---

    I tried to make an appointment with the eye doctor. I set up a time, but immediately had second thoughts when I found out an office visit would be $150! I successfully was able to print some more CD artwork, discovering my printer had "Good" and "Best" settings. Choosing "Best" had very good results, so maybe this had solved my problem about not being able to print from the black cartridge. I swung by Best Buy before work. I wanted to get the Attack of the Clones CD. They offered the disc with three of the four covers, and I wanted the fourth (the generic one, like the poster, so it would match my Episode I. Instead I ended up buying O Brother Where Art Thou?, which I'd liked enough on MP3 to buy it on disc.
    Reid mentioned how he and his friends had recently seen "superevil.com" was available. They thought it might be fun to have, since they already have superevil.tv; but it got bought again before they could pool their resources and claim it themselves. This got me wondering if "bitteroldman.com" was available yet. I'd been interested in that domain name, especially since my friends had started to refer to me as such; but some guy owned it, although there was no web page in place at it. I checked Network Solutions, and was delighted to find out it was indeed available! I immediately began toying with purchasing it, but I didn't want to do it online at work anyway. However, by evening time, I had not only purchased the domain name but also had ordered some more web space for it! I was creating a gosh darn empire, with three domain names and potentially 1.3 gigabytes of web space!
    We got San Diego to check our error logs. One of the bosses called back to report some strange errors he'd noticed. Obviously there was a lack of communication there since he was just noticing the errors which had caused us to make the repairs last weekend! Ultimately it was decided to send us out a new encoder chassis, which should be showing up on Friday.

---

    I got the DVD of Peter Jackson's Meet the Feebles last night. I couldn't get over what a cheap cash-in DVD it was; it was a horrible looking and sounding copy of the film, and the disc didn't even have any chapters! I was also upset because I forgot to tape Ed and The West Wing last night. I kept waiting for an e-mail confirming the purchase of my new domain name, but no word came.
    The extra shelves for my new bookcases showed up. And late at night I finally got two e-mails from my hosting company. I was able to start uploading a temporary homepage, which I worked on all evening. I created an animated GIF and also tried to create a random text effect. I found some CGI scripts that would do this, but they all looked rather complicated. I ultimately discovered I could produce the effect right through my host's Control Panel.

---

    E-mails on the Wire listserv reminded me that today was the year anniversary of my U2 concert in Cleveland. People were saying how they couldn't believe a year had passed already; but I had the opposite reaction. The concert felt like an eon ago.
    I found out The X-Files site was offering a different QuickTime movie each day, from the set of series finale. These seemed worth saving, since the site was reportedly not archiving them. I'd missed the first two though. I also downloaded some screensavers. I was reminded that XP has a built-in feature to turn digital photos into a screen saver. On a whim I spent the evening selecting my best photos. To celebrate the anniversary of our Cleveland/Lexington road trip, I discovered someone in the bootlegs binary newsgroup had uploaded the Pittsburgh concert we'd road-tripped to back in 1997 and that someone on Direct Connect had SHNs of an ALD feed from the Toronto show we'd road-tripped to last year. The SHNs took a long time to download, so I left the computer on all night.

---

    I stayed up late, overseeing my downloads. For some reason I could not decode the SHNs I was downloading. I could not get the MKW software to do anything. I wondered if the program had been corrupted so I even downloaded it and installed it again. When there was no change, I started doing Google searches to look for help. Eventually I tracked down a message board discussing MKW problems under XP. Someone suggested turning antivirus software off, so I did that as well as shutting off Zone Alarm Pro. Instantly a dozen MKW windows popped up, one for each attempt I'd made at starting it. I had the suspicion Zone Alarm Pro had suppressed the program, treating it like a pop-up window. This was pretty much the last straw for Zone Alarm Pro. Even though I'd paid for it, I uninstalled it and went back to the plain old free Zone Alarm, which, as it had before, did not give me any problems.
    On a whim, at around one:thirty in the morning, I tried typing "bitteroldman.com into my browser, and I saw my page. I was now official.
    I did some writing during the day. I had Taco Bell for dinner and I rented a movie from the video store. I got The Man Who Wasn't There. I'm a sucker for a Coen Brothers movie, even though I prefer their sillier movies. Before I started the movie, I spent time finishing up my April page, writing up the last ten entries. While I watched the movie, I defragged all my computer partitions (some for the first time). Since I've 120 gigabytes (on two drives) this took a long time, so once again I left my computer on all night.

