Blackrider23

My wife and I managed to have a weekend where we got to forget we were parents for a bit!
The 2 older ones went to their grandmothers and Lola was babysat by my brothers girlfriend (THANKS!)
So its Saturday night. 2 of our very good friends from bloomington came up to Indy to see the Jason Webley with us! We went to a greek resteraunt (Kourheys i think) and had some pretty good food before the show.
Just before the show Jason sent an email blast for people to bring digi vid cams for a possible music vid shoot for a new song from the collaboration album he is doing with Reverend Paytons Big Damn Band. I didnt have a digital vid cam so I just went w/o one.
Turns out no one had a vid cam at the show. So I offered to get my analog one from home after his set was mostly through. The hope was to get back in time to record him and the paytons doing their song on stage and the crowd dancing (it was to be the last song on the set). Unfortunately... since I dont use the recorder very often I had some trouble hunting down a blank vid cassete. I did finally find one.
I hightailed it back to the venue and found... they had already done the song. I was a bit bummed. Not only because I missed recording it, but I also missed seeing the song live :(
The video they wanted to shoot was for the song "Two Bottles of Wine". I talked to Jason Afterword and Jason said that we could shoot some shots later on in the night. So my wife and I hung out and watched a crappy sideshow for a while.
Finally we took over the back room of the Melody and started collecting people for the video. He wanted people dancing crazy with 2 bottles of wine in their hand. Since we didnt have any music Jason and the Paytons energeticly yelled out the tune to to bottles of wine while people danced and sloshed wine all over. If the footage turns out well it could very well be in the music video.
So that would have been cool enough in and of itself.... HOWEVER!
I had to take the tape and convert it to digital media. So after a grandmas bday party I went home and got to work on the conversion. I got it all converted and ready to burn. Then my dvd burner crapped out on me :(
That night the kids all had fevers. I took monday off to take them all to the doctor (thank god i did). I burned the video to regular cd's and set them on my desk.
At noon Jason called me and asked if i could run the vid to him (he was in ripple at the paytons house very close to where I live)
So i say SURE!
I head up there and give him the video. He asks me to hang out for a bit w/ him and big damn band. So we are hanging out talking about random shit, and they realize they still need to shoot album photos! They need all of them in the pictures. Sooooo guess who gets to be a rock photographer for about an hour!!!!
:D
I even get my name as Photographer on the new payton/webley venture!!!!!
I had an AMAZING weekend!!!!

Here endeth the story.

Sooooo
Last night I bought new brake pads for my car (ive done this many times before). I drove home from work and hung out for a bit to let the brakes cool down.
Went outside and brought all my tools (such that they are). I grabbed the jack from the trunk (standard issue scissor one) and jacked the car up on my gravel driveway. Then I took the tire off of the car and went over to grab my wrenches.
It was at this point that I heard the distinct sound of creaking metal..... My jack promplty folds in half and out from under my car!!!!
Therby putting the front drivers side corner of my car into the gravel driveway...
So... now i have a car with 3 tires and one rotor wedged in the dirt and gravel. AAaaaannd.... no jack
I run up to autozone to see if i can rent a jack (they do tool rental in my area). Well aparently they dont rent jacks ever, you had to buy them.
So 20$ later I have a reletively cheap off brand hydraulic jack.
I head back home and look at my situation again...well the right side of the car is to low to jack up seing as its wedged in the ground.
So i put the jack under the left front end hoping to jack it high enough to raise both sides and drop the tire on the wheel again.
But the cheap jack ... while it will work under normal situations ... will not bring the car high enough. It pulls the other side up about 5 inches off the ground
So now I go door to door (literally) asking if anyone has another floor jack. I FINALLY find a second hydraulic jack.
I used that jack wedge under the no tire side (now 6 inches off the ground) jacked that side up. - then i removed the other jack from the other side and moved it to the center of the car
then i jacked it up there as well.
and i could FINALLY change my brake pads
LUCKILY
1. i wasnt under the car when it cam crashing down
and
2. i dindt break anything on my car when it fell.
if i had been on concrete the best scenario would have been a broken rotor. worst .... i dont even want to think about it..

The brakes work perfectly now btw :)

because everyone has a collage now :)

( My Interests Collage! )

So we went to the Animal Planet Expo. They had this photo booth with a greenscreen (green backtround and they digitally add the picture around you after the photo) where you could pick a background with an animal and Steve Irwin. Now the lady asked my 4 yr. old if he wanted to take a picture with a tiger or a snake. "SNAKE!" he replied happily. Then we walk out in front of the camera. I thought it would be funny if we both looked surprised. I tell Rune to look surprised. He is still VERY confused as to why we are not taking our picture with a snake. The way the lady worded it he was SURE he was going to hold a snake and take a picture.

