NordLead's Xanga

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:48:27 GMT

Now I'm going to go all parable on you all so don't get too confused....LOL

There was once a squirrel building it's nest high up in the tree getting prepared for the long winter. The squirel needed one more acorn to put in his nest. As he began to pull the last acorn into his nest he felt completely satisified that he had fulfilled all his requirements for the winter haul. But at the very last moment just as the acorn had been snuggled deep within his nest he noticed up on the tree branch just a few tails lengths away a huge gorgeous acorn just waiting to be taken. It had not been claimed by any other and he knew that that acorn was just what he needed to fulfill his quota for the winter season. But he had just placed the last acorn in his nest and was worried what would happen to that acorn were he to abandon it. What should the squirrel do?

I can't even begin to say in how many areas and ways that this parable applies to my life.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 03:03:56 GMT

Upon examination of my previous blogs it occurs to me that too few people actually read this and thus what I am saying is left to be seen at the top of my blog list. Thus to all and any bloggers out there looking for a raondom assortment of topics please peruse beyond this one blog.

Well, here I am once again and I am blogging late in the evening about things that are truely random indeed. But perhaps to the one or so of you out there that might ever read this the previous blog left you in a bit of a clifhanger and thus I am here to finish it.

I will try to make this as short a story as possible. Basically; I purchased an academically priced version of the Reason 3 upgrade and tried to use it on my computer. The upgrade worked fine but would not allow me to use it because there was a problem with the registration code. After several e-mail exchanges and figuring that avenue was not a route that would lead me to a conclusion to my situation I phoned them up and began a chatin'. After all attempts failed to convince them to give me a liscencing code for the software they told me that an academic upgrade would not work with a full priced version of the software, viz what I own, and told me to contact the company that I bought it from to get a refund.

I then went through a hurricane category 3 and was away from my home for almost a month. Upon returning that was the last of my worries until all things were basically restoring to normal. The mail at that time was kind of screwy anyways and thus would have yielded unwanted results anyways. I finally contacted the company I purchased the software from via e-mail and asked them for a refund. Their first response was that it was policy not to allow a return on something that they no longer sold. My response was, "You probably aren't selling any more of these because of similar problems to my own." I also asked them [imagine this] nicely to reconcider upon my circumstances due to the hurricane and due to the fact that they sold me a product that they basically knew would not work in my situation but did not bother to inform me about in the case that my situation was that of which there were problems. One more thing to note here, this was not the first time that a lack of information was given from the website. When I first ordered the software I was getting it as sort of a birthday present to myself and thus I ordered it expedited shipping so that I could get it and start working with it as soon as possible. I ordered it on a Wednesday and by Saturday it had not arrived. I e-mailed the company inquiring as to what happened and they told me that the item was out of stock and would be in shortley and shipping to me soon. Well no information was handed to me telling me that this product was out of stock nor was I warned before, during or anytime after I purchased it. That angered me and thus I accosted and they ended up eating the shipping. Good for them!

Finally, I get an e-mail saying that by viture of managers approval I am allowed a refund. But wait, does this mean that I got the refund due to; sympathy from the hurricane, remorse from selling me a product that would not be compatible with my software without ever warning me of these possible conditions, or from the sheer fact that each time I asked for a refund I was basically curteous and only very slightly accostive? All I know is that I did not have to call and talk to the president of the company to get something done about my problem and that makes me pretty happy.

Moral learned in all of this is that at least in the next few times I am in the situation that I must accost I will do so in a kind and friendly manner. Or at least in first or until I realize that nothing is going to be done about it and then i'll lay in on thick.

And always remember, Build a little birdhouse in your soul!

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 08:16:48 GMT

Ok, so I'm not a frequent blogger but I try. I'm really busy and basically I forget that this is here. I guess that I just don't need to vent very often or perhaps I take care of it through other avenues. Perhaps this means that this is simply just a place I can display random thoughts and acostments.

Random accostment of the day: when you own a Jazz club and you want musicians to come and play on a regular basis, first, you should always tell them in advance when you want them to come or set up a basic schedule to which nothing is changed from week to week except by prior notice. One should also keep from booking parties late in the evening on high traffic days such as say Friday and Saturday when said parties are going to eat into evening alcohol sales and tips.

I wish I had groovier things to say but I've run all out of ideas. I'm away from home right now but when I get home I'm going to have to blog about my dealings with software companies and other said mishaps in the past few months that have lead me to a conclusion that shocked even me.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 06:14:38 GMT

Arrrgh! Shiver me timbers, tis the black spot. Why do we talk the way that we do? Is it something that we said?

My favorite quote of the day: " I don't like it, and I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it." by Erwin Schrodinger with regards to quantum mechanics.

