I Photograph, You Decide

Great way to keep an eye on the exiting crowd at Neyland Stadium...

Carb Happy

I love having a big backyard. With my acre-sized yard, I can plant a 40 x 40 foot vegetable garden, iris, and assorted plants and enjoy my two dogs running amuck after rabbits and ground squirrels. Sure it gets hot in the summer, but having a large space to entertain is worth the upkeep.

Part of the upkeep is the routine mowing and weed whacking every two weeks or so. One of my expectations is to have the garden tools work as expected when needed. Turning the key or pulling on the starter cord on gas-powered machines is a real joy. But it's a big frustration pill when that doesn't happen!

My lawn mower this year has been sputtering and hard to start. Yes, it is a pain when the right rear tire habitually goes flat and I have to lift the rear end up on a plastic milk crate to position the tire back on the rim.

What really gets my goat is when the grass is tall and the mower won't start. If I had the money to toss away or was stupid rich, I would go buy a new lawn mower. It's like saying "I am so tired of spending fifty bucks a month on car maintenance, that I am going to buy a new car instead!" ($400 plus car note for five years?)

My neighbor Frank is really adept at fixing mowers. In this part of Nashville, Frank is known as the lawn mower man. He finds old and discarded mowers, gets this running and sells them at a reasonable price. In fact we can tell when spring as officially arrived when Frank has a lawn mower for sale in the front yard on Bresslyn Road. Unfortunately Frank didn't have any $350 riding mowers. Ten years ago, I gave up the self-propelled push mower - why walk when one can ride?

This weekend, the grass was mighty tall. With Frank’s knowledge and tenacity to get it done, we took apart the carburetor and cleaned it with carb cleaner, air pressure and an $8.00 kit from Chilton’s, a parts supply house. I stunk like gas, my hair got greasy, and I was stressed when the three hours spent in the hot humidity Saturday failed to get the mower running.

Sunday, Frank took a air compressor and blew all of the dirt and grime from the aging rubber gas line clogging the free flow of gas. After putting the tiny springs and rubber gaskets back in place, we were in business! The mower started right up, purring like a brand new country cadillac 42" mower should.

I am a blessed man – I just cut my front and back yard in three hours on a like new mower that is running perfectly. Frank was quick to mention that I saved myself a thousand bucks (that I didn’t have) by rebuilding the carburetor. Amen to that! and Amen for great neighbors like Frank.

Cheap Motel?

Upon checking into the Courtyard Marriott, I noticed this fine print on the back of the door:



I figured I saved the company $880 bucks PER NIGHT in expenses.
Attaboy, Woo! Looking out for the shareholders and keeping the expenses down.

Twitter or thinking out loud in 140 characters or less...

A lot of times I think about creating a great post on something I want to say, but I fail to capture in words what I really want to say on this blog.

I am so out of the groove, but enjoying the new deluxe groove I'm in with traveling and talking to clients about search engine marketing on behalf of AT&T. I'm in my element (soon to be Honda Element) out and about in the field rather than being behind a desk all day. Since April, I'm been to Lousiville (caught my 1st sinus infection), New Orleans (saw the Ninth Ward), Baton Rouge (great seafood), Memphis (ribs and wings!), Atlanta (three weeks of traffic) and some other cities lined up.

When I travel, I gotta watch adding tonnage on my carcass, to make sure I'm smart, healthy and still can fit in my suit and tie outfits. But considering I'm walking a lot visiting business, I get some decent exercise on a daily basis.

To the right is my Twitter updates, which is the best I can do in 140 characters or less. If you're not on Twitter, you should be - it's a neat way to follow your friends, pass notes back and forth and find great info to share (like Jim did) such as:

Go to Google first
Type in “Chuck Norris”
Click on “I’m Feeling Lucky”

Other than Twittering, I'm thinking about Google and Yahoo! in my sleep, the 4th of July, fireworks, carpentry, gadgets and GearDiary.com, buying Vandy season tickets, the new iPhone and permanently laying off beef (three weeks not counting the 3 rectum rockets from Krystals).

Have fun ya'll -

Buying a Battery - Radio Shack Style

Ok, picture this - I walk into a Radio Shack and ask for a battery recharger for a alarm system lead free battery. It's a small brick that is used for 12 volt applications.

"You don't need a recharger for that type of battery."

"it says on the box that it can be recharged hundreds of times..."

"The alarm system charges it everyday."

