Tuesday, February 28, 2006

 

Two Very Special Guys


Great-nephews Aaires (left) and Julian
I'm going to be out of town for a couple of days because there's somebody I have to meet. He hasn't been around long, so I have to make sure he knows the score in the neighborhood. Hopefully I'll be back to a regular blogging schedule later in the week.

BOJ

Sunday, February 26, 2006

 

Check Out The BOJ News Service

goback
....But everyone here seems so nice....
I'm really trying to get back into the swing of blogging on a somewhat regular basis. I've really tried to streamline my approach, though. I actually try to think of a topic before I start writing, which has cut down on the time I actually spend in front of the computer. I used to average about an hour per post on this blog. I know, I know, content wise that's hard to imagine. I know a lot of you are recalling old posts and thinking "It took him an hour to come up with this?!?" True enough folks. I'm trying to be better about it, though, as I no longer have the time to just sit in front of the computer and bang on the keyboard.

My other blogging aim is to get back into the swing of The BOJ News Service. Amount of time spent on projets for that blog can vary wildly. A simple "bubble & caption" post can take five minutes (plus finding the proper photo), to an hour or more for a photo that requires a lot of manipulation.

As of this moment, there are three new posts on The BOJ News Service. The attached photo was originally from my first post on that site. I liked it s much I put it here.

Enjoy.

BOJ

 

New Family Member

bojtp
None Injured as Hospital Turns 90 Degrees on Its Side
I'm am feeling so totally JUNGDOU! right now. I have a new family member! My niece has given birth to a baby boy on my birthday, no less. One less date I have to remember!

I give my family a har time about their trouble with technology, but my sister created and put photos on this web site from a laptop computer in a hospital. That's so impressive that I considered not taking a cheap shot at her not rotating the photo 90 degrees before posting it. Then I came to my senses and made a little joke about it. That's my nature, it's who I am. Nice work in any case, and I'm glad that technology has advanced to the point that this can be done so easily. Flickr.com is not to be let off the hook here, they have made their system so it's impossible to rotate a photo once it's been uploaded. But there are images there, and that's the important thing.

More to come, I'm sure.

BOJ

Saturday, February 25, 2006

 

Return Engagement

I just called TSA for the first time since my move to Residence #27. He's on his way to look at some puppies. I felt really guilty that I hadn't gotten in touch with him before now, but I've had tons of trouble with the internet and our schedules don't really mesh for phone calls. Those are just excuses, of course, and I really should have made some sort of contact before now. I don't do well contacting people in situations like that, I never no what to say. Time just makes it worse, of course. Something that I would usually find somewhat akward multiplies in it's akwardnessititude (it's a real word, look it up - OK, I'm fibbing, it's not a real word).

I may be making a short appearance in the RC this week. I have a niece about to give birth to her second child. Should the child pop today, it would share a birthday with a man steeped in his akwarnesstitity (it's a real.... aw, forget it) and I'd probably make a visit to see the new child. Here's wish mother and father the best and hope I get to see you, and other RC folks, thtis week.

BOJ

Thursday, February 23, 2006

 

Trivia & Trains

Checked out a local brewpub last night. Snake River Shadows isn't too far from Residence #27, in the old rail depot downtown. Actually it's a pretty cool old building. I'm glad they found a use for it instead of tearing it down. It's right next to the train tracks, of course, and trains go by constantly which is really cool if you ask me. The depot was built from thick quarried stone, so you don't actually hear or feel the trains go by, but you see them. I like that.

I grab a seat at the bar. My bartender was wearing a Firehouse Brewing Company t-shirt which made me feel right at home. Not only have I drunk a lot of beer at The Firehouse but I've also played some music there, most notably P957's best American Woman ever. I ordered the stout, which was a little on the sweet side for my tastes, one was fine, by the third I'd had enough though. Still not a bad brew, if uninspired. I'll have to try some of their other brews as the price was pretty reasonable to boot.

They had the NTN trivia thingy so I played that for a while. I played the last three questions of one game and got 1000 pts on all of the questions. I didn't do quite so well on the next game, but I did end up on recent high scores for that location.

The next game was all about berries. No, I'm not kidding, 15 questions about berries. I don't even know what a loganbery is. Well I do now, but I didn't until the correct answer came up at the end. I didn't do so well on that game.

