I think I snuck by that one.

I think I was successfully able to sneak by that last birthday.  No party or anything, I didn't even claim my Tuesday game night veto vote.  My wife was awesome and got me exactly what I wanted.
Tom was awesome and got me football.  Don was awesome and got me beer at football.  E and C may have been the awesomest because they got me the ability to go to football with my wife, T, and D.
Thanks everyone.

Ok...  my wife is the awesomest, but seriously Eve and Cody, Tom, and Don:  Thank you.

WOOHOO

Being lazy

Thought this was funny, thought I would share it. RG3PO- the Redskins' new quarterback.

Pictures as promised

I had to go to a third party application to stitch my pre-work photos together which is why this took so long (also.. see my previous post).

I have a bunch of photos I want to post of the backyard adventure, but I know none of you faithful readers really gives a damn.  So here you go.. A pre-work panoramic shot, and a current state panoramic shot.  Its very nice to have a usable back yard.

How it used to be

How it is now

I give up.

Fail.
I give up.  Apparently the only way I am going to solve my photo editing problems is to reinstall windows.  They aren't real problems, and its not a problem with photos.  The problem seem to be with my windows 7 libraries and no amount of rebuilding the databases seems to do any good.  Windows just refuses to properly link the libraries to the programs that rely on them.. like windows live photo gallery (supposed to be the native solution for photo corrections and stitching images together into panoramic shots) and also windows media center (which I use in almost every room of the house). 
This systemic issue has limited the usability of my entire home network of machines.  My media just does not go the places it is supposed to go.  Want to play music from the media center in the living room?  Nope.. the computer is pretty sure there is absolutely no music available on any computer anywhere to play.  Want to look at you photos?  Nope.. sorry, there are no photos on any computer anywhere.. ever.  Period.  Stop asking.
Never mind that if you open the library in say.. explorer.. sure enough everything is there.  If you open a specific file.. sure enough.. there it is.  Ever try to play a play list by manually browsing your network paths using an xbox controller to select and play each individual file?  Of course you haven't because that would be ridiculous.

"Just use itunes.. or a mac.. it just works."  Shut up. You're an idiot.  You really think their god awful solutions would really work better in my situation or perform the functions I need them to?

I think the root of this issue is my use of a home server (i.e. network shares) coupled with some difficult system recoveries instead of a fresh install.  I now recover my system from back ups instead of doing fresh installs (when things like SSDs go bad) because the cable companies (and specifically COX) feel the need to encrypt and control all their media.  This means that if I wipe my machine and start fresh, especially if I do any hardware changes in the process, I have a pretty good chance of locking out playback of any of my recorded TV. 

I guess the answer is to catch up on all my recorded shows and then delete them all so I no longer have any ties to my system in its current configuration.
Come to think of it, unless I do an "upgrade", when I move to windows 8 I will have the same problem.  Just to be clear, this is the cable companies fault, not Microsoft's.

Placeholder

I meant to post this weekend.  The backyard adventure has made significant progress.  I tried to post pictures but was having an issue getting the edits right.. and then I got distracted.  The internet is a hole people.
I will try to get the images up this week.

Time to catch my breath

Took my final on Thursday. It did not go well.  The gold lining (its better than silver) is that the semester is over and since none of the available summer classes are useful to me I will have 3 whole months of "vacation."  Now my job and family obligations will be the only things dividing my time into this neatly managed chaos I call my life.  Wasting none of this precious time my loving slave driver of a wife is whipping me back into action on the backyard adventure.  The scope has expanded a little to also include repainting the exterior of our home since it well overdue.  Luckily she is a kind mistress and isn't asking me to do any of it.  The painters start early Monday morning and expect to be finished that day.
My good friend Erik, who is an architect and has a focus in landscape architecture, fixed my plan and has created a nice design that I will be following pretty closely.  He had some excellent input for my plant choices and pergola and designed a structure that would meet my shade needs. 
We will be making a big push in the next few weeks to get most of the major elements completed (irrigation, trees, lawn, major shrubs).

Road Warrior

It feels like I have been doing a lot of traveling lately.  Its only two trips, and one was really an overnighter, but they all involve flying.  That makes for for the year, and its only April so compared to normal I guess I have been traveling alot.  They are all work related so that means scheduels are tight and my days are busy.  The most down time I get is crammed into a seat on an airplane and the most I get to enjoy of the places I go is looking out the window of the car.
Its ok though, I still get to see new things and I don't mind air travel at all.  I have become rather proficient at handling the modern day hassles.  I don't even get bothered by the people who haven't flown in the last 5 years and are bewildered by all the TSA restrictions (who inevitably hold up the entire line).
Its pretty awesome that my wife is so cool with all my travel.  Its not easy to handle a toddler by yourself.

It just keeps coming

Now its been 3 months.  Fuck you school.
Well, I guess this is a good opportunity to demonstrate my resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity.

yah, its been 2 months

Wondering why its been 2 months since the last post? Life. Shitty shitty life.