So without further adieu... here is me looking surprised and my son looking confused.

TOM WAITS GOES ON TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dates are as follows

Tour dates are as follows:

DATE CITY/STATE VENUE

Tues, Aug 1 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle

Wed, Aug 2 Asheville, NC Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Fri, Aug 4 Memphis, TN Orpheum Theatre

Sat, Aug 5 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium

Mon, Aug 7 Louisville, KY Palace Theatre

Wed, Aug 9 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre

Fri, Aug 11 Detroit, MI Opera House

Sun, Aug 13 Akron, OH Akron Civic


HELOOOOOOOOOOO LOUISVILLE!!!!!!

You scored as Fantasy Goth. You are a Fantasy Goth. You may or may not actually be a goth, but "normal" folks see you as one of those weird kids, and you are probably considered a geek by quite a few. </td> Fantasy Goth 100% Industrial/Rivet-Head 75% Anything-Goes Goth 58% Romantic Goth 50% Ethereal Goth 46% Understanding Outsider 42% Cyber-goth 38% Perky Goff 33% Old-school Goth 29% Confused Outsider 25% Death Rocker 21% What subcategory of Goth best fits you? created with QuizFarm.com

Monday - Lisas tooth is hurting her a LOT. I start to get some cold/nasal congestion. Our cat Toe got out on friday and got chased by a dog. When he came back his claws were all torn up like he tried to climb something he shouldnt have. We thought he was fine but a bit shaken up. He was a bit lethargic. Then on Monday he died. Just like that :(

Tues - SNOW TONS of it. Feeling a bit more sick. Take day off work. Drive Rune to preschool. Lisas dentist didnt make it in since he was snowed in. Went to another dentist office. (all this at about 20mph due to snow). Waited for her paperwork and then turned right around to pick up rune. Then drove back to dentist to get lisa. They said they cant fix her tooth because the roots were to deep or something. Reffered to specialist. Specialist not in. Went home and got her prescrip for the pain. Took care of munchkins (lazily hehe). Called dentist about root canal for lisas tooth. Looks like they aint cheap :O! Lisa went to a Mary Kay meeting at 7 where she got pinned (i dont know how she managed). And now it seems like lisa may have the flu.

Wed. - Came into work today, lisa is going to try to get an appt. for an endodontist asap and may call me so i can take the car to her


*WHEW*!!!
LOL
Im ready for a vacation :P

On the UPSIDE I got rune to ACTUALLY read yesterday. He has been able to recognize words just by the sight. Like "toy" etc. But yesterday I got him to read a word he had not seen much before based on phoenetics (sp?)
AND I got my CCNA books in this morning at work! Time to dive into the network vortex
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Mostly Calvin You are 80% Calvin and 20% Hobbes

Your inner Calvin often prevails, but, as in the image below, you have a significant Hobbesian component. I'm going to try to stretch the visual metaphor here: you have a good head on your shoulders, but when you don't use it, your crazy body gets you in trouble? Does that work? Odds are you're impulsive and imaginative, but it's possible you've collected just enough wisdom to hold your most anti-social urges in check. Most of the time. It's a precarious balance, like a boy on one foot with a tiger head.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 97% on calvin You scored higher than 0% on hobbes

Link: The Calvin Or Hobbes Test written by gwendolynbooks on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Just woke up after being out late (for me) last night at the Jason Webley show!!!!!
DAMN that guy kicks ass!!

Here are a few pics i took :)

http://www.blackrider23.com/webley/2-16

Johari chart

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Blackrider23

New on my "Top 5 things i wish i was rich enough to pay people to do" list.

- Use a rotorooter thing to clean out a clog in the main sewer line

MARK YOUR FUKIN CALENDERS!

Jason Webley is BACK ON TOUR!!!
He hits Indy at the Melody Inn on Feb 16th per his website.

If you are one of the poor people who hasnt gotten to see this man live you MUST put this on your calendar. Cancel your appointment with the doctor, call the president and tell him you cant make it to that formal dinner on the 16th, and head to the Melody Inn :)

And if you arent in indy he is going all over the US AND the EU heres the tour list link.

http://jasonwebley.com/events.html

So my work cleaned out a section of the back room w/ old storage stuff. Then said this pile is getting thrown away tonight get what you want or its junk!

