the young ladies there. I was more like Finch from American Pie.

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
No, though I did cover those events. I was the high school's newspaper photographer.

13. Were you a nerd?
Without question. There's a picture of me in the yearbook inserting a 5.25" floppy drive into a TRS-80 computer in a story about the "Best way to pass notes to classmates." In an era of pen to paper, I was lauded for my technical prowess, and basic encryption by use of password complexity.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?
I never aspired to do anything in which either of those punishments were warranted.



15. Can you sing the school fight song?
I don't really "do" sports. I was more like Finch from American Pie.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
Carslile. She was my Zero Hour instructor, my Honors English teacher, and the editor of the school newspaper. She would pick out students she wanted, and corral us together to create her 'team' and while I often see that in the corporate world these days, it was my first exposure to the practice.

17. Where did you sit during lunch?
The modular and multi-use capable 'cafetorium.'

18. What was your school's full name?
Northwest High School

19. When did you graduate?
1988.

20. What was your school mascot?
A Texan. I shit you not. We were the 'Northwest Texans.'

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
While high school doesn't rank in importance to me as I've seen in some (i.e. those who pine for the 'glory days') I am but a sum of my parts.

22. Did you have fun at prom?
The newspaper editor paid for my ticket so I could take pictures of everyone having fun.

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with?
Um...

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?
No. Mostly because I went to the last. I really only knew these people peripherally.

25. Do you still talk to people from school?
One. We joined the Air Force together. He's a Senior Master Sergeant now. that blows my mind.

26. School colors?
Maroon & white maybe?

27. What celebrities came from your high school?
Celebrities don't come from Justin, Texas. Just in case, I looked it up, and it appears we're now one of only three schools in the nation which feature an indoor coffee shop on campus. Sweet!

28. Do you have any high school regrets?
I don't do 'regret.'

---

^{*stolen from swashbuckler332}

From Yesterday's Meme:

celtmanx	codekitten	danzigfried
dawaioser	glowdowg	joey_glover
melancthe	mr_dowg	princessleia2
prog_guy69	thesweetestnote	wardlejew
whester	irulan_amy

They say the best gift to give is one you'd give yourself. (That's how celtmanx ended up with an expresso maker 3-years before I got my own.) Most of these avatars were from pictures I've been collecting for myself, for some future date. A couple are quite new, the majority I've been saving for awhile. One is a personalized version of an old favorite, and another is a brand new acquisition.

Thank you guys for a lot of fun yesterday!

Snatched from quicksilvermad:


MAH ICONS.

default	oldest	newest
saddest	happiest	angriest
cutest	sexiest	funniest
fave ship	fave fandom	fave animated
best quote	best textless	best stolen idea
use the most	favorite

HOW MANY ICONS DO YOU HAVE: 159
OUT OF HOW MANY AVAILABLE ICONS SPACES: 195
IF YOU COULD BUY SPACE FOR MORE, WOULD YOU: Nope.
DO YOUR ICONS MAKE A STATEMENT: Absolutely. They showcase creativity and quality.
WHAT FANDOM DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Firefly/Serenity?
AND THE SECOND MOST: Maybe Galaxy Quest.
WHAT SHIP DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: The USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63).
ARE YOUR ICONS MADE MOSTLY BY OTHER PEOPLE: Oh hell no, though I am often inspired by melancthe, quicksilvermad & irulan_amy and have had a couple made for me by them and others who's vision I share.
DO YOU MAKE ICONS: Absolutely.
ARE THEY ANY GOOD: They're the very pinnacle of avatar production amongst those on my FL. I'm always looking for excuses to make avatars for my FL.
ANIMATED ICONS ARE: Better when they're done right, and would benefit from an increase over the 40kb they're currently limited to. 24-bit PNG would be ideal, as it is we're limited to 8-bit GIF.

DO THE MEME.
Coding can be found here

Snatched from swashbuckler332 & lehah:

• Pick 15 of your favorite movie quotes.


• Post them for everyone to guess.


• I'll reveal the movie when its correctly guessed, and list who guessed it first.


• NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.


• These aren't challenging, they're just some of my favorites.

