:: Troutmaster blog ::

:: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 ::

I don't think I'm a very good plant owner. My bonsai tree is very dry and doesn't seem to be getting better even through I am watering it a little more than it should be watered. Does anyone out there know how I could nurse it back to health? I'm afraid it won't last much longer.
:: Tom 11:30 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Now this sounds like a down to earth Prime Minister.
:: Tom 3:56 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I finally got movable type up and running, so as of April 1st I will be switching over to that system for my blog. If all goes well the readers of this blog will see the new system first thing on April first without any interruption of service.
:: Tom 9:24 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Jackie paid us a visit this weekend. She was in town for work and on Saturday we had dinner for her birthday at Sushi Maru, and then went over to the Cheesecake Factory so Timber could have a key lime martini. Today we ate at Krung Thai and then hung out at Jenny and Rong's place until it was time for Jackie to fly back to Santa Barbara. Another weekend in the books.
:: Tom 8:34 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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If you need to find something, ask me, chances are I can find it for you. Timber had been looking for the artist that sings a country song for a while, but she didn't know the title of the song or the artist. The only things she knew were that the artist was a woman and some of the lyrics. After I decided to help her find the artist I had her sing the song for me (or at least the parts she knew) and I was off to work. I went to google and searched for "i want to do it all" "visit paris in the fall". I got this result. I then clicked on the first resulting page and found the lyrics. But this page did not say who the artist was. I clicked on the comments page and found paydirt. I then confirmed that I had the right artist by checking the iTunes store. Case closed.
:: Tom 3:16 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Now that's a catfish! Timber sent me this photo from someone up in Canada who caught this 140 lbs. catfish caught in Lake Texoma.
:: Tom 12:40 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I looked up Lhasa Apsos on google and found them classified as "Recreation > Pets > Dogs > Breeds > NonSporting-Utility Group > Lhasa Apso". Can someone explain to me what NonSporting-Utility means? Are there Sport Utility dogs?
:: Tom 1:49 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I think America is starting to get a little too violent. On my way to work I heard on the radio that there was a traffic jam on one of the highways because of a road rage incident. They went on to explain that the two people involved in the incident were still fighting in the highway and the result was all lanes were blocked. I also heard about someone in an airport making a comment to Richard Simmons about "sweating to the oldies". Richard Simmons then got mad and 'bitch slapped' the guy that made the comment. To make things even more comical the guy that Richard Simmons slapped was a really big guy that wrestles in cage matches as a hobby. You can check out the article here.
:: Tom 10:26 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I was just checking on the length of the day when we'll be in Denali, and based on this site, the length of daylight per day while we are there will be about 22 hours. :-) I can't wait!
:: Tom 10:49 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I wouldn't have believed you if you told me, but there seem to be some Democrats out there that are supporting Bush. Check out the article here. But if I remember what Crayon told me about Zell Miller, Zell is really a Republican in Democrat's clothing. So that begs the question, are there any Republicans out there for Kerry? This should add some spice to the campaign.
:: Tom 2:52 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Here's something I need to look into when I have the time. Specifically I want to read through the transcripts and/or watch the video from the proceedings. I would much rather find out about the contents myself than depend on the news media for coverage.
:: Tom 6:00 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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The wildflowers are really out right now. My work site even put up a website about them. Check it out here.
:: Tom 2:55 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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This weekend has become a blur. All I remember is spending 5 hours at Maggiano's in Santana Row. The food was good, but the dinner took SO long. It totally blew out any plans that I had for Sunday evening. My memory is starting to come back to me. Timber's dad come over on Saturday to help us fix the hole in our ceiling. That was our first real home improvement/repair project. I learned a lot, and now I'm not afraid of breaking anything, it's time to redo the whole condo!
:: Tom 9:56 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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The cherry trees are really blossoming at my condo right now. I can't wait for the cherries to actually grow!

