Posts

Posted on

association

It's a formal theory.
Last night, as I was driving around completing various tasks for a planned April Fools Day joke – I hit that magic triple-point of music listening. For a song, or music in general, to reach 100% of its impact potential – there are three external factors that need to be considered. Environment, mood, and activity. These three plus the music itself are the cornerstone for my theory.

When these three planets align and the right soundtrack is in the background, all is right in the world. The air seems cleaner and for a moment and you’re right where you’re supposed to be, without another thought in the world. I’ll sometimes get those brief moments of complete clarity and complacency, and they make such an impression that I can often remember them for all four defining factors.

Driving to Anthony’s as the sun goes down, crossing over the American River on the old Rainbow Bridge. Windows down and Iron & Wine cranked to 24 on the stereo. Confident and happy from a particularly productive day at work. Sam Beam’s hushed minimal folk recalling days when this really was a gold rush town.

1st Halloween in my new house, carving and painting styrofoam tombstones in my garage in the cool twilight. Enjoying myself beyond measure while the Strokes’ “Room on Fire” plays on the jambox in the background and Sharaun cooks dinner inside.

Sitting on a curb in 7th grade. Watching Kyle talk to Robin across the street, he’s asking her if she likes me. It’s the dead of summer in Florida, hot and humid – but I couldn’t be more comfortable sitting sweaty on this concrete. Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy” is on the walkman, Over the Hills and Far Away to be exact. She likes me, and my brain takes this Polaroid.

June in Yosemite. Driving the windy roads from the valley over to the Mariposa grove. Sharaun’s sister and Melissa are here to visit. Windows are down and clean Sierra air fills the cab while Death Cab for Cutie’s “The Photo Album.” The sun is out and I’m the only car on this wooded road. We all sing along.

OK, that’s really all I’ve got today. In a web-roundup, Wes sent me this link from today’s headlines. Pretty graphic pictures, but makes me wonder where some people get so disassociated with the reality of death. I mean, poking burnt corpses with shovels and hanging them from bridges? Where does that come from? It must be such a different daily reality over there. Oh, and BTK is back.

Dave out.

Posted on

guitars and falsetto voices

Throw 'em up! Throw 'em up ya'll! What what. When I say ho you say ho... ugh...
Gonna be a short one, no time to write last night so I’m cobbling something together now. Things are at ludicrous speed in preparation for my Taiwan trip next week, I’ve got to generate a lot of material for the trip, and it ain’t gonna happen unless I keep a pretty tight schedule.

In the throes of our refi, dealing with appraisers and brokers and whatnot. Conversing with neighbors about the seemingly too-good-to-be-true appreciation rates, it’s all so grown-up. Mowing lawns and planting trees and cleaning, I’ve become suburban Joe America. If I end up cooking burgers on the grill in the backyard while the kids and dog play in the sprinklers, my conversion to a 50’s sitcom stereotype will finally be complete.

Man was I wrong about the show last night. For some reason, I thought we were going to see N.E.R.D open for the Roots. Turns out the Roots weren’t even playing – I still have no idea where I got that from. Not only that, N.E.R.D. was the headliner, and the Black Eyed Peas opened for them. My first rap concert. Clipse opened the entire show, playing some of the radio staple “drink alcohol, smoke marijuana, spend and make lots of money, and be sure to have lots of sex all the time” tunes I expect from rap. But the BEP and N.E.R.D. were different, each with a real backing band and the stage presence so sorely absent from the Clipse entourage. The tone of the show changed from “look at me rap I’m so rich and I just had sex with your girlfriend,” to “we’re here to entertain you and have a good time.” Anyway, above all – it was still a rap show, and I am still not that big a fan of rap. N.E.R.D. is more rock than anything, and both they and the BEP were entertaining enough. But for some reason I just can get into them like I can a bunch of nerdy dudes with guitars and falsetto voices. Go figure.

We didn’t end up getting home until around 2:30am, which means Sharaun got only 2hrs sleep before waking up for work. I wonder if we consciously hold our pee while we sleep? Dave out.