The final game I played was straight trivia. The questions seemed awfully easy and I maxed out on the first 4 questions and went into the first break with well over 4000 points. I ended up with over 12,000 which was good for second place on the recent high scores. So if you go into a little brewpub in Cheyenne, Wyoming, you'll see the name BOJ emblazzened on a TV screen.

Which reminds me, I thought of this verse to a Willy Grigg song while in the shower the other day. Let me clear up that I wasn't think about Willy while I was in the shower, but one of his song popped into my head.

Well I like Ken Jennings
But I'm not Ken Jennings
And I'm never going to be
Thirty-seven time defending
Jeopardy! champion
Ken Jennings
But when I'm slow on the buzz
And forget what year
Chernobyl was
There's a little Ken Jennings in me


BOJ

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

 

Study: Dolphins Not So Intelligent On Land


From The Onion
You know, life is all about contxt. The Onion once again shows why it's "America's Finest News Source."

Check out the whole story Here. You'll be glad you did.

Labels:


 

JUNGDOU!

bojtp
All will bow before the power that is JUNGDOU!
So I'm logging onto the computer at work to enroll in my benefits, insurance and the like. We have a self-service type of thing which, considering what absolute screw-ups HR is here, I prefer greatly. Our log in for that program is different than the dozens of other log ins I deal with on a daily basis. I was instructed to use the first four letters of my last name combined with the first three of my first name.

JUNGDOU!

I have no idea what JUNGDOU! is, but it seems pretty cool to me. I haven't decided whether JUNGDOU! is a city in China or a rarely practice martial art, all I know is that somehow, I long to be involved in the magic that is JUNGDOU! On the other hand, JUNGDOU! may be a Pokemon charachter in which case I'd have to rethink my new-found blind devotion to all that is JUNGDOU! No way, JUNGDOU! is way too cool to be something so lame. At least I imagine it to be way too cool to be something so lame. Maybe it's a Taiwanese malt liquor. Maybe it's that stuff I had at the Chinese buffet today. Maybe it's a little known warlord from the T'ang dynasty. It's gotta be cool. I'm inexplicably drawn to all that is JUNGDOU! I guess if this whole BOJ thing doesn't work out I've got a new nom-de-blog

JUNGDOU!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

 

The Return of Mega-Bitch Tuesday

My internet provider is such a miserable piece of shit. I've had nothing but trouble with me email since I got connected on Saturday. It's not that my email doesn't work, it's that it works and sometimes it doesn't. I set up three accounts and for a while they all worked, but then only two worked, then only one. Now none of them work. When I called in and yelled at people today (I'm trying to exhibit a good attitude at work, but that doesn't apply to shithead ISP's) we made some changes to my settings on their end. At that point nothing worked at all. When I called them to tell them that they were idiots the recorded message said there was a system wide email outage. I hope changing my settings broke their system. I know that's unlikely, but it makes me feel better that it may have.

In defense of the turd-burgulars at Bresnan, I really like their phone service I can make unlimited long distance phone calls to anywhere in the US. That's nice with my family living 300 miles away. The cable service is pretty good too, better than I've ever had actually and easily the equal of large satellite providers - but don't get that cable, national satellite providers are the way to go!!!!! Whew, I think I just saved my job.....

In short, Bresnan Bad, Echostar Good. Make your own decision on DirecTV, my judgement is a little clouded.....

BOJ

Monday, February 20, 2006

 

A Jaegermeister Kind of Night

The Jaegermeister is flowing pretty freely tonight. It's been a long time since I had a drink or two just because I wasn't curretly working, but that's exactly what I'm doing here.

I don't know if Jaegereister is particularly ethnically German, but I sure like it. Ice cold and in a cold glass on top of it. That and a hadfull of those fake M&M's from the King Sooper store. Geez, does life get much better?

The week's not quite over yet, I've still got one more day of work, but now I have a phone, internet, and cable TV. If my apartment just had steady heat, I'd be an estatically happy man. As it is, I seem to be doing alright.

T1G, I like Jaegermeister quite a bit, any of the German liquours that I owe you that you can't handle, well, I'd be happy to take off of your hands. I promise, no cookies will be tossed, even those Girl Scouts' Thin Mints. I can juggle, but I'd never toss cookies, I just have too much respect for the baker's craft.....

