Wednesday has come and past, so I’m late with Are you more…

01) Someone who would prefer to shop at a flea market or someone who would prefer to shop at garage sales?
Flea market. Everything is in one place. You don’t have to go from place to place like when you are garage shopping.

02) A person who will swear in front of the opposite sex or a person who will always try to refrain from swearing in front of the opposite sex?
I try to refrain from swearing at all, but sometimes you gotta drop the f-bomb!

03) A quiet giggler if you can contain it or an out loud laugher because you don’t want to contain it?
Out loud laugher. If it’s funny, share it!

04) Chips with spices on them from the factory or plain chips with a yummy dip?
Plain chips and yummy dip — ESPECIALLY Judy’s homemade salsa!!

05) A fan of older martial arts films or a fan of newer martial arts films?
Depends upon how well they are done. Some look so fake that even I can tell they are fake. If they are well done, they are timeless.

06) An agent of change or an agent of calm?
I’d like to think I’m an agent of calm.

07) Thinking that summer blockbuster movies have gone downhill in the past 10-15 years or thinking that summer blockbuster movies are as good nowadays as 10-15 years ago?
Downhill. Mainly because movies that come out just before Christmas have a better chance at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.

08) One who gets their hair cut at regular, predictable intervals or one who gets their hair cut when they or someone else finally notices that it’s too long?
When I notice it’s too long for my own good. Of course, it’s my neck hair that’s the indicator – with the chrome dome I got my hair on top NEVER gets too long!!

09) Welcoming of the idea of global acknowledgement and acceptance of ET contact or fearful of the idea of global acknowledgement and acceptance of ET contact?
Welcoming. Hey, we can’t be alone in the universe – it would be too much of a coincidence.

10) Wishing you could see the ruins of ancient Greece or wishing you could see the Great Pyramid of Egypt?
The ruins of ancient Greece – they are closer to the beach!

That’s right. KC’s in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with our church group on a mission to help out with the Habitat for Humanity. They are rebuilding homes there and generally lending a hand wherever needed. So you’d think that if she’s down there that I’d be at the bar each night partying… WRONG! This weekend was long days of COLD. I pretty much hibernated in the house here.

I have a self-appointed task of repainting my shower. You see, I have a shower stall with a cement floor, a concrete block on one wall and waterproof drywall on the other two sides. Every few years I have to repaint it. I use True Value’s Floor and Porch paint to do this – it’s even used in locker rooms, so I know it’s good stuff. I’m going with light grey this time. The final coat goes on tomorrow night and then I have to paint “trim”. The shower stall has exposed pipes and I am painting them gold to look like brass pipes.

I also have set up an intranet web server on my home network. My goal is to develop themes and plugins for WordPress. No, I won’t be telling what themes or plugins I’m working on, but it will take time away from blogging. Although, I should get back in to the swing of things this week.

Today’s weather is quite a mess. We’ve got snow, we’ve got ice, we’ve got rain, we’ve got thunder and we’ve got lightening. Oh well, as the saying goes, if you don’t like Iowa’s weather just wait an hour.

Seems like the only meme I’m doing any more is Are you more…

01) One who thinks aging makes one look distinguished or one who thinks aging makes one look just plain old?
Up to a point, it makes one look distinguished. That “point” is different with everyone, but once you get past that point you just look old.

02) A tabloid multi-issue celeb story follower (Brangelina, for example) or a person who thinks there’s nothing stupider at the checkout line at the supermarket than that?
I agree with Burt Reynold’s quote: “People magazine is for those who like the National Enquirer but can’t read.” There are things stupider that tabloid stories, but it’s a short list.

03) Someone who likes English the way it is or someone who would prefer it if English were spelled foe-neh-tik-lee?
At this stage in my life, English is OK the way it is.

04) A full night’s sleep sleeper or a grab as many hours as I can sleeper?
I used to be a full night’s sleep sleeper, but as I get older it’s pretty much grab as many hours as I can.

05) Thinking you have some (even only slight) psychic abilities or thinking you have absolutely no psychic abilities?
I have no psychic abilities. None whatsoever. If I did, wouldn’t I be a millionaire?

