Thursday, January 29, 2009

White Death 2009

So the White Death descended upon us this week.  I've posted a few photos from the event here.  

Rebecca and Wesley were off school for three days, which for my wife's district CPS is really unprecedented.  We raided the library for a bunch of movies as our Direct TV was out.  Direc TV was VERY helpful.  They told us we should clean the ice ourselves and that many of their customers in the "northern states" choose to install heaters on their dish.  "Northern states".  I was waiting for her to call me a damn yankee.  She also informed me that the problem would fix itself in 3-5 days and that "sunlight and evaporation are great ways to clear snow and ice from your dish".  Sorry we don't have any Sunshine and Evaporation stores here in the northern states...

Anyway Becks got on the roof today and cleared the dish.  The kids were watching Spongebob in glorious HD again in no time.  

All in all it was a nice few days at home with the family.  Becca and I watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Step Brothers.  Pretty funny.  We also hit Target just as they were doing 75% off toys.  No kidding we finished all of the shopping for the kids birthdays and believe it or not most of Christmas.  If you have kids watch the Target.  

Hope everyone survived the white death.  

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Simpsons

After many, many years of showing The Simpsons at 11:00, FOX 19 WXIX in Cincinnati has replaced it with Family Guy, man I do not like Family Guy...

They tried something similar a few years a go and displeased fans caused an outcry which changed their decision.

In the comments is the letter I sent to them.  If you are as outraged as I, feel free to contact them.

UPDATE:  In the comments is a response from Rick Oliver, WXIX Programming Director.  Things do not look good.  Mobilize Simpsons fans!  Mobilize!

The White Death

As it does from time to time here in Cincinnati, The White Death has arrived.  What is The White Death you may ask?  Well, in Cincinnati, it is when the "forecasters" "warn" that the city may or may not receive accumulating snow.  What this "warning" does it send the city into paralyzing fear.  People forget how to drive, how to think rationally and believe they will only survive by buying a new shovel, a bag of salt and all the milk and bread their grocery cart will hold.  It is in interesting phenomenon created and perpetuated by the "forecasters".

The "forecasters".  Those seers.  The holder of all knowledge.  Only in professional baseball can you only do your job about 30% of the time and be considered "good".  The "forecasters" like to use terms like "doppler" and "possibly" and "el nino" and "buy milk your all gonna die".  They are ridiculous, weird and usually incorrect in everything they say.  They like to "warn" us of the coming storm, and make themselves feel better by laughing at us for driving like idiots in the snow they had no idea was really coming.  

I worked in a grocery store for 7 years during high school and college.  Whenever snow was "warned" to be coming we had a skid in the back with shovels, salt, gloves and that key de-icer stuff".  We would wheel it out when the "warning" came and wheeled it back after it was done.  It always amazed me how many shovels we sold.  I mean you live in Cincinnati.  Why do you already not have a shovel?  

The people, whipped into an absolute frenzy by the "warning" they got from the "forecasters" would run through the store turning their carts into instruments of wheeled fury and their new shovels into lances.  Seriously it was like Death Race 2000 in there.  Their plan?  to get to the dairy case.  See thats where the milk is.  After whipping past the bread aisle and using their shovels to swipe all the loaves of bread into their carts they'd head to the milk case.  It is the only time where the milk maids do not look at the expiration date.  The milk could have expired last week and they would still toss 4-5 gallons into their carts squishing their bread.  Shovels would quickly become weapons slashing through the air, crashing into each other in a brutal yet elegant battle.  Warrior poets they were and milk was their prize...

Once they obtained the milk they'd rush to the check out screaming about the wait, trembling with fear at the possibility of breaking down in a snow drift on their way home, with only enough bread and milk to feed 10 people for 4 weeks.  Finally they would run to their cars, tune into the latest "warning" on the radio and race home ignoring basic physics and rules of the road...racing home to eat their beloved bread and drink their glorious milk.  Shoveling their driveway while scoffing at their shovel-less neighbors and remembering that the shovel could be a deadly weapon once their ill prepared neighbors scrambled like an army of zombies towards the freshly cleaned drive way to steal the precious lifeblood of buttermilk and rye bread, because see, thats all that was left on the shelf.  

