"See, that's what they want you to think, those high paid corporate computer pricks, with their billions of dollars and their market monopolies and their stinking PC's that ACTUALLY FRICKIN WORK. I hate those guys. Because my computer never works. It doesn't do what I tell it to do. Most of the time it doesn't do anything. It sits, and it hums, and every time I put a simple task at its feet, it passes out, and when I finally revive it, it sits, and hums a little bit louder, with a little bit of an audible limp. And that, my friends, is clearly not good."

"And they make you think its your fault. that you must have done something wrong, clicked the wrong click or pointed the wrong point, because the computer doesn't make mistakes. Oh no, the pc is flawless, it must be you, the stupid, feeble, dumbass, jerkoff user... that's the problem. Well let me tell you a little secret. Its not you, or me, or him that's the problem. (well maybe him, he looks like trouble) Its actually the computer. The computers are all connected and they plot against us when we're not looking and then, when they make us crazy, when we're hopping up and down yelling expletives at them...what do they do? They laugh. they tell all their networked computer buddies about the dumbass who they made cry."

Now this guy needs more help then I do.

One question from me, do cars drive themselves into accidents? Not the last time I checked. The age old saying again holds true, It's the fool behind the wheel.

Here, this is from me to you.

Some cheese to go with your whine.

My addiction is so dire that I have taken to playing Unreal Tournament even at work. Thankfully, we are nearing the end of the school year, so for the most part, my tasks leave me with a fair amount of free time. But this is no way to cure an addict...

At least I have taken the first step, and admitting that I have a problem. I am finally past the denial.

Sorry. I had to do it. It was too easy.

My three-day weekend vacation is over and what do I have to show for it? Nothing but sore wrists and a bad back. No, it's not what you are thinking. I spent about 45 out of the 72 hour time period playing that damned Unreal Tournament. It's way too addictive. I started out by saying, "One game. Just one game to peak my interest." The next thing I realize is that the clock displays 4:30am. It really is a great game. I don't mind playing alone against BOTS, but I do prefer Internet Multiplayer over anything. If you enjoy a bloody shoot-em-up in-your-face style game, give it a shot. Hey, at least download the demo and give it looksee.

I had a terrible incident happen as well. My trusty Palm III took a serious nose dive. It has been on the outs for some time now, and I am beginning to seriously worry about it. It seems that every once and again, my loyal little buddy needs a slight adjustment. Usually a punch or slap to the back of the case takes care of it. This time, although, it didn't seem to fix the problem. After "giving it the business" for a few minutes, the power finally came back on. But, to my grief, none of the data was intact. I usually only HotSync at work, but since this problem arose, I will now install the software at home and back it up at a second location. To my surprise, all the data was saved and I lost nothing. I am always very leery about restoring a backup, but this time it was flawless. Thank god.

We took a two hour trip to good old John's house to see a Creed, Sevendust, and a Finger11 concert. First, I would like to thank John for not only devising the whole plan, but for hosting us for the weekend. I know that putting us up is no easy task, but you couldn't have done a better job. Thanks again.

We started out by going to dinner at the local T.G.I. Friday's. This, of course, was quite a show. We started off with a few drinks and then onto some sweet Jack Daniels signature steak and ribs dinners. The beer was plenty, and we had a job to do. Luckily, I brought my sidekick, the digital camera. More on that later...

After dinner, we made our way back to John's for some more refreshments and to watch just about every good DVD that I own. Matt K. and his girlfriend, Sally, finally showed up and joined the festivities. Sometime around 3am, we all passed out and finally got some rest for the next day to come.

The concert. If you even have a small liking for Creed, I would definitely urge you to go check them out live. Not only does their music have an extremely high "ass kick" rating, but they have GREAT stage presence and put on a fabulous show. Pyrotechnics and great lighting effects really envelope the entire show. And all for $28! The only thing I do dislike at the concert, and all concerts for that matter, is other people. I know it is kind of inevitable. "A person is smart, but people are stupid." It seems that if you heard a lot of people together in a small place, logic seems to throw itself out of the window. Otherwise, it was a great show.

After we finally pushed our way out to the parking lot and made our way back to John's, we again went back to what we do best. Nothing.

I can't believe John had try to work the next morning. He doesn't like to wake up even when he has a good night's sleep. But he did anyway.

I hate coming back to work after a short vacation. I have pictures, and plenty of them. Hopefully today, if work goes according to plan, I should have them posted sometime this afternoon.

2 large pizza's; $22.00.

I'm sure this link has been passed around 100 times already, but I must mention it anyway. StinkyMeat is an online journal devoted to a highly scientific experiment. It seems this gentleman decided to put a plate of fresh meat in his neighbors yard, for two reasons. One, to see what happens to the meat, and two, to see how long it takes his dumbass neighbors to realize where the putrid smell of decaying death is emanating from. Finally, using demonstrated scientific methods, a digital camera is used to document the progress of the experiment. For you folks with weak stomachs, you might want to pass on this. By Day 15, the plate looks rather nasty.