( Go! )

Top Commenters on ehowton's LiveJournal
(Self comments excluded from rankings)

1	schpydurx	940
2	galinda822	412
3	celtmanx	360
4	drax0r	323
5	photogoot	257
6	leonardii	129
7	oxy_irony	119
8	Anonymous	102
9	professortom	60
10	danzigfried	58
12	irulan_amy	41
13	chrisbarrett77	38
14	lehah	37
15	snapper521	34
16	prog_guy69	32
17	swashbuckler332	31
18	dreamkatch	26
19	vember	25
20	crowy	22
21	missamy84	20
22	unixwolf	19
23	wardlejew	19
24	ximo	17
25	melancthe	16
26	princessleia2	14
27	bsdcat	13
28	angel_174ever	12
29	dentin	8
30	catttitude	6
31	bigdog_etc	6
32	apostolic4god	5
33	skiesofchaos	3
34	catnapcat	2
35	xpamilvrx	2
36	jimmythecricket	1
37	blancpage	1

Total Commenters: 38 (1 not shown)
Total Comments: 5214
Report generated 1/4/2007 2:08:26 PM by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7

---

This was placed by request of photogoot.
Special thanks to schpydurx for his research in this matter.

Last two Stats can be found here:

May 14, 2006
September 1, 2006

I don’t watch much television. I really don’t have the time, and am usually buried with hundreds of other things to accomplish. It’s not that I don’t like watching television; rather I have difficulty finding anything really worth watching. I despise sitcoms, and my intolerance for ‘reality shows’ has been well documented since 1992 (as has my frustration with the cattle who watch them).

This leaves very little prime-time network viewing. Saddled further by the fact that I’m not what one would call an ‘early adopter’ I usually dismiss even great shows initially based on nothing more than the fact that they’re new shows. Narrow minded perhaps, but you people who don’t live in the real world might be surprised at how often that philosophy has saved my ass.

Understanding that pilots are usually painfully dull as the exposition of any new series, I’m not quick to judge those – quite the opposite rather, I behave quite unlike myself in an irrational manner to promote to myself and others the possibilities of a new show. Unfortunately, most of what I’ve seen during first run and even those shows I’ve waited until second season has been quite disappointing to me and short-lived on my Tivo. I simply cannot abide mediocrity.

Except Bones. And this is quite unlike me, but so far, just catching parts of a couple of episodes, I find this show quite endearing. And this surprises me, because one of the things I abhor about a series is the mixed-bag-of-characters-with-a-provided-commonality formula. I think it’s the fact that the ‘differences’ shown here, aren’t large, but minor ideological ones. They’re all still geeks, just geeks in different ways. But that’s still not what endears me to the show. You even have the standard ‘fish out of water’ scenario that audiences love…the FBI agent doesn’t fit in with the geeks and the geeks are socially inept outside of their lab – its what the original CSI seemed to strive for, but these guys actually manage to pull it off. Despite these obvious ploys, I’ve fallen for it. And it’s a good think I like characters, not actors, because if I based this show solely off of David Boreanaz’s Angel I’d have likely missed a really good thing.

Of course the whole hot-chick-made-to-look-geeky (aka Linda Cardellini cast as Velma in Scooby-Doo) never hurts…and I’m a sucker for the dichotomy of the strength and vulnerability Dr. Brennan displays and a huge fan of the sarcasm-to-lighten-the-horrific Hodgins gives to the ordinary.

But I’m pretty sure the reason I enjoy this show is because it hits close to home. No, I’m not a super-genius introvert with a lack of social skills, but most of my close friends are, and I love them for it. These guys on the show share a rare camaraderie that is reminiscent of the time I’ve spent working in my field of expertise. And because my friends and co-workers are operating on a plane of existence far above my own, I’ve always had to work harder than they do just to keep up. You wouldn’t believe the amount of energy I expend trying to appear as if I’m not working extra hard all the while actually doing it…which is why I think I enjoy this show so much – everyone working together, albeit at a different pace and using their own methodologies, to solve a problem. It’s what I do every day.

* The Season One DVD Box-Set is being released November 28th.

Snatched from swashbuckler332:

You've Experienced 72% of Life

You have all of the life experience that most adults will ever get. And unless you're already in your 40s, you're probably wise beyond your years.

