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Have I mentioned lately that the Statesman sucks?

Well, they still do.

The latest abomination was foisted upon the unsuspecting public this previous weekend.  They shipped out with Sunday’s paper an insert… Their college football preview piece.  Needless to say, this city is pretty jacked up about the rapidly approaching Boise State game vs the vaunted Ducks of Oregon down on the Blue.  Obviously, there has been a lot of hype for this game during this past 8 months.  Appropriately, they titled their guide “Hype”.

Now, I’m not critiqueing their content.  It was good enough apart from some exceptionally lame “overrated” pieces on each page, (really?  Bashing Twitter is not fresh) but I digress.  No, I have a problem… wait, check that… I have NUMEROUS problems with the image they created for their cover.

For the record, I am NOT a designer.  I think I have a marginal eye for design, but the designers I work with make me realize I have exactly ZERO skill compared to them.  Wirestone has some of the best designers I have ever seen in their employ.  Obviously, the Statesman does not.

Warning, the following image is so horrible, it could scar you for life.

Continue reading “Have I mentioned lately that the Statesman sucks?”

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Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Arizona MemorialIn honor of the holiday, I spent a few minutes on song.ly, which is a service to tweet muisc.  Don’t ask.

Anyway, I scored my own fireworks show, you know, were I to have one.  This is what my fireworks show would sound like.  I’m sure you can picture the brightly colored explosions perfectly timed to the following tunes.

http://song.ly/g4s7 U.S. Merchant Marine Band – Semper Fidelis

http://song.ly/g4sl John Philip Sousa – Stars and Stripes Forever

http://song.ly/g4t9 Williams, John – Theme From Superman

http://song.ly/g4tp Boston Pops – Indiana Jones Theme

http://song.ly/g4uf John Philip Sousa – Battle Hymn of the Republic

http://song.ly/g4vk Aaron Copeland – Hoe Down

http://song.ly/g4v0 George C. Scott as Patton – Patton Speech (I would play this as voice over a few of the songs)

http://song.ly/g4wq Aaron Copeland – Fanfare for the Common Man

http://song.ly/g4xl Back To The Future theme

http://song.ly/g506 Top Gun – Theme

http://song.ly/g50z Band of the Fighting Irish – Notre Dame Victory March

http://song.ly/g51z Chet Atkins, Roy Clark – Dueling Banjos

http://song.ly/g52s James Brown – Living in America

Grand Finale: http://song.ly/g53f Neil Diamond – Coming To America

Yes, the requisite fireworks show would have cost millions of dollars (at least the one I had in my head would) so, the best I can do is the music.

Happy Independence Day folks.  I love this country.

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What’s the grossest thing you’ve done today?

I guarantee I can beat it.  Here’s the story.

So, I’m working from home today.  I spent the last night coughing and nearly choking to death on phlegm to the point that I “slept” in the other bedroom so that I wouldn’t keep Jess up all night.  Upon arising  and hacking up a loogie the size of New Jersey, I decided that instead of subject my fellow coworkers to my respiratory issues, I would just log in and work from home.

Anyway, lunch time rolled around.  Jess reminded me that if I’m sick, I really should eat something.  I headed to the kitchen to see what I could find.  Ahh-ha… I know, I’ll have a nice big peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Haven’t had one of those in a while, that should hit the spot.  What else can I have?  Yes… good… we have a box of individual size bags of Sunchips that we got from Costco specifically for lunches.  Perfect.  Throw in a Pepsi and you have a pretty solid lunch.

I set about chowing down my sandwich (on 8 grain bread, I might add).  Trustworthy PB&J will never let you down. If it wasn’t for those things I probably would have starved to death in childhood.  Also, I’m a bit of a strange eater when it comes to lunch.  More often than not, I don’t mix foods together.  I eat one thing, finish it, move onto the next.  Don’t ask me why, I just do.  If it’s a burger and fries, the fries go first, then the burger.  But, if its a sandwich and chips, the sandwich goes first.  I know, I’m weird.

Sandwich done, I open the bag of Sunchips to finish off my lunch.  I’m happily munching away while I work, as I’ve done hundreds of times before.

Let me preface this next part for those that might be squeemish… proceed with caution.

As setting, let me state that my office is fairly dim.  I don’t have the overhead lights on, and the shaded window has drapes on it. Really, the only light is from my monitor and a bit from the hallway, which is plenty.