:: Tom 10:18 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I'm glad the work week is pretty much over. I say pretty much because I still have a little bit of work to do. This week as been extremely busy, and I just want it to end. I also attained Competent Leader in Toastmasters this week.
:: Tom 10:55 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Check out this quote -> "Thousands of people rallied overnight against the governing Popular Party, saying it should be thrown out of power for drawing Al Qaeda's wrath." From here. Ok, first, you've got to be kidding me, you want to throw out your leaders for drawing Al Qaeda's wrath? You might as well convert to Islam right now. No matter what you do, no matter how you try to appease them, they will attack you unless you convert and join them. Do you want that? I would prefer to "Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys, hang them high in the street, for all the people to see." as Willy Nelson puts it.

:: Tom 4:07 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I got plenty of exercise on Saturday. Timber and hiked to the top of Mount Diablo. We started out at an elevation of about 600 ft and hiked to the summit which is at 3849 ft. Round trip our hike was a little over 12 miles. I think it was more, but I'm not sure of the exact mileage. I wore my pedometer on the hike and logged over 42,000 steps. I would equate this hike's distance and difficulty to hiking to the top of Half Dome. But after working hard to get the top, I felt a little bit cheated because people can drive to the top of Mount Diablo. So while we appeared out of the brush huffing and puffing we saw some people at the top that couldn't walk to the bathroom without having to take a break. But I got satisfaction from knowing that we had earned our awesome view. Even though it was a hazy day, we could see the Golden Gate Bridge, Trans-America Building, and way off in Desolation Wilderness, Pyramid Peak. It was pretty cool seeing the mountains with snow on them. But we had to rush to get back to my truck before the gate would be closed at sunset, or so we thought. We hiked with a sense of urgency and ran wherever we could on the way down. My knees started to hurt on the way down and Timber got pretty frustrated with the situation. We ended up making it back to the truck and were able to get out of the parking lot. Luckily for us the gate for people leaving the park was not closed even though we got back just after sunset. But I learned a few lessons on this trip. First, if you are hiking somewhere new, give yourself plenty of time and overestimate the time it will take instead of underestimating like we did. Also, when you are at a water fountain, drink as much water as you can and refill your water bottles (this wasn't a problem on this hike). But most importantly, when you run across a bathroom, use it, because you never know when you'll get another chance. That last lesson is obviously more important for woman than men.
:: Tom 9:27 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I watched the newest episode of the apprentice last night, and the lesson from this week was to think outside the box. The two teams had the task of making the most money during a day of running a pedicab company. One team thought outside the box, and thus won easily, while the other team did not and lost. The innovation that caused one team to win was the idea that they could sell advertising on the pedicabs. That alone made them over $3k in one day. That should be a lesson to all of us. Innovate or go home...
:: Tom 12:41 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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The text of Proposition 22 states "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". Although I have no problem with gay marriage, I'm looking forward to seeing how creative the California Supreme Court gets in allowing gay marriages to continue. I just don't see how they can allow it while Proposition 22 remains in law.
:: Tom 10:25 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Definition of Karma -> Eastern name for the Law of Cause and Effect. The basic Law governing our existence in this solar system. Every thought, every action that we have and make sets into motion a cause. These causes have their effects, which make our lives, for good or ill. Expressed in biblical terms: As you sow, so shall you reap. In scientific terms: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I believe in Karma, and I have proof of it's existence. Case in fact: My truck got towed last night, and when I went out to my truck to go to work this morning it was gone. Subsequent phone calls revealed that it was at the towing yard, and I went, paid $165, and got my truck back. My truck got towed because I forgot to put my parking pass on my rear-view mirror. Now for the Karma part. I believe that Karma played a part here because it was only a few weeks ago that I sent an email to the condo association reporting other people that were violating the parking regulations. I won't go into the excuse as to why I did it, but I think I indirectly caused the off duty cops to be more stringent in their enforcement of the parking rules, and as a result, since I didn't have my parking pass in my window, I got towed. Let everyone be warned, Karma is real...

