Yankee Candle Housewarmers- Buy One Get One Free

If you're a yankee candle fan like most members of my family, you'll be happy to know that right now Yankee candles is having a buy one get one free deal until 1/31/06 on their housewarmer candles (22 oz. variety as far as I can tell).

Enter the code MAG5121 in the promotional code box and each candle will come up as $10.78 ($5 flat rate shipping for orders under $100).

Comment Script: working - or at least understood.

The newest version of movable type has added a junk "folder" feature for comments. To my knowledge, the last version I had installed didn't have a junk folder. So, when I realized no comments were coming through, after my brother told me he'd left a comment, I checked things out tonight and realized that all comments were being moved to the junk folder.

So, I understand why all comments were being blocked, and have taken a few steps to make sure that more comments are able to pass through the filter. However, this may not fix all the comment problems. In order to do that, I will just periodically check the junk folder to ensure I'm getting all the comments published.

Black Friday 2005... a day of victory

A few weeks before Thanksgiving I started scoping out the black friday ad sites; fatwallet.com, and bfads.net being my two major sources of information. I originally thought that I may drop a wad of cash on a projection TV like the one my grandparents recently bought, a 52" HD Sony (I think). I'd heard talk that they'd be under a grand, and that sounded like an excellent deal, though it might take my savings down a notch. I rationalized that I should start spending my money according to what I enjoy the most and what I spend the most time on, so I decided to scrap the whole plan altogether and buy a golden toilet. Just kidding :).

After considering the projection screen idea I thought it was the right thing to do. However, after our recent visit to Dallas to see my grandparents new TV, I realized that it's just too honking huge (that's right, I said honking). I had to look elsewhere for idears. After much deliberation and consultation with my personal psychic, I decided to scour the ads for a projector.

With the new idea rattling around in my head I set out to find a projector and found just what I was looking for at Best Buy, a Toshiba TDP-S26U DLP Projector ($450 after $350 in rebates). According to their ad, they opened at 5 and had a minimum quantity of 2 on hand. *Cue heroic music* Odds against me, I swallowed my fear and said "Quantities be damned! *music grows louder, cymbals crash* I needs me some sweet projector lovin'!" *music abruptly dies* and returned to the twinkie I was eating. I made plans to borrow my parents' CRV (in case the projector was sold out and I had to buy a projection screen :)) and arrive at 4:00 AM.

Sure enough, when Black Friday rolled around, I managed to drag myself out of bed (15 minutes late), put on my old-lady-punching gloves™ and head out to the Shreveport Best Buy.

When I got there at 4:30 AM I was 200 yards (yes, yards) away from the front door. People had been there camping out since 8 o'clock the day before. I could see across to Chick-Fil-A, where people had also been camped out to be one of the first 20 people who would receive free food for a year. I could see Circuit City, where a mere 5 minutes later the crowd would break down the doors and be swarmed by police (seriously happened). Things were crazy.

When 5 O'clock rolled around people were allowed in 25 at a time. I was herded in with a bunch of heavily perfumed housewives and overzealous dads. The herd was moving to the back of the store where the TV's are on display, so I followed them to the back and got in the line... which I could now see was weaved in and out of every aisle from the far back (where the TV's are) to the very front (where the Geek Squad checkout lanes are). I thought I had no chance (if you don't see it coming...).

I stood around, slowly weaving through each aisle for three hours, and in the meantime managed to pick up a video card and a game for half off each (I really did hate myself for not finding anything for anyone else... but that's for my therapist to hear about). I finally got out of there just before 8:00, projector in hand. I'd gotten the second to last projector, with the last projector going to the indian guys right behind me.

I left giddy, one step closer to my goal of never returning to a sticky, black teenager-filled, over-crowded theater. My DVD collection has been steadily growing, however crappy most of the DVD's may be, and now I have the projector. Once I get the cables and a decent speaker system... I will be good for another 10 years or so (I concede I will have to buy a bulb or two in that period).

So, here's what you've all been waiting for - the glorious photos. You'll see Office Space here, on a 92" screen. It's magnificent.

