The Who, What, Where and Whys

Fast Shipping!

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:48:58 GMT

I just thought I'd share a quick note about Amazon shipping.

I ordered something from Amazon yesterday afternoon about 4:30, selected whatever the free shipping option was and hit purchase. I decided to work from home this afternoon so I headed home after lunch and what I ordered was already on the porch! Less than 20 hours from order to delivery. That's good service!

Glug, Glug, Glug...

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:20:42 GMT

Yesterday morning while I was working around the house I
stopped by and fed Jack and he was swimming around looking
pretty content. He even came up and took a piece of food
out of my fingers while I was feeding him.

Last night when I got back to the house around 9:00pm Jack was no
longer swimming around. So after 10 years, well almost 10 years
(9 years and 9 months), I had to say goodbye to Jack.

Jack 1999 - 2008

Andrea and I bought Jack (plus his 3 siblings) in March of 1999

when I moved into my house on Wakehurst Drive in Cary. Jack
proved to be the stronger, more aggressive fish taking out all of
his siblings, tons of organic and plastic trees and one poor
Common Plecostomus, aka "Bob the janitor fish" over the years.

Jack was a well traveled fish. He lived in 4 houses in 2 states
and has traveled by car almost 1000 miles.

Jack is survived by his owner, countless friends and has no children

(that we know of). :)

I'm sure some of you think it's strange to be getting the obituary
of a fish but Jack has been around a long time. He was a good
listener, kept every secret that had ever been told to him, and I
have no doubt he's seen some crazy things throughout the course
of his life. :)

So next time you're out at dinner raise a glass to Jack (or of Jack)
now that he's gone off to that big fishbowl in the sky.

14 minutes 58 seconds of fame left...

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:13:59 GMT

Look mom I'm on TV!

Saturday at the NC State football game (which they WON btw!) a bunch of friends and I got a close up on ESPNHD. This was right after ECU picked off a Wolfpack pass and ran it back for a touchdown. I am looking up at the Jumbotron watching the replay.

Close up!

The Wolfpack pulled off a victory in overtime 30-24 over 14th ranked ECU!

Apparently we were on TV a couple more times but I haven't gotten the still shots from those times yet.

Still Alive....

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:34:00 GMT

Just a quick note to let folks that I haven't seen lately (like months) that I'm still alive. I've had a pretty busy couple of weeks recently with the Hunter's Pistol/Smallbore Hunter's Pistol National Championship (held in my hometown) and my sisters wedding, held near my hometown.

Those trips equaled 3,195 miles of driving over 59 hours and 17 minutes for an average of 53 MPH and 28 MPG. :)

So I'm home now and I will be doing laundry and cleaning the house for the next couple days. :) Fun, fun, fun...

Lauch Scrubbed

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:52:52 GMT

Unfortunately due to high winds in the upper atmosphere we had to scrub todays balloon launch.

This is the predicted flight path based on November 17 12 Zulu weather data from the daily soundings that they do out of the Greensboro, NC airport.

I think we would have had a hard time with 2 things. One keeping up with the balloon in the car since it was suppose to travel over 220 miles and 2 finding after it splashed down in the ocean. :)

Stay tuned for updates on future launch dates...

Doh! Why didn't I post this with the last 2 posts!?!?!

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:31:12 GMT

Since my brain is apparently made of swiss cheese and I can't remember anything I will post
one more time...I know...I know... I never post anything and the all of sudden I post three times
in one day...crazy isn't it?

So here is a picture that I took with my spiffy new camera.

Photograph

It was of the flower girl at the wedding I went to this last weekend. If I could Photoshop the
guy in the background out it would be even better. :)

Cameras are cool! I need to work on taking portraits as well as keep figuring out all the different
settings on the camera. So far I've learned something new every time I have take pictures. So
I'm sure I will be boring everyone with more pictures soon. :)

Balloon Update

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:16:49 GMT

So some of you have seen the balloon project that I am working on.

The blog is here so check it out!

This Saturday looks like it's going to be the launch date. We have got almost everything
we need fabricated and assembled. We will put the finishing touches on the payload tonight
and pick up the helium tank tomorrow.

So check back often for updates and if we can find the payload after it crashes back to
earth we will have some pictures and maybe a video or two.

We hope to have a blog update with all the new modeling we have done to see if we
can predict the landing location, well other people wrote the software we just have
some folks that do weather for a living on the project who were able to give us some
ideas of how to make the model better.

YaY!

Sins...

