November 29, 2006
Grandpa Potter 88 & Bookworm
A few things. First, I'll start with something that might interest a few people. Some of you might recall the game bookworm, where you tried to spell words out of several columns of letters, and then the letters would fall, etc. Well, they've turned that game into a "role-playing game" of sorts. To defend the library, you battle things. The damage you deal is based on how big of a word you spell. I'm sure a nerd like Laura would love this game. Hehe. You can download it for free, well, for a limited time it will be free or whatever.
Grandpa Potter turned 88 years old today. I took him out to eat at Fish Daddy's while Dad did signing of stuff with the movers. We were kind enough to bring Dad back some food as well. On the way back from the restaurant, I drove by the church so Grandpa could see how it had progressed. Then we picked out a cake. By we, I mean I, because Grandpa trusted my judgment in such matters and the dreary weather made him want to sit in the car and wait. Anyways, here's some pictures of that:
You might notice a strange anomaly in the next picture, some strange yellow mark got included, guess I need to check my camera??
And here is a wide shot that shows how empty the family room is at the moment.
Now, to respond to Jennifer's comment, no, they aren't any smaller. That would be a mental problem you are having, which is quite common in Jennifer's case. Optical illusion, maybe. For proof, I took the photo, and moved the Mullen clan up, because they do, when together, have the power to levitate, and apparently to multiple too!!!!!! *gasp*
That is all for now.
TUMEO.
November 27, 2006
Thanksgiving Pictures
Thanksgiving was great. It was so nice seeing everyone in the family, and it was oh so much fun cleaning/organizing/moving stuff around so the packers would not be packing junk my mother does not want. It was especially fun going through my room. I KNOW that Rene loved every second of it. As I type this, half, well, maybe a little more than half, of the house is packed. Problem is, my dad just heard from the builders, and it looks like the closing date is moved back by a week. So we have a large part of the house packed, and no where to take it. But enough of that, time for pictures.
Now, unfortunately, not all of the family was able to be up at once. So we took 2 pictures, one minus the Mullen clan, and one with only the Mullen clan. Unfortunately, we didn't quite take the pictures at the same time, there was about a 30 minute difference in the time of day, so this affected the exposure because of sun light slightly. Anyways, I pieced together the two pictures, and messed with the levels a little. What do you think?
Something my friends might find interesting, apparently L337 5p34k is evil and making kids be able to hide from parents on that mysterious 'internet'...
TUMEO.
November 23, 2006
HAPPY THANKSGIVING ... and Sadness
A great big HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone out there. I hope you are able to stuff your tummies and feel good around family and friends.
A small bit of sad news. Léia had the meeting with the US Embassy yesterday quite early. They ended up denying her the visa to be able to come over to the US and visit during December. They told her that because she was so young and lived alone they were worried she would not have any reason to come back to Brazil. This was even with a letter from her boss talking about how she had a good job and would want to come back, and that part of the trip would be visiting the office located in the US.
I will still be traveling down to Brazil after Christmas to see her and to meet her family. So we will be able to spend time together, just not as much now. I know she is very sad about; everything seemed lined up perfectly for her visit, but I suppose it wasn't the right time yet. It will come thought, and my friends and family will be able to meet her.
A bit of humor for my friends that maybe haven't seen it: PS3 vs. Wii. And, I've heard this one before, but someone put it to pictures, so it's funny again!!!
Hopefully my friends that are in town this holiday will remember to remind me to give them posters I have that they requested. Also, I'll be working tonight, it's lovely inventory, as always, for Thanksgiving. I managed to have off for Black Friday, which is really cool. Though, I am "on call". I think they'll be fine. Anyways, that's all for now. Time to go down and see about helping with the feast.
TUMEO.
November 07, 2006
House
Uploading pictures to the gallery tonight and in the morning. Thought I'd post a few of the nicer things they've done so people can see, then I post a link tomorrow to the gallery as well as some pictures of the boys having fun with Great Grandpa and Grandpa.
Grandpa's extra tiling ..... and ..... The fans+lights in the house, I vote for not changing the light bulbs in that one.
Mom's counter tops and sink!
Mom's back splash and a view of the backyard.
The entry way chandelier and the other ones in the house.
Things are extremely hectic over her in Tulsa for me. Lots of things happening at work, having to prepare for, and still keeping busy with teaching karate.
TUMEO.
November 05, 2006
Kyle, Kane, and Helicopter
On Saturday I went down to Texas with my Grandfather and dad. We visited, looked at the house and went shopping at the Outlet malls with the added bonus of my grandfather's 45% employee discount (retired of course). Got lots of stuff for people.