Thought aerobics for the day. Immanual Kant was a real pissant who was very very sta....oops sorry. What I meant to say was Immanual Kant stated and upheld that all of our knowledge begins with experience. I agree. What items of understanding have we not grasped through the toils of experience. What constituants of knowledge have we not gained but through the throngs of trial and error. But he does not stop here. He merely says that all knowledge begins with experience but does not end with it nor does it imply that all knowledge arises out of experience. Empirical knowledge being the primary source but does there exist a secondary knowledge that comes completely devoid and without the help of experience. He further breaks it down stating that there is pure a priori knowledge meaning that it exists without any empirical precedence. Is ther such a thing as pure a priori knowledge? Who is to say. But let's ask the man in the street.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:09:00 GMT

WOW!

I got REASON in the mail and I'm very excited and ready to get started. It seems pretty easy now that I am messing with it and though I know it's going to take me a while to learn how to use it best. Anyways, I've been relaxing after my wonderful trip to Fort Worth. It seems harder and harder to leave everytime. I wish I could afford to just leave here and move up there but I'm trying to finish a degree and that would not be very beneficial to that effort. So, I'm off to wach some Monty Python Flying Circus and get some sleep. I've no real accostment for the day except that I wrote a sort of spooky story a couple of months ago and I can't find it and I wish I could. So my accostment is to myself in that I need to not have computers peeter out on me so easily.

Oh, I also bought a mah jong game from walmart for like $5. And I'm eager to see if it is good and if sitting down in a comfortable chair can really rest your legs and now for some grotesque pictures of penises.

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 07:42:34 GMT

I learned how to play Mah Jong today. Not the silly solitaire version but the real thing with four players and everything. It's very difficult to learn but also really interesting at the same time. I leave it to Jeff to get me interested in something else that will eat up my time and that is just extremely fun to play. I hope I can learn more about it and more strategy on it. I'm really sleepy now so I shall go rest. The real and only reason I am blogging is to bask and bathe in the fact that for one of my classes this semester I have finished ALL the homework for the rest of the semester. I'm so excited. Goodnight!

Monday, September 06, 2004

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 04:33:40 GMT

Well, here I am again at like 12:00am and I can't think of a bloody thing to get me to sleep. I'm away from home. I've been out all day doing things. I even got a good dose of exercise tonight and still I am wide awake. Perhaps some chamomille, who knows. I am enjoying the hell out of being here with Jeff and Kerry and I only wish I was here longer. It may be the last trip for me untill around or after christmas so I'm soaking in as much fun as I can.

Here is my accostment of the day. Skeptics like mysefl, though rare and far between, are very much needed in this time of sillyness and wonder. Miracles aplenty are being performed before our eyes and yet people still think magicians are more mystical than the sun. Look outside your window. Think the world was created a few thousand ago. Well your bugeyed silly to think so because the very sky you are glancing into and the very star your are wishing on is over ten-million light years away. That's light YEARS. Cryogenics are running rampit with their silly thoughts on freezing people and thinking they won't end up some future race's afternoon cool treat. And, people are finding pictures of god and angels in corn chex. Where are the skeptics who are slaying these people and ridding the world of their lack of objectivity (note just because one is a skeptic does not mean that one has a closed mind but quite the contrary, a skeptic is one who does not just accept something as is but must question it and find out how it works and what runs it. If that involves mystical, religious, or paranormal things and those things aren't found to show themselves true than us skeptics rule them out as either a hoax or fraud) for it is the ones that have lost their objectivity and ability to reason that have taken to wierd (and stupid) beliefs. Case in point:

Pastor at a Pentecostal Church (oooh! I hate those bloody things, the way they piss and moan everywhere about their religions restrictions and yet are all gathered around the big screen at Mazzios Pizza every sunday night)

Pastor: I feel the spirit moving in this place tonight. Do you feel it?

Congregation: Yes Lord (followed by some gibberish)

Pastor: I feel a mighty wind present among us

Random Church Lady: No pastor the ceiling fans kicked on!

Skeptics needed badly: Apply Here!

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 05:05:01 GMT

As par my usual random schedule of entries. I now come full circle to speak my peace once again.

I have spent many hours thinking to myself why it is that when I am faced with a decision as to what music I would like to listen to that I lend toward a more personal selection of my own strange tastes. Perhaps it is because music is like comfort food, at least the music that we particularly enjoy, and like comfort food we wish to hear it when we want to feel all warm and comfortable. Perhaps its because it is within our reach and familiar. The scenario is as follows:

"What do you want to listen to," Rachel (My very significant other for those who aren't in the know)says to me. I reply "I'm not sure." A list of choices are then laid out before me like a buffet. However, I hate buffets! Like the good boyfriend I am not I then look at her and say, "I don't think I want to hear any of those." And then I insert one that I usually tend toward.