06) A lover of chicken dishes at a chinese restaurant or a lover of noodle dishes at a chinese restaurant?
Bring on the poultry!! Honey chicken, almond chicken, garlic chicken, General Tsao’s chicken, sesame chicken, sweet and sour chicken, the list goes on and on!!!

07) Loving this year’s American Idol or sick to death of the whole American Idol thing?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… American Idol is The Gong Show done with a serious slant. Neither one was heavy on the talent.

08) Wishing you were smarter or wishing you were much better at dealing with other people?
Better at dealing with other people. If you want to get ahead in life, you need to get along with people. Like the old saying goes: “It ain’t WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know.”

09) Attracted to people for their physical attributes or attracted to people for their personality attributes?
Initial attraction is always about physical attributes. Lasting attraction is all about personality.

10) Thinking schools should get back to the basics or thinking schools need to expand their curriculum?
The curriculum is way too expanded now. Let’s get back to the basics and DEMAND comprehension. All this crap of “you’ll damage the kid’s psyche by flunking him” is nonsense. The real world doesn’t care if you feel good about yourself – the real world DEMANDS results. It’s only in academia that you hear buzz words like “self esteem” and other such nonsense.

That’s right, folks. KC and I loaded up My Element (oh, we included Breezomatic) and drove to Des Moines. I’m writing this from Breezomatic’s laptop connected to ZDog and J’s wireless connection in their apartment. Interesting; I couldn’t connect until I turned off Windows’ Zero Configuration service. Once that was shut off, it worked fine.

We took the kids and KC’s mom out to eat at Olive Garden. It’s a good place to eat. I had the grilled salmon and I was not disappointed. KC had the three cheese manicotti and she was very pleased with it. Let’s put it this way… no one went home hungry!

Yeah, that’s right. I updated WordPress from 2.0 to 2.0.1. According to the documentation, the WordPress team has found and stamped out 114 bugs in the software. Also, a few features were cleaned up or streamlined. The only thing that doesn’t work properly is the Adhesive plugin, which I have rarely used. Probably by the time I need to use that plugin next, there will be a working version of it. As far as the viewer’s end of it, nothing has changed… although I’m planning on a new skin soon, probably later in February.

Here we go with Are you more.

01) Heat-based fat-loss body pads or electricity-based muscle-gain body pads?
At this time of year in Iowa, I better go with the muscle-gain body pads. As cold as it is here I don’t want to lose any fat to keep my body warm!!

02) Jar-Jar Binks or Jabba the Hutt?
HMMM. A skinny, nonsense-speaking near idiot with no money OR a hugely obese intelligent blob. Tough choice, actually, because Jar-Jar was a good guy and Jabba was a bad guy. Can I have what’s behind the curtain, Monte?

03) Warm, slushy winter or cold, snowy winter?
Cold, snowy winter. I like the snow.

04) One who thinks hardcore B&D can truly be consensual or one who think hardcore B&D can’t really be consensual?
It can be consensual. I think the only way one can truly enjoy something like that is if they consent to it in the first place.

05) Preferring of the smell of flowers or preferring of the smell of fruit?
I prefer the smell of fruit. After a while flowers get overpowering and make me nauseous.

06) And impenetrable wall or a moving target?
A moving target. There is no such thing as an impenetrable wall; eventually every wall is penetrable.

07) One who listens to your own little inner voice or one who doesn’t listen and/or doesn’t think you have one?
I listen, but my inner voice isn’t little.

08) An overt pleasure seeker or one who takes whatever pleasure comes your way in stride?
I tend to roll with the punches. I’ll take whatever pleasure comes my way and take it in stride.

09) An overt pain avoider or one who takes whatever (regular sized) pain comes your way in stride?
I try to avoid pain, but again I tend to roll with the punches. Even though I try to avoid it, I’ll take what comes my way in stride.

10) Wishing you were some other age than the one you are or comfortable and content with the age you are?
Well, I do wish I was younger. Doesn’t everybody over 40? In general, though I’m quite content with the age I am.

Yeah, I watched it. I’m not really a fan of either team but you could make a case to root for either team if you are an Iowa Hawkeye fan. With Seattle, it’s the Seahawks….. shorten that to ‘Hawks and that’s Iowa!! And the Iowa Hawkeye football team uniforms are patterned after the Steelers uniforms. Yeah, either team works for the undecided Iowa fan.