---

    I had trouble defragging one 25 gigabyte partition since I didn't have enough free space. I'm ashamed to admit that this drive is jam packed with MP3s! So I stayed up late burning CDRs just to clear up some space. I also stayed up watching TCM's interview with Woody Allen. I intended to sleep all day, but noise from outside woke me up a few hours later. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I just got up. I spent the morning burning more CDRs. I cleared off maybe 3 or 4 gigs. (My problem is I hold onto these MP3 albums so that I can burn CDRs with a theme to them. So it's tricky to decide what albums to burn and even trickier when the perfect combination of albums will not fit.)
    Since I now have some much web space, I did some work on adding another complete Buffett concert to my site. I tried to make MP3s of the 1999 Pine Knob show, but I simply could not get it to sound good. After a couple hours I scrapped my work and deleted all the files. I watched my usual Fox shows but taped NBC's 75^th anniversary special. At night, I finished my NetFlix rental of The Ice Storm and I sent out word to my friends that Bitter Old Man was on the air.

---

    My Bextra presciption ran out, so I called up my doctor. The pain in my wrist had lessened only slightly, so it was time to move to Plan B: a Cortisone shot. I called up for an appointment, getting one for a week from tomorrow. I sent back my NetFlix rentals and I dropped off the Coen Brothers rental on the way to work. I was surprirsed to find Jeremy alone. He told me Reid had only been in for a couple hours before deciding to go home because he was so ill. It was quite a quiet day. On a whim, that night, I started watching my Upstairs Downstairs DVDs, which I hadn't touched since Christmas.

---

    I guess my Amazon package had shown up yesterday, but I discovered this morning on the porch. I'd gotten a new (supposedly authorized) recording of Charles Ives' second symphony, The Rat Pack at the Sands, and gold CDs of the expanded Amadeus soundtrack. I brought them in to work with me, so I could play during the afternoon. The Ives symphony was played too quickly; and the Rat Pack were amusing although their routines were too similar to the The Summit disc.
    My frienda wrote back about the site, saying there should be more content on Bitter Old Man. I thought this was cruel since I'd only just started the site. I couldn't think of much more to offer -- the random rants seemed to sum it all up -- but I ended up adding another weblog to the site, courtesy of Blogger. Later on, I hit upon the idea of letting other people post their rants. I looked around for some kind of script to use. It seemed what I wanted could be achieved by altering a Guestbook. I found a very nice template at Guestbook25.com. I downloaded it and then spent the evening fine-tuning it to fit my needs. My big 3/4" tape deck showed up today; I was afraid to open it up and find it didn't work, so I just stowed it away in the basement for now. I also spent the evening creating some graphic links for my site's new pages.

---

    I was continuing to watch season one of Upstairs Downstairs in the evenings. I discovered a very nice and informative fan site, at updown.org, to help refresh my memory on details on the other seaons. I learned that a book on the series had been printed last year. I looked for it on Amazon UK but they had it on order. Instead, I went ahead and ordered the PAL DVD of Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone. I'm such a snob, I wanted to get the UK version just for the different title. (Jeremy and I got into a small argument over this. He claimed that the movie would be no different. This didn't make any sense to me. The title was different, and the scenes that mention the "Philosopher's Stone" are different. So if there are differences ergo the movie is different.)

---

    It remembered to check WH Smith's for that Upstairs Downstairs book. Amazon UK had said there'd be a four to six week, WH Smith's said two to four weeks. So they won.
    Arthur from San Diego had contacted us about flying in to install the encoder chassis. We hadn't gotten approval from the "changes board" yet, so it looked like we'd have to wait till next weekend. Reid was glad since this meant he could go camping this weekend, in preparation for his weeklong stay at Isle Royale the week after.
    Another headphones package showed up today. I'd taken advantage of Koss's Mother's Day sale to buy two Porta Pros. Along with ordering the Upstairs Downstairs book from WH Smith's, I ordered some Lord of the Rings stuff from The Noble Collection. The items wouldn't be released till the end of the month, but one was intended for Mother's Day. I watched the Wings play the Blues. I also watched my NetFlix rental of Say Anything.

