Long story short, my cousin has been missing since Saturday morning. Her sister has posted a FAQ (linked below).

http://www.facebook.com/notes/amy-elk/nique-leili-is-missing-please-help-find-her-repost-this-faq/10150249170834819

So my B.O.C. came yesterday. Since it was making noise, and since she knew I couldn't stand the excitement, Anna opened it and called me at work to let me know what we had.

The noise was coming from a Winnie the Pooh Toothbrush holder. When you hit the button on the front, when you take your toothbrush out of the holder or, when it randomly feels like it, it plays a 2-minute song encouraging you to brush your teeth. I'm not sure who's bright idea it was to ship this with batteries installed, but Anna got let it finish the song, and we didn't touch it again unil I got home from work and removed the batteries. We got two of these.

We also got two High School Musical Light-Up LED Wall Clocks.

We also got some other a High School Musical decal wall clock. It's a big (I'm guessing 16" by 16"), heart-shaped decal with a picture of Troy and Gabriella on it. You affix that to the wall, and then the clock, somehow, sits on top of that. Couldn't find anything about it on Amazon or google, so no link.

Lastly, we got one Neat-Oh ZipBin picnic basket. We don't take too many picnics (in fact, our last one was when I proposed to here on 10/01/2005), but this seems cool. We're keeping it.

So, we spent $8 on a cool, fold-up, picnic basket and 5 white elephant gifts. I was kind of hoping for something electronic (a cheapy MP3 player, a GPS device, or something like that); but oh well. I guess I did get more than $8 worth of stuff, so I can't complain.

Date:	2010-02-25 17:45
Subject:	Woot!
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

Somehow, miraculously, I got a bag of crap. www.wooters.us notified me that there was a BOC and took me to the order screen (I was already logged into the site). I hit go before entering my CVV code (stupid me). So I went back to the home page, hit the buy one button, punched in my CVV, confirmed my address and credit info, and clicked the magical yellow buy button. This came back with a "yikes, there's been a server error" message, which depressed me to no end. Of course it was sold out by the time I got back to the home page to try again.

Then, as if by elfin magic, I checked my yahoo e-account and there was the confirmation e-mail from woot. Oh glorious day!

Of course I'll post back here once it comes in to let you all know what I got. I'd love it to be a TV or something, but it'll probably just be some desk calendar and a cheapy MP3 player or something. Still, I'm super stoked. Ahh!

Apparently, I dropped my iPod while I was walking the dog today. I keep it in a leather, flip-open case from Griffin; and it's done a remarkable job of protecting the screen for the 3+ years I've had the iPod. The one slight scratch on the screen happened when I was carrying it outside the case. But I've been watching videos on it for a while now (after our break-in, last year, I copied all of our DVD's to mp4 files, so that we've still get them should we get broken into again) without really noticing the cracks.

However, it seems like this one was the one to do it in, with 5-10% of the LCD being cracked. I can still listen to music/podcasts, of course; but I guess I'm not watching any more videos on it. I'll likely remove all of the videos from it and use the hard disk space (I've got a 60 GB, iPod video) as a USB drive to backup all of our pictures and any other semi-important stuff. We've got a ton of photos that I haven't posted to winstonmurdock.com because of time and laziness. So it'll be good to ensure that I've got them somewhere in case another one of our computers dies (we've had three of five die this year). Along those lines, if anyone knows of a good, free, unlimited (or super huge, like 5-10 GB) photo hosting site, that'd be awesome. Or a free, classic ASP-based image gallery that doesn't require database access (I don't think I have that with my web hosting plan and don't want to pay extra for it) Either one would be awesome.

I'd love to get a 120 GB or 160 GB iPod Classic, but we don't have the money for that right now. Anna's still looking for a job, and we're trying to get our car loan paid off ASAP (i.e. 90-100% of any Christmas money and any tax refund will go towards that). So I highly doubt I'll be getting one any time soon. That said, I'll be looking for a cheap place to get one eventually (either to ask for as a birthday present next year, or in case we get a bigger tax refund than I'm anticipating). I know Woot has them every so often, but you can't really plan on that.

