Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Decoration Obstruction
Are there decorations in your house that do more harm than good? Maybe it's the sign you hang from your door that bangs every time you open or close it or maybe it's just something in the way.
Picture below is a view from the couch in my family room. As you can see there are several things out on the tables and tv stand. They have made changing a channel (DVR box blocked by iron carriage) or changing the volume/powering the TV on and off (tv sensor blocked by fake potted plant) and aerobics exercise. Both my parents and myself can be seen looking like the classic "person searching for cell reception" as we angle and wave around the remote trying to find an angle and height at which it will register. But, at least the house looks nice.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Trade off
Sure when I wake up it's still pitch black an I debate whether it's really time. But, the trade off for seeing the sun rise is pretty great.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Shirt = Ruined
Last week I bought myself a few new dress shirts for work. I sent them to the dry cleaner the next day. Today i picked them up and found that not only were two of them very wrinkled, but actually ruined. While one has several pulls in it, this one actually looks scratched. The shirt is covered in these scratch-like discolorations. Now I have to go back to argue for compensation and then I still have to go buy new shirts.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Off-Center
Yesterday, the Wii Fit told me that at rest, I put more weight on my right leg. I'm wondering if it is related at all to the fact that for 8 years now I have used a messenger bag over one shoulder.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Powering Down
As someone who has a blogger account, a twitter account, a facebook account, a last.fm account, a ping account, more than one myspace account, a xanga account, a purevolume account (if I remember correctly), a youtube account, and now a tumblr account - I can safely admit to spending some of my free time dedicated to the social networking on the web. This, here, marks the 465th post to this blog alone.
I am trying to make some changes. No I am not giving up or closing those (more recent) accounts. I am also not going to pretend like I will be disconnected from the web. Hell, I have to use this very computer all day long at my office. Instead, my goal will be to keep this computer turned off at all other times, unless absolutely necessary. I spend far too many hours surfing the web mindlessly every night. Surely the internet is a place of endless information and much can be gained from reading it hours a night, but who of us really does that?
I will most likely continue to tweet. I may occasionally post to my new tumblr as both of these things can be done via my phone and takes no time at all. This blog, however, may stand still for a little while. If I can figure out an easy and timeless way to still post a daily picture from my phone, then I will do so. Otherwise, if you are interested, check out my tumblr.
For the next 30 days, my life online will be reduced to the work day. I have set too many goals (gym, yoga, reading, writing) that seem to always come second to sitting on my couch with my laptop in my lap. Hopefully, this change will help bring change to those goals that are collecting dust.
*Disclaimer: despite having all of those accounts, very few are still in use. I just never delete anything.
I am trying to make some changes. No I am not giving up or closing those (more recent) accounts. I am also not going to pretend like I will be disconnected from the web. Hell, I have to use this very computer all day long at my office. Instead, my goal will be to keep this computer turned off at all other times, unless absolutely necessary. I spend far too many hours surfing the web mindlessly every night. Surely the internet is a place of endless information and much can be gained from reading it hours a night, but who of us really does that?
I will most likely continue to tweet. I may occasionally post to my new tumblr as both of these things can be done via my phone and takes no time at all. This blog, however, may stand still for a little while. If I can figure out an easy and timeless way to still post a daily picture from my phone, then I will do so. Otherwise, if you are interested, check out my tumblr.
For the next 30 days, my life online will be reduced to the work day. I have set too many goals (gym, yoga, reading, writing) that seem to always come second to sitting on my couch with my laptop in my lap. Hopefully, this change will help bring change to those goals that are collecting dust.
*Disclaimer: despite having all of those accounts, very few are still in use. I just never delete anything.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Warning: Do Not Eat
Despite having the day off, I did not find a whole lot of time to relax. I think in our minds we have these grand visions of how we will both accomplish the things we don't normally have time for and have a very relaxing day when a day off or extended weekend roles around.
Today I hoped for such a day. Instead it was full of things I needed to do, several I didn't get too, and very little relaxing. It flew by. In addition to the errands I hoped to do, and meeting my sister for lunch, my dad had asked me to make a bunch of homemade burgers from scratch and cut the lawn. For those of you who don't know, I have over 1 acre of land and cutting the lawn is a multiple hour task.