---

    I stopped at Rite Aid for some Tylenol Sinus, I also bought some Motrin for my wrist. I got a Mother's Day card too, saving me a trip this weekend. It was another quiet day at work and everyone left early. Afterward I headde over to Borders, looking for The X-Files farewell issue of The Hollywood Reporter. They didn't have it, but I got the official X-Files magazine instead. I once again could not buy The Attack of the Clones CD because shockingly they did not have a single copy. I tried to use my Speedpass on the way home, but I could not get the Pegasus to light up. I guess I was too proud to pay in cash so I just got back in the car and drove home.
    After one day of working my printer was back to its old tricks. I wanted to make some CDs for my nephews and neices, since I'd be seeing them Mother's Day, so I made an effort to fix my printer. I found some instructions online, so I took the Lexmark's top off and peered around inside. I needed to find something called the "maintenance station", but I ended up having to find another webpage to explain where that is.

    I moved the cartridges aside and began swabbing away at the tray on which they'd sat. I couldn't believe the giant globs of tar-like black sludge I was dredging up. Evidently the black cartridge had been rubbing over this, blocking it up, and causing it not to print. Once I expended a dozen or so Q-tips I was able to finally able to get some real printing done (though I still had to rely on "Best" to get decent results).
    Gillian Anderson was the guest on tonight's Letterman show. This alone should've made a great show but I never expected Dave would spend the first segment gabbing with his assistant Stephanie Birkitt about Buffett songs, and even belting out "Come Monday" a few times. The GA interview made an already noteworthy show greater when she and Dave flirted shamelessly and even kissed on air. I got such a kick out of their loopiness that I made a bunch of screen grabs. Because of the Buffett references I put these up on my Buffett site for while. They've since been taken down, but they can still be accessed here.

---

    I spent the day making CDs for my nephews and neices, as well as printing up the artwork. I darede to wear my Red Wings sweatshirt today for their game against the St Louis Blues, even though it might jinx the team. It did not and they won. Late in the afternoon it dawned on me I should be looking for MPEGs of Attack of the Clones online. I found a copy from "FTF" in the VCD binary newsgroup, and was able to watch the movie by nighttime, a week before its release.

---

    I went to my brother Rick's house for Mother's Day. My brother Mark and family showed up too. Because my gift would not be showing up till the end of the month, I bought a gift off my dad to give to mom. We had a cookout, but we had to stay inside since the day was chilly and threatened rain. Back home, a better copy of Attack of the Clones was starting to appear but pretty much every RAR upload was corrupt, wasting a lot of time and bandwidth. Instead I realized I should be looking for Spiderman too. I was able to track down a very nice "Centropy" version.

---

    I tried to show off my VCDs of Star Wars but the stupid Windows 2000 computer played the MPEGs too fast. I tried to find out how to fix that while doing Google searches. It was suggested I reinstall audio drivers, but we don't have access to those. I upgrading Windows Media Player, hoping that might update the drivers as well, but it didn't work. Found a really fun site called Homestar Runner.

---

    I woke up early to go to my doctor's appointment. I brought a book with me to read. Last time it had been Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, this time it was Blinded by the Right by David Brock. (These books, plus Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, read altogether at the same time, had severely affected me with a complete bitter contempt with the way our country is run.) I got my shot but it didn't do anything. The doctor suggested if the pain remained I should call a hand surgeon in Wyandotte, which seems the inevitable conclusion. I found out at least that I suffer from DeQuervain's disease.
    Jeremy had had a sneak peek at my Star Wars VCD so we were able to discuss it. We also finished up the Spiderman tape I'd brought in. Accidentally, we left our mic panel open, so the guys in production were able to hear us for a couple minutes. They called over to tell us to turn out mic key off, and we sheepishly complied. A few minutes later we found out their boss had sent a nasty e-mail to our bosses saying how we were not only watching tapes on company time but were watching illegal material which could cause dire legal ramifications for the company.
    One of our bosses called us up, asked what had happened, and dismissed the e-mail by saying the production boss himself used to bring in bootlegs to watch back when was a freelancer. Besides, it obviously had been slow because we would never be watching tapes at the expense of doing our work (and the production department has cable and satellite TV while we have nothing); so basically the production department boss is a wiener.

