We're homeowners!

Katie and I are finally offically homeowners. This morning, we closed on our house at Louisiana Abstract in Shreveport. It only took us 30 minutes to sign all the paper work and get out of their with our new debt. Our closing costs were over $1000 less than the estimate we were given a few days ago, and our interest rate is .3% lower than our original quote also. Needless to say, we're happy.

We also made it out to Sears tonight to get a Fridge, and a washer and dryer. So, I've spent more money today than I've ever spent... or made in my lifetime. The strange thing is that I feel good about it.

I think Katie and I are moving in the right direction. We're working toward getting the things we want, but we're not letting things get out of hand. The house is new, but small. The appliances are new, but low-end. We moved in with Taylor for a few months before hand to save money for a down payment... I think we're managing money pretty well and making good decisions for the future.

Anyways, I think things are going well. I hope everyone we know can make it up at some point to see the house and hang out.

Halloween '06: Mario and Princess Peach Costumes

This halloween, Katie and I decided to be festive and get a costume together. Being gamers, we thought that it would be fun to dress up as Mario and Princess Peach. Here we are in full costume last night, just before we headed out to a halloween party.

Katie's costume turned out wonderfully. Her Grandma actually had the pink dress that someone, at some point, had to wear as a bridesmaid's dress. Emme made the sash for Katie's midsection and Katie cut out the blue jewel to be put on her chest.

Mario was a much simpler affair. The only part I had to work a little for was the hat. We found a $5 hat at wal-mart and bought some felt. I cut out a circle and the red M and glued them to a circular sheet of paper (so the white would be more opaque), then glued that to the hat. The mustache was also pretty tricky, but luckily while we were at Emme's getting the finishing touches to Katie's dress, Emme hooked me up with some hairy material and cut a darn good mustache out for me.

I believe Katie and I are going to go to my work for lunch on Tuesday as Mario and the Princess and try to win a $50 gift certificate. We should win, in my opinion.

Day Born Drawings

Sometimes during the day I have things happen... things I draw... things I draw because I can't communicate effectively.

This is my explanation of the hugest sneeze I've ever produced, which happened today in my office (AKA ground zero). This picture is not for the squeamish.

Weird Al - White and Nerdy video

Dilbert Author regaining his voice

Scott Adams, author of the Dilbert comic strip, lost his voice to a rare condition 18 months ago. He wrote a post on his blog recently about how the technique he's using to allow him to speak somewhat normally again. It's an interesting read... and while you're there read some of his other posts. He's a funny man.

If the game is wrong, don't play it.

I've been thinking about government a lot lately... Before I lose you here, this isn't going to end up in a Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber) type rant - just a few thoughts I've had recently.

The main thing that's been on my mind lately is the inability of the public to influence politicians without "greasing wheels" (contributing money to influence policy) or protesting in the streets by the millions . It seems that to influence policy you have to be willing to contribute more to a senator or representative's than the person with an opposing view. This seems to be the path a majority of groups have gone, and maybe they're right... short term.

I think there's a better solution than having to form political action committees (PACs) or other large lobbying organizations and donating money to have your voice heard.

It's strange that people are willing to accept that this is the way business is done, and start playing the game... when most people don't agree with it. It's just like playing dirty in sports because the other team is cheating. It may win you a game or two, but after a while the game you started off playing is ruined.

I'm not saying that campaign contributions are wrong. After all, the politicians have to run expensive smear campaigns somehow. I'm saying that forming groups that seek to influence policy with contributions is not a good practice... and I think it should not be allowed. Corporations should not be able to influence politics and neither should PACs or lobbying groups. Individuals should... which means that politicians campaigns should be funded by individuals (with limits on each person's spending).

The situation I'm in is a complicated one. I'm only one person, without much power to change the way things work. In addition, there exists a way to influence policy legally, but I don't like the idea it supports, that money buys votes. I don't really know what to do, other than the simplest thing I can do. Vote against any person who votes to protect the interests of a corporation or other similar group (labor unions, etc.) at the expense of normal consituents. On a side note, I'll never* vote for a candidate who runs negative ads... I will cast a Nader vote if I have to.

