An Update

Long time no post.

So, here we go, simple and easy.

1. Baby Kyleigh is progressing well. She's 28 weeks and 3 days along and growing about 1 day ahead of her actual due date. That's good stuff. She's become much more active and is kicking like mad. Eagerly awaiting her arrival.

2. We're in the process of buying a house. It's been a very busy process. Days off haven't been utilized for relaxation in quite a while. No matter, though, as it's for a great cause.

3. There's isn't a third one, but lists like this don't really work well when you only have two points to make. So, yeah. Thanks.

It's a Girl

We had our first ultrasound yesterday, and we got to see our baby for the first time. I never knew it before, but you can actually see the baby moving and everything during those things. It was definitely one of the biggest "Holy Shit" moments in my life. I've stared at my computer screen for 5 minutes now trying to describe how it felt, but I can't quite put words on it. It was breathtaking.

Everything looked okay; there were two hands, feet and eyes. The spine looked good, as did the brain and heart. Also, according to the ultrasound tech, she's measuring just a few days ahead of the scheduled date of January 3rd. Apparently that's pretty normal, so they didn't adjust her due date.

She's become more active, and has started to move around lately. Shana says that she was kicking like crazy today. Unfortunate for me because I'm waiting for my chance to feel a kick. Someday soon, I'm sure.

So, world, say your first hello to Kyleigh

Day Trippin'

A few days ago, Shana and I took a little road trip through Ohio. Ultimately, it ended in Rocky Fork State Park, just outside of Hillsboro, OH.

We went with the intention of trying to get some good nature shots at a new place because we've been to most of the parks around here at least twice already. We only ended up staying there for 10 minutes, though, because the place just wasn't very photogenic. The only decent shot I got was the one above.

All in all, we drove 5 hours, and stayed for 10 minutes.

Galaxy Zoo

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey with its 120 megapixel camera is able to gather a lot of information about the visible universe. With so many newly observed galaxies to classify, it would take a team of astronomers way too long to categorize every one.

This is where Galaxy Zoo comes in.

It is much more difficult for a computer to identify shapes and patterns in objects, than for a human. So, to pick out all the eccentricities of the million or so galaxies yet to be categorized, the folks behind Galaxy Zoo thought it'd be best to crowdsource the task to tens of thousands of competent amateur astronomers. Much of the appeal behind the project is that users are given access to massive amounts of never before seen images, and are allowed to take part in defining our expanding knowledge of the Universe.

Irish Folk: Exposure for the Uninitiated

Those who know me are probably aware of my long-running addiction to Irish Folk music. I really just can't get enough of it. I could listen to twenty different versions of the same song in a row and enjoy every second of it. There's something to be said of songs that can define and encourage a country through times of war and famine, and continue to impact listeners for many ages.

This post is meant to highlight, via YouTube, a nice - albeit small - sample of what I consider to be great Irish music. You may also be able to learn a bit, as I've included several links to information regarding the historical events and/or places some of these songs stemmed from.

The Foggy Dew

This version features Sinead O'Connor singing for The Chieftans on their 1995 album The Long Black Veil. The song itself is a chronicling of the Easter Uprise of 1916 and was intended to encourage the men of the time to fight for an Ireland free of English control. Though the attempts of this rebellion were unsuccessful at first, their efforts eventually led to the establishment of the Irish Republic in 1919.

Muirsheen Durkin

Luke Kelly and the Dubliners performed this traditional Irish folk tune on the Ed Sullivan show in 1968 (according to the video). From what I can tell, the actual meaning of the title "Muirsheen Durkin" is, for the most part, up in the air. However, what I've found most sites agree upon are the following points: 1) Pratie is just another word for potato. 2) Muirsheen is probably just another word for misses in some Celtic language.

The song itself is rather straight-forward as to its meaning. A fellow is fed up with the constant toiling in his life, so he heeds the grand news from America and plans to strike it rich.