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:08:50 GMT

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

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

Shocking....

New Toys!

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:39:18 GMT

Yay!

Today I bought some new toys!

I bought a Canon 40D, a Canon 24-105L IS lense and the battery grip for the 40D.

I didn't realize how much I missed my old camera until I bought the new one.

Now who wants to go take some pictures!?!?!?!

Project WARPED - High Altitude Balloon Project

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:35:39 GMT

Some folks had been asking about the high altitude balloon project that I'm working on with a group of friends so I decided to repost the blog information and add a link to the feed that auryn29a created.

Project-W.A.R.P.E.D BlogSpot Blog

project_warped - Add this as a friend to get all the latest updates.

Enjoy! We hope to have a launch date set soon! We will update the blog with all the latest information and pictures.

The itsy bitsy spider...

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:07:59 GMT

So while I was in Myrtle Beach, SC last week playing golf I got a surprise visit from one of our eight legged friends.

When I went to put my golf club back in the bag after teeing off this little guy (Linked for Sami). I usually don't
mind spiders but when they are bigger than the golf head cover they are climbing on then I get concerned.
It's a good thing the guys behind me noticed it and warned me before I put my hand down next to it.

The spider is a "Banana Spider" which is an orb-weaver spider. They make some very cool and large webs.
Their venom is potent but not harmful to humans. Similar to the Black Widow Spider venom in nature it is
much less powerful and the area around the bite usually clears up in 24 hours.

See golf is fun AND educational. :)

If this spider had crawled on me I would have probably had a heart attack!

sigh Where'd the time go?

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:03:53 GMT

As I was walking back to my car this afternoon after meeting my folks for a late lunch (after my conveniently scheduled lunchtime meeting and wading through hundreds of emails I let pile up during my time off) I noticed that the sun was already on it's way down and had that late afternoon orangey glow. Where did the year go? and can I get some of that time back? Like all the time I spent on an airplane? :) Or maybe all the time I spent trapped in a conference room.

I love fall, but I do miss the long days of summer....

YouTube.com - Funny/Cool/Stupid Links

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:04:42 GMT

Thought I'd share some of the interesting, funny, stupid stuff I've found or been shown on YouTube lately.

Thriller - Prison Version - Wow these guys are good...

You Touched My Tra La La - NSFW (well maybe with the volume turned down) - Strange, very strange, Swedish pop song.

Flight of the Conchords: Business Time! - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Rubens Tube - Physics is cool!

Another Rubens Tube - Physics is still cool!

Okay, One More Rubens Tube - Good Detail

Bouncing of a Jet off a Newtonian Liquid Surface - One of my buddies brother is the narrator for this video, plus it's cool. :)

Non-Newtonian Liquid - It's ALIVE!!!!!

Okay enough for today. :) Enjoy!

Still Alive

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:55:02 GMT

Hi gang! Just wanted to post a quick note and tell everyone that I am still alive. I've been up to my eyeballs with work and other fun stuff that feels like work that I haven't been able to out to see folks.

I hope to be wrapping a few things up soon so you *should* see more of me soon. :)

So THAT explains it...

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:32:49 GMT

Apparently I spend a lot of time in my head...that would explain why I don't meet a lot of single women...there is so much random crap crammed inside my head there just isn't any room for them. *laugh*

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world. So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time.

You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult

You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses.

Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life.

Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Visited States

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:08:21 GMT

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Wow apparently I need to stay home more...

Travel, Golf and Laziness...

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:10:59 GMT

It's been a while since I updated LJ so this is a huge rambling post. :) I’m sure you are all used to this from me by now. :) Okay here we go.

Two weekends ago I did a whirlwind trip to visit some folks in Northern Virginia and visit my folks in Pennsylvania. Thursday I drove up to NoVA and stopped in at a friends house for some a beer then had dinner with my friend Shannon. I crashed and my buddy Chris's house Thursday night and on Friday Chris and I played a round of golf at Brambleton Golf Course.After the round I headed up to Pennsylvania to visit my folks.

Saturday morning my dad and I played golf at Waterway Hills Golf Course. I shot my best score ever! I shot an 86. My previous low score had been 92. *whooo hoooo* Sunday I headed back down to NoVA for a cookout at some friends house. As it usually happens with that group of friends I ended up having a few beers, a couple shots, a few more beers, a lot more shots and then I had to stay over since I was in no shape to drive back to North Carolina. :) Monday I got up at the crack of 11:00am and drove back to NC just in time to head over to another cookout with some friends.