Posted on

the first green thing

It's OK to be scared.
I found this site to be absolutely amazing. It contains a pictorial play-by-play from a young Ukrainian woman’s motorcycle ride through the irradiated areas surrounding Chernobyl. She has some kind of clearance in order to get to the areas in the photos, and carries a small radiation meter with her. Even though the English isn’t perfect, you can tell this woman writes well. Such a sad story, and even today the details aren’t fully known. The Soviet Union was too proud to let the world know how bad things were. Anyway, check out the site, the last few pages at the kindergarten are almost too much. Poor people. As usual, the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia has an excellent entry on the Chernobyl disaster, and some links near the bottom to more pictures from the 4000sq. mi. “dead zone.”

Every time I drive by large office buildings at night, I always try to glance in the ever-lit windows. Something is fascinating about looking into an empty office building that’s still lit like it’s the working hours. Every time I do catch myself staring through the night into a lit and empty cubicles, I find myself looking for two people doing it on a desk. No really – I look because one day, I will catch two late-night employees getting some office-booty on the boss’ desk. Just like if I always look at closed garage doors with lit garages inside, I’ll eventually witness a stabbing-in-silhouette. If I keep my nighttime office-window and garage door vigil, I know one day I’ll see a clandestine affair or Rear Window murder.

Friday night Sharaun and I decided not to answer the phone, and to have a night to ourselves. It was great. Not that our phone rings off the hook or that we’re ever the social butterflies, but it is nice to just ignore the world and enjoy one and other for a little. We cooked a pizza and headed out to catch the remake of Dawn of the Dead. The movie was cool, good campy horror – albeit a little overly blood-soaked. Even though you could basically take the plot of Maximum Overdrive, replace the machines-gone-wrong with the rabid zombies of 28 Days Later, and you’d have this flick. Not saying it’s bad, just tried and true horror. And I’m serious about the Maximum Overdrive thing too – there’s an unlikely armory, a quest through sewers, and a last-ditch flight to an island.

Our trip to the movies on a Friday night really made me feel really old. If you don’t know, the movie theater on a Friday night is like the sole oasis in the teenybopper desert. The place was simply crawling with 15 year old girls with bare midriffs, doggedly pursued and ogled by pants-saggin’, crooked-ballcapped boys. It becomes instantly evident that none of these kids are here for movies. This is simply a convenient place for the teen masses to come together to talk, flirt, and hold “look at me” contests.

Am I really that old? I mean, I found myself walking by large herds of these giggly, too-cool-for-everything teens and just resenting them for being there. I had to physically restrain myself from wagging my index finger at the young whippersnappers as I passed. Ugh. Has it really come to this? Honestly though, during the movie we sat in the midst of these punks. They talk, answer phone calls, run up and down the aisles, talk back to the movie, and totally make me want to throttle them. Lord, I know I was exactly like these kids; I know it. No wonder old people hate teenagers, they ask for it. Yeah, so I’m exaggerating – but not by much. If there is such a thing as karma though, teenagers will wreak massive amounts of havoc on me, because I’m cosmically owed it.

Moving on, the rest of the weekend was good. Saturday we helped move Melissa into her new place as Anthony’s roommate. It was OK, except for the part where Anthony left my cellphone on the back of the truck, causing it to fall out in transit and be run over by multiple cars. Some kind person driving next to us informed us of the cell phone incident, and we pulled over to pick up the pieces. Surprisingly, the thing still works – so I was able to transfer off all my data. Now all that’s left is to get a new phone and upload my data and SIM card, and I’ll be back running.

Sunday I spent working around the house. I planted this beautiful Japanese maple that Pat gave me. Pat and Cynthia recently joined the new homeowners club, and this potted tree was a holdover from the previous owner. They decided they didn’t want the tree, which due to it’s health and size is likely worth several hundred dollars, and they donated it to my barren backyard. It’s the first green thing in my backyard that’s intentionally growing, and it looks great. I also mowed my lawn with Anthony’s lawnmower. I had to use Anthony’s lawnmower because I snapped the fastening nut on the blade of mine while trying to remove the dull blade. So, off to the repair shop goes the mower. On another note, I’ve decided to just throw money away for a while. Who needs it?

Tonight Sharaun gets paybacks for all the crappy shows I’ve dragged her to by making me accompany her to see N.E.R.D. and the Roots in San Fran. I’m not too terribly excited, but I am interested to see what a “hip hop” concert is like compared to the indie freak fests I’m used to. Hopefully we won’t get shot.

Dave out.