"So why is the battery dead?"

"All of the recharges have been used up."

"So you're telling me this rechargeable battery can't be recharged?"

"Nope, it only recharges while it is being used."

$37.00 later, I buy the same battery and just move on...

Reminds me of the guy who ran our IT department in North Carolina - he came from a Radio Shack.

Overheard in Public Today

Stuff I hear in public today because I'm a good listener. Mrs. WonderDawg says I'm Chinese and nosy.

"So you're telling me you don't recycle and you shop at WalMart? What is wrong with you???"

Man walking out of Lowe's at mad wife who is leaving him behind; "You better get back here and pay for this stuff you dumb ass!"

He walked back in and paid for the stuff himself. Not sure how he was getting home.

Bonus: Courtesy of Busy Mom:
"If a man comes to your front door and says he is conducting a survey and asks you to show him your boobs, do not show him your boobs.
This is a scam. He only wants to see your boobs."

...and best question of the day: If every job paid $15.00 bucks an hour, would would you like to do?

My answer: be a LEGO designer or at least play with them all day.

Ronald and the clowns at McDonalds

Ordered 5 bacon egg biscuits; got 5 sausage biscuits instead...



Ronald is not the only clown working at McDonalds this morning. Dude!

Apple Hard Drive Relic

Once every five years, I make a trek to the attic (or Mrs. WonderDawg makes me) to declutter and investigate "what's in that box?"

There's nothing better than to sit on the kitchen floor, listening to Annie Lennox and bagging up old cords, USB cables, telephone wires, RCA cables, and the like...



Check out this relic:



It's a monster DataFrame 10 MG hard drive for an old Mac 512 that ran on a addon SCSI port connection. I tried Googling the price, but I'm sure it was around $800 in the old days. I'm tempted to hook it up to see what kind of data is still on the drive, assuming it still spins. I can't even do the math on how many songs the 10MG hard drive would hold!

Freaking Busy - but loving it!

Having started a new job marketing the big bad world of internet marketing solutions with AT&T, three weeks of training in Atlanta, one week in New Orleans, and back in Nashville... I'm settling into a new routine. The old days of going to bed by 2 am and waking up at 7 are gone.

Having a birthday, new routines, the elation of a new corporate job with the perks, great people at work, wearing a suit and tie, and loving what I’m destined to do is a real blessing indeed.

In due time, I’ll settle back into blogging, taking photographs, building LEGO stuff, writing reviews for GearDiary and much more once I get a groove going…. Doing a lot of Twitter these days, only because 140 characters is within my current brain capacity output.

I’m cherishing my weekends with my bride, cutting grass, doing the honey do lists, and fitting in an occasional carpentry and handyman fixes. Strange to say, but replacing a bathroom faucet and hanging new window blinds are good diversions from being so intwined with technology. Power tools rock!

More later…

The Joy of Luggage

One thing that I need to add to my life long learning goals is grasping the reality of carryon luggage.



I already know that flying non-stop is always best. Jumping across three cities to save a few bucks on PriceLine is simply not worth the savings in time, especially when factoring layovers and delays. For instance a Southwest direct flight from Nashville to San Jose is 6:35 of travel time; via United through Chicago, to Denver to San Jose starts out at 2:15 CST arriving at 9:39 PST adding in an additional three hours and risk of delays along the way.

I went to Santa Clara for a pretty good conference on Search Engine Marketing. Learned a lot and met some great people along the way. After logistically plane jumping via United to avoid the bad weather (and Chicago's O'Hara Airport), my luggage didn't make the trip.

Dressing for comfort on a plane with a pullover fleece, white t-shirt, socks, black jeans and ratty tennis shoes doesn't generally make a favorable impression for a typical conference, especially when the clothes have to suffice for the next day. However, for a tech conference, I can safely say I was dressed better than 70% of the attendees. Not exactly comforting thoughts as I started to get a little irritated with United's process for resolving delayed / missing luggage handling.

My luggage was due to arrive at San Jose’s airport the following morning at 10:40 am. A handler then arrives at 11:00 and 12 noon to pick up the luggage and disperse them throughout to the owners. I was willing to pick up the luggage when it arrived off the flight. After 3 pm, I called the 800 number and got a call center in India. Of course, I was expecting the local airport office, but after my investigative questioning of the operator’s weather, local time and if there was a local Wal-Mart, the call center in India had no way of knowing where my bag was. I firmly, but politely requested that the bag better arrive at the Hyatt Regency soon, with the specific instruction to call my cell. Of course that didn’t happen – the luggage showed up at 5:30 pm, seven hours after arriving off the plane. I wonder what would happen if I didn’t call to escalate the ticket.