As I was about 3/4 of my way through the bag of Harvest Cheddar chips, I began to ponder what those dark spots were on the chips.  I had noticed them upon starting, but in the dim light they appeared to just be another “grain” in the chips or perhaps larger clumps of seasoning.  Ummm… no… I’m not that lucky.

After piecing together my more recent history with Sunchips, I was fairly certain that Harvest Cheddar chips really didn’t look like that normally. Something was amiss.   That is when I looked a little closer, and came to a horrible HORRIBLE realization.

That’s not seasoning.

Again, squeemish people move on now.

They were ants.  Dead ants, specifically.  All curled up on themselves like dead ants do.  The bottom of the bag was FULL of them.

For the record, I chugged the rest of my Pepsi in about 2.4 seconds.  I can’t say I totally felt the urge to puke, but it did cross my mind.

Now I specifically remember eating one chip that had 20 or so specks on it.  Thinking nothing of it, I popped in and chewed away happily.  Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I think it did taste a bit… off…

I think the worst part now is that I still have bits of the chips stuck in my teeth. Which, of course, means I’ve got bits of masticated dead ant in my teeth as well.

Ok… that thought is making me want to puke.  I’m off to brush and rinse with Listerine about 24 times.

Of course, I couldn’t NOT post a picture…

All told, I think I’m off Sunchips for awhile.  Oh, and Frito Lay?  Prepare to get a piece of my mind.

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Murphy Comes Home

MurphyWell, we did it.  After just 8 short weeks, “the puppy” has come home.  Here is where I describe the ins and outs of bringing home a new puppy to two people who seemingly weren’t fully prepared for what was in store.

See, we had settled on the fact that we would reserve a puppy from Gem Doodle’s (next litter later summer/early fall ’09 if you’re interested) most recent litter.  One of the offspring of Tula the poodle and Bruno the golden retriever would be ours.  All we had to do was wait.

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History in the Making

I am not the first one to say this… in fact, I’m probably the 2,304,865th person to express this sentiment, but allow me to add my voice to the cacophony declaring this an historic day.  I don’t think we can adequately appreciate exactly what this means.  You know, one of those things that is just so big that it really takes some distance to fully comprehend it all.

Instead of trying to detail out all the ramifications of Obama’s election and inauguration, which I am woefully ill equipped to do, I will instead just capture some of what I’m thinking about this day.

Obama feels like a president for everyone.  These past 8 years have certainly felt like there were vast swaths of the population who were marginalized or simply flat out ignored.  The mark of a good leader is someone who listens to all points of view to come up with solutions.  I think Obama is that man.  I told Jess, who was hesitant to get on the Obama train because she wasn’t sure she agreed with everything he stands for.  I told her, there will never be a candidate who you agree with 100% of the time.  We each have our own views shaped by our own experiences.  What you want to shoot for is someone who will listen to all sides and someone you trust to make the right decisions.  I honestly feel that Obama is that man.

I am a fiscal conservative and a social liberal.  That is tough to find in a candidate.   I feel better about Obama than I have about any candidate in a long time.

How nice is it to have a president who can actually speak?  I mean, words can move mountains.  Obama can expertly use words to convey an idea and make us feel.  All without using words like “nook-u-lar” or “misunderestimated”.  If anything, Obama is reminiscent of Regan.  He was the first president I remember as a kid and I used to like to listen to him talk.  He reminded me of my grandpa.  It is so nice to finally again have a president who when he opens his mouth you don’t have to cringe and what might come out.

In that same vein, I am very happy to have a president I can respect.  I had zero respect for Bush.

It moved me to no end to see the shots of the elderly african-americans who were present at the inauguration.  The stories of the civil rights marches, segregation, dogs and firehoses.  It amazes me to think that just 40 years ago, the country was so different.  Since all that happened before I was born it’s easy to think that it is ancient history.  But it’s not.  It’s recent and it showed on the faces of those present.  I can’t imagine what all this must mean for them.

I think what I will like best about the Obama administration is the polar shift in the attitude of the government towards the rest of the world.  Bush ruled with absolute arrogance.  He assumed that he always knew what was right and could never imagine that he could be wrong.  If any other countries disagreed, well we’ll just bully them into complying.   Of course the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms!  Why wouldn’t they?   Obama on the other hand, said in his speech that we will no longer operate that way.  He is about building and extending, not isolating and alienating .  How refreshing.