While outside I noticed a very bright circle under a tree. Below is that circle. I know some mushrooms, despite being fungi, can be very beautiful. Not in this case. This thing has the diameter of a soccer ball and it is a hideous combination of brown and orange. While it might look, at quick glance, like a giant cookie or muffin top - I would suggest not taking a bite.
Today I hoped for such a day. Instead it was full of things I needed to do, several I didn't get too, and very little relaxing. It flew by. In addition to the errands I hoped to do, and meeting my sister for lunch, my dad had asked me to make a bunch of homemade burgers from scratch and cut the lawn. For those of you who don't know, I have over 1 acre of land and cutting the lawn is a multiple hour task.
While outside I noticed a very bright circle under a tree. Below is that circle. I know some mushrooms, despite being fungi, can be very beautiful. Not in this case. This thing has the diameter of a soccer ball and it is a hideous combination of brown and orange. While it might look, at quick glance, like a giant cookie or muffin top - I would suggest not taking a bite.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tumblr, Integration, What's Next
So I started a Tumblr. I wanted to know and understand the site, it's functionality, and a few other things before making a decision on whether or not I would make the switch. It is a really cool place. There is more design differentiation (which can be a downfall - myspace-) which I am currently enjoying. In addition, it seems to be a bit more sleek when it comes to its user interface.
Unfortunately, there is not integration option. I could slowly work on reposting each post from here, and back dating it. Maybe if I really love it enough to abandon this then I will. For now I think I will use the microblogging feature of tumblr which mirrors but is a bit more extensive than what twitter allows. I will still use blogger for my Breadcrumb project as well as writing anything more extensive.
Maybe I get myself involved in too many of these sites.
Unfortunately, there is not integration option. I could slowly work on reposting each post from here, and back dating it. Maybe if I really love it enough to abandon this then I will. For now I think I will use the microblogging feature of tumblr which mirrors but is a bit more extensive than what twitter allows. I will still use blogger for my Breadcrumb project as well as writing anything more extensive.
Maybe I get myself involved in too many of these sites.
Labels:
breadcrumb,
change,
social networking,
tumblr,
twitter
Saturday, October 9, 2010
New Places
I have been increasingly interested and intrigued by Tumblr and the possibilities it offers. Maybe I am just looking for change, maybe I am always looking for the next thing. Either way, I have been thinking about making the jump for a little while. My hope was that there would be an easy integration process that would allow me to bring everything over. Unfortunately, Tumblr states exactly the opposite scenario:
"Transferring from other blogging services
We don't import the archives of other blogging services. But, you can import content that is two days old and newer using the feed import directions above."
"Transferring from other blogging services
We don't import the archives of other blogging services. But, you can import content that is two days old and newer using the feed import directions above."
This has made the switching less of a no brainer. I am going to see what options I have, but for now, I will still be here. I cannot see myself using both, and so if I do make a Tumblr, this page will most likely cease to exist or be updated.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Two
Thursday, October 7, 2010
It's October!
Luckily, after contemplating all of this on my drive home from work today, I found a bag of candy corn and a box of spiced wafers in the house. Delicious.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
How Perfect
I was upset to be missing it, but I had a decent amount of time while commuting to the place to follow the game on my phone. Little did I know that when I came out after the group that not only with there be a 0 in the runs column, but also a 0 in the hits column. How could it be that not only do I miss game 1, but I missed watching a no-hitter be pitched for only the second time in baseball history in the post season. It's upsetting to know that such an event transpired when I was unable to see it happening. I wouldn't say I am mad because the last group session was really amazing and I am so glad I was there. There is also the consolation that, while I missed it, it still happened, and the Phils are still up 1-0 in the series with Roy round 2 coming to the mound tomorrow night.
Go Phils!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Settling In, Looking Forward

Monday, October 4, 2010
Chancing It
Diagnosis: Unclear
What I was told was: It looks like it's the start up module is malfunctioning. To replace that, it will cost you about 500 dollars. But, we have gotten the car to start consistently all day, so it may have cleared.
Decision: Left up to me. My dad and the mechanic both came to the lack of conclusion that it may or may not need to be fixed and there was really no definitive way to make that call accurately. I could pay the money and make sure that the problem is behind me, or challenge that a problem even exists by not fixing it.