Posted on

humping invisible sticks

You are standing in an open feild west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here.
I love Zork. I even once started making my own text adventure game using the wonderful and free TADS system. I got one brilliant room finished before I lost interest. I’d like to try again one day, yeah. If you’ve never played Zork before, you are not a true computer nerd. This online Java version even supports saving and loading of game states so you can play anywhere and take your progress with you. Beware though, you can get addicted pretty quick.

Today I am not at work, I’m at home and it’s awesome. I took a vacation day since the drywall guy was coming out to do some repair work for my home warranty. Turns out he was a really nice guy, and took pity on me when I showed him my poorly-repaired laundry room ceiling. You know, where Wes put his foot through? Anyway, in addition to fixing the warranty items he came out for, he fixed the laundry room ceiling for $40 cash. Beats the $150 minimum charge that most drywall guys charge. And now he’s gone and I have the rest of the day to myself. I told myself last night that I would use some of this time to get some cleaning done around the house, but that hasn’t happened yet.

I migrated Sharaun’s PC to the freeware program last night, and moved my own one step closer by swapping a hacked Norton AntiVirus for the free AVG. No more stealin’. Oh, except for mp3s? I will “steal” those forever. Right now I download on average about 7 gigs a month of mp3, they have their own external 120GB drive to live on. Granted some gets tossed out once I learn it’s crap – but I keep the majority of it. Sometimes I download stuff I know I won’t like, just because there’s so much bustle about it online.

For instance, in general I’m not a hip-hop fan at all. Now, I do make the occasional exception – I loved Jay Z’s Black Album and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, for instance. But for the most part I pass on the hip and the hop. (Oh, and don’t bother with the Grey Album folks – it’s mostly hype). But when I saw Pitchfork give Madvillain’s new album the uber-rare 9+ rating and call it “inexhaustibly brilliant” while daring me to find “a better hip-hop album this year,” I had to try it out. So, I grabbed it (no, I don’t use P2P and I’m not a’scared of the RIAA, get on the NNTP train people). Surprisingly, I like it. The beats are intricate and the Carlinesque 7-words style filth that so dominates mainstream rap and hip-hop is completely, and thankfully, missing. Granted, it’s chock full of marijuana imagery? but what undie hip hop isn’t? Imagine, songs with beats and rhymes not about “humping invisible sticks” and “sweat dripping down balls.” This album reminds me of the stuff we’d pick up after reading about it in the back of High Times, you know – the purple-haze-days of Dr. Octagon and Y’all So Stupid. What?! Rap sucks.

The weekend calls me away, I’m out.

Posted on

nowarez

Free speech, free everything.
I’m so glad I’m not dating. Maybe it’s not the case for everyone, but for me I think being single would suck. I have absolutely no desire to get out and trawl the singles crowd for dates. Going out, spending money, pretending to have a good time with a bunch of jackasses just to get in good with a woman. Forget it. Walking on eggshells for the first few months not knowing what’s acceptable and what’s not, basically being someone who you aren’t until you’re comfortable enough to be yourself. At least, that’s how it looks from the outside. I never want to have to deal with that crap again. It all seems so forced and awkward. I get to come home every night to someone who knows me better than anyone, and knows all my faults already. No surprises, no having to “show out” to make an impression, no having to feign interest in boring stories. So yeah I’m not going home in a drunken haze each night, sleeping with a different hot chick who I met at the club… but that sits just fine with me. I’d rather go home each night, work around the house – maybe pay some bills or watch a movie with the wife. Oh man… I’m old.

I went to Sams Club at lunch and bought eight pairs of shorts. That’s right, eight pairs. Four of one variety, four of another. I don’t get too fancy with my fashion – so let’s just say I got four of the “jean” variety and four of the “cargo” variety, that’s about as much differentiation as my mind makes. Why buy so many, you ask? Because they were a ridiculously made-in-Honduras-by-bleeding-fingered-children $10 a pair. And, I hate shopping. Seriously. For each leg-covering item of clothing I own, I memorize the one or two brands on God’s earth that actually fit me. When I see that brand in my size, I buy out the store. That way, I have plenty to wear during summer laundry droughts – and I won’t have to buy shorts again for at least a year.