Have only been getting a couple of hours of sleep a night. This gets very old, very fast. Our 14-hour days usually bleed over into a late dinner and discussing the project at the hotel. Speaking of hotels, we checked out Friday and moved next door to a hotel with very comfortable king-size beds. This has helped greatly. I actually slept something like seven hours last night. And tomorrow, we're not going in. I plan to sleep most of the day.

About Amsterdam...Several weeks ago there was a double-disc RAID failure and data was lost. Some corrupted files were retained in a dump, and because of the high visibility of this particular incident (which involved the State Authorities), one of the Division Presidents decided to send in some very expensive data-recovery professionals to asses the situation. After two days, the professionals exclaimed, "The data is lost and cannot be recovered." After they left, my boss began manipulating the file header info, and was able to un-corrupt the data. Unfortunately, there were 17,000 files lost across a four-month period of time. With nothing now to lose, the Division President agreed that we could make our attempt to recover the data. I think we've now done that. We should know for sure Monday after the apps guys get in and we get them to run some tests. Not just some of the data. All of the data. This will resound greatly for us, my company, and our client.

Not only am I having fun troubleshooting again and working with unix (well, cygwin in this case), but the people here are happy to see us. They appreciate the long hours we are putting in. They see that we are accomplishing things they were told was impossible. They think we are working miracles, and are thankful for us being here. This is so very different from working back home where my clients are never satisfied with any of the work we do for them, and constantly point out our shortcomings as to how we're not supporting them to their expectations. Its very frustrating, especially since we work our fingers to the bone for these people and they don't care, they just want more.

Special thanks to drax0r who is a brilliant shell scripter and, for the first time since I've known him, awoke to answer the phone because he saw that I was calling and probably needed help. What a guy!

Picked up a Logitech MX-400 laser mouse today.

Ate at the NY 'Panchos' again.

Snatched from oxy_irony:

My Personality

Neuroticism	0
Extraversion	70
Openness To Experience	3
Agreeableness	33
Conscientiousness	98

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report MySpace Surveys, Bebo and MySpace Codes by Pulseware Survey Software

Wouldn't you know I couldn't sleep past 0600? I sat down to surf the web while my coffee was brewing, but my access code to the wireless network had expired. No big deal. I called the front desk by dialing '0.' I let it ring about 30 times. No answer. Hmmmm. I checked the phone: Front Desk...........0. I call again, and let it ring about 40 times. No answer. I'm trying to find some sort of reasoning behind this in my head. What exactly is going on down there? I make one more 20-ring attempt. Nothing. I get dressed and march downstairs to the front desk. There's a gentleman there. The weekend manager "Good morning." I said. "I tried to call."
He looks at the phone, and at me. Twice. "The phone hasn't rang all morning."
"Zero?" I ask. "To reach you?"
He stares at me for an uncomfortably long amount of time before saying, "I don't have any idea what you are trying to say."
I change my words, "I would dial zero from my room to get the front desk?"
More staring. Its as if I'm speaking another language. We move on. He tells me, "The phone here has not rang, sir. Look, there's the houseman." He points to the houseman. I turn to see the houseman. We're both now looking at the houseman. Somehow, looking at the houseman comforts this man, because now that he's pointed him out to me, we don't have to talk any more. The houseman sees us staring, and approaches. The manager asks the houseman, "The phone hasn't been ringing has it?"
The houseman replies, "Non-stop since about six. I paged you twice." Now that we've received input from the houseman, I feel we can get to the heart of the matter. I explain my dilemma and discover that the access codes roll over at 0100 on Sunday, and receive a new one.

[End 'Freak Show' scene one.]

Exit Stage Left.

Guardians are the cornerstone of society, for they are the temperament given to serving and preserving our most important social institutions. Guardians have natural talent in managing goods and services--from supervision to maintenance and supply--and they use all their skills to keep things running smoothly in their families, communities, schools, churches, hospitals, and businesses.

Guardians can have a lot of fun with their friends, but they are quite serious about their duties and responsibilities. Guardians take pride in being dependable and trustworthy; if there's a job to be done, they can be counted on to put their shoulder to the wheel. Guardians also believe in law and order, and sometimes worry that respect for authority, even a fundamental sense of right and wrong, is being lost. Perhaps this is why Guardians honor customs and traditions so strongly--they are familiar patterns that help bring stability to our modern, fast-paced world.

