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  RIP, Scully posted Saturday, April 19, 2003

Our pet cat, Scully, passed away yesterday. Somehow she got out of our house and was hit by some careless, heartless, spineless, worthless hunk of flesh that has the nerve to call themselves a person behind the wheel of a car.

We noticed her missing yesterday afternoon when the kids could not find her. After tracing our steps, it was determined that she slipped out of the house in the morning when the kids went to school. Scully was a house cat and has only snuck out of the house a few times, she was not an outdoors cat. In Florida, cats are not permitted to roam freely. It's also better for the cat on the whole to be a house cat. How she ended up so far away from our house and into the road is still unclear. We could only deduce she roamed too far and got disoriented.

When she did not come home last night, I went out to look for her. Eventually I found what was left of her by the side of the road and gave her a makeshift burial. Sadly, there was not much left to commit to the ground.

The person who hit her should have at least had the moral decency to stop and help her. She might have been savable before she was clearly hit by enough cars to make her all but unidentifiable. I was only able to determine it was her by the white markings on her hind legs. She was one of my children and I will miss her very much.

The pain of losing Scully is very real for the four of us. I suppose one never really knows how much a pet can become part of one's life until they are gone. She was part of our family for a little over four years. It is difficult to even write about this without wanting to cry again, so I think I am going to stop for now.

Rest in peace Scully. I love you.

   Kevin @ 6:50 PM EDT | | Listening to:

  What a week! posted Tuesday, April 15, 2003

It's been busy enough to keep we away from my web log. Sorry about that. AOL keep changing stuff and I have to keep playing "catch up." Today they changed the chat room around and WavMan had to be tweaked. I had the updates done within a few hours of finding out about it. Damn I'm good.

Actually, truth be told, it was like ten lines of code that needed changing. The real work comes in uploading the updates, updating the web site, blah, blah, blah.

What's funny is that I read a bit of the net that one of my competitors had a bad cold and could not work. Boo hoo. I've worked on my deathbed. I've worked during the nastiest of colds and during the worst back pain known to man and still managed to get the job done. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. She will tell you what a die hard perfectionist I am. I guess I could comment further, but it would get mean...plus I don't need any more baseless, mindless, crybaby legal threats. ::snicker::

For those looking for info for all things TPA, here is the lowdown: I am working on a brand new feature that has never been done before. It's going to be included with WavMan for free, and maybe a standalone version for a few bucks. I have not decided yet. I'll have to wait and see what the feedback from WavMan users is like first. I'm not going to say what it is just yet, because I don't want to give away all my good ideas. I know some competitors and their cronies are watching. I know the IP and location of every hit on this page, so they are fooling no one.

Speaking of back pain...I really need to do something about mine. I got a degenerated disk back there and it pains me more times than not. I don't want to get hooked on anything really good, so I just put up with it for now. Problem is on food shopping days, like today, I come home to a burning lower back. Eventually it will work it's way down my legs and life will suck.

Speaking of life sucking...how about that Saddam Hussein? My latest issue of time came today. It is a bust of Saddam with a big red X through it. What are the chances he will turn up someplace still declaring victory?

Oh well. NYPD Blue is on (Kim Delaney is coming back for sweeps in May, YES!!!!!!!) one my all time favorite shows...so I'm out for now.

Peace

   Kevin @ 8:05 PM EDT | | Listening to:

  Today's project posted Saturday, April 5, 2003

Well, it appears my blog design does not render properly with Netscape or Mozilla. Drat. I'll have to fix this although probably not today.

Today I am working on AOL 8.0 UK compatibility for WavMan 11.x. Several UK customers have started asking when, and the answer is real, real soon. :)

More later...

   Kevin @ 1:11 PM EST | | Listening to:

  Going to the chapel posted Friday, April 4, 2003

My longtime best friend Andy is getting married today. It totally sucks that I could not make the trip to Maryland for it. :(

I wish him and his new bride all the best in life.

God bless you, brother.

   Kevin @ 11:45 AM EST | | Listening to:

  My two cents posted Thursday, April 3, 2003

What a day it has been for news. There are a lot of goofy people in the world, most of them celebrities. I suppose that is the price they pay for having lots of money and being famous.