BOJ

Sunday, February 19, 2006

 

Zero is a Big Improvement

It's Sunday morning and it's a balmy sixty degrees inside Residence #27. I went down and banged on the furnace, though and it will soon be warm enough to function. I'll also have enough coffee n me to think. And listening to ASO on the mp3 player doesn't hurt any.

I drove to work twice yesterday. Neighbor Tim (who desperately needs a nickname, TIM is taken) had a car that wouldn't start and even with the a little assist from my battery, it remained dead (or at least in a deep slumber) to the world. Tim and I work the same shift and even share some days off, but he works 4 ten hour days as opposed to my more traditional 5 eights. I drove him into work, came home, took a shower, fixed lunch and drove to work again. Luckily, we both end our shifts at the same time. Hardly any incovenience at all.

I was driving into work the second time when I thought about what a nice day we were having. The sun was out, steam was rising off of the roads as moisture evaporated and I wasn't completely freezing. The I realized that as nice as the day was, it was still zero and there was still about 6-8 inches of snow everywhere. Yet, I was quite pleased with the weather. I guess it's all about perspective.

Today the temp is supposed to get into the 20's which will cause me to be the happiest boy on the planet, nearly as happy as I'll be the next time I Waltz with the Kaiser (17, right T1G?). It's already 11 degrees out. The temprature stayed above 60 in #27 all night last night, the landlord dropped off a space heater and my bedroom was quite warm the last couple of nights so it wasn't so much like sleeping in a tent. The NBA and NHL are on breaks making work slow enough to actually learn some stuff instead of being thrown into the fire.

Yep, life is OK.

BOJ

Saturday, February 18, 2006

 

Firsts!

bojtp
It's a fun game, but I don't think it will ever catch on....
It's my first post from Residence #27 people. The Laramie Count Public Library was OK for making updates to this little pointless corner of the 'net, but since I can now post in my underwear (or less - shudder), I should be a little more natural, posting from the comfort of my own home. Below is something I've been working on since I moved here, a list of firsts, written as much so I could remember them all as anything else. Still, I wrote it, so you have to read it. That's the wawy it works, I don't make the rules. As an added bonus, there's a snazy little graphic included, just one more thing I couldn't do at the library, and that I hope to be able to do a lot more of now.

So, without further Apu, an odd collection of firsts from Residence #27.

First Blog Post Written - Technically this one you're reading now, but you won't have seen this until I got my home 'net connection. Until that time I was posting at the Laramie County Public LIbrary conveniently located 0.41 miles from Residence #27. I'm limited to 30 minutes at the stations at the library, so those posts most likely lack the hard-hitting and critical insight you've come to expect from The Globex-Corporation Newsletter. My apologies.....

First Song Listened To - Hello City from Barenaked Ladies' debut album, Gordon. Actually, Gordon is the first thing I listened to after moving into Residences #20 - #27. The only reason I didn't listen to it at earlier residences is that it didn't yet exist before 1991. Hello City is the first track on Gordon and, no, I didn't choose the song because of the title, it's just a really great album.

First Song Played on Guitar - The Brian Wilson by Barenaked Ladies. Also from the album Gordon. Geez, you'd think a theme is developing here. TSA and I played it a lot, and I always liked it, both playing it and hearing it.

First New Song Learned - Diamond by Rapid City's own Abby Someone from the album Nervous Breakthrough. Yup, I already learned a new song. I always liked Diamond, I actually got to play it with three-fifths of ASO one time, doing the opening guitar part on harp. I found the chords for the song on ASO's website and played it a few times, but it went from a C chord to a C minor, something my stupid fingers don't do very well on guitar. I transposed it from the key of G to the key of C, turning that C & Cm into a more finger friendly F & Fm. I capo it to the fifth fret, making it in the key of F which matches my voice a little better as well. I added a little harmonica and voila! Sounds pretty cool, actually.

First Guy I Got to Know at Work - Richard, the security guard who started the same day as I did. Oddly enough, I recognized Richard when I got there. He used to work security at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. I've spent quite a bit of time as the Hard Rock, primarily because it would be really hard for them to get all of their money back from me, but it's only fair to give them the chance. One of the guys from my shift actually lives in the basement level of the building I live in, so I got to know him a little bit too.

First Meal in Cheyenne - Some turkey platter at the Village Inn down on Lincoln Way. Pretty good and it was a special deal where I got a half a slice of pie with it. Actually, the only meals I've ever eaten at a restaurant in Cheyenne were two at Village Inn and two at Arby's.