*Except in presidential campaigns... too much power in one person's hands to focus on that issue when determining a vote.

Hilarious panda video

I don't know why I find this as funny as I do, but I think it's hilarious.

The look on the big panda's face directly after is priceless.

Newly inspired...

I'm newly inspired to try my hand at putting together a small house (if you can call it that) on our land in Gilmer, TX. Katie and I went out to Haughton this weekend to Kristina and Kevin's house, where they were going to be working on their barn, putting the roof on. I mentioned earlier in the week that I might be able to go out there and help, so when Saturday rolled around Katie and I did.

Their barn is 30' by 40', two stories and has a large, steep sloped roof just like a barn should. The roof being steep and large was an important factor in my helping them with the barn... in that I didn't think about it being large and steep. The roof had my legs trembling like a tickle me elmo. I was ok climbing with the plywood sheets (along with steven on a seperate extension ladder) and putting them in place for the first row, though I only trusted myself to use the nailgun on the first two sheets before deciding to let kevin get my side as the next sheet would go up.

The next row was left to Kevin and Steven, since it was another 6 feet or so higher than the previous and required being on the rop rung of the ladder. I was only able to help again when the third row of plywood sheets were to go up... then Steven and I passed sheets through the rafters to kevin on the side of the barn for nailing.

I should always preface my volunteers with a list of my phobias. Ya'll need some help with that? Ok, I'll be there, provided there are no high, shaky ladders, snakes, needles, diaper changing, or calculus problems involved. Sign here, initial here. I'll see you Saturday.

Anywho, After seeing what it looked like on the inside, and what Kevin's been able to do (though he's much more technically able than I am in mechanical things and construction) I'm tinkering around with the idea of putting a little one room something or other out on our land.

I'm not as ambitious as kevin is... but I think a 20' x 20' one room cabin would be fairly easy to put together.

The only tools I think I'd need for the frame(please allow me to show my naiveity):

Circular saw
Nail Gun
Hammer
Level
Tape Measure

I think I'll need some other various implements related to fastening pieces of wood to the foundation and fastening plywood and such... This DIY article says a 14' by 20' will cost about $4,000, so I'd guess a 20' by 20' would cost $6,500 for tools and materials.

Interesting idea. I've talked about it for a while, with Katie and Taylor, saying it would be a great project for Taylor and I... and a good place to have for Katie and I to get out for a weekend or something. She might not be as excited about it as I am, but in a few years it's something I'd like to do.

The biggest concern I have with putting something on the land would be the easy access for thieves and vandals. We've had two or three incidents on our land already, so I'd hate to spend time and money on something like that to have someone go out and mess it up. I'll have to work that out later, I guess... maybe I'll work some sharks with lasers and trap doors into my budget.

Two weeks until closing. Actually, 10 days.

I got a call earlier this week letting us know that we'll be doing our final walk through in 5 days. This is the date when construction is supposedly complete. So, we'll be going out to the house with our construction manager to take a look at the finished product and to ask for corrections to any items we're not satisfied with.

5 days later, we will be closing on our house. Signing ourselves into the biggest debt of our lives and loving every minute of it. Katie and I are both extremely excited about moving into our first house and getting things set up just right.

So, Wed. morning - walk through. Next Monday morning, closing. Next weekend, moving in.

A Letter to a Senator

Someone in washington D.C. wrote his senator the following letter:

The Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes 309 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC, 20510

Dear Senator Sarbanes:
As a native Marylander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My reasons for wishing to change my status from U.S. citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, what I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years.

I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.
Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year, so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of the last five years taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively?
This would yield an excellent return for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005 and I estimated a gross savings approximating $72,000. After the fine this would yield me a net savings of $70,000.