A comfort mood, or music of familiarity. Or perhaps it is this. It came to me by devine right or something of understanding. Insert a day in my life as usual:

I wake up and go to school. As I am walking to class a car drives by playing Limp Bizkit. I'm amused, I groove to the beat, and I keep strutting to class. By middle of the day I walk about campus and Creed is blasting over some stereo system outside where there is some sort of cookout or fundraiser or something. I then contemplate how they got along when all their songs sound the same and yet on some level I like them. ICP, Method Man, Snoop Dog are somewhere miscelaneously inserted in there somewhere from people driving down the street. No matter what job I am in I am usually submitted to at least four to six hours (If not more) of the ubiquitous "Pop/Rock" radio station. Where Evanesence, Creed, Maroon 5, Linkn Park, etc. are all given their respective air time and I enjoy them all. Works down, schools over, I'm in my car driving home. I don't want to listen to the radio, I don't want to listen to my own recordings becuase I just feel vain. I insert something of a higher mental status (Heaven forbid I label pop music as simple, Gosh Jessica Simpson, Brittany Spears, Eminem what should they think of me) and perhaps not like anything I've heard all day. THERE IT IS!

I haven't heard any of it ALL day. I've heard what EVERYBODY listens to. That's them. I'm me. I like what I like and I usually know a lot about what I like. I don't fit a demograph when it comes to music. I may slide in some funky George Clinton, some Branford Marsalles, some Sting, Peter Gabriel, or perhaps Bruce Hornsby. Nine out of ten people my age have NO clue who any of them are. It's sad for them. However, if it were played everyday. Twice on the hour. Would I like them as much. Probably! The music and lyrics have so much more than any of the "norm" could shake a stick at!

Climbing down off of my soap box I end with this. If you don't like the music I like. Tough. I do! And I'm going to listen to it and enjoy it as much as I can away from what I already have been exposed to. I'm not saying I don't like it, I'm not saying I wouldn't want to hear it now and then, I'm just saying....I just heard it. I want something different.

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 04:30:36 GMT

AAARgggh!!!

I hate pop-ups and worse I hate things that embed themselves into your computer and force hundreds of pop-ups to cascade across your computer and make you want to hunt them out and hit their delete button...if you know what I mean.

Well anyway...I've decided to end my stint with Johnny Carino's and relax for a while. I'm exhausted from working over 60 hours a week..During my Summer Break!

Anybody know how to get rid of this stuff btw..I've got several things on my computer to help clean up my computer but aparently it's not enough...

Monday, March 29, 2004

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 06:27:12 GMT

Have you ever spent some long hours late at night driving into and endless abyss only to find yourself dreaming about being at home in your bed, fast asleep. In that moment of blissful confusion your mind tends to split you off from reality and this is where I think I may have truly been abducted by aliens.

It happened as I was driving away from my father’s house about two hours away from my home and at about midnight. There was no moon, or at least none of which I could see. I was exhausted and worn out from a long day on the lake. From above I saw this great circle with light filling all around it. It shined down on the road in front of me illuminating a large circle on the road as if a large flashlight had been tilted in my direction. My eyes were blinded, my heart was pounding and my mind was twisting. I then saw in the distance a pair of eyes staring back at me with a very non-human looking creature's figure. Its eyes weren't like any I'd ever seen and it frightened me so much that I started to panic. Now I'm normally a very rational and skeptic person and thus I usually just shrug it off and reason it to a coincidence or confluence of chance. But not this time! In my tired and hazy state my mind thought for a moment,

"Nah, this isn't what I think it is, or what it seems to be. I must be dreaming or something."

But my endorphins thought else wise and I was ready to keep any probes from my orbital if you know what I mean. Then like a strong acid trip I saw eyes light up all around me as in some creepy horror flick; and I almost started to cry. I feared that I would be taken up to the mother ship and given to be some alien's bitch, something worse, or at least never be seen again by our sun. Mind you the time and my mental state.

Just when I was ready and willing to go down fighting for my...ahem...right to bear none! I quickly was centered back to reality when a large eighteen wheeler crested the hill up ahead and his round beams shined directly into my face, I notice many of those strange deer creature that you don't normally see in the city in which I live, frolicking on the side of the road in record numbers, and I realized that my mind had tripped back to some old Steven King movie or something of that atmospheric nature. My heart finally settled down and my stomach could no longer hold back the thick and hearty laugh that flew from my mouth as I tried to keep my composure in the middle of its lane. I was reaffirmed in my disbelief of any extra-terrestrials or alien abductions of any kind, and sort of in a "Mythbuster" way figured out that when those lights hit you from the top of the hill it sort of "deer in the headlight" shocks you. Funny thing though, I could almost swear that deer had something alien in his grasp when I passed it. But who knows, it was probably your humdrum duckbilled platypus or annelid, or penguin. You know!

The moral of the story, get plenty of rest when you are driving long distances.