---

    I listened to my Chicago U2 show but realized belatedly the one year anniversary of it had been Monday! Dennis bought us pizzas for lunch. The encoder chassis from San Diego had finally arrived and one of the guys there was making arrangements to fly out on Saturday. Since Reid would be going to Isle Royale, only I would be coming in then. I would also be working the morning shift next week, during Reid's vacation; and to welcome me, a special show would be broadcast on Tuesday, involving 275 sites I'd need to prepare.
    My friends are back to playing golf on Wednesdays and stopping at Big Al's Sports Bar afterward. I finally met up with them. I asked Mike if he'd sold his Buffett tickets yet. He was worried since he hadn't even gotten them yet -- and even more worried when I told him I'd had mine for a couple weeks and, because they arrive in plain nondescript envelopes, that he might even have thrown them out. Greg was interested in mine, so maybe I won't have to resort to eBay after all. I finished watching my tapes of Dinotopia in the evening. I'm surprised this got such poor reviews. I thought it was nicely done and enjoyable, with special effects which were quite good for TV.

---

    Got good news from Mike. He'd found his tickets when he'd gotten home last night. The envelope had been generic enough not to open, but official-looking enough to keep. He asked me how he should sell them and I e-mailed back about how I was going to use eBay since I already have an account. This was a mistake, since he replied by asking if I could sell his tickets for him. I remembered to ask if we'd ever let Patti know we even have tickets.
    Reid left early since it was his last day before vacation. I went to Borders again to look for The X-Files issue of Hollywood Reporter. I celebrated the opening day of Attack of the Clones by buying the soundtrack -- I discovered their displays for it were at the front of the store.

---

    I had to get up at five this morning so I could start the morning shift. It was tough getting into this new schedule, especially since I'd routinely stayed up late last night. I think I'd only gotten about two hours of sleep. It figured that the day we had someone coming in to swap our encoder chassis was the day the production group decided to resume weekend shows. We hadn't had a weekend show since before Christmas...until tomorrow. I needed to get in touch with Arthur but he was surprisingly unreachable, even though I called the San Diego number and the new office in New Jersey. Eventually he got back in touch with me, saying that he'd already made new arrangements with my bosses (but news of this had not reached us). He'd still be coming in around noon, but we'd wait till around two (when the class ended) before swapping the encoder.
    The best thing about the morning shift is being able to leave at three:thirty. It almost felt like I was having a three-day weekend. I was also able to meet up with my mom and dad and Aunt Mary and Uncle John for dinner at Applebee's. I couldn't resist napping in the evening, which I also spent printing CDR labels and watching X-Files episodes from my season five box.

---

    I'd set my clock for eight so I could show up to work at ten:thirty. Something got screwed up since I didn't wake till after nine:thirty! I scrambled to shower and get dressed and get to work, doing a fairly good job of showing up almost on time. I almost could've stayed home since there were no trouble calls during the show. At one, Arthur called up, saying he was going to pick up some lunch before coming in. The show ended at one:thirty, a halfhour early, so I waited for Arthur's callback so we could get going. He called at quarter to two.
    We powered down the encoder and then Arthur got to work. He handily did everything himself: labeling the connections, disconnecting everything, removing all the encoder boards, sliding the old chassis out, fitting the new chassis in, reinstalling the encoder boards, reconnecting the cables. We had trouble getting all the channels back online at first, but after a couple more hours of faulting boards we were able to restore video. In the meantime, I kept track of the score of the Wings game on the ESPN web page. We left in time for me to hear the last period on radio as I drove home. The Wings won the first game against the Avalanche, with a Darren McCarty hat trick in the third period.
    I watched more X-Files episodes at home. I had a really bad headache, which I seem to get a lot of on Saturdays. This reminded me I really need to make an eye appointment with someone (as well as needing to cancel my Monday appointment!). I asked my sister-in-law Debby whom she goes to and I also found out my nephew Jake finally got himself a hamster. ("I'm so happy I could cry!" he enthused.)

---

    Today was the final day for The X-Files, the series finale would be on at eight.