Here's the obit for my grandma. One from the funeral home, one from the Athens newspaper, and one from the Atlanta newspaper. They've all got the same details, just different formatting.

http://www.lordandstephens.com/obituary_profile.php?obituaryID=2110&listPageNum=1&
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/onlineathens/obituary.aspx?n=gilmer-hammond-chatham&pid=134366030
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?n=gilmer-chatham&pid=134368386

"golden rectum of the gods"

Just thought this was totally awesome, from last night's episode of South Park.

First off, I'm a total bum. I know it and fully own up to it. I know I should post up here more often.

Now that that's over, here's the meat of this post. I just got an e-mail (picture after the cut) from the G.T. Alumni Association congratulating me on my recent graduation and asking me to make a donation to them. The fail-ish part of this is that I graduated in May 2004 (heck, that was still in the first Bush-43 administration). I assume that they meant to send this to Anna (who just graduated last December).

( Pic after the jump )

Thanks to our best friends letting me borrow some books (and our local library, since they don't have all 7 HP books), I just read all of the Harry Potter series. Let just say that I don't understand what all the hubbub was. Yeah, there's wizards, and witches, and all; but there is a definite good and bad. And there are definite boundaries between the two.

It seems like the Christians / moral right that are fussing about the books haven't read them and are just basing their outrage on a superficial understanding of the books. Voldemort is totally evil (as are the Death Eaters), and Harry Potter (and everyone else on the good side) is totally good. There's no doubt as to which side is good and you never feel sympathetic to Voldemort.

Another thing I loved is that the good guys struggle with being good, and that it's not super easy for them. It made them feel more human and realistic (kind of like how you relate to Peter Parker in Spiderman 2). I can understand the struggle to do the right thing (especially in Deathly Hallows) and the lure of doing the easy, but not right, thing (again as in Spiderman 2).

And Rowling is a very compelling author. When I finished each book, I was dying to read the next one. And, now that I've finished all seven of them, I wish she had written more. And I hadn't read a fiction book since I finished the Left Behind series. Given how enthralled I was with these, I'll probably read the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe series and the Lord of the Rings series next.

Date:	2008-09-01 23:13
Subject:	Robbery Sucks...
Security:	Public
Mood:	pissed off

Our house was broken into this weekend. Luckily, we were visiting my parents, so we are safe and well. The biggest thing that they took was my work laptop. But I called my boss, and he said not to worry about it and that we'd deal with it tomorrow morning. Other than that, they stole all of my video game systems and games (NES, SNES, N64, GameBoy Adapter for SNES, and about 60 games), almost all of our DVD's (they left both seasons of the TV show Popular and a few others that they just happened to miss), both of our digital cameras, Anna's iPod Nano, and some of her jewelry. And they completely trashed our master bedroom (opening all of our drawers and throwing them plus our clothes onto the floor) and all of our closets, looking for money or credit cards (though they somehow missed our checkbook and savings account book).

As stated above, we're safe; but totally frazzled. Anna's parents are spending the night with us, and Anna's dad drilled the downstairs windows shut (since the a-holes got in through one of them). A police officer came out and took a report / dusted for fingerprints, but he didn't get any usable prints and doesn't think we'll find the buttholes who did this. He gave us the report number, said that it would be available within a few days, and said that some detectives would be calling us soon. After he left, we found a cigarette between the kitchen and dining room and called 911 back. The attendant said that she would call the office and have him call us back (which he hasn't done yet). So we haven't touched it and will mention to the detectives, when they call, to see if they can get any DNA off it.

Then there's the hassle of having to do a home owners insurance claim. Our deductible is $500, but we lost way more than $500 (150+ DVD's at about $10 each, plus Anna's jewelry, our cameras, Anna's iPod, the video game systems, and my work computer...), so I'll likely make a claim. I called them, but they were closed for the Labor Day holiday, and I'll have to call them in the morning.

Pray for Anna. I'm fine, and still feel safe in the house. But she's still frazzled, and she was the one to discover that we had been robbed (I was still getting stuff out of the trunk of the car). My parents have offered to pay for security monitoring (which is something we hadn't done because money's been a bit tight), and Anna's dad suggests getting an electrician out to install flood lights in the back that are motion sensitive. We'll likely do one or both of those things.

