A moment of silence

I had intended to write up my Vegas adventures today, but instead I'm dedicating today's entry to Casey Kindig. Casey was someone that I met through my bowling league; in fact, he was on the first team that we bowled against on the first night of the first league. I remember meeting him that first night and how friendly and charismatic he was. From then on, we always said hi to each other at bowling.

A couple months later, I happened to be in Las Vegas at a blackjack table in the Sahara. I looked to my right and who did I see, but Casey and a few of his friends (guys that I had also met at bowling and became friendly with). I talked and joked with them for a couple hours that day and we all got to know each other a lot better. When we returned to San Diego, Casey and I hung out socially a few times and went out of our way to spend a few minutes hanging out at bowling each week.

Unfortunately, a couple seasons ago, Casey and his friends started bowling in another league that met on a different night so I no longer got to see him once a week. Without bowling bringing us together regularly, we didn't see each other very often and eventually drifted apart. The last time I saw him was probably three or four months ago.

I learned last night that Casey was killed in a car accident on Friday night. To say that the news took the wind out of my sails would be an understatement. To know that I'll never get to see him or hang out with him again has deeply saddened me. Casey had that special something that most people don't--something that set him apart from everybody else. Something that made people want to instantly befriend him and always have him in their lives.

Casey, thanks for coming into my life and making it that much better. I know I'm not alone in saying that you will be truly missed.
Goodbye, friend.

Sin City, here I come!

Off to Vegas for the weekend for an ice hockey tournament. I hope to return with the same amount of baggage I left with; not more.

The Kitchen Saga: Part 3?

I was making dinner for myself the other night and I went to open the oven. As I pulled the handle to open the door, suddenly the entire oven, already on and containing my dinner, collapsed into the counter! When it fell, it also broke off a large piece of wood trim that sat below the oven. It appears as though when they cut out the area for the oven in the countertop, they didn’t cut the edges far back enough and so the oven was only being supported on the sides and not in the back.

I tried to lift the oven up by the door handle to pull it back up into position and as soon as I started to lift, the entire door came off the hinges and into my hands. I spent the next few minutes trying to reseat the oven door without burning myself. I finally got that taken care of and resumed the attempt to restore the oven to its proper resting place. I was lifting from the front and the back and was easing it into place when suddenly it slipped away from me, crashing into its original spot, with my finger taking the brunt of the stove’s momentum since it got caught between the back and the counter. Amazingly, my finger wasn’t broken.

Still not supported by the back side, it wasn’t long before the whole thing crashed down into the counter a second time. I think livid would have been an understatement as a description of my emotional state at that moment. I calmed down a bit, iced my finger and took a short break from the madness. When I returned to the situation, I again replaced the oven, only this time, using the broken trim piece as a support beneath the stove to hold it in position. It still seems to be holding.

Again, I get to deal with the marble people and hope that they will be able to come fix this in a somewhat timely manner. Ah, the joys of homeownership.

Happy Anniversary Spam!

[From CNET]
Happy spamiversary

The Internet phenomenon known as spam marks its 10th anniversary.
Intrusive online marketing is now an epidemic of massive proportions.

By Paul Festa and Evan Hansen
Staff Writers, CNET News.com

On April 12, 1994, a pair of attorneys in Arizona launched a homemade
marketing software program that forever changed the Internet.

Hoping to drum up some business, Laurence Canter dashed off a Perl
script that flooded online message boards with an advertisement
pitching the legal services of Canter & Siegel, the law firm he ran
with his then wife, Martha Siegel.

[...]

The response was immediate and harsh, offering one of the loudest
signals up to that point that unchecked marketing would not be
tolerated in the new medium. Thousands of recipients registered their
displeasure, and a new label for the burgeoning business of
unsolicited mass Internet advertising was coined.

"Send coconuts and cans of Spam to Cantor & Co.," one outraged Usenet
reader wrote amid the uproar that followed the Canter & Siegel
message. "(Be sure to drop the can of Spam on its seam first.)"

[...]

A day late and an hour short

I'm currently in the process of painting my condo in an effort to liven the place up a bit. A fresh coat was put on the bedroom Wednesday, so that night, I decided to sleep in another room to avoid huffing fumes all night. I set up an air mattress, bedding and my alarm clock. I had to get up and be into the office early Thursday morning because my boss was going to be out of the office and, since I wasn't feeling that great anyway, I decided to go to bed around 9:00.

I woke up Thursday morning right on time at 7:00 (according to the alarm clock) and took my time showering, eating and getting dressed. I was in a great mood since I'd gotten so much sleep the night before and I was going to get to work even earlier than expected. I left the house and got into the car; turned the key and then noted the time: 8:40. Shit. I immediately thought that the clock in the car was wrong, so I verified the time on my watch; nope, still 8:40. Turns out that the alarm clock I'd used was still set to standard time. So, of course I didn't get to work on time, much less early.

Decisions, Decisions

Would you rather have the train from Silver Spoons or Webster's grandfather clock, complete with secret passageway?

Hot in Herre

When I play hockey, I wear a Cool-Max type shirt underneath my pads to help wick away sweat and keep my pads from rubbing too much. The shirt I've been using has been with me for a few seasons now and is starting to show serious signs of wear. I figured it was time to retire it and get a new undergarment. So, before my game on Sunday, I stopped by Sports Chalet and picked up one of those new Under Armour pieces.

We started playing and for the whole first period, I kept thinking to myself that it was awfully warm in the rink that day; must have been because it was so hot outside. By the second period, I was totally burning up. Wow, did they forget to pay the electric bill this month? By the third period, I was sweltering. Is the heater on in here? It literally felt like I was wearing winter clothes I was so warm. Then it occurred to me that I may have purchased the wrong type of Under Armour garment; I made a mental note to check the tag when I got home. Sure enough, I bought the one that retains heat. Oh well, at least I have something I can use when I go snowboarding.

A Joke Taken Too Far?

William Hung's new album.