I spent the whole day watching episodes from the season five box. I watched "Patient X" / "The Red and Black" in the afternoon, "Travelers" during commercials of the finale itself, "Mind's Eye" immediately afterward, and then, even though I should've been sleeping prior to another early morning shift, I watched "All Souls" and "Pine Bluff Variant" late at night. All told, I watched twelve episodes since Thursday. Once again I didn't get to bed till three even though my alarm was set for five.

---

    Another good thing about working the morning shift is getting back to listening to NPR's Morning Edition. I can't get used to the incredibly heavy traffic though -- which amazingly is just as bad at three:thirty! I got in early to make sure we still had no video problems, with our new encoder chassis. We had video on all channels, but I discovered a problem elsewhere. I could not remotely log into the encoder. I tried restarting the encoder and rebooting the remote computer and the communication server but still could not log in. I was still able to access the encoder through its own computer, but this is rather slow and awkward; and the fact I could not remotely log in was worrisome. I contacted Dennis, who swung in on his way to his office. I'd noticed the PPP Daemon was down, and he knew how to restart it. He said in all his years of powering the room up and down he'd never encountered a problem with the PPP Daemon, but restarting it restored our connection. And I was able to type in the schedule for tomorrow.
    By coincidence, Patti e-mailed me about Buffett tickets, so I was able to inform her that I would not be going to the Chicago show but that she could have the tickets if she wanted. On the way home I stopped at the library to drop off Blinded by the Right. Apart from the disgust with my government that the book engenders, I couldn't help marveling at how I had just spent a month reading a brand new, critically acclaimed book for free, with no illegality, no guilt, and no crying and name-calling from Hilary Rosen and the RIAA. Ain't libraries wonderful things?
    Back at home I got my special edition DVDs for Legend and Memento. Seeing Legend again (and widescreen to boot) was a thrill. I didn't wear my Red Wings sweatshirt and the Wings lost in overtime.

I didn't change into my Red Wings sweatshirt for tonight'e game, and the Wings lost.

---

    Today was the big special broadcast I'd prepared for. Luckily we only got a couple calls on it. The biggest problem turned out to be continual calls from a field tech who simply could not hook up and tune in the site's receiver. I got another DVD package, back home. This time it was Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone, which I'd ordered from Amazon UK.

Snob that I am, I deliberately ordered this version just for the different title, even though I could only play its PAL video on my DVD-ROM drive. I watched more of the Legend set afterward, plus the second to last X-Files on my season five box.

---

    Reid and now Jeremy had been telling me about the site Homestar Runner, and I spent some time at it today. I also checked out some DVD Easter egg sites for hints on the Memento SE but I guess it's too new. Along the way I discovered The Wicker Man DVD SE has a commentary exclusive to the UK! I'm tempted to order it, just for that; and since I'd be starting to collect PAL discs I gave some thought to actually getting a PAL DVD player (from Zone Free DVD Players or Region Free DVD Players.
    I told Jeremy about my magical Red Wings sweatshirt today, so he urged me to wear it for tonight's game. I forgot until the second period. Soon after I put it on, the Wings tied the Avs and then won the game.

---

    I got an e-mail from Mike reminding me that Jimmy Buffett is on Leno tonight. He also told me David Lee Roth has been appearing on radio stations and performing acoustic sets; one of the songs he does is none other than Buffett's "Tin Cup Chalice". Roth is scheduled to appear tomorrow morning on Detroit's WRIF (101.1 FM), so Mike wants me to tape it.
    I finally got around to hauling the huge old encoder chassis to the loading dock to send back. Luckily, I arrived as the UPS guy was loading up. Issue two of The Lord of the Rings fan club magazine was waiting for me at home. It's getting harder each day to wake up early, so I took a nap after dinner. I came to at around eight:o'clock with the phone ringing. I was completely out of it, and for quite a while I was afraid it was Friday morning already and I'd slept too late and work was calling me to find out why I'd missed the start of programming. After quite a while I realized it couldn't be Friday morning -- I was still dressed and I didn't remember Thursday evening!
    On a whim, I checked the VCD group again and discovered Centropy had come out with their SVCD copy of Attack of the Clones. They were uploading the three discs over a six day period. I heated up some popcorn for a snack but I lost track of time and burned it. I ended up tossing it out; the house stinks now too.