Last weekend on Saturday I played golf with some buddies at Wil-Mar Golf Course. It's a really nice course. Then it was off to lunch at Cloo's Coney Island Hot Dogs. They have the best sweet tea around! All the food is good and the staff is great. Then after lunch I headed of to Scott and Christy's Wedding Shower. It was nice to see them again; I hadn't seen them in a long time, after that if was off to a co-workers house for a poker tournament. I did okay but didn't make it to the final table this time. It was a good turnout. Twenty one people played.

Sunday I went and competed in a Hunter's Pistol/Smallbore Hunter's Pistol Silhouette Match at the Durham County Wildlife Club. I haven't shot competitively since 2005 so I didn't have very high expectations of how I would do. In the SBHP competition I scored 28 out of 40 which was a pretty okay score for just getting back into competition. With the HP I scored 32 out of 40 and tied for match winner with two other people. I had to compete against them in a shoot-off to see who the winner was. The shoot-off went two rounds and I ended up winning by scoring 7 out of 10 hits. That was the first time I have ever been the overall winner at a Silhouette competition.

Sunday I also joined the ranks of the truly lazy. I shopped for groceries online at Harris Teeter. I decided to give it a try and see if they bought the same things I would and how the produce and such turned out. Well that and the fact that it was free. :) I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I put all the things I wanted in my virtual shopping cart, told them what time I wanted to pick up the groceries and then went over to the store at that time and someone brought my groceries out and put them in my trunk. So the total time it took me to get groceries was 27 minutes if you count the time online and the time driving to the store, waiting for them to bring the groceries out and then driving home. Not too shabby!

Whew! Okay I think that's enough for today ;) Or atleast for right now...

Weekend Update...

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:21:50 GMT

No no no, not THAT weekend update... *MY* Weekend Update.

Friday night I went to Greensboro and had dinner with my brother and his wife. We went to a new restaurant in the Friendly Center which was called Bravo! It was really nice. Good food, good service and an overall great atmosphere. Since I was going to go play golf at Tot Hill Farms Golf Course bright and early Saturday morning, I decided to crash on their couch and get up and leave from there since it was 35 minutes closer.

Golf was a blast. It's such a pretty golf course. Lot of challenging holes. I was pretty much worn out after playing. But as they say no rest for the weary. Once I got back to the house it was time to hop in the shower and then cruise on over to jenndorff's mom's house for the "1st Annual Steve Pahner Scleroderma Strawberry Daiquiri Party". It was an awesome party, lots of good food, good drinks and good conversation! Plus they raised over a thousand dollars for the Scleroderma Foundation!

The next day it was off to the California Pizza Kitchen for jennydevil's birthday party and then we went to see the new movie "Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer".

Then to wind down the weekend I headed over to my neighbors house and had some sushi. MMMMMMM sushi.....

So all in all a good weekend. Busy but good.

Travel, Upgrades and Rental Cars

Tue, 01 May 2007 22:32:37 GMT

Well I am back in LA again. Seems like just last week I was here...oh wait that's because it *WAS* last week!

At least Delta has a non stop flight from RDU to LAX. :) WHOOO HOOOO!

I've also flown enough with Delta this year (about 32,000 miles in 3 months) to start getting free upgrades to first class. That makes the flight so much more bearable. The flights from RDU to LAX are almost always empty. The flights from LAX to RDU are almost always packed. The LAX to RDU flight is a "red eye", it leaves at 10:40PM Pacific time and gets into RDU at 6:30AM Eastern time. Upgrades on those flights are key. I got one last week but I'm not sure if I'll get one this time.

LA is cool. Very cool right now actually. It's about 62 degrees and overcast. So much for sunny California.
I got the strangest rental car from Hertz. I got a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4x4. Cause if there is ever a place you need 4 wheel drive it's downtown LA. It's kind of fun to drive though.

I was thinking about buying a Jeep as a second car to haul my bike, skis, the fireworks launcher I am going to build, you know normal stuff. This will give me a chance to see how I like it.

Well I am off to the hotel to workout then get something to eat.

View this post on my blog

Sweet Tea

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:01:40 GMT

So being down here in the south and my love for sweet tea I was curious as to just how bad for you sweet tea is. How does it compare to other bad for you drinks like soda? So I decided to do a little study and see if I could get to the bottom of this great mystery. For my study I choose "Cloos' Coney Island" as my test restaurant.