Yessir folks, the white death is here.  Stay away from my bread and milk...


Sunday, January 25, 2009

Week In Review

Wow.  Slipped big on blogging this week.  Should be the easiest thing for me to keep up with...Sorry to the 3 of you who have been eagerly staring at your google reader hoping to see more of my posts.  So what DID happen this week?  Lets take a look.

It was a pretty busy week which led to my lack of posts to be honest.  My employer reported last quarter earnings.  Pretty good considering the state of the economy.  

We had one day of nice weather which allowed me to not only walk outside with Emily, but also to wash the sheet of salty crap off the Richstery Machine...

Working out went well, but the weight didn't follow.  Details over at The Challenge.

My kid got his report card.  Did very well.  Straight "S"s.  Teacher said his writing, and reading have improved significantly.  Took him out to IHOP to celebrate.  Then off to the Cyclones game.  

Saturday was the first meating of the Great Burger Debate.  We met at Fatburger  ate and rated some burgers.  It was a great time.  Good food, good friends.  We plan to meat once a month to find the best burger in Cincinnati.  I like Fatburger, but imagine it will not win.  Brad and Kara came over after Burger Debate for some video games and funny youtube videos.  

Sunday was Wesley's schools open house.  At the science fair, one exhibit caught my eye.  Someone gets it.  

So how was your week?

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Test

Testing posting from iBlogger

West Side is the Best Side.

So here in Cincinnati there is an interesting division of the city.  As sure as I75 slices through the area, it divides the town into 2 distinct areas.  The East side and the West Side.  Now East siders do not really care about this.  They mostly live happily in their 'burbs unaware or mostly uninterested about what happens on the west side of 75. Westsiders on the other hand, love being Westsiders.  They love their high school football like its their children, their chili like its their mother and their neighborhood like its their dad.  Generations of residents of Bridgetown, Delhi, Mt. Airy and Dent are passionate about living on the west side.  The west side is so much an entity onto itself my good friend RJ would oft refer to my childhood home as "France"

I myself am a westsider by blood.  I lived with my grandma and grandpa since birth and they adopted me when I turned 4.  We lived in Bridgetown on Lakewood drive.  I walked to Oakdale elementary.  We shopped at Osterhues.  We ate at Ron's Roost, J&J's, and Putz's.  And we bowled at Western Bowl.  My dad's family were big time bowlers.   In fact when I was a month old I appeared on the TV show "King of Bowling" as my grandma held me while my dad bowled. We went on tournaments around the country.  But it was Western Bowl right down the road from us that we frequented.  When report cards came our Western Bowl gave student's with good grades free bowling and games at the arcade.  It was a big part of my childhood.  

Now its about to close.  After 52 years, the Hoinke family is shutting down the 60 plus lanes.  Some blame the economy.  Some blame the Ohio smoking ban.  Some blame the declining lack of interest in bowling. Either way it will be sad that a small business, so successful for so many years, host to an internationally renowned million dollar purse tournament, will soon be no more.    So get your bowling shoes and a bunch of friends and head to the Western Bowl.  I'll meet you at J&J's for a double decker before hand.

Whatever the cause for the closure, its not just a west side landmark thats closing.  Its a Cincinnati landmark...

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Week In Review

No, my resolution to blog daily has not already failed.   Just been a busy week.  Focusing on one resolution, working out, has been priority one.  I am glad to say things seem to be going well on that front.  I have not gotten back on the scale yet,  but I have been working out daily and eating better.  Minor Frisch's detour not withstanding...

Been picking up a lot of hours at the money job which is good, especially in light of some news from the boss.

Signed Wesley up for t-ball today and signed up to help coach as well.  We'll see how that goes...