Star of the County Down

Performed here by Orthodox Celts, an Irish/Celtic band from Belgrade, Serbia. This tune is the first person perspective of a man whose chance meeting with Rose McCann leaves him infatuated with her. The song continues on until at the end he basically says he'll do what it takes to make her his wife.

Rocky Road to Dublin

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem perform this tune, which is about a man's adventures from his home in Tuam to Liverpool in England. Judging from the lyrics, it seems he gets to Dublin but has his pack (bundle) stolen from him. From here, I'm not sure if he gets fed up with life in Dublin, if he's searching for the man who stole his pack, or just wishes to continue on his journey, but he jumps a ship to Liverpool. The song ends with the impression that the adventure is just beginning.

Black Velvet Band

Another performance by the Dubliners with Luke Kelly. This song is about a man who meets a woman, and as they're walking one night, the lady steals a gold watch from a man that passes by. She then places the watch in the author's hand. Obviously, the woman gets away with the crime, but the author gets tried and convicted. So he's sent off to Australia (more accurately Van Diemen's land, or Tasmania), which was the "penal colony" of Ireland and England in the 1800's.


So that's it for now. I hope these videos were enjoyable. If you're interested in more, there's a wealth of Irish Folk on YouTube. I'd suggest looking up some more Luke Kelly, as he's been proclaimed the greatest Irish Folk singer that has been or ever will be. He had a voice perfectly suited for the variety of themes that appeared in the music he sang.

Until next time, though, beware of them pretty colleens.

Three Months In

Many people know, but there are a lot more that don't. So, what better way to propagate great news than by posting it on the Internet, right?

Shana and I are having a baby!

As the title indicates, we're three months along. For those that wonder why the news has not been shared until now, well, we just wanted to make sure everything was on the up-and-up. We've been excited and hopeful the whole time, but things - though unfortunate - do happen. The "crucial" period has passed and we heard the baby's heartbeat (I recall 166 bpm, but Shana says it was in the 130's.) for the first time on Wednesday, June 20th. So, here I am bearing news of the greatest nature.

I was excited when we first decided to try, but since that first positive test I've grown more and more ecstatic with each passing day. At this rate, I'll have a perpetual smile on my face in a few weeks.

Undoubtedly, I'll be posting updates as noteworthy events arise. It feels good; being able to finally tell people.

Stomach Hurts

Can't sleep. Shana's asleep behind me, though. Tonight was good and relaxing, aside from the massive headache which was shortly followed by a massive pain in my stomach caused by excessive acetaminophen. I was able to alleviate that by cooking a nice dinner of steak, corn on the cob, and baked potato. I don't think I'll ever figure out just how long to leave the potato in the oven. Every time I've tried to make them, I think they're just right, and I end up having to put them in the microwave for about 2 minutes to soften them up. I can't figure out if I'm using the wrong temperature or not enough time. I've even looked this up at several sites online, and most agree that it's one hour at 350 degrees. I've varied both time and temperature and I get the same results every time. I have no idea. Input is welcome by anyone who may stumble upon this.
__________

Since I got my Nikon D50, I've been using the Nikon Picture Project software, and have been weary of changing to something else for fear of esoteric interfaces scaring me off. Also, a concern about lack of sufficient features comes into play as I depend on the program to organize, showcase, and mildly edit the photographs I've worked so hard to capture. After talking with Mr. Marlow about how I would transfer some of my wedding photos to him, he suggested I get Picasa to email them with ease. We ended up transferring via AOL IM, but by that point I had already downloaded and installed Picasa. After importing and reorganizing my library of photographs, I was able to toy around with the program's various features. As esoteric goes, Picasa is as intuitive as a program of this type can come. A far cry from what I was expecting. It features a simple, yet powerful, editing engine capable of everything my old Nikon program could do (minus the sharpening feature, but I prefer to do that in Photoshop anyway) and more. I played with some of the editing options on the same picture.
Now, I realize the picture and the edits aren't much, but I just threw it all together in less than 2 minutes, and the majority of that time was picking a picture to edit. Basically, I'm just amazed at how simple it is to perform great edits such as all the ones I threw at this one picture. First, I applied a graduated tint to even out the exposure between sky and ground. Then I added focal black and white to bring out color in only the shell and ground. Last, I threw in soft focus to blur the fore and background even more than they already were. Sure, it may be overkill on a decent image, but, like I said, it's just an example. Now that I look at it, I probably should've darkened the sky a bit more. Oh well.
__________