Sharaun can’t understand how I can go to one store, try on a pair of pants that fits, buy five of them and leave. Where’s the fun in that? I mean, ideally I should spend time at tens of different stores, trying on something different in each one in search of the elusive magic pair. You can have that gig, I’m all about finding something that works and sticking with it. Then again, for years I thought my dad’s work required him to wear a uniform consisting of a light blue shirt and dark blue pants. ‘Round high school I discovered that he could actually wear anything he wanted to work – but he only had light blue shirts and dark blue pants. So while I’m all for the Fordization of my wardrobe, I don’t really wanna be like a cartoon character and wear the same outfit every day of my life. No offense pops, you know I loves ya.

Nerds, I’m about to talk right to ya. Non-nerds, I’m sorry.

I finally kicked off “project freeware” on my home PC. I’ve decided I don’t want to pirate software anymore. However, being as I’m not rich yet – I can’t just go around paying for all the unpaid-for warez I’ve become dependant on. So what to do? For a long time, I thought the ideal situation would be to move entirely to Linux. However, after several failed attempts – I gave up on Linux. When I can’t figure out how to set the screen resolution without going into X-Windows and doing some 1337 root magic, it’s just not ready to be my main OS. Also, I decided a long time ago that I like Windows XP a lot. I like it so much I’d even be willing to pay for it. So, I decided I’d buy Windows XP and be legal there – but I still needed to address the applications.

Easy, I decided I’d run a legal OS, and use only freeware applications. At first I thought it’d be impossible – but I soon realized that there are some really robust and awesome, not to mention completely free, alternatives to nearly all the major applications I use. Turns out that I don’t even care what program I’m using – as long as it gets the job done. Whatever brand loyalty I’ve developed with certain pieces of software is easily thrown out the window when I find a free alternative. So, I sat down and uninstalled everything I could find a freeware alternative to.

My keygen’d WinZip and WinRAR fell victim to ZipGenius. A patched version of Homesite was replaced by the freeware HTML editor 1stPage. A cracked copy of the NNTP newsreader Newsbin was replaced by the much better GrabIt. Keygen’d image viewer ACDSee was trumped by the just-as-good SlowView. And the shocker, the bootleg version of Adobe’s excellent $600 Photoshop was replaced with the completely free and totally rad GIMP. I know, I didn’t think I could ever get rid of Photoshop – but after downloading the GIMP2.0 and mucking around for 5min I was able to create just as good of a manipulated image as I could’ve done with PS. Oh, and Diskeeper and Magic File Renamer were replaced by a 7-line VB script and Rename Master, respectively.

Yes, there are still some apps that I just can’t let go yet – mainly because I can’t find a good enough freeware alternative to them. But, I was seriously surprised that after replacing everything I could – I was left with only three… apps that I couldn’t or wouldn’t find freeware alternatives to.

#1: Microsoft Office XP. Yes, I’ve got OpenOffice installed and it’s simply amazing. It does everything MS Office can do, and has 100% compatibility with MS Office files. The only reason I haven’t uninstalled MS Office and gone over to OpenOffice – MS Access. There is no comparable database application for OpenOffice. All my websites are designed with MS Access and use JetSQL – I have to have Access. Don’t give me any crap about using MySQL under OpenOffice’s datasource windows… I’ve tried that route and it just doesn’t work as well as Access. Plus, I’d have to rewrite all my pages from the ground up. Cool thing is, we have a program through work where I can score Office XP Pro for $15. Ideally, I’d like to move away from MS Office and go to OpenOffice… but not until they get some Access-like functionality.

#2: Nero Burning ROM. There are some pretty sharp looking freeware burning apps out there, DeepBurner and CDBurnerXP Pro for example. However, neither of them work with my DVD burner – and neither have the integrated (S)VCD tools that Nero does. I know, I could do all the needed VCD work with other freeware apps and create an ISO for one of the above freeware apps, but having Nero do all the conversion and TOC setup for DVDs and VCDs is just so nice. I think, if one of the better freeware burning apps becomes compatible with my burner – I will go ahead and uninstall Nero. It’s worth the couple of extra steps to create a DVD/VCD to have one less piece of pirated software on my machine. CDBurnerXP Pro looks the best to me – but until they support the Pioneer 104 DVD-R/W drive… I gotta have Nero.