I was planning to write an article on what type of tech gear to travel with over at www. GearDiary.com. Certainly power chargers, cords, battery backups, flash drives, digital camera, iPods, etc. are necessities. I have to add to the list a complete change of clothing. I recently reviewed a Microsoft Rolling Laptop Case that has a compartment for clothing, but instead is filled with other tech items.

Utilizing UPS or FedEx to ship home all of the schwag, booklets, and reading material to reduce carrying the weight and bulk of the items in a suitcase would be a good thing as a handler can easily flag the bag for being overweight.

I simply must figure out how to pack for a 4-night/5 day stay in a carryon bag. I’m convinced it can’t be done if the goal is dress business casual.

When it doubt, poll the audience. There’s great wisdom in crowds.

busy busy busy!

I was counting on the photo a day project to keep me engaged on this blog! But life gets busy, busy, busy thinking about all the stuff one must do to work, think, play and live out the things that are important to me like family and keeping the finances in order.

I've been writing a bit everyday over at GearDiary.com with the month long giveaway contest of cool gadgets... Got a lot of photos to post, but haven't done so yet... and I'm in California right now for some Search Engine Marketing mind impartation for my day job. Great to be back in San Jose from my old Palm handheld days; hopefully I can carve out some photo shots - the biggest concern I have now is waiting on my luggage to arrive.

Note to myself: learn how to pack light for carry on.

Before I forget, I need to give a big shout out to United Airlines - with the storms and bad weather in Chicago and Denver, my trip was rerouted all day. I was booked to be in San Jose via Nashville to Chicago to Denver. Later, that got changed to Nashville to Denver. After Denver got crappy with weather, I changed the flight to Nashville to Washington, DC to San Jose non stop. Unfortunately the luggage from the first booking was not as flexible.

I recall a post by Guy Kawasaki about the art of "sucking down" - basically never threaten the customer service person. Be nice and you too, can get a nonstop flight on a exit row. Of course booking the flight nonstop via Southwest would have been awesome to begin with, however I remember being stranded in Chicago before, so it's a blessing that I'm typing this at 3 am CST.

Sure hope my luggage shows up!

Post Football Blues

When I stepped out of the office at 5-ish pm today, there was still light outside. Seeing remnants of daylight late in the afternoon definitely lifted my spirits, as the days will get longer and spring fever is just around the corner. With sunlight depravation in a closed office environment and no more NFL football, historically, the next few weeks has always been a challenge. Basketball and baseball has never held my interest.

It’s during these times when I start planning all of the outdoor activities that the spring season ushers in. A vegetable garden, carpentry projects, lawn maintenance, more outdoor photography, sunlight, no more heavy coats… I can’t wait.

Despite the fact that the Dallas Cowboys didn’t participate in the Super Bowl 42, it was nonetheless a great second half of football at its best. I about blew a gasket when my brand new DirecTV HD DVR failed on Sunday. I called tech support, and I was only getting ½ of the satellite signal on the other sets and no picture on the main HD TV setup.

After replacing the supplied defective cables with a HDMI cable, (I love having a Best Buy across the street from me) I was back in business to watch Tom Petty and the rest of the game in HD. Surely I wasn’t going to let technology get the best of me, especially on Super Bowl Sunday. DirecTV, you almost let me down and sent me in a deep funk!

Safety Alert

My friend Judie at GearDiary sent this to me:

The American Medical Association has announced a new national symbol for choking.

Please inform all of the people in your safety department.


OLD SYMBOL



NEW SYMBOL




Cowboys fans do have a sense of humor; Packers and Redskins spectators don't... so be careful out there!

Busting a Nut Hillary style

A true story:

My son Gary who was seven at the time were bonding at the local McDonalds.

We ordered a hot fudge sundae.

The grandmother figure behind the counter asked Gary, "Son, would you like your nuts crushed?"

"No mam, that's ok."

If you're yearning to crush some nuts, my dear friend Judie has the scoop on "the most amusing piece of political memorabilia..."



Get crackin' and bust a nut here

Back in Catholic School

Ever have those time warp flashbacks when you revisit your childhood? Yeah, yeah...