First Meal Made - It's hard to make meals when you're moving into a new place. My first meal at Residence #27 would have been turkey and american cheese on Wonder bread (not homemade? What was I thinking.....) and some Lay's potato chips. The first meal that required some actual cooking was a box of Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat...) after my first day at work. OK, still not real cooking. How about a cheeseburger on a homemade bagel (see below) and roasted potatoes marinated in basil, oregano and balsamic vinegar? Now that's more like it!

First Bread Baked - Basic Egg Bagels. I love bagels, and I thought it would be nice to have a little bagel sandwich before going to work my first week. I'm truly not a morning person, coffee and a bagel sandwich is about all that kept me going working first shift that first week. The first actual loaf of bread baked was a french loaf that baked during the AFC Championship game.

First Purchase in Cheyenne - A bunch of groceries at the Safeway by the Capitol. I moved a lot of grocery items with me, but I still needed a few things like cooking oil. I thought I'd only pick up a few things, but I ended up spending over $20.

First Mess I Had to Clean Up - A package of large pearl chinese tapioca came open in my box of grocery items that I moved. Somehow, tapioca ended up all over the floor in the kitchen. Actually, not that much ended up on the floor. A worse mess was the second one, I knocked over a whole big mug of coffee while getting ready for work. I kept it off the floor, but it was all over the kitchen countertop. I didn't have any paper towels, so I sopped it up with a towel I had used the previous day to cover the rising bagels.

First Thing I Watched on TV - NFC Divisional Playoff Game, Washington Redskins at Seattle Seahawks. Actually I didn't watch much of the game as it was while my Dad and Nephew were helping me move in. The TV was set up pretty early on, though, because the New England at Denver Game was on later that afternoon. Everything was into the new place by game time.

First Beer - A Coors Light at The Green Door, a titty bar downtown. Oops, I hope my Mom doesn't read this.....

First Stage Performed On - Central Lounge about a mile from my house. A little welcome thing was sent out via email at work with a little stuff about all new employees. Mine mentioned Jeopardy!, music and brewing (no mention of my quest for global domination....). Someone came up to me and asked me about each of those three things. Michelle in the tape library is in a band and told me that Jack in Master Control was playing at Central Lounge on Saturday night of that week. So I joined Jack and his wife Margi on stage for a good portion of the evening. Fun time.

First Band I Went to See - Nite Fire, or something like that, at The Hitchin' Post on Lincoln Way. Your typical classic rock cover band, though the lead guitarist was awfully good. I'd been told by Jack to check them out. They were good, but I probably should have been in bed as it was the first time since the move that I'd been awake past midnight ..... or 1am ...... or 2 am .....

First Thing on My Wall - A picture of me and the Chonger. I'm not a cat person, but me and the Chonger, well, that was sort of a different deal.

First Movie Seen in its Entirety at Work - The Transporter was the first movie I QC'd during my training. It was your basic action/adventure piece of crap, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be.

First Time Staying Late at Work - Ninth day, I needed to ingest Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys into one of the servers. At a little over two hours duration, I knew it wouldn't be done until about 15 minutes after I was supposed to leave. Good movie, though and it undoubtedly qualifies as First Good Movie Seen in its Entirety at Work.

First Game at Work - Charlotte vs. Richmond college basketball. OK, I didn't have any rooting interest, but still entertaining. I can't believe they pay me for this.

First Pay-per-View Event handled at work - WWE: Royal Rumble my first Sunday night. It wasn't that much different than stuff I've handled other places, but I did get to play with a Deko, to make an Encore slate, so that was fun. By the way, Ray Mysterio, former tag-team partner of the late Eddie Guerrerro won the Rumble even though he, along with Triple H, was the first wrestler in the ring. Maybe the finest example of blah, blah, blah.......

First Service Outage I Was Involved In - Something on one of the business channels called Heads Up! Reading. It wasn't my fault, and actually everything looked OK from where I was sitting, it was leaving my position like it was supposed to, but wasn't mapped to the proper channel. Does it turn you on when I talk technically?

First Cool Job Related Perk - Getting to watch the Super Bowl in Hi Def. OK, it's not seeing a T-Wolves/Kings game in the company box at the Target Center, but I'm living in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for Christ's sake..... IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!! Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to watch the Super Bowl in old fashioned NTSC like the rest of you folks. I still got paid to watch it, though, and did little else that day. As an added bonus, I got to see Lingerie Bowl III, available on PPV, but free to operators at large national satellite broadcast operations.