Thanks!

He wrote this for July 4, last year. It seems quite poignant given that he was killed a few weeks ago.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=300118

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/clayton/stories/2008/07/14/green_beret_dies.html

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3205535/

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12065

Date:	2008-07-14 13:30
Subject:	Death Still Sucks
Security:	Public
Mood:	pensive

My Dad's cousin, Mitch, was one of the nine guys killed in the terrorist (I like to call them backwards ass-holes, but that's just me) attack in Afghanistan yesterday (Fox News Story). I didn't know him too well and had met him maybe ten times in my life. But I knew his Mom (my grandfather's sister) quite well and can't even imagine her grief right now. Mitch was 41 and left behind a wife, some step children (I never met his wife or step kids, so I don't know then), a brother (mid 30's), and a sister (mid 40's).

I called my Mom last night, around 11:30 to ask a kitchen-related question and she asked if I had heard about the attack in Afghanistan, on the news? I said that I hadn't because I had been at Jim and Emmie's house helping paint the room that will be their baby's nursery (they're due in February) and that I hadn't touched my computer all day. She told me that Mitch died, and I about lost it. Anna ran to give me a hug and could tell something was wrong by my reaction. I put my cell phone on speaker phone, so that Anna could hear everything, and collapsed into a chair. I composed myself pretty quickly and asked how Dad was doing (he's fine and wasn't terribly close to Mitch, since he's 15 years older than Mitch) then how Auntie Jane (Mitch's Mom and my Dad's Aunt) was doing. Mom had no idea but figured it might be a good idea for me to call her today (which I'll do after work). Because it takes about 10 days to get the body back to the states, the funeral won't be until the end of next week (at the earliest). I don't even know if we're supposed to go (I'm horrible at social etiquette and the like) or if we'll even be able to go. Auntie Jane lives in Jonesboro, so I'd assume that the funeral would be down there. And I'm sure work will be cool with my taking some time off work to go, if I have to.


Life is short. Love, and live, hard. Forgive quickly. Spend time with those you love (whether spouse, friends, children, parents, or someone else).

Looks like I'm Spiderman, if I'm a superhero, and the Riddler, if I'm a villain. Given that Spiderman was my favorite superhero, growing up, I would've been disapointed if I had ended up as Batman or something.

( Results below the cut. )

Goes to this lady. At a store selling iPhones, she bribed the first guy in line with $800 to give up his spot in line, hoping to then buy all of the phones in the store (or at least $16,000 worth). Turns out the store had a 1 phone per customer rule (which is pretty much standard for highly demanded items like this). And the guy who she bribed just took the spot of one of friends who wasn't buying an iPhone, but was just hanging out with his buddies. So, after buying his iPhone, he still had $175-$200 left to spend on accessories. Plus his original $600 that he was planning to spend on it.

Happy 4'th everyone!

Date:	2006-09-19 09:39
Subject:	Talk Like a Pirate
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

Happy Talk like a Pirate Day. Enjoy it!

Date:	2006-06-02 15:22
Subject:	Bearlax
Security:	Public
Mood:	silly

Long story short, my boss, Jeff, and I had to visit one of our customers in Monticello, GA. On the way, he promised that we would eat lunch at this place called the Big Chic. I had no idea what to expect, but it turns out that it serves food that is similar to Juniors. Burgers, chicken strips, fries, etc.... Well, as we park next to the building, we notice this big, huge advertisement painted on the side of the building for a product called "Bearlax," which, of course, cracks us both up. On our way out, Jeff decides to take a picture of it, with his camera phone, and gets me to stand in front of it. Behind the cut is the result.

Well, when we got back into the office this afternoon, we figured we'd do some research into Bearlax. In doing so, I found an article from 1912 (Google cache here) giving us a little bit more information.