While we were down there, Kane showed off one of his helicopters, which was pretty cool, and very stable. I thought I'd share 3 of the videos I took on my phone for Laura and John. I'll post the best one first, the other two I wouldn't bother posting normally, but this is Laura we are talking about, so anything that is keep-able, well, it gets kept, right?? (these files are 3gp, which is playable in quicktime)
Now, if you click on the "Video X" link below, and it pops up a page with a bunch of non-english junk, then Download this instead. Or you can right click and save as... at least in firefox.
Video 3
Video 1
Video 2
I also got pictures of the house, and mom's beautiful kitchen table top, which I'll post even later today, or tomorrow.
TUMEO.
November 03, 2006
Working with Computer Illiterates
First, I'll answer a question in my comments about the spelling of a particular word, theatre. Yes, Nick, it did show up on Firefox that it was "misspelled". However, having the limited education that I do, I happened to be aware that theatre is spelled both "theater" and "theatre". Most dictionaries will reflect this. Theatre is the older version. I used to, at one point in time, associate one version with the "older" type of theatrical performances, such as plays or musicals, etc, and the other version with a place you watch movies at. I can't recall which I used to do, I just know that now-a-days I tend to type "movie theatre".
Today was interesting. I went in to work because there was a problem with the computers at the "home office". I had briefly checked it last night before going home, but didn't spend much time on it, as I didn't leave the actual theatre until 2AM. The problem as it was told to me originally was that the computers in the office could not print.
So I got there, and discovered that the computer that the printers were hooked up to was having trouble getting on the network. It was particularly puzzling because it showed it was actually sending a few bytes and receiving a few bytes of information. After awhile, I determined the network card must be going glitchy, so I would just buy one in the morning and put the new one in.
When I got there today, it was able to actually get on the network... kinda. It was just very very slow for some reason. So, I messed with it some more. I got it to work, but it was so sluggish, I decided I'd just go ahead and put the new one in. I turned off the computer, got down, pulled out the tower and....... there was a magnet on the side of the tower holding a paper to it. Does anyone reading this know what a magnet can do to a computer? I pulled it off, and it was a rather week magnet, so I thought, surly this couldn't be affecting it. Well, it was. After starting it back up without the magnet, it worked 100%. The side of the case the magnet was on happened to be the side the motherboard is screwed to. The place the magnet was happened to be directly over where the LAN port was. Now, the magnet had been there a long time, so it was just slowly affecting it, I guess.
After finding this out, I walked to the theatre, and told Red, "Do you know what magnets do to computers?", to which she was like "oooooo" realizing that she had placed a magnet there... yeah... sometimes I just want to slap people.
TUMEO.
November 01, 2006
Halloween
Halloween night was interesting for me. I ended up working at the movie theatre so another manager could hand out candy at her new house for the first time. She was really into it. Well, I figured it would be a slow night, so did others. And it was a slow day. It started out slow even. Then BAM, tons of people, long line. Got through them, then luckily decided to go ahead and pop another batch of popcorn, because then all of a sudden BAM, tons more people. I ended up seeing 90+ people for the 7:00 o'clock "round". It was pretty crazy. A lot of the customers said "You're doing a good job for being the only person". Man was I rushing. 90+ people would normally be nothing if you were JUST selling tickets or JUST selling concessions, but when you do both, it's a bit of a strain. Added to that, it was mostly adults, so they actually bought a lot of concessions. Surprisingly, only 24'ish people went to Saw III, the rest were scattered in the various other movies.
In other news, I'm waiting on my sister whom teaches science to send me an e-mail about atoms......... In addition to the "Newton's Laws" LEGO movie I'm trying to make, she is now requesting another one about atoms.... shesh...
Also, I'll try calling, IM'ing some of my friends tonight, but you know... A-Kon... well.... It suddenly looks like I won't be able to go!!! My expertise has been requested in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and I wouldn't return from that until the Monday right after A-kon ends. Sad Panda, and yet Happy chipmunk. Sad because I will miss A-kon, Happy because, well, those will be awesome places to have visited.
That's about all for now. Going to get to sleep, waking up in the morning and helping a martial arts friend with a proposal. Showing the movie they first watched together as a DVD with the digital projector on the Big Screen at work and sound system. Unfortunately, I'm doing it BEFORE we open the theatre, so it's kinda early.
Oh yeah, and Joe didn't know, so I thought I'd also mention that Firefox 2.0 is out. It's interesting so far. It has built in spell checker ANY time you type something, which has already helped me in this post. IE 7 is also out.
TUMEO.