I also really liked to hear him paraphrase Ben Franklin’s famous quote of “Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither”.  Obama basically said we will not sacrifice our principles for anything.  Hopefully this means an end to Gitmo, domestic spying and warrantless wiretaps, and the secrecy and paranoia of the Bush years.  I absolutely hated the direction this country was headed.  I hope that has all changed.

Another area of focus he mentioned was our infrastructure.  Frankly, it is embarrassing the condition of our country.  If we’re the richest country on the planet, why in the hell are our roads and bridges deteriorating?  Why is public transport so pathetic?  Why do we rank so low in broadband penetration?  Why haven’t we built a new nuclear reactor in 30 years?  We spend billions and billions and seemingly have nothing to show for it.  Maybe we will now rectify this.

This really is too big for me to fully comprehend right now.  There is so much floating around my head right now that I can’t seem to write a coherant sentence.   I will say this… I am exceptionally proud to be an American.  I love this country.  I have since I was a little kid.  I am now more hopefull for our future than I have been in a long long time.

I think it is a very good sign for our country that there are millions of school children who watched the inaguration today, and didn’t know how significant it was for a black man to be elected president.  They just saw a man become president.  That’s all.

That bodes well for our futures.

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Statesman, you suck

One more quick post…

As I visited the Idaho Statesman’s website, I was greeted with their “Today’s Highlights” section, which is basically the ‘above the fold’ part of the website.  Of course, they were highlighting the inauguration.  Unfortunately, the images they chose to highlight it with really leaves something to be desired.  See below.

statesman1

statesman2

Statesman, you suck.

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Extreme Makeover – Beard Edition

I know, I’ve been slacking terribly. The blog has suffered in direct proportion to the length of my horrible beard-hair.  It must know how much I hate it.  How much I want to write about how bad it sucks.  Obviously, the beard has achieved sentience and is now taking greater and greater control of my life.

Beard, let me tell you something… your days are numbered.  Come Friday, you will be little more than scattered hairs clogging my sink.  An ignominious end for such a constant and horrific part of my life for the previous 2 months.  What follows are the observations and dislikes about having just such patchy carpet on my face.

Early on, it was itchy.  Like really itchy.  Normally, I shave about every three days or so since I don’t have the follicle coverage to require daily shaving.  So, towards the end of the first week, I really wasn’t in too much discomfort.  However, this quickly escalated.

Continue reading “Extreme Makeover – Beard Edition”

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Happy Halloween Everybody

Happy Halloween!  Here is your illustrious host, rocking the hockey jersey and mullet for the office costume deal today.  FYI, since I’m a hockey player, it is pronounced “moo-lay”…  Although, I did have someone ask me if I was dressed up as Todd Palin… LOL.  I actually think I look quite a lot like Jaromir Jagr.  I was going to black out a few teeth and or give myself a black eye, but I just didn’t get there.

You also get to see the beard progress here.  I worked that into the costume you see, since there is a tradition in hockey called the “playoff beard“.  So, all in all, it was a fairly easy costume.  Just a little something today.  I will say, however, that this hair is getting stuck in my beard and is becoming quite annoying.  But, it is the price you pay, right?

If you would like to see the rest of the costumes from our local Boise office, you can see them here: Wirestone Boise Costumes

Also, if you would like to partake in the costumes of our Chicago office, you can do that here: Wirestone Chicago Costumes

If any more links from any more of our offices pop up, I’ll be sure to post them.

Some Fort Collins office pics.

Halloween can sure be fun.

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Operation Itchy Face Has Initiated

And away we go!

The beard has thrown off the shackles of regular shavings and is progressing nicely.  Read the good cause behind it here.  As of yesterday (Monday the 13th) the captain has turned off the “please shave” light and I am now free to roam around the cabin of manliness.

If you would like to follow all 33 of my fellow Wirestoners who have embarked on the same endeavour, you can find us here, complete with photos: http://itchyface.blogspot.com/

I don’t have a “start” picture yet but there is one on the itchy face site.  Generally, I don’t shave but every 2 or three days so most of you won’t notice any change for the next few days.  Come next week, however, I could really be miserable.  Let’s see how this rolls.

Grizzly Adams, here I come!