So, here I am with my car back in my possession. I couldn't justify spending money, and that much of it, on something that is not definitely necessary. On the other hand, I could find myself unable to start my car at any point. It is definitely a risk, and one I am not happy I have to take. But the fact of the matter is: money is way to tight. Now - if it breaks down somewhere that I can't leave it, and I cannot get it to start. The money to tow it is going to make me regret that completely. Who knows how this one is going to end.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Volunteering Because Why Not
After finding one in Philly, my next step was contribution. I don't really know anyone personally who has autism and very few people that I am close with (family or friends) who I would try to ask for donations from know very little about the illness. I felt that walking was not an option. I would not raise enough to make any significant contribution and the actual act of walking one mile didn't feel like I was doing much. Looking a little further, I found that I could volunteer for the event. I thought that maybe I would help with set up or random tasks throughout the day, but I would still be helping at the event.
I enlisted a few people close to me and we registered as a Volunteer team for the walk. There were several shifts and activities you could be assigned to, and of all of the ones we had highlighted, we were chosen to help at the Children's Activities station. This shift was from 7:30 until 1. We met at Citizen's Bank Park, where the walk was being held, at 7 am and headed in for our instructions. Maybe the children's corner is not the most important aspect of the walk, or maybe it was just generally hectic, but we found ourselves standing around in the concourse of the park for about 45 minutes, after we were supposed to have started helping in some way, without direction. We even asked an Phillies Staff member for some direction, and he responded by telling us he too was told to head to a certain area and had received no further instruction.
Eventually we tracked down a woman with a walkie and told her what we knew and asked for more details. She tried getting someone on the radio, but with one frequency being used by all of the coordinators, everyone was talking over everyone and no one was making progress. She walked us towards a long table of face painting kits and said that we could set up shop here for the day. Going into the event, knowing face painting was an option, I had expressed my concern. While it can be a lot of fun, kids have powerful imaginations and I feared that my ability to depict certain things on a squirming kid without sketching or practice would be tough.
Around 8:30 or 9 we got our first kids. The most popular requests for the day were the Autism Speaks puzzle piece or the Phillies "P". These requests, while still not a breeze initially, were not terrible. One thing I used as an example in the week leading up to the walk was, "you know some eight year old boy is going to want spiderman on his face and I am going to freeze. That's not easy, and the younger the kid, the less space you have to work with." Wouldn't you know that the third kid wanted spiderman's face painted on his cheek. Another fear of mine was a dinosaur. While this never came up, we did have some other intricate requests. Some things that were asked for were: race care, ghost, jack-o-lantern, wolf, lion, rose, Yankees symbol, baseball, Eagles symbol, butterfly, heart.
The day was not overly fun, but it was not a drag either. It was uneventful for the first hour, and for about 30 minutes once the walk itself started. We were never swamped, but we had moments where one or two kids were waiting. Most of them were funny kids, and no one was really difficult. We did have a few groups who had individuals with spectrum disorders who wanted something painted but we had no difficulties doing those either. All of the parents were really great and the other volunteers at the tables next to us were nice as well.
It was a long day. I had raised expectations for a very fun day considering the moon bounce area (3 separate moon bounces) was a place we could have staffed, as well as a jungle gym section. I envisioned a lot more activity with the kids with these areas in mind. The face painting was a bit more subdued but still a fun time. I was really happy to see the people I enlisted enjoying themselves as well. There were some kids in costumes and some entertainers dressed up as well. Mike got a picture with the ghostbusters and we also saw a storm trooper in the version of the storm trooper uniform that the guys who rode the speeders in Return of the Jedi wore.
I would like to do it again in the future, I just would hope for it to be a bit warmer (it was below 50 when we left in the morning) and slightly more organized. Overall, it was a really nice day.
Side note: Later in the day at the movies, a woman asked me who painted the things on my face. I told her my sister. She responded by say, "Aw and how old is she?" with the connotation that she expected I would say something like "Oh she is seven" or something like that. Her expression when I said she is 25 was interesting.

(temporary tattoos were at all of the face painting tables. In addition to this on my had, I had a ghost and a jack-o-lantern painted on my face. Why not, right?)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Going on 22 Hours
Goodnight.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Bad Timing
In addition, my car has yet to be even looked at because it is the end of /start of the month. This means that everyone has brought their cars in for expiring registrations. The repair shop is too backed up that they might not even get to it tomorrow. I am hoping that is not the case, especially because if it turns out it is a dealership-fix-only then I am even further removed from getting it back. Hoping for the best.

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