Practical and down-to-earth, Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails; working steadily within the system is the Guardian way, for in the long run loyalty, discipline, and teamwork get the job done right. Guardians are meticulous about schedules and have a sharp eye for proper procedures. They are cautious about change, even though they know that change can be healthy for an institution. Better to go slowly, they say, and look before you leap.

Guardians make up as much as 40 to 45 percent of the population.

It's been so hot here, that I've considered having my sweat glands surgically removed. Hey, if drax0r doesn't require a gall bladder for the production of bile, why should I have to sweat?

Speaking of gall bladders, I thought mine was going out today. My lower back starting aching something fierce. I couldn't sit up. It hurt to get in and out of my car. I took some Aleive - that didn't help. galinda822 and my wife start to diagnose me. Have I been nauseaus the last few days? Yes. Do I feel like I need to throw up? No. Is there a sharp pain between my shoulder blades? No. "I feel like I need to poop." I offer. My wife determines I've been eating way too much humus, and simply ache from gas. She's probably right. Best to lay off the humus for a few days.

The fuel light on my car came on sometime during my 5-mile 'commute' home. I haven't had to put gas in that car for three weeks. That rocks.

The VP of our division showed up today. Along with our regional VP and my boss's boss. Yikes! Turns out they had a meeting with our CIO today. I gave them my office for a pre-meeting briefing and closed the door. I was going to snatch Carla and grab a scooby-snack but I'd just...left them in my office! We drive to the corner BP and I buy an entire roll - one to keep in Carla's office at all times for backup. One in the center console of my car. We're gone maybe, 6 minutes...not one open parking spot. *sigh* I end up parking at the hotel which faces the Interstate.

For dinner I grilled portabello mushrooms, three large whole garlics, two huge zucchini, 4 gardenburgers, and 8 hotdogs for the kids. I soaked the grill in 'Pam for Grills' and turned it down low. So low. Everything was FANTASTIC! I had no idea. I'd never eaten garlic like that before. The wife had wrapped them in foil and I plunked them down on the surface of the grill for only 20 minutes or so - damn fine eating! I had two garden burgers with the large mushrooms as a second 'burger' with pickles, pepper-jack cheese, homegrown tomatoes from our neighbor, horseradish mustard and a good portion of baby spinach (I eat baby spinach on just about everything). I ate the garlic cloves with some curry lentils my wife had made up while I was grilling. What a fantastic meal!

crowy: Keep checking my Protected Post - I'll put an edit in there just for you...

Rec'd from my mother today, after reading my July 4th entry:

Update as of June 2006 -
Uncle Lonnie told me that George was given an honorable discharge and records were expunged. Pat verified this and said there was a small wallet size honorable discharge card he carried in his wallet. I have not found it yet. All the written articles make him sound guilty but Lonnie was there when it happened. I just discovered this when I started work on the Howton scrapbook in May.

John (1852)
George (1882)
George (1917)
Brian (1943)
Eric (1969)
[my son] (2000)

Special thanks to daver for taking care of my special friend celtmanx.

BSG starts again October 6th

The second half of the second season of BSG will be released on DVD the day after my birthday in the awkwardly named box set - Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0, vol 2 (2.5)

Slytherin! You're classy to the core, favoring the traditionally finest things the world has to offer. While you may or may not be evil *wink* you certainly have the power and attitude to get what you want. You're clever as all heck, and tend to be a couple steps ahead of even the most astute Ravenclaw.
Take this quiz!

I go to Target on Tuesday's. I hate Target. Anyway, so I catch every green light there, it's fantastic. Last light I hit is red. I move into the right-turn only behind a semi. He turns right. I watch in amazement how they always manage to clear the obstacles. Then, he doesn't! He runs into a telephone pole! I watch nervously as it sways. I already have the car in reverse. Amazingly, HE DOESN'T STOP! He starts tearing the forward rear axle OFF THE TRUCK! Then - BAM! the tire explodes and I jump in my seat. I've already checked behind me and I'm moving backwards...