The laptop placed strategically in front of the TV, so I can watch the Flyers battle for the Stanley Cup. They are now losing 3-1, and I'm not pleased. At least they beat the Penguins in the previous round. Everyone send a message to John and rub it in. He is a Pens fan.

Grumble grumble.

Friday is usually a slow day, so images like this may come out of the Work Webcam.

Lastly, we swung past Haupty's house to settle in with a case of Fosters Oil Cans. And this is when the what-not started.

Squirrel, Haupty's younger brother, challenged Chad and myself to a game of basketball. Us being out of shape and slightly inebriated, we decided the challenge was equal. After marauding him 15-8, he decided to challenge Chad alone. All Chad had to do to be victorious was score a single basket.

It didn't proceed quite as smoothly as planned. Check out the May 2000 Basketball Madness Challenge.

I have always been a Metallica fan. No longer. They are dead to me. I am organizing a Metallica Sucks CD destruction party. Anyone who has a Metallica CD, tape, shirt, or any other memorabilia may attend the gathering to help assist the destruction of all that is Metallica.

Rotten bottom feeders.

Maybe I'll call my lawyer...wait, on second thought, it was probably a frickin lawyer that devised this whole thing. From this moment on, Metallica is hereby in the same class as lawyers.

I've been hearing some news on the Net and on MTV about a new album release from A Perfect Circle. The lead vocalist is the same lead from Tool. They sound very similar to Tool, which means they have a very high ass-kick rating. I am hereby admitting that I am a huge Tool fan.

Their new release, Mer De Noms has an expected release date of May 23, 2000. Thanks to this wondrous thing we all call the Internet, I have the full CD already. Downloaded, converted, and burned to CD.

MTV has done it again. Just when a weekend comes around where I have no plans, other then to catch up on some work and sleep, they stick it to me again. That's right, you guessed it, The Real World.

I know I shouldn't like the show, but I just can't help myself. The show is kind of dumb itself once you think about it, but I find myself being sucked into glaring at the tube for hours without blinking. This phenomenon has happened before. MTV runs a Real World marathon, and I spend all weekend watching every minute that I can. I even found myself tuning in at work on Sunday.

I think they embedded subliminal messages in the show, because I find myself twitching now that the marathon is over...I need more.

I have been lacking in the posts lately, and that is due to the new changes that Blogger has made. I have been checking their Discussion forums and they are assuring us that the problem should be fixed sometime today. Hopefully. Basically, the archive and permanent links do not work. The main page posts have to manually updated, which means more work for me.

If I only carried a hammer. A big hammer. A Dungeons & Dragons War Hammer. Then, and only then, could I get some answers.

Yet another gentleman [loose term] wandered into my store and wanted me to replace a broken antenna on his "boom box" style radio. I selected the correct antenna from the wall and started to unscrew the old one. The base of the small antenna uses a small screw to hold it in the antenna base on the radio.

He blurted out, "You have pretty big hands, do ya think you can handle that small screw?"

I just chuckled and fixed the antenna in record time, and I did it all with a smile.

"That must be nice," he said, "You guys with cushy jobs and baby soft hands sure have it rough."

Now I'm not sure what initially made me a little apprehensive, if it was that he claimed I had a cushy job or that he thought I had baby soft hands. Something about a big "construction-working-guy" saying that I have baby soft hands really disturbs me. He showed me his hands which were full of rock hard calluses and large gashes and cuts. He then launched a verbal tirade on how he has to break his back all day while people like myself are just relaxing all day and sliding by.

And my response to that was, "It must suck to be you."

Don't blame me for your job problems. I believe in the age old saying, "Work smarter, not harder". I had nothing to do with his decisions on his life career path, as well as he had nothing to do with mine. Why do miserable people feel the need to try to make others feel miserable with them? Luckily, there are people like myself that shrug babble like this off, or their would be a lot more public floggings.

The picture is an add for a Heineken Palm software product called Bartrek. The software includes a collection of world-wide bars with their GPS coordinates and graphical maps.

"We've identified top bars world-wide and marked them on downloadable maps. Besides a photo and review, there's an exact GPS reference for each bar. Simply drop the maps in your PDA, connect it to a GPS and you're as good as at the front door of any bar that takes your fancy." [snippet from Heineken website].

Since it is nearing the end of the school year, it seems it is time for employee reviews. This is my first formal review for the school district. Overall, I received an amazing review. There is one note that sticks out in my head that gave me a little chuckle though.

"Matt is a great asset to the district. One of his main strengths is how he can interact with the other employees smoothly. Although no one has near his technical abilities, he still takes the time to thoroughly explain to people in common terms, and not make us all feel stupid."

Uh oh. Thank god they don't read this.

The last item for the work day involved my boss. He's away for most of the day in an administrative meeting. You think I will exploit that for all its worth?! Nahhhhh...

But after three hours of playing Internet Golf,
I did manage get a 250 yard hole in one!