First Actual Cool Job Related Perk - I got a free checking account when I presented my ID at the local branch of a national banking chain. Otherwise it was $100. $100!!!!! They're going to get access to a large percentage of my money when I'm not using it and they wanted to charge me money for that. Unbelievable! Mojo Nixon said it best:

I hate banks, just can't stand 'em
Give me a shovel, man I'll plant 'em
Six feet under is where they belong
I Hate Banks is the name of this song
Think I'll rob myself one or two
I hate banks, well, how 'bout you?


It goes on and on, but I think you get the idea.

First Time Oversleeping - Oops, forgot to set my alarm on my last day of working mornings. I had been getting up at 6:45am to get to work by eight. It was more time than I actually needed, but gave me a chance to have some coffee while watching the morning news and maybe make some breakfast. I got up at 7:07 that day, and still got to work in plenty of time.

First Person I Met Who Look Almost Exactly Like Someone Else - Jason Bott, one of my supervisors, bears an uncanny resemblance to Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies. I met him during the interview process, but he had a full beard then. Now he's trimmed down to a goatee, and looks like a Gordon-era version of the BNL guitarist.

That's it, thanks for reading!

BOJ

Friday, February 17, 2006

 

Hitting Things Works Wonders

Had a little change this morning. Instead of the temperature being 58 degrees when I woke up, it was 56. So it was out in the snow at 9am to find a pay phone to call the landlord. He was actually quite cheerful, came over promptly and even brought a space heater from home.

We then went down to the basement and checked on the furnace. He told me that the gas valves on the furnaces were quite old and they sometime stuck. Taking the cover off the front to make sure the pilot was still lit, he then took the heavy metal cover and banged it on the valve once hard. Bingo! All the burner instanly lit and it was up to 65 degrees in the apartment in about two hours. Lesson learned? If things don't cooperate, just hit them with a heavy metal object. I can't wait for my next run in with HR......

We got more snow overnight. Just a dusting this time, but I don't think the temp has been over 10 since Wednesday morning. All of the snow we've had since then is still on the ground. The fine city fathers seem to think it wastful to actually plow the streets, so the snow that fell on the streets is still on the streets. Nice. At least 6 inches have fallen this week and it's all still on the streets. When I moved to California, I thought the snow-handling abilities of the Subaru were wasted and considered getting rid of it. I didn't and I'm glad. If this is the way they're going to handle things around here then I'm glad I still have the 'Ru.

The cable, phone and internet get hooked up tomorrow between 8am and noon. I'm really looking forward to this. Today I worked on a graphic for my first post from Residence #27. The post is actually already written, but since I've been unable to add grapics from the Laramie County Public Library, I thought it would be nice to have something special from my first post from home. Like all good ideas it came to me in the shower and while it's not the most original thing ever done, I must say it looks quite authentic. I don't want to oversell it, just check it out at your leisure.

And that brings me to The BOJ News Service. Being unable to do graphics has caused that site to go down the tubes. Hopefully I'll be able to update again from home. While I tried to do things from a South Dakota perspective in the past, I'm going to try to be more national now, since I'm no longer a South Dakota resident. Hope you like the new direction. The fun I could have had with the VP shooting a guy while hunting......

Might have company tomorrow, might not. Nobody seems to feel the need to answer my emails. Well, at least I'll be awake early as I wait on the cable guy.

BOJ

Thursday, February 16, 2006

 

Tips on Speeding Up Your Morning Routine

Seems like a little snow fell in our fair city overnight. I was out in it yesterday, probably three or four inches on the ground, I figured that was it. I woke up to even more snow, like four to six more inches of snow on the ground. My car was barely recognizable.

Mind you, on Tuesday it was around 50 degrees, it was gorgeous out. I ran some errands during the day and considered getting a car wash as my vehicle hasn't seen soap and water in quite a while. I'm glad I did't wash it now as it will be a real mess around here when everything melts.

As the snow fell last night I noticed it getting a little chilly in the apartment. By the time I went to bed it was 60 degrees. When I woke up this morning it was 58 degrees. If you want to get motivated in the morning, I suggest that you allow your abode to get down to 58 degrees overnight. You'll rush through your morning routine with no wasted effort. I have never dried myself so quickly and thoroughly after a shower. Furnace problems in the building and it appears that it's being worked on. Hopefully I won't have to go through another night and morning like that one.