As I was leaving I snapped these, as he had pulled his truck in the Target parking lot...

( Destroyed truck and pole pics )

Picked up the following soundtracks today:

Mission: Impossible 3
X-Men: The Last Stand
The Da Vinci Code
Kill Bill Vols. 1&2 (Enhanced)
Lost score

( I'm Batman )

And finally - the new BSG comic preview artwork:

I'm not much of a practical joker. I don't have the cycles for it, and I'm rarely amused by them, no matter what side of the joke I'm on. That's why I'm surprised that what I pulled was such a resounding success. In all honesty, however, practical joking was the last thing on my mind, which is why I suppose, it was such a success. Every 'i' dotted, every 't' crossed, the entire operation, from inception to completion, was brilliant. By far, my most flawless executed design, to date.

( How Tom Got Played )

In a completely separate scenario, drax0r was following links and came across a young, conservative christian girl here, in which he began to debate her. It was a wonderful exchange, and in a surprising move from the majority of young, conservative, christian girls I know, she didn't immediately delete his post! Unfortunately, his side of the debate was declared an 'attack' on this lady's site and in case she chooses to delete my post, I provide my response to her attack on drax0r, as she admits to blocking him from her site:

( In drax0r's defense... )

It's been a fun, busy, blogging weekend.

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	High
Pride:	Low

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

Bogart'd from babygirlsmom

You scored as Royal Violet. You are royal violet. You think very highly of yourself and so does everyone else. People look up to you for your class and confidence. </td> Royal Violet 100% Hot Pink 50% Turqoise 50% Bright Yellow 50% Carrot Orange 50% Pure White 50% Lime Green 38% Blood Red 38% Gloomy Grey 13% Jet Black 0% Which Crayon Color Are Youu?? created with QuizFarm.com

Long, hard day at work. 11-hours of 110% I'm beat. Bought a can of moist snuff and a 6-pack of unfiltered wheat ale. Watched Sordid Lives and drank all the beer. Laughed all the way through it. Hence the subject line. Suppose I ought to go to bed. I really don't know why I bother, it will all just start over again tomorrow. At least I'll be rested and be able to attack the day with gusto!

Lastly, here's my 432 Reasons danzigfried sucks...

I got Star Wars Battlefront today.

Tenative closing on the house today at 1600. If it's pushed back (due once again to the buyers inability to get financing) I'm going to let my agent know that if they cannot procure funding by the 1st (one month since we accepted their offer) then they can either pay my mortgage for the month of July, or I re-list the house sans contract pending. It's good to have a lawyer to advise you of these things.

Tony: I discovered how I ended up looking up the movie Hitch on Wikipedia, and I'm curious as to how you would have handled the same situation. I had Wikipedia up to read about a new Broadway play which had won a Tony (not you, Tony) and the question was posed to me, "What ever happened to DJ Jazzy Jeff? As I was already in Wikipedia I started there and ended up staring at a link to the movie you had purchased the evening before and I wanted to read about it. What would you have done, Tony? You would NEVER use on online encyclopedia to look up movies and anyone who does is doing it wrong. You do NOT cut and paste links into new browser windows because its inefficient. You REFUSE to launch new browser processes. Would your head implode to prevent you from breaking one of your own rules or is the "CTRL-T, imdb.com, Hitch" scenerio your answer despite it's lack of (implied) efficiency?

Shanghai'd from babygirlsmom:

Your Political Profile

Overall: 95% Conservative, 5% Liberal

Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Ethics: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Well this is kinda bullshit. Two pre-selected choices per question and only twenty questions? I ended up not answering two of them at all! What a bunch of crap. Now what I wouldn't mind seeing is some sort of comprehensive AI-driven algorithm which required a little more thought to increase it's accuracy.

With the right attitude, nothing can stop you!

So the phone rings. I answer it. The lady on the other end asks, "I"m just verfying that you know Frankie McCarver."
"Never heard of him." I reply. There's a long pause.
"Thank you." She says, and hangs up.

Nabbed from vember:

1. What's the first word that comes to mind when you think of me?
2. Go to http://images.google.com/ and search for that word.
3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results (don't tell me the word).
4. Put this in your own blog so that I can do the same.