---

    I didn't remember to tape WRIF till right before I left. I used my DAT recorder and just to make sure I didn't miss anything I used a 90-meter tape at LP-speed (which meant I'd be recording for six hours). The day was very quiet; there wasn't even much to do since Monday's schedule was so short. It would be Memorial Day, so the only shows scheduled were from Canada. As if to grind our nose in it, the Canadians went from having one or two shows on to having programming from eight to five.
    I'd finished off going through all the toons and e-mails on Homestar Runner yesterday. Today I spent some time on Strong Bad's "Message Bored". I discovered the secret games hidden behind the "0", and I also learned how to score big on Night Driver.

I only got two phone calls today.     The cool thing about getting home early is I can get sloppy foods from the drive-thrus. I don't have to eat in the car on the way to work; I can get Whoppers and Taco Bell and messy stuff like that, and eat it at home. Today, I first went to the Bo-Ric's by my house for a haircut, and then I went to the Subway next door for tuna sub on wheat. I listened to Drew & Mike from the DAT I'd recorded this morning; then I digitized David Lee Roth's version of "Tin Cup Chalice" and uploaded it to my Buffett page.

---

    Another Saturday spent on my computer. I was intrigued by something called DVD Copies Plus, not as a means of pirated discs but as a way to transfer my PAL Harry Potter to an NTSC VCD. It would take too long to transfer a whole movie, so as an experiment I worked on my U2 DVD. I've been aggravated too long that the Easter egg buried on disc two is inaccessible on my player, so I used the program to rip just that "chain" off the disc.
    I also did a massive overhaul on this here Diary section. I finally got around to starting this very May page, writing up the first ten entries. I also decided to rename all my diary files -- changing from "month/year" to "year/month", which makes much more sense and was the way I should've done it from the beginning. (This might also mean some broken links here, which I haven't caught. If you find one, let me know. I also converted all the pages to CSS, to help with the menus up top.
    I deliberately wore my Red Wings sweatshirt, but I guess the magic wore off now that I was anticipating it. The Wings lost. I converted the U2 VOBs to MPEGs over night.

---

    I turned the U2 MPEGs into RealVideo files and posted them on my U2 page. Maybe they'll help other people who can't get to those Easter eggs. (By the way, I love DVD bonus features, but I hate DVD Easter aggs.) I added the next ten entries to this here May page, and I redid two of the above graphics so they'd have a mouseover effect.

---

    Memorial Day. Reid had agreed last week to work the morning shift for today's schedule. I didn't have to go in till two. I only got one call, right before it was time to leave. I didn't bother with my Wings sweatshirt tonight; they lost regardless. The Avs' Roy is an impenetrable wall; the Wings' Hasek spends the entire game flailing about on his back. I spent the night over at Digital Blasphemy; I'd bought a membership a while back, and it had been a long time since I'd visited the place.

---

    It felt nice having it be Tuesday already, a little headstart for the weekend. Just so I wouldn't forget or let too much time pass, I made a point to call up the hand surgeon my doctor recommended. The Cortisone shot hadn't done a thing, so it was time to take the next step. I got an appointment for June 18. I couldn't believe a Wyandotte hand surgeon is that busy; if anything, a family doctor should be busier, since he has to see everybody.
    Reid told me about his Isle Royale trip when I got in. I guess they'd had rough seas on the trip back, delaying them, and forcing them to drive sixteen hours straight to make it home in time for work on Monday. I guess he'd been hurting yesterday, trying to contact Jeremy to come in so he could leave early. I've only been to Isle Royale once, and only for a couple hours (just to say I'd seen it, not to actually camp there); and the trip back had been hellish. It was then I had experienced the power of Saltines.
    I looked up stuff on my DeQuervain's wrist ailment, especially since I'd have to remedy myself for another month. And Homestar Runner inspired me to look up Flash sites to either look for tutorials or (even better) stuff I could simply download and use on my site. I was interested in something called Flash DB, since it had a chat feature which actually worked around our corporate firewall.
    I stopped at Rite Aid and bought a wrist brace. It really does seem to help, but it makes typing nigh impossible. I could not get FlashDB to work for me, especially since the instructions for the chat feature are particularly lacking. I searched for alternatives and ended up sidetracked into experimenting with the YabbSE message board. It was better looking than my UltraBoard so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I gave myself a crash course in setting up mySQL and PHP on my server and I had my new board working by the end of the night.