I'm still doing research on weather patterns and what-not. This is kind of a fun hobby. I'm starting slow. Everytime I go outside, I quiz myself on what kind of clouds I see. I name them to myself and try to figure out what the wind is doing by looking at the cloud shapes. Figuring out the wind is the hardest part so far, but it's fun to me. Hell, at this point, it's all just a big guessing game for me. I'd like to get to the point where I could do my own forecasting, though. It's amazingly simple to get yourself in a position to something like that. You just need to keep consistent notes about your observations, use data provided by the NWS (not THEIR forecasts, though. lawlcakes.) and any other data you might have at your disposal. Then, one day, it'll be possible for you to do your own forecasts based on experience and atmospheric data. I mean, I've kinda simplified what it takes, but that's the basic gist.
__________

Well, look what an upset stomach can do. It gave me a blog post, and magically cured itself.

Meandering

Started the night researching different aspects of weather formations, and forecasting. Ended up reading a lot about Esperanto and it's vocabulary.

Long time...

Been a while since I've posted, I know. Mostly just dropping in to say that I've latched onto something a bit better than a full blow blog. I can now be found at http://twitter.com/Net_Eric

mini-blogs...much better.

SETI@home

Just tonight, I decided to start using my idle cpu cycles for the greater good via a distributed computing project called SETI@home. I did this back in high school, and a little in college, but I uninstalled because I preferred to have as many cycles as I could. Nowadays, though, I'm hardly on my computer, so I figured why not.

Everyone, just click the title of this post and follow the easy instruction to get yourself set-up the right way.

Just a quick post for me to remember the awesome krablar moment

PokerStars Game #4304378642: Tournament #406559, 300+20 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/10/02 - 20:45:31 (ET)
Table '406559 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: alabama498 (1050 in chips)
Seat 3: canadaword (1440 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 4: micmootie (1170 in chips)
Seat 5: kev_999 (6040 in chips)
Seat 6: chief61s (1560 in chips)
Seat 7: MOMUV2 (1585 in chips) out of hand (moved from another table into small blind)
Seat 8: Flibbertyjib (5710 in chips)
Seat 9: Gottheit (2480 in chips)
Flibbertyjib: posts small blind 15
Gottheit: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Gottheit [3c Kd]
alabama498: folds
canadaword: folds
micmootie: folds
kev_999: folds
chief61s: calls 30
Flibbertyjib: calls 15
Gottheit: checks
*** FLOP *** [3h 2c 3s]
giraph is connected
Flibbertyjib: bets 300
Gottheit: raises 540 to 840
chief61s: folds
Flibbertyjib: calls 540
*** TURN *** [3h 2c 3s] [4h]
Flibbertyjib: bets 1620
Gottheit: calls 1610 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [3h 2c 3s 4h] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Flibbertyjib: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Threes)
Gottheit: shows [3c Kd] (a full house, Threes full of Kings)
Gottheit collected 4990 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4990 | Rake 0
Board [3h 2c 3s 4h Kc]
Seat 1: alabama498 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: canadaword folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: micmootie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: kev_999 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: chief61s (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: Flibbertyjib (small blind) showed [Ad Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Threes
Seat 9: Gottheit (big blind) showed [3c Kd] and won (4990) with a full house, Threes full of Kings

Wait a minute now. Ha Aha

Well hey howdy hey neighbors in cyberspace!

Holy goddamn it's been a while since I've last posted. I guess it's due time for a new post, eh?

To start things off, I'd like to visit something from our past...*doodley doo transition from Wayne's World*

The other day, may have been a week ago, I was discussing missed opportunities. Aside from the obvious non-completion of college (which I'm planning out right now, you worry warts), the only other opportunity I could think of was not seeing Rage Against the Machine while they were still together. I know Smitty was much closer to seeing them that I was. He actually had tickets to see them on their last tour with the Beastie Boys. Bleee dat.