*GLEEEEEE*

So I have a 160gb HD a 17" monitor and a rackmount chassis that has any possibility of items inside but i didnt bother opening it up today. Ill do that tonight when i get home. :P Like a late Xmas.

I dub today Nostalgia Day. Not only is it very close to the new year, but my brother is getting married today. My little brother :)
It kinda hit me more last night at the rehersal an dinner. Sounds sappy and whatnot but it makes me so bleeding happy i could burst! And then he and a buddy of his made this DVD montage of pics... im not always a misty eyed kinda guy... but that did it to me.
First they played a montage of Phils pics from infant to .. college grad ish , then Ruth, then both together.
Phils played In The Garage by Weezer. I watched my brothers life flash before me in three minutes and fifty three seconds. And damn... its true... he has grown up gone to college and gotten a job, and now a wife! It just really started this memory lane trip in my head last night that has continued on untill this morning. I dont normally feel nostalgia pangs like this.
So here i sit at my job 10 hrs before my baby brother gets married, listening to old school songs from high school and just soaking up the nostalgic day. And in honor of Nostalgia Day Im posting the first picture that Lisa and I have together from high school (before we were dating).

OK .. to most this is probly old news.
I had heard the cover Johnny Cash did of NIN's "Hurt". To me it is one of the BEST cover songs ever. Trents is more masochistic, Johnnys reflects a life full of pain and suffering in one song...

Well... i had never seen the video untill today. If you havent seen it check out the link below. THIS is what music videos are supposed to be! An enhancement of the song, to bring the listener in more. It makes most of the other music vids ive seen trivial and lame.


anyway.. heres the link

www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=yg8oG6gkTz8&search=johnny%20cash%20hurt%20nin

Man.. it was like a geek Smorgasbord at my house last night!

I have been keeping my eye out for another decent video card for a while. And recently i ramped up that watch because lisa got Guild Wars (I already had it)an online RPG. And her pc wouldnt play it. Well after much asking around i found that my good old trusty Fry's store was gonna bail me out. I bought an FX5200 128mb vid card w/ Nvidia chipset last night for 30 dollars. No rebates to send in, no signed contract in blood... 30 bucks!
So! Being extatic about that I drive straight home, and what to my wondering eyes appear... but a bigass box from UPS!!!
I have a friend who got an xbox 360 and graciously donated his old XBOX to me!!!! and IT WAS HERE!!!
Luckily for me i planned ahead and had gone to EB games with some of my xmas money. For 30 bucks I got Fable, Morrowind, and DOA3.

So I treated it like a buffet Id never been to, a bit o everything.
I installed my card in my machine and took my geforce4 mx440 and put it in Lisas machine. Then played a game or 2 for a few minutes just to get a good look ... MMMMMMMMMMMMM magically delicious!
Then I headed back to the XBOX to open it and play a game or 2. And another surprise... not ONLY does it have 4 controllers!!! but it was also skinned with a biohazard like skin!!!!
played a little fable, decided to go the evil route just because :P, then played some morrowind. I have played morrowind on my PC a long time ago so I knew what I was doing. Didnt go to far into it. Then spent the rest of my time pummeling pixels in DOA3!
Finally got to bed at about ... 1am or so ... and here I am at work at about .. 6am :P

Normal amount of time to traverse from work to home 12 minutes.
Last night due to the 7+ inches of snow that dropped... 2.5 hrs!

Most of the roads are cleared now though so I got in to work np.

Oh yeah, I just updated my website with most of the photos I have been sitting on since Aug. www.blackrider23.com

So .... yay for lazyness!!!!

Ill try to hit everything ALLLL at once :P

Work has been going quite well - im learning a couple of new products and still on my early shift :) It has been working out for me very well. Kinda sucks going to bed so early sometimes, but its not that bad.

Zarrin is the cutest baby in the entire universe (just thought id let everyone know). She is getting HUMONGOUS! She is getting very adept at crawling backwards, and has mastered the "inchworm scoot" which sometimes results in her scooting her head on the floor like a bulldozer :P. She and Rune have been getting along great!

We just went to the pumpkin patch recently and picked out pumpkins with rune. Pictures forthcoming.
umm... The cookout (see earlier entry) was a great success! We had lots of fun and a decent number of folks showed up!

So on to future news:

On the 29th Lisa and I go on our first "vacation" since Rune was born! We are driving up to Toronto Canada to visit some of her relatives up there. WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I cant wait for that!!

Then on the 16th i get flown out to GC Socal (in Anaheim) to help with the LAN there :)

Hmm... im sure theres other news to report ... but i think thats all for now.