Here is how they make tea:
The brew 3 gallons of loose leaf tea at a time.
They add 4.5 cups of sugar to the tea.
There are 770 calories in a cup of table sugar.
So if I do the math:

4.5 cups of sugar x 770 calories per cup= 3465 calories per batch (3 gallons) of tea.
3465 calories / 384 ounces = 9.0 calories an ounce.

A can of regular 12 oz can of Coca-Cola is 140 calories or 11.6 calories per oz.
A 12 oz glass of sweet tea x 9 calories per oz = 108 calories

So Cloo's sweet tea is better for you than soda. ;)

Now use it to wash down a chili cheese dog with fries and maybe it's a toss up...

View this post on my blog

My time flies...

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:56:31 GMT

Seems like just yesterday I made a post here but NOPE, it was actually December 19th or something like that. Crazy isn't it.

Not too much exciting going on. I have lots to write but not enough time right now. So this is just a check in post to let folks know that I am still alive and that more updates should be coming along shortly. :)
No really they will!

View this post on my blog

Trying Travel...

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:18:35 GMT

So this weekend I went down to Florida to watch the ACC Football Championship.
It was an interesting travel exerience getting to/from there.

On Friday I got to the airport around 3:30 and got through security, then got on the place and we taxied out to the runway. On time even...

Then the engines went to full power we started rolling down the runway. Then the engines powered down and we pulled off the runway. Apparently a warning light came no during takeoff so we were headed back to the gate to see what the problem was and to see if the maintainence crew could get it fixed.

I only had a 40 minute connection in DC to the chances of me making my connection were slim. No biggie there was another flight from IAD to JAX later than evening.

So we finally get to DC and I go to the next gate and the flight is delayed do to "crew issues." What this means is that the crew we were supposed to use were over there hour limit so they were not legally able to fly anymore until they had x hours of rest. So we had to wait until they flew another crew in to fly our plane to JAX.

We finally ended up leaving IAD at 11pm. So what should have been a short trip ended up taking 10 1/2 hours. :) I could have driven in less time than that.

The flight back was on time and everything but a little girl and her grandma were sitting right behind me. The little girl was fine for most of the flight and quite funny. But about 20 minutes from RDU after they said you can't get up any more she suddenlty had to go to the bathroom. She cried and said "I HAVE TO PEE!!!!" at the top of her lungs for the rest of the flight, with some "I MISS MY MOMMY AND DADDY!!!" and some "I MISS MY BROWN BEAR!" thrown in for good measure. The lady beside me was not happy. I just smiled. Sometimes you win the airplane lottery and sometimes you lose. This was my losing trip... hopefully next week when I fly to London I'll win the airplane lottery...

View this post on my blog

Live + Press

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:00:52 GMT

This is to test the new Live + Press Plugin I added to my blogging site. Maybe I'll keep things more updated if I only have to update them in one place... Come on it *COULD* happen!

View this post on my blog

Furniture Update

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:19:06 GMT

So in a previous post about Office Depot I mentioned that they did not deliver the desk that I had ordered. They called the next day and said it was back-ordered and it would take 7-8 business days to come in. I said no problem. The next night about 5:15pm there's a knock at the door and low and behold it's the delivery guy delivering my desk. That was the fastest 7-8 business days ever. He said he tried to deliver it that morning but no one was home...Duh why would there be someone home when you weren't supposed to be here for another week!

So I ordered some bookshelves to go with my new desk and they were supposed to deliver them today. As of now no sign of the delivery guy. Grrr...

Stay tuned for my next update where I talk about my trip to LA and NoVA last week oh and I might throw a few lines in about my new TV. :)

My highschool teachers would be so proud!

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 23:26:01 GMT

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

I must have gotten the same one wrong, although I can't figure out which one.

:)

The Who, What, Where and Whys

Fast Shipping!

Glug, Glug, Glug...

14 minutes 58 seconds of fame left...

Still Alive....

Lauch Scrubbed

Doh! Why didn't I post this with the last 2 posts!?!?!

Balloon Update

Sins...

New Toys!

Project WARPED - High Altitude Balloon Project

The itsy bitsy spider...

*sigh* Where'd the time go?

YouTube.com - Funny/Cool/Stupid Links

Still Alive

So THAT explains it...

Visited States

Travel, Golf and Laziness...

Weekend Update...

Travel, Upgrades and Rental Cars

Sweet Tea

My time flies...

Trying Travel...

Live + Press

Furniture Update

My highschool teachers would be so proud!

sigh Where'd the time go?