So needless to say, I've been listening to Rage a lot lately. Right now I'm listening to a live version of Without a Face. Not that anyone REALLY cares, but why write a weblog post without including some sort of music reference. It'd be like peas without the carrots. The gin without the tonic. Or the apples without the oranges. Just wouldn't be prudent.

Hey! I got a new car. I did, I did. It's a 1995 Pontic Grand Am GT with 1337 ground effects. Power everthing, and I just put a new CD player in that my fiance got me for the ol' Birfday.

So, basically that's it for now. Not much to say really...Then again, I don't want to spend my day off writing a weblog entry that no one will read.


BUH BYE!!

Man Pain invades MySpace

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Love You Tender

Browsing through Google Video, I usually check out the top 100 videos. For some reason, it's been clogged with those mentos + diet coke videos. While it certainly is entertaining the first time you see it, it becomes rather dull when every dope with a digital camcorder posts a video like he's the first one who tried it. With the exception of well orchestrated experiments, everyone should stop trying. It's old news. When I see a 60+ year old guy buy a can of diet coke for the sole purpose of watching it explode in a grandiose display, it's gotten out of hand. Did anyone even pay attention in Chemistry class?

Anyway, that's not the point.

I'm here to display something I found while browsing Google video. The so-called "Worst Music Video EVER." I found it the other day hovering at the bottom of the top 100. It wasn't there very long, because the next day, when I went to find it again, it was gone. I've watched it probably five or six times since I found it.

For two reasons.

The first being that it's near impossible for me to wrap my head around WHAT they're going for. The whole video is like an orgy of 70's and 80's era stereotypes. What is the point of the poorly choreographed dancers (seriously, it seems like they learned the moves an hour before they started taping the video)? Why is there a mirror ball when the room is so well lit? Also, these lyrics bewilder me:

Oh, you're absolutely fine
Your lips are taste of wine
I'd like to make you mine
And if I could touch your hand
This rock would turn to sand
So this is where we stand

WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?! Okay, I get the first three lines. She's hot, she's drunk, and you want her, but what about those last three? They just don't make sense! Sure, used seperately, in different contexts, they can help form the skeleton of a smooth love song. But, the way they're used here...it makes my head hurt.

The second reason I've watched the video so much is because it's obviously good fodder for parody. I've shown the video to my fiance, and I now sing it to her when I have the chance. It's good fun.

Oh, but there's more. In the spirit of the Star Wars Kid, there's been a remake of this video. It doesn't really have much of a humor value, but it's worth noting.

Gotta love the internet.

660

[my shift key isn't working. when i press it, i get a funky looking string of characters like this qKO: or this <>P, so please bear with me on the absence of capitalization, and question marks/exclamation marks...also, i'm going to use brackets instead of parenthases.]

so, today is 6-6-06. or is it....

according to discovery channel news 'Jesuit priest Richard Leonard, director of the Australian Catholic Film Office, told the Australian press that when Christianity took over the Roman calendar in the fourth century, the monk who compiled the dates got them wrong by four years. The Church became aware of the mistake in 1582 but did not correct it to prevent the world from losing four years.

"We assume Satan knows that the sixth day of the sixth month in 2006 was in fact June 6, 2002," Father Leonard said.'

worry not, you able-minded christians. today is actually june 6th, 2010.

Reds vs. Diamondbacks

Me, my fiance, and a two of our friends (who happen to be dating) went out to the ballgame tonight. It was a good time. The last time I went to a Major League game was when I was barely knee-high to a something that's small. So, I didn't really recall the finer points of a good old fashioned baseball game until we got there. Like the four dollar 20 oz. Mountain Dew, or maybe the five dollar pretzel. Ahhh, breathe it in America. Our newest pastime is capitalism!

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, and say goodbye to your 401k.

Haha, enough ranting.