In addition, I would reap the other benefits of being an illegal alien such as free health care, avoidance of paying Social Security taxes, buying automobile insurance, serving on jury panels, etc. If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you for your assistance.
Your Loyal Constituent

Fake or not, that's beautiful. (via)

Katie's away... I will play

Katie and her immediate family took a trip over to Alabama this weekend to see Nathan, her brother, play football. He's a senior this year and they haven't gotten to see him play yet since he moved to Alabama. This weekend was homecoming, with some kind of parental presentation type thing, so the family loaded up and headed over to Alabama to enjoy all the activities.

They left on Thursday, which meant that I would've had to take two days off work in order to go. So, that leaves me here at home this weekend with Cosmo... Taylor also left town to go to a conference in Atlanta for a week. It's just me and the dog, and the neighbor's dog (Cowboy...who stays outside until he goes home to his house at night... by crawling through a hole he dug under Taylor's fence).

Since Katie's been gone I've been bacheloring it up. I had a burger last night, ate chocolate in bed and played on the laptop until I was sick of it... after which I watched TV until I fell asleep. Today, I woke up and watched sportscenter 1.5 times, ate two bowls of fruity pebbles and then decided that I'd better take a shower. I packed the dog up and headed over to my parent's house to have some steaks.

This afternoon, things got really interesting. After coming home from my parents, I decided to hook up the projector (which hasn't been used since we moved in). So, I moved my computer into the living room, under the coffee table, moved the projector to sit on the china cabinet and began to string wires all across the living room. Wires from the computer to the projector, wires from the computer to outlets, wires from the computer to the home theater system (on the opposite wall). After all my rigging was through, I loaded up three episodes of heroes, put a pizza in the oven and 11 to 13 minutes later, I had pizza and three episodes of hero on a wall-sized screen in hi-def.

Living like a single man has its merits... until the wife gets home and finds the chocolate on her side of the bed:(. I'm ready for her to get home though... she's been gone since Thursday and Cosmo isn't the conversationalist he was a few days ago. Oh well... until tomorrow...

Something worth watching on TV

Late this past week I was reading online about the show called Heroes. I'd seen advertisements for it a few months ago (or maybe in more recent weeks), but never really paid attention to the name of the show. Here's the advertisement if you're interested in watching it. Note that it's a little shocking at the beginning, but it's part of the girl's powers she's testing...you'll understand if you watch.

If you didn't watch the trailer above...There's a girl that is invincible (always heals herself regardless of the injury), another can be in two places at once. There are two brothers who can fly, two friends who are on a journey that is their destiny (one of which can control time and teleport himself). They also feature a policeman who can hear people's thoughts and an artist who paints scenes from the future and illustrates a comic book of the future featuring the two people who are on a journey... to follow their destiny.

I just got caught up on the last three episodes of the show and I'm anxious to see this week's episode. It's been a long time since there's been anything on TV that I've wanted to watch... not Grey's Anatomy, definitely not Desperate Housewives and I can't really waste my time wondering what in the world Lost is about. This show, however, seems to be just what I've been waiting for.

A word of warning, though, it doesn't seem to be a show for kids. There's a little bit of gore in it (they show the girl's injuries that she heals from) and there are other general unpleasantries. Very little profanity, if any, and no nudity... the normal stuff since it's network TV. Anyways, it comes on Monday nights on NBC. I can't wait to see next week's episode...

Farecast: Useful data mining for cheap airline tickets

Today I stumbled on to Farecast.com, a site that predicts the price of airfare for the next 90 days. I have to say that I'm really blown away by the site. It's UI is great, it's content is great and it seems to be extremely useful... though actually using it to score a fare at the lowest price would make me more of a believer.

They break things down and show you a chart of not only when to book your flight, but at what times your flight should depart in order to get the lowest fares also. Take a look at the following search result from DFW to Denver International (click to enlarge picture).

It's a handy tool. In addition to helping you time your flights right by giving you predictions, they also show you historical price patterns for the flights you're looking for in the last 90 days.