For example, a quick scan over My Yahoo turned up the following:

Actor Jim Carrey's Ex-Wife Seeks More Child Support

Apparently, Carrey's daughter is not able to get by on $10,000 a month and mommy wants to get her more. Spoiled brat. It was hard to read that article and not gag on what this whiny little child has to have, all because she is Jim Carrey's offspring. Maybe she needs to spend some time fighting in Iraq to appreciate what she has.

Speaking of spoiled wash outs, in an effort to rake in more "money for nothing" courtesy of our bent legal system, Rosie O'Donnell plans to hit up one of the tabloids for 125 million dollars for printing that her partner walked out on her. "Queen of Nice" of ass. I have never liked Rosie. She is just another example of how producer driven success ruins people. Now that she is unemployed, I guess it's up to lawsuits to keep her rolling in it. Maybe she should skip a meal once in a while. Somewhere there is a third world country going hungry. Rosie, sue THIS! ‹^›‹{','}›‹^›

Speaking of bent systems, the RIAA is suing individual users now, citing that a nine percent dip in sales in 2002 is due to pirating and CD burning. God forbid they should actually consider the fact that the garbage they are pushing on us does not even remotely resemble music or talent (Avril Lavinge excluded) and that no one really wants to pay for worthless drivel. Real music died with Mozart. Cool music died when that period known as "grunge" reared it's ugly head. I miss Napster. And before any of you anti-piracy people start in on me, every single bit of music I ever downloaded I own on 45 records. And if you don't know what a 45 record is, then you don't know what real music is. Sorry.

Apparently, Liv Tyler went and got married while no one was looking. Oh well, it's not like I had a shot anyway.

Is it me, or does Donald Rumsfeld just look blatantly evil? Clearly, he is a bitter old man who screwed up big time with this so called "war plan" and is now trying to save his ass by lashing out at his critics...which looks to be just about everyone. Ari Fleischer isn't much better. Another example of an overpaid government puppet who gets off on condescending to others, which is what the Bush administration has been about since day one. Seriously...we call ourselves a free nation, but our media is just as censored as China's. Groups like the Dixie Chicks and Pearl Jam are getting blasted and boycotted because they have their own opinions on the war and Bush. Apparently it is not okay to speak out against either one without some kind of backlash and we have the nerve to call it free speech. Sounds more like a dictatorship to me. It is so bad, that in Oregon they are attempting to pass a bill that says if you protest war it is considered terrorism. How is that for freedom of speech?

I hate to break it to the majority, but it is possible to not like or support our President and the war and still be supportive of our troops in combat. It is because of them and troops past that I can post opinions such as this on the Internet. God bless them all.

On the lighter, or should I say "higher" side of the news, about 500 pounds of marijuana washed ashore on several south Florida beaches. Another war we are losing...the war on drugs. I say if pot and opium were legalized, we would not have all the problems we are having now. The only reason pot was made illegal was because it was hurting sales of cotton back in the 1800s. Nothing more. Alcohol is more dangerous than weed, and the only reason opium is shrouded in evil is because is makes people feel good. Addictive? Sure, maybe. But what isn't? If chocolate were deemed illegal, I would bet the psychology of it would make it just as addictive as opiates. But I suppose that is a debate for another time. In the meantime, mycomicspage.com has started reprinting Bloom County, arguably one of the best comic strips ever, in it's entirety. Very cool.

See you tomorrow.

   Kevin @ 8:30 PM EST | | Listening to:

  Good Morning posted Thursday, April 3, 2003

I am usually never up this early. Typically I am only seen stumbling around by 8 am if I have to watch my kids, or if I have some real estate meeting I have to attend. Other than that...I don't get up till closer to 11 am. For those who are saying: "Gee, that must be nice", consider that fact that I do stay up till 4 am sometimes coding. I work best in the dead of night with no distractions.

But today, I had a good deal of pain in my legs, which no doubt stems from that degenerated disk in my lower back. Hey, what can I do?

It does give me a chance to squeeze in a few more hours of coding time. For those interested, today I am working on WavMan's Enhanced Locate feature. To be honest, it is a revamp of the QuickFind feature but I think most should be pleased with the outcome. And as always, one can choose to turn the feature on or off as desired. So, without further delay, I am off to work.

More later...