I had the priviledge of being in a kindergarten classroom at a Catholic school last weekend and two things that I have never understood in my early childhood when I attended Catholic school in Washington, DC - In first & second grade, I use to constantly get my knuckles rapped with a wooden ruler by a nun during prayer time because my hands were below my belt... AND I never understood why we couldn't talk during lunch time. If caught talking, we were made to stand up in the middle of the gym floor to eat our lunch standing up in front of the other kids silently eating their brown bag lunches on the bleachers.

One more thing - why did my mom (who worked fulltime) have to bake cupcakes for a internal fundraiser when all of the other kids' moms did the same thing? We were just buying from each other... be much easier just to bring some cash eh?

Anyway when I saw this:



I thought of this joke:

A little girl is failing math, so her father decides to enroll her in Catholic school with the hopes of improving her grades.

During the first quarter, the girl refuses to play with her friends or even eat dessert after dinner in order to have more time to study.

On report card day, her father is astonished to see she earned an A+ in math.

“Why the sudden change of attitude about math?” her father inquires. “Do the nuns punish you?”

“No,” the girl replies, “but when I saw the little man on the wall nailed to the plus sign, I knew that this school was very serious about math!”

Jesus, I repent!

Nashville Amplified

Several weeks back, I was contacted by a publishing company about a book project to promote Nashville that the Chamber or Mayor's Office could use to attract companies to relocate to Nashville. Via Flickr, they found one of my downtown photos. This officially became my first paid, published photo with a second yet to be published by another company. Today, my one of my two favorite visitors (the UPS guy, the other being the FedEx dude) showed up with a beautiful book - Nashville Amplified.



OMG - page 82...


I'm in good company with Blake, Deb and the PhragMunkee.

and more than that, seeing that the author is non other than Fiona Soltes who use to write with The Tennessean newspaper. We went to church together way back and she was gracious to write an article about my involvement with Make A Difference Day when we were doing free oil changes and safety checks for the single moms at Belmont Church. Fiona is a class act and it was great to reconnect via print and seeing her craftsmanship. Go girl!

A headline you might have missed...

Google Builds Team in Quest to Conquer China



If you can't beat them with weapons of mass destruction, then entice them with free Gmail accounts and web searches. Works for me.

The importance of China to Google should not be underestimated. China has around 150 million people online and is expected to have more broadband users than the United States in the next 12-24 months.

via: TechCrunch

When technology doesn't work...

Eyeballs don't fail me now...

In today's Tennessean newspaper, the headline reads:

"Trio suspected of stealing from Franklin Wal-Mart"



The story goes on to read:

Today, Franklin Police released images taken from a security camera at the Wal-Mart on Mallory Lane. The suspects can be seen entering the store one at a time.

Ok, I'm curious so I click to enlarge the photo and I get this:



Good luck with catching the thieves!

Even Lasik won't help out identifying these guys.

*** UPDATE ***



Bunny Swan, an Asian woman who works as a manicurist at the Gorgeous Pretty Beauty Nail Salon (which she mispronounces as "Goja Pitty Booty Nay Salon" provided a statement to the Franklin police - "Okee, I tell you eh-we-ting: he look-a like a man!"

I Am Not Worthy!

I turned kinda old May 8th... well let me explain:

Some people I talk to think that I look much younger than my true age; when I tell Mrs. WonderDawg that I was engaged in a conversation with someone that thought I was thirty or so, she just looks at me with an incredulous response, "So, what teenager have you been talking to today?"

I was recently strolling down Broadway, when I was summoned by R2-D2 or "Artoo" to take a knee and recieve a gift from a really cool friend in Texas (who will go unnamed, but my friend is a very giving person of their time, talents and humor!)


(click the picture to embiggen)

To my amazement, the gift bestowed upon me straight from R2-D2's belly is a LEGO Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer with 1366 pieces! Note that ages 9 - 14 can build this LEGO kit. Obviously, I'm young enough to handle this gift with care.

Look for a unboxing posting soon as I build this Imperial Star Destroyer now that all of the season ending TV shows are wrappng up. All of a sudden, I find myself with ten extra hours a week to focus my eyesballs elsewhere.

I will cherish this gift always - thank you, thank you, thank you, my friend - I am not worthy!

The dreaded phone call...

The dreaded phone call... every man hates to hear:

"When are you coming home?"

"Soon. Why?"

"We're having a yard sale this weekend."

Wish I was on a business trip listening to someone read his PowerPoint presentation.