---

    Workers showed up in the morning to tear down our old rotting redwood fence by the side of the house. A replacement vinyl fence would be put up instead. They tore down the old fence, and then they took off leaving the new posts lying in a pile.
    Since it's warming up I decided to shop for new shirts on the way to work. I went to Meijer's, which quite often has decent clothes; but I guess all the other short fat guys in the area got there before me, since the selection was quite limited. I got work a halfhour early, so I decided to swing over to Mervyn's instead. This was a good move, since they had plenty of nice golf shirts; and I spent over a hundred bucks picking out my new oversized wardrobe.
    Dennis came by, spending the afternoon with us. There'd been changes over at his building. We learned Darryl was being moved to a new project. Dennis also had a new VCR for us, which might have a working BNC output, and he hung around to help us hook it up. We had trouble getting one of our receivers to work afterward; I thought it was just coincidence, but Dennis thought one of our return feeds had been pulled. He had me call over to the "satellite garden", and we found out two feeds had indeed been pulled. Even worse than that, the guys over there hadn't even known these were our feeds when they pulled them. Dennis asked what happened to Bruno, the engineer who knows the most about our setup, but we were told no one had heard from him for three weeks. They didn't know if he was coming back; they didn't even know what happened happened to him. He'd gone to Thailand on vacation, to continue trying to bring his wife to the U.S., and that was the last we'd heard from him. Very strange.
    I tried to get to Big Al's after work, but it was storming heavily as I got close to home. It had only been cloudy at work, but it was a deluge here. No surprise, my friends had already left by the time I got to the bar. I continued work on Flash chat applications when I returned home. I found some really nice looking ones, but they only work on ASP servers. Luckily I found one, Webfroot's Shoutbox, that also had a PHP design.

---

    I got Shoutbox running on my homepage, but then screwed it up by trying to add the "smileys" feature to it. I accidentally created a folder called "smileys\" on my web space, even though the name contains an illegal character. I could delete the folder since Unix said it doesn't exist, but I couldn't create a proper "smileys" folder since Unix said it already did exist. I was so frustrated by this that I ended up trying to delete everyting and start over -- except I couldn't delete the neither here nor there "smileys\" folder.
    This problem rankled at me all day, until I tried using a different FTP program. I used an older one, and remarkably it had no problem whatsoever deleting the folder. I reinstalled Shoutbox and got it up and running on my homepage. To celebrate, I posted a bunch of made-up comments. (There's your behind-the-scenes tidbit: the first several Shoutbox comments are fake!)
    It had rained hard last night back at home, and now it rained hard at work. We had about twenty minutes of rain fade, knocking out our signal to the rest of the world. I of course listened to my U2 Detroit concert from last year, during my commute. I ordered a couple Homestar Runner t-shirts when I got home.

---

    I got few real comments on my Shoutbox, especially from Reid and Jeremy. My nephew Joe even sent me greetings from the other side of the state, from Kalamazoo. I was so used to hockey games on Saturday that I'd had no idea the Wings were playing Game Seven tonight. By coincidence I happened to be wearing my new red golf shirt. I wasn't brave enough to listen to the first period as I drove home after work -- so it was quite a shock to discover the Wings were already leading the Avalance 4-0! After so many tight scores, tonight's 7-0 blow-out didn't seem real. Along the way I tried giving FlashDB another try. I worked at it and worked at it, but I could not get it to work. I got sidetracked into downloading an XP Plus! upgrade; I thought it might add some new desktop themes but I think it just added CD label templates. I went looking for XP themes online, wondering if someone had finally figured out how to make them as easily as Plus! 98 themes. It turns out a company called TGT Soft LLC has something called "Style XP" which can load desktop themes into XP. It can also change the OS's look, similar to Stardock's Window Blinds. It didn't seem as clunky or glitchy as Window Blinds (from my experience), so I went ahead and bought it for twenty bucks, and then stayed up till three in the morning going through the Theme XP themes and downloading them.

---

Next Month
Back to Trouble Loner homepage
To Bitter Old Man site
To SFG World