In all honesty though, it was a great time. Recently (the past 5 years or so) I haven't really been into any kind of (popular) sport, but going to the game tonight brought back my old fondness of baseball. Maybe it was the atmosphere, or perhaps it was the action on the field...Possibly a combination of the two, I'm not sure, but it was definitely A+++++++ would go again!

Cincinnati lost, but I don't give a damn about who wins or loses. What I DO give a damn about is pictures. Lots and lots of pictures! Which I took, and have, to SHARE!

These aren't all I took, but these are the ones I bothered to resize.

Group shot~!!!!211!


Some pitcher guy wailing the ball


Panoramic Pitch. The ball is the white dot 1/3 of the way from the left.


A guy with a ball for a head. I call him Ballhead.


Some guy at bat swinging...the bat...


So that's that. I spoke to the future Mrs. about making this a regular thing (eventually), but downtown Cincinnati necessitates some wicked crazy driving habits. People just don't realize how dangerous those vehicles can be! Say someone is being chased by a police officer, and the guy running from the police rams the police car in a desperate attempt to get away. The guy that rams the police cruiser would get charged with "Assault with a Deadly Weapon." So it's true! Cars are machines engineered by corporations as a means of population control! You heard it here first!

Welcome to the Ohio Valley

Enjoy your stay!

Holy...

Mackerel!

Just started reading my most recent issue of Wired today. It's a good one.

Spare Time? Pfft, More Like Sparse Time

(Looking at you with my "get it?!" face)

Well, it's true. This week especially. 49 hours I'm scheduled. Yeah, forty NINE!!

I'm off today though! Hey, that's good news. So what did I do today? I sat around and played Diablo II. No, wait, not JUST Diablo II, but Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Yeah, that's right. I got the expansion. Dig it.

Last time I played Diablo II was when me, Z, and D were working at the Perry of all Parks. I got the base game (sans expansion) from Penis and Penis, and from there I was hooked. After I beat Baal (the bad guy in the base game) I went out and bought the expansion. Not like the day after, either. NO! After I finished watching the last cinematic scene, I immediately drove to Wal-Mart to get the expansion.

Here I am now, three years later, and I reinstalled. The reinstallation of a game from your past is a very nostalgic event. It's like you're ressurecting a period of your life. Maybe it's just me, but when I saw the splash screens for Diablo I got a fuzzy little feeling in my stomach comparable to a hefty shot of Smirnoff vodka. Which, I happened to be drinking a lot of during my initial experience with Diablo. COINCIDENCE!?!?!!!11

Yeah probably...

Anyway.

For some reason I can't bring myself to play as any character other than the Necromancer. The dude is just SO badass. Spells and raising the dead? That's hot shit!

The only difference this time around, though, is that I'm playing solely online. It's a very different beast, indeed. Example: You have to scout out the area around the "towns" EVERY time you get back in the game. That sucks. Well, it works pretty good for leveling up, but sometimes you just want to get back into the action, right? RIGHT!

You can't do that if you're lumbering around trying to find the right path.

For those in the know, I'm stuck on the last quest in the second act. There's this fucking goliath of a boss I have to beat, and it's damn near impossible.

Anyway, yeah. That what I've been up to in my spar(s)e time.

As it turns out...

...Tae Bo is pretty fun, and Billy Blanks is pretty cool.

Imagine that.

So, yeah, me and my fiance did some Tae Bo today. I didn't know what to expect at first, but she had been asking me to do it, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I had done workout tapes before when I was younger, and I thought the overall pace would be same. Haha! I was wrong. I thought the so-called "warm up" was the actual work out. It was very hard to keep up. I mean, that shit moves FAST! It's kinda like you have to watch it as a movie for the first few times before you actually get up and start kicking and punching. Kinda like watching a movie so many times and memorizing the lines. Except, instead of lines, there are kicks and butt thrusts.

I'm going to try and make this a regular "work out" type deal. Me and the (future) Mrs. have already made a deal to basically force each other to do some kind of work out or another. Given a few more rounds of Tae Bo, I might actually be able to make it through without laughing my ass off at Billy Blanks.