I added a subscribe link to the top of the blog for the 2 of you that may be following this thing.

More to come...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Entertainment News

1.  Jackie Chan to play Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid remake.  

Guitar Hero.

So last weekend I picked up Guitar Hero III for PS3  at Target on clearance for $25  bucks with guitar.  Now, I had avoided the whole Guitar Hero craze up until now.  I was sure I would not be good at it and I thought I would hate it.  Well, turns out I was half right.  I'm not very good at it, but I love it.  I know I am so very late to the game on this one, but this is a fun, unique gaming experience.  Emily and Wesley loved watching me play it.  Emily danced just about the entire time and this morning when she got up she walked right to the guitar and started dancing and saying "one more daddy one more!"  She is hilarious.  So if I am off the grid lately, I am likely catching up to 2004 by playing Guitar Hero.




Monday, January 12, 2009

Weekend Update

Busy weekend.  Worked Saturday night, first Sat. night in 3 years.  Weird.  It was like being a new guy again.  but nice to be busy evangelizing things.

Sunday we went to mass to see my brother in law play trumpet and my nephew was a server fo the first time.  Then to my nephews hockey game.  His team won 5-3.  It is amazing how still cool it is watching 10 year olds play hockey.  

Brad and Kara came over Sunday evening to watch some football and have some lasagne.  Good friends, good food, good times...shitty football.  When I'm cheering for the Steelers you know football season is over.

On the diet front Sunday was bad news. We were so busy, I did not get a chance to work out.  We also had Sonic coupons and had lasagne so that was bad news.  Brad and Emily and I killed some bean and cheese dip.  today I worked out pretty hard core to make up for Sunday.  Plan is to work out early in the morn again before going in for a 10-3 shift. 

 We may get some snow in Cincinnati so we will see what kind of commute there is in the morn.


Saturday, January 10, 2009

One Week

A successful first week of 2009.  I have kept up all my resolutions for a week!  writing daily, excercising, being awesome.  Now let's see if I can keep it up!

Lazy weekend, hanging with the children, shopping and my nephews birthday party.  

Have a good weekend folks.

Friday, January 09, 2009

My thoughts on the Palm Pre

At CES this week Palm revealed what many believe to be their last gasp at relevancy, webOS and the Pre.  As PDA type functionality moved primarily to cell phones and notebook computers over the last few years, Palm who once ruled business with their PDA's, have slipped out of the tech world's favor.   

With a certain fruit based company changing the face of mobile phones two years ago, it seemed pretty clear that Palm was a dead company walking.  My buddy Chris tweeted upon the announcement of the Pre, that it was pretty hot.  I am usually quick to disagree with many of Chris' thoughts on crappy tech, but this time I sort of agree.  

The phone does look cool.  At first it looks a bit like some other recent touch screen wannabes like from say Meizu.  The gumdrop design is pretty cute, while looking fairly modern and cool.  The main page of the touchscreen looks great, I like the errr "dock" at the bottom, but I imagine it only adds another layer or step to get to the other apps.  That I do not necessarily like.  The power of the processor and the multitasking sound and look great.  The slide out keyboard, eh, I can take it or leave it.  Ive never particularly cared for plastic keypads and I have never had any problems with the "soft" keyboard on my current touchscreen phone, so meh.  And I think the phone looks incredibly goofy and uncomfortable when the slider is out.  

But it looks nice.  Nicer than anything from WinMo, Symbian or RIM.  I mean there is little to no chance of my every leaving my current phone.  My phone is one of the finest devices ever, and likely my favorite piece of kit ever.  But competition, good competition, is good.  And hey back in the day I really liked my Palm Pilot.  Good luck Palm.  Not too much luck though...




Encouraging news!

No, not on the economy.  That still blows.  However, I recently began a diet of sorts in order to try and look and feel better.  I've been blogging about it a bit here and also joined an internet weight loss blog of sorts with Chris and Ben.  Now, my primary goals with this, which is now being called a routine instead of a resolution, are to feel better, look better, get rid of my belly, not die of obesity or heart attack and lose weight.  I list lose weight last because while clearly that is part of the plan, the actual number, is not as important to me as feeling and looking better.  So im not setting a goal weight or anything at this point.  Anyway as Bryan, a good friend of mine, pointed out it is still important to monitor that number as a gauge.  So at the start of this on Jan 3rd I weighed in at a hefty 299.  Today on the 9th I was 288.  I'm no mathematician, but thats 11 pounds.  Now, I am not getting too excited as I know this will stabilize a bit and I may even go up a bit as my body adjusts.  I am sure it is in shock that I am excercizing every day, drinking so much water, drinking much less soda and eating no cheeseburgers.  But in any case, it is very encouraging to see a tangible result of this new routine so early on.  It makes me redouble my efforts, and is quite encouraging.

Cross posted on The Challenge blog and Twitter.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

New Stuff

Cooooold today.   Hung out with Emily most of the day, worked out a bit when she was napping.  Since then I have been working on setting up the new computers.  Aluminum and glass across the board now in my arsenal.  The Power PC era still lives on at SRM as Rebecca and Emily are using a G3 iBook and a G3 iMac respectively.  

Good stuff so far, just downloading some updates and tweaking some settings.


Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Tired

Worked a double today.  very tired.  I did receive my new computer today!  Ill set it up tomorrow more to come...

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

This hand-crafted guitar is Eddie Van Halen's baby

Eddie Van Halen talks about his new guitar. Really interesting read about a rock legend with an obvious ear for all things sonic.

read more | digg story

Tech, rain and more

To assist in the Rebuilding of Rich, I've joined my buddy Chris and his buddy Ben in a weight loss/body reclaiming adventure dubbed The Challenge.  Follow our progress as we attempt to not be fat dudes anymore.  

A much ballyhooed and hyped ice story fizzled out this morning...much like the Ohio State Buckeyes did last night.  

Employment obligations disallow me from commenting much on it, but there was a technology conference that started today.  Some new stuff came out.




Monday, January 05, 2009

248 Calories I cannot, will not, but should and need to give up.

As you may know, I am overweight. Fat. Husky.  Thus the nickname The Big One, which I swear Bryan it is going to catch on this year.  I always have been fat except for a brief period between the end of high school and my discovery of beer.  In August of this year I began walking/jogging/running a minimum of 1-2 miles every day.  I even got a nike plus deal for my shoes/iPod which needs a new battery.  The result?  Well, I feel a bit better and my weight in 2008 from 2007 did nothing.  Not up or down.  I suppose it is good that I maintained my weight the entire year, but let's just say that maintained weight is not ideal and is certainly not healthy.  A lady never tells, but lets just say it rhymes with exactly "tree bundred". So, as the cool kids do, I made a resolution and I am sticking to it.  I began today instead of the 1st as I have been battling a particularly nasty case of bronchitis.  I worked hard.  The plan is to still walk/jog/run 1-2 miles per day on the treadmill or on the road weather permitting.  I will couple that with a steady workout on my home gym (seen above) which I've had for years.  The family is also eating better as evidenced by the ratio of produce to crap Emily and I got at the store today.  I am also going to limit myself to no more than 2 sodas a day.  TWO?! you say.  thats terrible!  248 calories!  Well, I love soda, Coca Cola Classic in particular and 2 a day is waaaayy less than what i normally consume so cut me some slack.  As my other resolution is to write more, thus the resurrection of the blog, I will periodically post workout updates here.  Encouragement taken in the comments section.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Resurrection, resolutions, revelations, revolution.

One of my many new year's resolutions is to write more.  To help accomplish this, I have resurrected my old blog and plan to post here regularly.  Really.  I'm serious.  I mean it this time.  If you do not believe me, feel free to come back every day.  You do not even have to read what I say, just come back and click on my ads.  So if you've been furiously refreshing this page since my last post in 2004 or are a new reader, welcome aboard, it should be a wild ride.