Taking a look at their explanation of their own technology, I found the following information:

We use data-mining algorithms to search for patterns, in the accumulated airfare data, which are associated with significant price changes. These patterns are represented and stored in models, and the models are then rigorously trained. Once created and trained, we use these models to predict the future. Then, new, current airfares can be scored by the model to answer the question, “is the price going up or down in the future?

Genius.

It might just be that I'm happy to have stumbled across this site because Katie and I are in the last stages of planning a vacation where we'll be flying... or it could just be the computer scientist geek in me, but I'm captivated by the idea and the implementation. Kudos to the site's creators on a job well done... did I just say kudos...?

Me, Katie, the 'Stang and Big Tex

Katie and I were going to go camping this past weekend for a short weekend getaway to kick off katie's vacation. However, when we found out that my parents were going to Dallas this weekend to visit our grandparents, we considered our options. Dallas - city boy things, air conditioning, movies, Texas state fair, comfy bed... or... Lake Degray - camping, one night only, setting up and breaking down, insects, 3 hour drive, lumpy sleeping bag. We chose Dallas.

To sweeten the deal, we called Hertz to try to reserve a mustang for the weekend. We had to call the local branch directly (the national number said they didn't have mustangs, when I'd seen them there previously). They didn't have any in, but they told us they'd call if any came in on Friday. A day and a prayer later, on Friday, we got a call from Hertz saying they had a mustang in. I hung up the phone, tuned my ipod to Queen's We Are the Champions and put my arms in the air.

When we went to pick-up the mustang, Katie dropped me off at the pick up counter where those suckers at Hertz were gonna hand over the keys for a weekend to me. When I was giving the girl my info, she asked if I wanted the convertible (extra $$$). The convertible, you say? Ma'am I drive a 1997 accord that bucks like an epileptic rodeo horse when it shifts gears and makes a hideous rattling noise when you turn. I believe I'll take the convertible.

So, Katie and I headed home with the mustang, loaded cosmo into the backseat and headed to Dallas. The car was a thing of beauty and the ride down was great. Hertz was kind enough to provide sirius satellite in the car, so while Katie was working her sudoku puzzle and cosmo was snoozing in the back, I was listening to my old standby Sirius Blues 74. Things almost became too perfect when Howlin Wolf's Smokestack Lightning came on the radio at just about sunset. Could things have been any better...? It's hard to imagine.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good, and great when driving the mustang. We visited with the grandparents, went to the state fair (big mistake, during the Texas vs. Oklahoma game... 68,252 extra people at the fair waiting to be let into the game.), watched hoodwinked (great movie), and relaxed.

Visit my flickr page to see a few of the pics from the weekend.

Wii Preorders @ Gamestop by the end of the week

I've been extremely excited to find that wii preorders will be taken this week at Gamestop. Playstation 3 pre-orders were taken today, which caused lines before the stores opened - a crazy situation. While I'm not interested in the playstation 3, the wii has me captivated. Allow me to explain why

Motion Sensitive Controller

The wii has a motion sensitive controller, which will allow for (you guessed it) motion sensitive games. I can see great fun being had by swinging baseball bats, golf clubs, swords, and fishing poles.

Classic Nintendo Game Emulation

Classic nintendo games are available for download. No more emulators, no more keyboard play... As nice as it is for them to be free, the game play experience wasn't that great.

It's Nintendo for crying out loud!

It's Nintendo. They haven't done me wrong (ignoring the virtual boy). The latest iteration of their game systems have been great. The DS, a success. The gamecube, great. Donkey Konga - no guitar hero, but still great.

Value

It's $250. It's not cheap, but considering it will play all my old gamecube games and will include a sports game with the system it's not looking all that bad.

Those are my reasons... hopefully, I've not posted this here before. If I have, oh well. I'm excited enough to camp out during the launch night to get one if I can't get in a preorder.

The best burger in Shreveport/Bossier

Katie and I have recently discovered the best burger in Shreveport/Bossier. You can find it at Uncle Henrys Bar-B-Que on Airline Drive in Bossier City... almost to Benton. It's got a great smokey flavor and a good texture... I haven't found another burger that comes close.

Give it a try.