#3: Norton Antivirus…. Number three really doesn’t count, since there are some alternatives – I just haven’t acted on one yet. I’ve seen AVG Free Edition, which boasts free downloadable reference-file updates, e-mail scanning, drive scanning, and automatic updating. I’m extremely tempted to try out AVG, but afraid that it won’t be updated quickly enough or something – and I’ll be infected with something nasty. However, all the feedback I’ve read says the program works great. People praise it for protecting their PCs for months with autoupdates and e-mail scanning. I think NAV will be the next major removal in my quest toward 100% freeware – and AVG will be its replacement. We also get McAffee free for home use through work – so I really have no excuse here.

#4: Norton Ghost. Here’s a tough one. I use Ghost to make regular backups of my hard drive. I’ve searched, but it seems there are no freeware alternatives to Ghost. There are “cheapware” apps like Acronis True Image, which is supposed to be excellent and only costs $50 – but nothing completely free as far as I can tell.

So, the freeware conversions is nearly complete. I think I can go 100% legal on the PC in no time at all. Just to give full credit where credit is due, there are plenty of other freeware apps I use religiously that I didn’t mention above because they weren’t specifically replacing anything in the big conversion of Wednesday night. For audio ripping I use CDEx. For a little browser privacy I use IE Privacy Keeper. To block pop-ups I use the Google Toolbar. For spyware removal I use AdAware and Spybot. For text editing I use Editpad Lite. For FTP I use WSFTP LE. For batch image resizing I use PicSizer. I listen to all my mp3s in Winamp. For MSN chat encryption I use Simp Lite. I have a hardware firewall, but if I didn’t I’d be using ZoneAlarm. And while it’s not really a freeware/payware situation – I use the K-Lite alternatives to Quicktime and RealPlayer, since those two apps are so bloated and system-domination bent. I also use the excellent K-Lite Codec Pack to make sure I have all the relevant codecs required of an active computer nerd.

No more warez? I must be growing up. Dave out.

Posted on

please don’t add me to the axis

Flotsam?
With a brother in the Army, I think sometimes about those guys. I got curious about how much the government pays its dogs of war, and come to find out that’s all public information. You can find out what any military employee makes as long as you know their rank and years of service. Turns out that the low-man on the totem pole doesn’t make that much. This page says an E3 with less than two years time only grosses about $1500/mo, with a variable housing allowance depending on where you’re stationed. Of course, if you’re fighting overseas or away from family you get a little more for hazard and hardship – but I bet it’s still slim. I figure the majority of the “soldiers” actually stalking around the desert and shooting people would be Ex ranks. Only the brass make the bucks it seems. While it’s not my job of choice, I’m damn glad there are people willing to do it. Just like I’m glad there are people that want to fix cars for a living, or teach mentally handicapped kids or unplug toilets. All things I could not, or would rather not, do – but all necessary. Army – I’m not trying to compare you auto mechanics or the mentally handicapped, just using a bit o’ parallelism to make a point. Please don’t add me to the Axis of Evil.

Sharaun’s been so stressed lately with her class. It’s apparently school-wide knowledge that she’s got the absolute worst bunch of kids. She said she’ll take her kids to another room for Spanish or computers, and when she comes to pick them up the resource teacher just hugs her and whispers, “You’ve only got three more months.” A couple of her bad apples are constantly getting suspended, and not just for cutesy elementary school things. They’ve got fistfights, sexual harassment, public urination, grand theft, and a laundry list of other offenses.

She’s got good kids, but I can see how it would only take a few kids to make the whole situation a complete nightmare. What’s worse is the parents who actually complain when their kids are sent to the principal. It’s never the child’s fault. It’s either racism, singling out or harassing a child for no reason, or not giving them enough focused instruction. Anyone’s fault but the kids, or God forbid – the parents. In the same day, parents will come to the school to bitch at the administrators for “depriving” their child of classroom time by sending them to the principal for peeing on the playground, and won’t show up for meeting scheduled months in advance to discuss that child’s possible learning disability and behavioral problems.

Being a teacher must be extremely hard. I would imagine that in some ways it might be like being a nurse or doctor, where you have to learn to not take things personally. In those kind of jobs, you’re the catalyst that defines another person’s outcome. Nurses and doctors are in the driver’s seat with peoples’ health and lives, and teachers are responsible for the academic development of young minds. I realize that neither the nurse, doctor, nor teacher is really 100% accountable for the outcomes of others – but that must be a hard thing to keep in mind when you’re actually working those jobs. At least, I know Sharaun has a hard time with it. No matter how much you try, it must be hard to not question yourself when your class performs poorly on something.