The snow may put a damper on my weekend company. With two days to the weekend, you'd think that they'd get some of the snow off of the highways. I you think that, you've never been to Lusk, Wyoming. It's pretty remote between Rapid City and Cheyenne. You're not in the exact center of nowhere, but you can see it with a stepladder.

My guess is that all of this snow will be gone in no time. The sun is shining right now and it's warmed up pretty nicely. If Cheyenne is anything like the RC this snow will be nothing but a muddy memory by the middle of next week.

BOJ

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

 

An Ewink Shout Out!

Folks, I know I always tell you that you shouldn't be reading this crap, but heck, you can read whatever you want. I do suggest you check out Ewink's Blog, though.

Ewink and I worked together many years ago for a little outfit called USSB. I have a lot of USSB t-shirts and crap that I usually wear when I'm rooting for the Montreal Expos and the Baltimore Colts. Yep, USSB don't exist any more.

Ewink moved on while I was still working there, after a couple of moves ended up as a news photog in his hometown. Now he's doing the same job in Vegas. I read his blog all the time, not just because I know the guy, but because he gets to see Vegas in a fashion that the rest of us never get to. Fascinating stuff. Check it out!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

 

Inconvenience Stores Abound in Wyoming

Now I've gone and done it, I went and got a Wyoming driver's license. OK, it wasn't really out of any desire to be in full compliance with the law, or wanting The Cowboy State to have a few more of my hard earned dollars, no it's because my current driver's license (not an SD, by the way)experies in 11 days. Having dealt with California DMV in the past, the 5 minute wait to get a license was no hardship. The examiner I dealt with was even born in Long Beach, CA, so her and I had lots and lots to talk about. She grew up in Belmont Shore which was blocks away from Residences #24 & #23 in the LBC. I knew the location of her high school and the hospital she was born in, but she stumped me with a reference to the Colorado Lagoon. Anyone know what she was talking about? Is that some pre-breakwater body of water that I wouldn't know about?

Also paid of my traffic ticket (more money for The Cowboy State). The officer realized that he had put the wrong date on the ticket and had attached an addendum to the original. I had to empty my pockets to go upstairs to pay the ticket. That, of course, required me to remove and explain the harmonica that I always have with me. In a traffic stop is was once mistaken for a possible firearm. Fun stuff.

Also checked out neighbor Tim's favorite liquor store and bought so Jaegermeister which was on sale for Valentine's Day. No, I have no Valentines plans for the nectar, The Kaiser shall remain in a non-dancing mode this evening unless I meet some willing young thing here at the library. A quick glance around shows no real prospects.

If you want my real thoughts on this day, check the archives for last year's Valentines post. The title of that post brought about one of the biggest traffic days in Globex Corporation Newsletter history. It's all true folks, and I'd have probably just reposted it if I had 'net service at Residence #27.

Time to head home and enjoy some of the Shiner Bocks I bought at the liquor store, by the way, you can only buy booze at liquor stores here. No stopping by the Loaf -n- Jug or picking up a six with the groceries. No liquor stores in my neighborhood either. Convenice stores without beer? How inconvenient!

BOJ

Monday, February 13, 2006

 

Nerdiness Update

So I made some hash brown potatoes to go with my polish sausage today, did dishes and realized that I had a little bit of time before I had to go to work. I decided to walk down to the library and check the old email. I had my GPS in the apartment and decided to take it along to see just how far a walk it is. So, at the risk of being ridiculouysly exact, it's 0.54 miles to the library from my place and took me 10:48 of actual moving time with an additional 1:08 of stopped time (I had to wait for the light to change to cross Pershing and I also had to stop to tie my shoe). Ain't technology wonderful?!? As an added bonus, I get to tell the whole world how far I live from a library and how long it takes for me to walk there.

My weekend is coming up. Working in the broadcast business gives you the opportunity to be much more excited about a Tuesday or Wednesday than the general population. Nothing really big planned. I probably pick up some groceries and pay some bills. I'll have the distinct pleasure of paying off my traffic citation. I about got another one yesterday as I drove the wrong way down a one way street for a couple of blocks before I realized what I was doing. It's Cheyenne, nobody was coming the other way!

Gotta finish checking the email. I am looking forward to being able to do this a little easier. Saturday isn't too far away......