We went to friends’ home for a party to watch the game… well to watch the commercials and hype wrapped around a football game. The Best and Worst of the ads, IMHO, were:

• The best was the Ameriquest Mortgage ad “Turbulence”. Being a person who has spent what seems like a lot of time on an airplane, that one really caught me. It also drives home the fact that we shouldn’t judge something on its appearance.
• The worst was the Burger King ad “Whopperettes”. I think Burger King needs to rethink their entire ad line using the King; they just haven’t even been as good as average.
• The most sentimental (read: tear-jerker) ad was the Anheuser-Busch ad “Clydesdale American Dream” where the colt tried pulling the Anheuser-Busch wagon and didn’t know that his parents were helping him. Kind of a statement about how parents stand behind their kids.
• The most openly sexual was the Sony ad “Click”, where the remote control made the female jogger run in slow motion and focused in on her breasts bouncing while she ran.
• The funniest was the FedEx ad “Caveman”. Is it stereotypical that uncaring upper management abuses the worker? This was absolutely hilarious, though.
• The most innuendo was the Go-Daddy ad “Approved”. While there was reference to the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” and you were waiting for something like that to happen, it simply didn’t. But that didn’t detract from the implied sexuality in the ad.

So any thoughts on your part about the ads (or maybe even the game!!)?

So it’s just business. I’m down here in Dallas, TX, on business. Got here Sunday late afternoon. Leaving for home Friday morning. That’s right, back here in the Lone Star State. I was in Houston in late December for work and now I’m in Dallas… what’s next you ask? San Antonio? Austin? El Paso? Well, I don’t think so, but who really knows?

I’m down here working at our National Sales Meeting. It’s one of the few times we get all of the field sales force’s laptops in one place at the same time. It leads to long hours and lots of work for us in IT, but it is worth it to update all the laptops. Our field sales laptops are now all on Windows XP Service Pack 2, MS Office 2003 Service Pack 2, the latest versions of the Zone Labs Integrity Agent firewall, the Cisco VPN client, the Symantec Antivirus client and virus defs, and our current version of the LANDesk client. It will make our support efforts easier as there are fewer versions of these items to support.

On a side note we did manage to make it to a Dallas Mavericks game last night. Things just worked out with the laptops so we were far enough ahead to be able to take last night “off” to watch the game. That makes three NBA games I’ve attended this season in three different arenas! Yeah, boy!

My Wednesdays are filled with Are you more…

01) One who will buy twice as much discount beer/wine/liquor or one who will buy half as much premium beer/wine/liquor?
I’ll buy half as much of the good stuff. I’m not a big drinker, but when I drink I want it to taste good; don’t gimme no swill.

02) A fan of self-help books or a person who thinks most of the self-help industry is based on scamming?
It’s all a scam. Everyone knows their own shortcomings except those who are mentally handicapped and would they really read a book?

03) A meeting lover or a meeting hater?
In general a meeting hater. Most meetings are like busy work in school. You don’t get a lot of anything accomplished.

04) Hockey or soccer?
Soccer in a close one. The nicest thing about soccer is that you are outdoors, the sun is shining and the grass is green!

05) Basketball or football?
While I do like football, it’s GOT to be basketball. It is the very best sport invented!

06) Baseball or golf?
Baseball (again in a close one). Baseball is fun to watch and to play.

07) Golf driving range or batting cage?
For me, I like a golf driving range. Anything to hit the crap out of a little ball just sitting there minding its own business. Plus you can really watch it go. In a batting cage, you don’t get to see any distance on the ball.

08) Potentially disapproving of a person’s lifestyle or potentially disapproving of a person’s attitude?
I disapprove of attitude much more than lifestyle. It’s so easy to be negative and see the down side to everything.

09) The funniest among your immediate family or the craftiest?
Neither… well… do you mean funny “ha-ha” or funny “weird”? Well, even then, neither.

10) Apt to disbelieve a politician until they prove themselves truthful or apt to believe a politician until they prove themselves untruthful?
I don’t think politicians are any different than any other person. I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. The problem is that many prove themselves to be untruthful very early in their careers.