These last few weeks for her have been hard, with open house, report cards, and her formal evaluation – all in the same week. A formal evaluation is when the principal comes in and watches you do a lesson plan with the kids. They take notes on all sorts of criteria and schedule a review meeting a few days later to discuss the results. I’m writing this, these past three paragraphs, and I’m realizing I really only wanted to say one thing: Sharaun’s review meeting for her evaluation went great. For the third quarter in a row, the administration had nothing in the way of negative feedback for her. Her review lasted a mere 10min compared to others which lasted over an hour. She gets nothing but positive feedback, which is like a shot in the arm to her. I love to see it when she’s been reinforced like that, her whole perspective changes a little and you can tell that some of that “burden of accountability” for her dumbass kids is lifted.

I’m glad I’m not a teacher. I’d have a hard time not simply discounting (or throttling) the flotsam and jetsam kids of the educational ocean. Props to teachers. And car mechanics and soldiers and plumbers. Thanks.

I dunno guys, I think that’s enough for today. Dave out.

Posted on

rock renaissance

Cool at 12. Even cooler at 70.
$1700. That how much damage a stupid dump truck spilling gravel can do to your car. I mean, I’m sure it could be worse than that – but that’s how much damage a stupid dump truck spilling gravel did to our car. A while back though, I got smart and lowered our deductible to $250 for comprehensive – it used to be $500. It only raised the rate by a buck a month to do it, and it’s way worth it. $250 is not a break-me unexpected out-of-pocket expense, but $500 is a lot closer to that break-me limit. So, now we drop $250 on the stupid deductible. Not only that, my brother called today asking for money… again. Last year we sent him about $1200 that we’ll never see again, and this year Sharaun told me no more. He only wanted $100, which to me isn’t even worth the wire fee to get it to him. Wes suggested I tell him to check out one of those Check-and-Go paycheck advance places, I think I’ll do that. Money sucks sometimes.

I’ve been experiencing somewhat of a classic rock renaissance lately, pulling out all the music that taught me to love music. Right now I’m listening to Sgt. Pepper, perhaps the best album ever made – certainly the most influential and probably the most important. I can remember the first time I heard it, on the way to the Merritt Island Mall one summer night. Middle school was all about going to the mall for no reason. We would walk around, go into stores and not buy anything, stop at the arcade and maybe play a game or two, and get a slice of pizza from Sbarro and a smoothie from Nature’s Table. It was all about just “being there,” making the rounds, talking to the other cool kids who had perfected the art of loitering. Yeah, so sometimes we’d cash in our dollars for rolls of pennies to throw at old people, but that was a rarity.

Anyway, Kyle’s mom was driving Kyle, Kyle’s sister, and myself to the mall. I was madly in love with Kyle’s sister (well, as “in love” as a guy can be in the 7th grade). The song “It’s Getting Better” was on, and I remember thinking it was the best thing I’d ever heard. Combined with a feeling of 7th grade puppy love and a burgeoning sense of teenage independence, Sgt. Pepper was the perfect soundtrack. I had the album on vinyl, and would often put it on the stereo in my room at top volume. I’d open all the windows, lay down on the floor in the middle of all four speakers for the best stereophonic effect, and fall asleep in the sun. How could things get any better? For a few years there, my life was wholly consumed by music and girls – no debt, no job, no responsibilities. Bow my head slightly, tap my fist twice against my chest and raise a peace sign to the sky – that’s for you middle school.

To the present day, the weather is once again awesome today. I’ve heard tell that it may rain this weekend – but I can’t believe it when it’s so nice out. Honestly, it’s hazardous to go out for lunch – just getting out in the sun and seeing the sky propels my “I wanna go back to work” stores to critical levels. What, I’ve said that same thing nearly every day for a week now? Damn. Hoping that my upcoming trip to Taiwan and day off this Friday will help balance out that feeling a bit. Speaking of Taiwan, looks like I’ll be there for just over a week this time. I’m excited, since several people I know will be in town around the same time – and since I always like to travel. I only hope that I can make the most out of the trip, maybe see something I’ve not seen before. Plus, one more trip and I’ll just about have enough flyer miles for a free ticket to Europe.

I have more, but my fingers just aren’t willing. Dave out.