   Kevin @ 7:58 AM EST | | Listening to:

  Challenge posted Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Another hazard of my job is E-Mail. Specifically the ones that are directed towards me, backed with an attitude and ego. The particular letter I am talking about at this moment is from "Scott" who makes the claim that he could replicate my entire line of programs within hours. Based on his spelling and grammar, the dude cannot be any older than thirteen. Maybe fourteen at best.

Okay ya little punk. You have four hours to do so. I expect to have copies of them in my mail box by 12:50 am EST. You will have no excuses for not having this done, because this is the claim you made to me.

Oh....can't do it?

Next time buddy, keep your ignorant comments to yourself. The chances that you could do what I do, plus support it is more than likely slim-to-none. I have seen people try and have seen them fail. While I do agree that some of the programs I have written are relatively easy to write, most have been changed and tweaked over the years to the point where one could not, with any degree of ease, sit and simply copy them object for object. I think this is true of *any* seasoned program.

Besides, the true art of programming is coding, which is what goes on behind what you see on the screen. And not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty damn good at it. Anyone can draw a pretty interface. Not everyone can write good code. This is evident in most of the crap that is circulating around right now.

I never claimed to be number one or even "the best." It is those people who make that claim who are compensating for something.

Keep those letters coming kiddies. I still have plenty of room on my "ignore" filters.

   Kevin @ 6:49 PM EST | | Listening to:

  Some Humor posted Wednesday, April 2, 2003

I've noticed since this war has began that my appetite has decreased...which sucks, because I love to eat. In fact, watching CNN makes my tummy hurt. It might be time to see if a free sample of Zoloft is the answer for me.

Here is something I got in E-Mail today. As a child of the 80's all of this is so true! I think I got all the profanity edited out. If I missed one...sorry:


When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up. With walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill both ways through year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death!

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But...Now that I've reached the ripe old age of twenty-nine, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a freaking Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves!

And there was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter-with a pen and then you had to walk all the way across the
street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

And there were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up!

You want to hear about hardship? You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! It was either that or get off to the lingerie section of the JC Penney catalog! Those were our options!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the the phone rang, you had no idea who it was it could be your boss, your mom, a collections agent, your drug dealer, you didn't know!!! You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square! You had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win, the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! A tall guy sat in front of you, you were screwed!

And sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!

And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning...D'ya hear what the hell I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled brats! That's exactly what I'm talking about!

You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled, I swear to God! You guys wouldn't last five minutes back in 1984!

And, I would also like to add that as kids, bike helmets were for the kid down the street. If you wiped out your green machine, then your teeth would pop out like chicklets. End of story. And don't even get me started as to where I would be now with the benefit of spell check.

   Kevin @ 6:28 PM EST | | Listening to:

  I'm back...and ready to complain! posted Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm sure the three or four of you good folk who actually read this section were waiting on edge for the next posts.

I actually got back some number of days ago, but work intruded. This included catching up on email, reading bug reports, making adjustments to WavMan for the next release, and of course catching up with friends and family. We had a really good time. I did not want to leave. Oh well.

For those who read this journal for information on what I am doing in regard to TPA, here is the skinny: I recently finished fixing all the reported glitches reported over the last week. Nothing serious. I added a few more new features as promised. What are they? Well, wait and see. . Everything else seems to be working properly without incident. With AOL's recent release of the AOL 8.0 Plus version of their software, the final WavMan will follow. No, really. I mean it this time.

Seriously. I am not about pushing software out as fast as I can and delivering a buggy, ugly product that squeezes every known and useless feature into one tiny, unreadable little window. I like to take my time and not rush things. I also have another job outside of software, so that is another consideration. That's life. Bills have to be paid one way or another. Damn this stupid war.

Speaking of stupid wars, I got the latest copy of TIME yesterday which of course is completely about the war in Iraq. There was a picture of a little boy, who appeared to be about three, the age of my little boy. He had his head and hands bandaged and was lying in a hospital bed connected to tubes and wires. Damn George W. Bush and his warmongering puppets! How sad! That little boy was looking ever so pleading into the camera with his big brown eyes as if to say: "Why is this happening to me? I'm just a little person. I don't understand!" Iraqi or not, he was just a small innocent little boy who should not have been hurt the way he was. God bless the USA!

More to come...

   Kevin @ 1:56 PM EST | | Listening to: