Friday, July 31, 2009

Have you hugged your SysAdmin today?

That was today.... Sniff...

http://www.sysadminday.com/

No cards... No flowers... No one loves me... Boo-hoo-ho!

Wait a second... I'm an anti-social troll... I forgot! I don't care!

Here's some pretty music...


Later,

MiddleMan

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wedenday's Work Woes...

Due to a nasty stomach flu I left work early yesterday and worked from home today.

The Mid-Wife was concerned that they might be upset that I took the day when the head manager is out on vacation. I told her not to worry, they knew I was sick yesterday, and I told them about staying home as early as I could. Everything should be fine,

Unfortunately, she was right. They were upset... But not because I called out sick.

It started when the second-in-command sent me an email to call him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, "I see you doing work, but I thought you were going to try and come in today?"

"I'm OK, but I didn't get enough sleep last night from being sick, so I changed my mind. I tried contacting you sooner, but you were out."

"So you think it's the flu? Not food poisoning?"

That was a weird question, I thought. I didn't mention food poisoning. "No, my wife was in contact with someone at her job who came down with the stomach flu. So, I think that's probably what did me in. Also, I had a bout of food poisoning a month ago, and I got sick right after I ate the bad food. The first time I got sick now was late at night when I was sleeping. My wife ate the same thing as me for dinner, and she's fine."

"Oh, are you sure?"

Again, weird. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well, if it's the flu, the corporation is asking us to let them know of anyone who comes down with it. Because of the Swine Flu epidemic."

So that's why I was working from home today with "food poisoning".

Later,

MiddleMan


Monday, July 27, 2009

Quick! Nematodes got feet!


Just had to share this...

MiddleMan

Retro Monday... Purple Prose and Violet Rays

This is a late post in honor of the Lord of Tech, Nikola Tesla, who's birthday was only a few weeks ago.

That's him at left behind a very reserved-seeming Samuel Clemens. (More on this gentleman another time.)

I know the usual thing to do in this situation is to make fun of the silly tech pawned of as his "secret discoveries", but I want to make something clear...

Without him we might not have:


So when people go on about his manias, "death rays", ioncraft, or his beliefs in eugenics; it just serves to dilute all the wonders this man brought to us.

But, even I have to wonder what people were thinking about when portable tesla coils were used in the creation of Voilet Rays. More here.



Now aside from this old set I found on Ebay, I bet you're thinking no one still looks to buy these things for anything other than a curiousity, right?

Wrong. (Why do I do this to myself? I know where this is going...)



Of course Cacye had to be involved in this: http://www.cayce.com/vray.htm

Sigh...

It could be worse, they could be selling useless orgone gener...


THAT IS IT! I'm building a rocket to Mars! See you all later!

Goodbye and goodnight,

MiddleMan



Sunday, July 26, 2009

Serial Sunday Part 5

Finally getting things back under control. Life is good, the Mid-Wife and I are checking out houses now, being that we've been talking seriously about raising a family.

Yeah, even I'm surprised at that one.

Also, I've been extremely fortunate to get back in touch with one of my oldest friends, Joe and his wife Toni-Ann, who I haven't seen in more than ten years. Between what hasn't changed and was has, taking time to catch up has been a big breath of fresh air. I'd be remiss not to mention that one of the biggest changes has been their two sweet, adorable kids, Victoria and Vincent, both of whom are quickly becoming part of my small group of favorite people on the planet.

A very small group, maybe, but important none-the-less. ;)

Let's get back to the story...
____________________________________________

You Lost Me...

A serial story
By MiddleMan

Part Five

Craig felt like the world was screaming at him all at once, his head was in a spin and nothing could help him now...

"Carrie! We haven't seen you here for years!"

Except his mother.

"Oh, come in dear!" his mother pleaded with the Bitch, "How's your mom? Craig's girlfriend Linda is here as well!"

Or, maybe not...

"Oh, Detective! I didn't see you there. You come in as well, can I get you something to drink?"

"No, I think maybe Craig needs some more time to heal." Dakins replied. His big hand grasped Craig's hand before he could react, and pressed a business card into it. "Call me when you get the time, OK?" He turned his large frame to the Bitch and handed another one to her, "You look like you may need this, too."

"Uh, sure, huh, thanks," she said while still trying to avoid Craig's stare. "I think I should leave, too," she said to Craig's mother.

"Nonsense! Come in! Why, you haven't come around here since you and Craig were little!"

This was true. He and Carrie had been good friends when they were younger. She was the neighborhood tomboy and was the best "bottlecaps" player. Unfortunately, Craig couldn't see that young girl he once knew, just the Bitch she became.

"Mom? Can you give us a minute?" he deplored to his mother, "She, uh, just wants to ask me something quick."

His mother looked a little disappointed, "OK, but don't forget Linda." She walked away leaving a faint smell of developer in her wake.

Craig screwed up his nerve and looked at Carrie. "Are you crazy, Bit...," he caught himself before finishing, "I mean, Carr?" He surprised himself by using his old nickname for her.

"No. I mean maybe. I don't know," she looked more stunned than he was by the name, "Look, somethings going on around here and I think it's affecting us and everybody else!"

Craig took a step back and looked at her. She seemed serious, but he hadn't seen that look in some time, so he wasn't sure. "Are you talking about the party? Look, that was... I don't know! I don't want to talk about it now!"

"Talk about what? Oh, that. Look, that may be part of it or not, but I'm not concerned about that," She said more rational than Craig would've given her credit for. "Meet me later at the corner drug store downtown, if you don't want to talk here. I'll be there until six."

He wanted to tell her off, but she turned around and strode away with a determination better left alone. He rubbed his head and tried to understand what just happened. Was something really going on, or was the world just going crazy?

"Uh, what was she doing here?"

Linda's voice snapped him back into reality with a cold feeling in his stomach. "She's crazy, nothing new, Hon," he turned to face her and was met with a stare that would've frozen a bull in it's tracks, "She's, uh, looking for her oily boyfriend or something. I told her I didn't know anything."

She looked at him like she didn't believe a thing that came out of his mouth, but she just said, "Fine. Let's get back to what we were talking about, right?"

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about colleges and why it suddenly wasn't a good idea for her to go anymore. She said that maybe he was right, maybe she needed to take time off to "find herself". She recently came to the decision that all of her planning for college may have been crazy, and there was something else waiting for her.

Craig tried to understand where she was coming from, but this was so different from what she was normally that he found himself confused. All he could say was that maybe she should think about it, maybe she was just letting her fears get the best of her. All this did was make her mad that he didn't understand where she was coming from.

Also, his constantly checking the time didn't help...
___________________________________

Finally, another one done! More soon, staring to make multiple post ahead of time.

Later,

MiddleMan

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sunday, so sue me...

Worked most of the weekend and had my brother-in-law's birthday today so no serial. Sorry.

But, I've been meaning to share this little ditty for a while; one of the first music videos I ever saw:


Enjoy!

Later,

MiddleMan

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I should be insulted...

I mean, I'm half-Italian myself. But this is too funny:


Who doesn't love a smoking super-hero?

Later,

MiddleMan

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Serial Sunday, Part 4...

...Finally!

_______________________________________________


You Lost Me...

A serial story
By MiddleMan

Part Four

Getting home after yesterday's events was thankfully quiet and relaxed, aside from his mother making a side comment about underage drinking and that she was glad that things weren't worse. She must have been saving these for when she was sure that Craig would be a receptive captive audience.

In his room, in the darkness, he contemplated the past events like a puzzle that had no border pieces and no box top to refer to. He knew that nothing that happened had a rational connection, but he couldn't shake the sensation that he should be seeing something else. That sensation was to last until he fell to sleep.

A few hours later he was awoken to the fact that his bed was occupied by an obstacle that occupied the space between his feet. Assuming it was the cat, he made an effort to flip it off of the bed with his foot, but found that the weight was much more than feline mass. He opened his eyes to find his sister staring at him.

"Ah good, you're not dead," she said as she pushed his foot away from her leg, "Linda's here."

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his fingers, and blinked at her, "Why didn't you just call me or shake me awake?"

"Didn't know what would happen," she shrugged, "What if you sat up to quickly and your brains fell out of your nose? Mom probably would've made me clean it up."

Craig laughed at this absurdity, "Aww, I think my little sister is concerned about her big brother." He made cooing sounds as he sat up and lunged to hug her. As he expected, she dodged the attempt while screaming, "FREAK! Just get up and get downstairs so Linda can see you!" She slammed the door on her way out.

Changing out of his shorts into his jeans and t-shirt, he strained to remember what Linda had said the day before. He knew that she wanted to talk to him, but couldn't exactly remember what her mood was. He hoped that she had forgotten as well.

He didn't believe it for one minute, but one could hope.

As he got downstairs he saw Linda on the couch, nervously flipping through his mom's photography magazines. "Hey, Love. You wanted to see me?" he asked as his feet neared the last few steps.

She dropped the magazine she had in her hands and stood up, tripping as she tried to make it over the coffee table in one action. "Oh, I'm sooo sorry that you got hurt because of me!" she apologized as she righted herself. He put his hands around her when he got to where she stood, "What are you talking about? You didn't cause someone to attack me."

Her blue eyes were wet with tears as she hugged back, "No, if I hadn't made you rush over because of my doubts, you never would have gotten into that at all!"

Craig couldn't help looking at the celling when she said that. She did find out about him and the Bitch, and now she was going to let him have it.

"Look, it not what you think..." he started.

"No, it isn't," Linda interrupted, "It's worse. I don't know what I want to do."

"We can get through this. Really, Love, it's just a stupid mistake."

"That's right!" she cried, "I mean, why am I looking into colleges anyway?"

Craig was taken aback by this; Linda did nothing but go on about going to college for all of the time they had been going out. Even chiding him about his choice of "taking time out to find himself" when they had their occasional tiffs. This wasn't like her at all.

Before he could clear this up in his head, they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

Craig excused himself and walked over to the door. He opened it to find Detective Dakins standing off to the side of the porch. "Sorry to interrupt, but I was hoping to have a talk with you if you were up to it," the detective's deep voice rumbled.

"This really isn't a good time. Can it wait?"

"Well normally I'd say yes, but a couple of things have come up. First: we found your bike and some of Mr. Pearson's stuff next to it a mile from where you were attacked. Also: there's something else you might want to know about..."

Craig tried to suppress a groan, "What else?"

The dark-suited man moved to the other side of the porch, revealing a familiar red-headed figure trying not to look up at Craig.

"She's been waiting outside your house for half an hour," the deep voice informed, "You know her?"

Craig felt his headache coming back with a vengeance...

_____________________

Ok, getting back on track. Will post more soon...

Later,

MiddleMan

Friday, July 10, 2009

Friday Fun...

Something to give a lift to the sour feelings of late:


Hug a Geek today!

Later,

MiddleMan

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Wedendays Woe...

I did something stupid today...

I put something in my Facebook that I should have known was going to cause a issue with people.

I put in an anti-Jenny McCarthy post.

I forgot that my cousin has a child that has been diagnosed with autism.

Needless to say, that did not go over well.

The bad thing is that I forgot that it's hard to argue a point with someone so close to home.

Nothing I said was taken in the context with which it was meant. It was taken personally by my cousin and her husband. They saw it as if I was belitting their knowledge of the subject. They said that I was being one-sided, when I was just pointing out that things aren't always what they seem at face value.

In short, they got offended. This wasn't what I intended, and I'm kicking myself for it.

I'm going to take it as a learning experience; people take things personally when it's their issue, and you can't try to be rational about it to them. You just end up looking like a jerk.

Especially with family...

Later,

MiddleMan

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Sunday Serial, not again....

OK, between the weekend of the 4th of July and getting on Facebook and reuniting with old friends I have been very busy MiddleMan.

So I'm missing another week.

I need to get more organized and write more here if I'm going to get in some more practice. In the meantime, I will redouble efforts to get my act together and finish what I start.

Let's hope I don't let anything get in my way this time...

Later,

MiddleMan

More video from a fine man...

...Literally.

Richard P. Feynman, without bongos:


And, Richard P. Feynman with bongos:


More to come soon...

MiddleMan

Making up for lost time...

I wish I'd seen this earlier...


Enjoy!

MiddleMan

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Just because I can...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins!


Try and resist the spell...

Later...

Middleman