Taylor's puppy has arrived

Wednesday night Taylor became the proud father of a mini-Australian Shepherd. He'd been shopping for some time for the right breeder so he could get a blue merle aussie. Well, he managed to track down a breeder all the way in Washington who had a 4 month old puppy that she was willing to part with. So, Taylor immediately wet himself with glee and ran to the mail box waving his check stuffed envelope as he ran. Cash in hand, the breeder shipped the puppy to DFW airport where Taylor and a friend of his drove Wednesday night to pick up the new puppy.

Taylor's really excited about the puppy, along with the rest of our family, as the house has been void of puppies since Piper ran off several years ago. The dog seems attached to Taylor, likewise. He never leaves Taylor's side, and is always at his feet waiting for some attention. As taylor points out on his blog, blubbering like a newborn baby's father :), Cosmo is close to the perfect dog so far. He's extremely quiet, friendly with people, good with other dogs, and beautiful.

Here are a few of the pics I took in Longview this weekend of Taylor and the pup.

Xbox 360

I'm kicking myself right now for not reserving an Xbox 360 6 months or so ago. Katie and I went to Gamestop (or EBGames... can't remember which) in Monroe to buy a new Gamecube game. I think it was the first week or so that I was aware they were taking pre-orders for the Xbox 360's. In usual fashion, the worker there was talking about how the Xbox was gonna be the greatest device since the creation of man... I would be the laughing stock of all my friends, my manhood would be called into question... yadda, yadda...

Well, here we are a few hours before the Xbox's are released and the bids on Ebay have reached a maximum of $1100. I thought that I'd be in line for one today, but I waited too long. We called all the wal-marts in town tonight and they had a person in line for each of the xbox shipments in the stores. I thought I'd get a call from a few of the guys from work, but that didn't pan out. They got in line at the Pines Rd. Wal-mart 4-5 hours before 12 and expected to get one of the core consoles... which they can probably sell for $2-300 profit apeice.

I think the PS3's will be on my pre-order list. If I can't sell them online, I can always return them. I can always spare a few hundred bucks for another few hundred bucks in profit, in return.

I'm weaker than I was at 18.

I guess it's natural. I'm weaker than I was at 18. Well, actually, it's a tad pathetic since I weighed maybe 165 at the end of my senior year... maybe as low as 155, I don't remember. I was tall and lanky though.

Katie and I went to work out tonight at Schumpert. After putting it off for quite a while I decided to have them reactivate my FitLinxx account. With this account, you can go around to the different machines and check what your target weights are and what machines are in your workout plan.

I checked a few of the upper body machines and found that I wasn't doing too poorly in comparison to my old workout plan. I was able to do just under the amount of weight and reps that I did in high school. When it came to the leg machines, however, I couldn't believe the settings I used to use.

This machine wanted me to do 12 reps of 255? Granted, that's nearly my weight now, but good grief, I was struggling at just under 200. I was shocked. I actually wondered what my leg muscles actually do all day since they carry my 200 pound keister around all day, but yet I'm not able to do this 12 times without snapping my butt muscles like a rubber band...? Doesn't make much sense.

I went over to the other pully-based leg machine (whose name fails me at the moment) and tried to test out my other leg muscles' strength. I found that when I started using that machine, my legs shook so badly that the weights were clanking together - a humbling experience indeed.

I'm shocked at how far out of shape I've gotten, but on the other hand I know I have a goal to reach. I just have to keep going to the gym... it's the biggest struggle of my day (apart from quitting my job and becoming a shaman). If I do that, I figure I'll be in good shape by wedding time.

It's almost thanksgiving

It's almost thanksgiving, and this year I get three days off. We're being given an extra day under the guise of a reward for working so hard after the hurricanes. Basically, our boss is saying, "Thanks for the extra 40 hours each of you put in after Katrina and Rita. Take that extra day (8 full hours of non-work time) and go have yourself some fun. In the meantime I'll be wallowing in my large pile of cash that you all earned me by keeping the company afloat after the disasters."

Is my bitterness showing?

Good things have been happening, though my tone may not have let on as much. Katie's quarter ended tonight after her final statistics test. This means that the only thing standing between the Katie and a degree are two internships and a practicum. Her masters degree is so close we can almost taste it... and it tastes like the smell of sweet cheese.