BEARLAX (liquid laxative) contains no calomel, but gives prompt relief to all disordered conditions of liver, stomach and bowels. If the orerans which are concerned in the removal of waste material from the. system, liver, intestinal canal, kidneys, etc., cease to operate in a normal, healthy manner, materials which should be excreted are retained in the tissues or circulate in the blood stream and manifest their presence by a wide range of symptoms. BEARLAX acts promptly upon the liver and bowels and helps nature to quickly cleanse the blood of impurities and eliminate them through the natural channels. BEARLAX is mildly laxative or strongly purgative as desired, according to dose. OUR GUARANTEE We suarant ee that BEARLAX contains no calomel, but that it is a satisfactory substitute for calomel.

Date:	2006-05-26 11:06
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	mellow

How does the support pager get signal in the office when nobody's cell phone gets signal (we're on the bottom floor of a 7-story building that's built into the side of a hill, and our floor is really just a half floor)? Wacky, eh?

I've learned that I can wake up, get a shower, brush my teeth, put on deodorant, get dressed, drive to work, and sit down in my cubicle in a total of 25 minutes. That's good to know.

I've also learned that guacamole isn't as gross I seem to remember it's having been in the past. I got a taco salad for lunch from the little cafe on the next floor up in our office building and forgot to ask them not to put guacamole on it. Since it was right in the middle of everything, I couldn't just scrape it off (like you can scrape off mayonnaise from the bun of a hamburger), so I just figured I'd eat it.

If you have over 40, you are purported to be spoiled. Since I only have 23, I guess I'm only like 55% spoiled as opposed to 100% spoiled.

For what it's worth, I grabbed this from a friend's lj.

Do you have:
(1) your own cell phone
(2) a television in your bedroom
() an MP3 player
() a photo printer
() own phone line
() TiVo or a generic digital video recorder
(3) high-speed internet access (i.e., not dialup)
() a surround sound system in bedroom
(4) DVD player in bedroom
(5) at least a hundred DVDs
(6) a childfree bathroom
() your own in-house office
() a pool
() a guest house
() a game room
() a queen-size bed or larger
() a stocked bar
(7) a working dishwasher
(8) an icemaker
(9) a working washer and dryer
() more than 20 pairs of shoes
() at least ten things from a designer store
() expensive sunglasses
() framed original art (not lithographs or prints)
() Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
() a multi-speed bike
() a gym membership
() large exercise equipment at home
() your own set of golf clubs
() a pool table
() a tennis court
() local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea
() your own pair of skis
() enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
() a boat
() a jet ski
() a neighborhood committee membership .
() a beach house or a vacation house/cabin
() wealthy family members
() two or more family cars
(10) a walk-in closet or pantry
() a yard
() a hammock
() a personal trainer
(11) good credit
() expensive jewelry
() a designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get
() at least $100 cash in your possession right now
() more than two credit cards bearing your name (not counting gas cards or debit cards)
() a stock portfolio
() a passport
() a horse
() a trust fund (either for you or created by you)
(12) private medical insurance
(13) a college degree, and no outstanding student loans

Do you:
(14) shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics) at least once a week
() do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
() pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes (not counting dry cleaning)
() go on weekend mini-vacations
() send dinners back with every flaw
() wear perfume or cologne
() regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon
() have a job but don't need the money OR
() stay at home with little financial sacrifice
() pay someone else to cook your meals
() pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs
() regularly pay someone else to drive your taxis
() expect a gift after you fight with your partner

Are you:
(15) an only child
() married/partnered to a wealthy person
() baffled/surprised when you don't get your way

Have you:
() been on a cruise
(16) traveled out of the country
() met a celebrity
() been to the Caribbean
(17) been to Europe
() been to Hawaii
(18) been to New York
() eaten at the space needle in Seattle
() been to the Mall of America
(19) been on the Eiffel tower in Paris
(20) been on the Statue of Liberty in New York
() moved more than three times because you wanted to
() dined with local political figures
() been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast

Did you:
() go to another country for your honeymoon
(21) hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party
() took riding or swimming lessons as a child
(22) attend private school
() have a Sweet 16 birthday party

I had Panda Express for lunch today. Like I always do, I save my fortune cookie for after I've eaten everything else. Well, I open it, and guess what it says.

"You will be hungry again in one hour."