BOJ

Sunday, February 12, 2006

 

Six Days to 'Net Service!

Boy oh boy do I have to clean out the spare bedroom. It also sounds like I've got company coming this weekend. Hope I can find something to do with them!

I know I promise this all the time, but once I get my 'net service, I'll be that daily posting demon that I was back in, say, November. Until then, read some of the old stuff. I really like the one about the Lucky Underwear.....

BOJ

Friday, February 10, 2006

 

More to Come Soon!

Internet service at Residence #27 gets set up next Saturday. This is the longest I've gone without my own service since 1999, and it's driving me crazy! It's a nice walk down to the library though (at least when there's not snow on the ground) so I'll probably make a post or two from here in the meantime. Thanks for reading!

BOJ

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

 

Observations

OK, it's been 3+ weeks in the Cowboy State (yes Ed, that means lots of hats.....) and I figured it was about time to make a real post. Just some observations about the city of Cheyenne and what I think about it.

The first thing I noticed was the elevation, particularly while moving stuff into my second floor apartment. We're at a little over 6000 feet here and I really noticed it in a cardiovascular sense. I'm pretty acclimated now. I noticed other things about the elevation as well. Notably, any sealed container that I brought with me was bulging pretty noticably. Shampoo, hair gel, coffee, you name it. If I sealed it in the RC, the pressure change was noticable even before I opened it here. Bread making has also been an exercise in Bernulli physics. It doesn't take quite as much yeast to make bread rise here. I've gotta keep that in mind everytime I make a loaf of bread here. No disasters yet, but some pretty big loaves.

Cheyenne's a pretty cool town, it was obviously bigger and more important than the RC in frontier times. One word, railroad. You can tell there was money here, Cheyenne was probably the last big city before the railroads entered the Rocky Mountains. That Denver ever got as big as it did is amazing to me, you can't run railroads west from there, only north and south.

Nobody here can drive. Having lived in Southern California, I've seen all different sorts of drivers. Here, the traffic laws seem to be mere suggestions, posted speed limits aren't taken too seriously. Still, I managed to pick up a traffic citation already for running a stop sign. Never mind that I've seen people do that repeatedly on my block. My guess is that they really like the SD plates on my car. That and I was stupid enough to do it right in front of a cop on Super Bowl Sunday. I did it, I'm not complaining about that. The cops here all speed too. And I saw one jaywalk in front of me downtown.

Cheyenne is home to about 50,000 people. There really isn't anything close, though, and it has a much smaller feel. I'm not saying that's bad. I like the feel here, everyone seems to be pretty friendly and I'm really enjoying myself. I haven't been out too much, but the two times I've been to bars people have been extremely friendly.

The job is interesting. I spend most of my time watching sports, which amazes me because it's more than likely what I'd be doing if I had cable at home. But people pay me to watch sports, and I'm not too proud to take the money. I watched a Phoenix vs. Minnesota hockey game the other night and thought about TSA as I think he told me that those were his favorite teams. I've never watched a lot of hockey, so getting used to the format is a little different for me.

I find myself getting into trouble because I make assumptions about the way my current company does some technical things and the way previous employers did. Trouble probably isn't the right word, I always ask if something is done the way I assume it is. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. I just have to remind myself that I don't know everything.

I live in a nice and quiet neighborhood. A guy from my shift at work lives in the basement of the building I live in. Nice guy and we share a couple of days off.

The aircraft I see here are different than the ones I'm used to seeing. The airport is small, as most people drive to Denver to fly anywhere. The air force base doesn't have a runway as they are soley a missle base. The air national guard flys C-130 transport aircraft, not B-1's so that's been a little bit of an adjustment. The C-130 is one of my favorite airframes, though so it's been fun to watch them fly. I know that doesn't interest anyone but my dad, but this is supposed to be about my observations.

Finding net access in this town is different than finding it in the RC. I'm at the library right now. I like there system, but I'd really like a cup of tea right now.

Thanks to all who have checked in. I'll try to have more regular updates in the future.

BOJ

Monday, February 06, 2006

 
I finally found a place for free web access! I'm in the Laramie County Public Library just a few blocks from Residence #27, so this shouldn[t be too much of a hardship for me to get here. I won't get here every day, but what the heck, I'll be able to post occasionally.

I've written a few blogs at home, just waiting to get web access there so I can post them. We'll see what the future brings.

BOJ

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