Tonight, after her class, she drove back to Bossier and we had a celebratory dinner from Captain D's. Nothing says congratulations on finishing your masters degree classes like a 3 piece fish platter. I'll have to take her out somewhere special this weekend, but she was exhausted and starving and I was feeling about the same.

Anywho, we're planning a trip to Dallas this weekend. We also have some pictures from our camping trip three weeks ago that I've been meaning to put up in the gallery, and make a post about. That'll have to get done later though, I can barely keep my eyes open...

MAME Arcade Cabinet

Add a MAME Arcade Cabinet to the list of things I want to make, but realistically will never get the time to make.

I've been looking at a lot of designs online and I think I could get it done for about $1000.

Let's take a look at what that would include -

• New Computer (Motherboard, RAM, HD, CPU, Case)
• Lumber
• 25" TV
• Time
• Joystick & Buttons
• Coin Op Panel

The only problem seems to be that I don't have the time or the money to get it done. The only good thing is that I'm well aware that I would play it for a while, and give up on it shortly thereafter... but who knows, maybe some other geek here in Shreveport would be willing to pay for an arcade with 12 gigs worth of classic games. Well, most of them aren't classics, but a few of them are.

I spent an hour last night beating Metal Slug 4, then played Street Fighter 2 Alpha. Tonight I may get into The simpsons game, or the X-men 4 player game. I spent many an allowance on those games...

Anywho, I'm interested in building one of these things - maybe just to satisfy my urge to build something. I'll just have to see how things go after the holidays... time, money, Katie, etc....

2nd Dating Anniversary

Yesterday marked the 2nd year Katie and I have been dating. This time last year, I snuck into her apartment and put some roses around, and did some nice stuff. Things got much simpler this year. I took her out to Copeland's and we had their dinner for two, which comes with an appetizer, two entrees and a dessert. It wasn't as eventful as last year's Anniversary, but that may be because we're directing our thoughts toward our Oth wedding anniversary in April.

There's not much else to report. We went to Best Buy after our dinner date, bought two games and headed back to her apartment to hang out for a while. We bought a crash bandicoot game and Xmen Legends for the GC.

The blog in retrospect

I'm extremely glad I decided to start this blog. This morning I was able to look back and see what I was doing at this point last year. The funny thing is that I'm less interested in the important happenings of my life from the year before, but highly interested in the details of the little, humorous or interesting events that happened.

I was able to read about my experience filling out paperwork with the lady in Keeny Hall, at the beginning of my brief stint working for the University after college. I looked back at the Ebay Profit Guesstimator that I wrote a little under a year ago.

The only bad thing about being able to look back at all the posting I did is the realisation that I won't be able to do this next year. This year's posts have been terribly slow, and when I did post it was mostly made up of grumblings about work. *Work has turned me into an old man with a shriveled personality*

I'm going to try to make an effort to post more regularly, and document more of the every day stuff that goes on in my life, no matter how boring it is to others:).

Things I see from my window...

This afternoon I happened to spot a grey car stopping in front of the building right across the lot from my office. Two teenage girls jumped out, car still running, and ran to the two ash trays right outside our neighboring building. The first girl grabbed cigarette butts, stuffing them in a bag while the second girl gathered them in her hand. After cleaning out the ash tray they scurried back to the car and drove away very quickly.

We're also right across the lot from a building where drug users go to some sort of court ordered counseling. On their breaks, they gather outside on the benches and beneath the covered walkways to smoke and chat. Two weeks ago my co-workers and I witnessed a show of nudity. One woman decided that she was 30 people shy of reaching her ideal number of people who have seen her naughty bits. It may have been an offer to another glue sniffer out there... it may have been a serious talk about herpes... who knows.

I just love having my window...

Tonight was movie night

Tonight I invited a group of friends from work over to Katie's apartment for movie night... something I hope we can do every once in a while. It's a surprise to me that no one has ever really had one before, and that none of the people at work have ever really hung out together.

There are no company outings, no company christmas parties or company anything really. It's just a place to work, I suppose. Anyways, I thought it sounded like a good idea and so did Kristina, Courtland and Steven.

We watched Jackie Brown, arguably Tarantino's finest film, and ate some of the finest pizza known to man. Dominos bacon pizza. Nothing much to add other than, we all had a good time and all enjoyed the movie.