:: Tom 10:06 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I spent most of the weekend hanging around San Jose enjoying the nice weather. It seemed like people were literally in winter mode one day and in summer mode the next. It is amazing how fast the weather here goes from pretty good to great. I went to Ethan Allen with Timber to check out the furniture and get some ideas for decorating our condo when I found a mirror that looks just like the one my mom has at home in Anchorage. It was a sun mirror, which is basically a circular mirror with sun rays protruding out in all directions. I actually saw two at Ethan Allen, and they were all the way in the back in their clearance area. They were in the clearance area because some of the sun rays had been broken. One mirror was in really bad condition while the other was missing only one sun ray. They had been marked down to $99. When the sales lady came by to ask if we had any questions about anything I told her that I liked the mirror, but it wasn't worth $99 to me. I would consider buying it for $50. She said she would need to talk to someone and then come back with an answer. We continued to shop and she found us and told me that I could get the mirror for $50. I was surprised because I didn't think they would deal, but I guess I was wrong. I ended up talking to Timber about it and we decided that we couldn't really think of any place for it to go, so we snuck out of Ethan Allen without buying the mirror. But the lesson I learned that day is that you can wheel and deal in places that you wouldn't expect. :-)
:: Tom 10:18 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Amarosa is gone! Woohoo! You can find out more about last night's episode of the Apprentice here. If you haven't kept up to date, Amarosa is a biyatch that none of the other contestants on the show like. I've been waiting for her to get kicked off the show. The lesson taught by Donald Trump this time is that you can't sell something that you don't like. I like watching this show because it teaches about how things work in the real world and the lessons taught can be applied anywhere.
:: Tom 12:36 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I'm now 4 for 8 in my 20 oz. diet pepsies yielding free songs on the iTunes music store. The last song that I got was the old 80's song "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. I would not have bought that song myself, so the pepsi challenge givaway thingy got me to get this song. I got a good laugh from the picture of the band. The guy all the way to the right kind of reminds me of my brother. He used to have the same hair style back in the 80's. I hope my brother doesn't beat me up for making fun of him on my blog. :-)

:: Tom 10:58 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I voted today, using the new electronic touchscreen which is all the rage from what I hear. Maybe the Democrats feel that this will help them win the presidential election because the retards that vote for them can't mistake their candidate for Pat Buchanan? Ha, I doubt it. My evaluation of it is that it is very easy to use and it lets people check their choices before submitting their vote. My experience went as follows: I went to my polling place, then handed my booklet to a volunteer that found me on their list. But I noticed that they didn't ask to see my ID. Then another volunteer gave me a plastic card that was much like a credit card. I then proceeded to the voting machine where I inserted the card, and then voted. When I voted all I had to do was touch the circle next to my selections and then click on the next button. After I was done I reviewed my selections and then clicked on a giant yellow button in the middle of the screen and then got the plastic card back. Once that was done I handed the plastic card to a volunteer and was on my way. Pretty painless overall.
:: Tom 9:35 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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There is an interesting virus going around. I got an email from a colleague that left my company over a year ago. It is worth noting that when someone leaves my company their email address and everything in our company directory relating to them gets napalmed. I thought it was really weird, and when I checked it out I saw this message, "Found virus WORM_NETSKY.D in file your_bill.pif
The file is deleted.

XXXXXXXX's antivirus detection system has identified a virus in an attachment to this e-mail. The attachment has been deleted. No further reporting or action is required on your part. THIS EMAIL IS NOW SAFE TO OPEN. Visit www.mysterycompany.com/virus for more information."

The thing that I find interesting is that it doesn't say this message is safe to open until I've already opened it. Doh!
:: Tom 11:18 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I heard the term "thriving in chaos" in an email at work today and knew that I had to blog that because I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Isn't that what everyone wants to hear about their work environment or systems at work? I wonder how many other people out there are expected to be "thriving in chaos"? I'd be willing to bet that a lot of people out there can relate, because their organizations are not as large or as well defined as mine. I think one thing I should institute is a Risk rule at work. For instance, if someone wants me to do something for them I should have them roll a die as the attacker and I roll the die as defender. If they win I'll do it for them, if I win I don't have to do it for them. That would bring some entertainment to the chaos...
:: Tom 1:45 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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