A Bit Personal

Don't want to go into much detail but suffice it to say...I'm going to upset the apple cart in my family.

I have to tell my parents that I'm an adult now and I don't appreciate the negative vibes regarding my life and the way my wife and I are raising our kids.

Mom says some hurtful things. I don't think she really means it but I also don't think she understands how hurtful the things she says are.

Pray for me, mom and dad, my siblings and my wife and kids.

This ain't gonna be fun.

Eric

Speeding Up Firefox

I know I said my next post would be a bit personal but I ran across some computer/internet geek stuff! HT to BHT! I was skeptical but tried it anyways and it works. If you're not using Firefox (and why not???) this speeds up loading of web pages.

Try it!

Speed Up FireFox


If you haven't seen it yet, Call for Help is back on G4 Tech TV here in
America. Leo Laporte is back hosting the show along with Amber MacArthur.
Browing the show notes one evening over Christmas I found the following on
how to speed up firefox. I tried the following and it definitely works -
I've noticed a good deal of increased speed after doing this.

Link: G4techTV.ca > Call for Help > Extreme Tips: Speed Up FireFox.

To jump start the speed of Firefox ability to load pages faster, check out
these settings edits.

First, type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. You'll see a
bunch of settings.

Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a Web page at a time.
When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds
up page loading. Next, alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true" by right clicking on it and choosing
"Toggle".

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true" Set
"network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30.

This means it will make 30 requests at once.

Lastly right-click anywhere and select New -> Integer. Name it
"nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the
amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages much faster now!


That's all...

Eric

Storms A Brewin' Ma!

Oh man...have I got a storm a brewin'. I need some time to put it into words but needless to say, personal issues suck. Issues with my Mom, issues with my 13-year-old son, issues with the wife, issues with work.

Just wanted to give anyone who reads this a heads up. A lot is going to come in the next day or two that will expose some of the uncomfortable side of life...

Eric

Too Much Time On My Hands

So...one of my favorite places to go to on the web is OdDtodD.com Todd is from NY and he spends all freakin' day on-line. But he finds some of the neatest sites...like this one. Funky Asian Stuff

Go there and waste some time while looking at some pretty neat stuff!

Eric

Annoyed? Annoyed??

First...read this. Annoyed On Line? Sue Them!

Holy Crap Marie. Then I want every Senator and Congressman in D.C. and in my home state of California fined under this law. They ALL annoy me...and fine Katie Couric too...she annoys me. Add Ron Popeil...he annoys me. Hell...you all annoy me so cough it up.

Sheesh...what a bunch of hooey...annoy. Who here hasn't been annoyed at one time or another by something someone posted on some website or another.

What a freakin' waste of taxpayers money and Congress' time!

Color me annoyed!

Eric

I Feel As If I Shoud Post Something...

...even if it's only to see the date change!

Actually, I have a couple of stories in my head but don't feel the urge to get them on paper just yet. Living like I do where my job can call at the drop of a hat, I am pushing these stories to the back burner. Why? Because once I get rolling it's hard to stop.

One of the stories is a refining of a story I wrote several years ago. I was trying for a "To Catch A Thief"/"The Italian Job" sort of feel but felt my characters were too flat, the story line didn't play out but the conclusion was great! Again, I had a good idea, a good beginning, lousy middle and killer ending. I just need to work on the middle.

Hopefully, there will be a day in the near future where when I'm off, I'm off. Don't call 'cause I ain't answerin'! Oh well, those were the days.

Thinking about moving to SoCal. Don't know.

Eric

A Little Bit About Me!

(From Birthday Calculator

You entered: 7/22/1965

Your date of conception was on or about 29 October 1964 which was a Thursday.

You were born on a Thursday
under the astrological sign Cancer.
Your Life path number is 5.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2438963.5.
The golden number for 1965 is 9.
The epact number for 1965 is 27.
The year 1965 was not a leap year.

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 18 April 1965.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 3 March 1965.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 6 June 1965.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 13 June 1965.

As of 1/9/2006 10:00:32 PM EST
You are 40 years old.
You are 486 months old.
You are 2,112 weeks old.
You are 14,781 days old.
You are 354,766 hours old.
You are 21,285,960 minutes old.
You are 1,277,157,632 seconds old.
Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.78512720156556 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

There are 194 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 41 candles

Those 41 candles produce 41 BTUs,
or 10,332 calories of heat (that's only 10.3320 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.69 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1965 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1965 the US population was approximately 179,323,175 people, 50.6 persons per square mile.
In 1965 in the US there were approximately 1,800,000 marriages (9.3%) and 479,000 divorces (2.5%)
In 1965 in the US there were approximately 1,712,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)


Your birthstone is Ruby
The Mystical properties of Ruby

Ruby is said to open one's heart to love.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Carnelian


Your birth tree is

Elm Tree, the noble-mindedness

Pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, tends to a know-all-attitude and making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humour, practical.


There are 350 days till Christmas 2006!
There are 363 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning crescent.


Eric

I'm Not Going...

...to SimCom.

Too many things in the "Con" column that out-weighed the "Pro" column chiefly, giving up flying airplanes. I think someplace like SimCom would be good for me in about 5-10 years.

So...I'm still at the job I have...waiting on King Air's and such. Did speak with DynCorp about OV-10 flying this summer. They may have a couple positions open and I'm by far one of the best qualified of any rookie out there.

We'll see...

Eric

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

That is the question.

I'm looking for a new job. Not that I don't appreciate my current one but it has it's limits and it's not what I want to do with my career. I have a semi-offer from SimCom in Scottsdale, Az. It pays well, good place to work, good bennies, nice area. But it means moving away from Redding. We've been here 15 years. Know a lot of people. Our kids were born here. Good quality of life. Comfortable. We know where everything is in Costco and FoodMaxx! And if we left then decided to move back, we couldn't afford the house we currently live in. We'd probably wind up with a 50-year mortgage just to move back in! (Our kids would be paying our mortgage after we became fertilizer!)

But then there's the possibility of working for the California Department of Forestry's contractor, DynCorp. I could be flying an OV-10 around in circles over fires for about the same pay as SimCom is offering. I would be living somewhere away from home for about 6 months out of they year (summertime when the kids are off!) but I'd make in 6 months what some make in 12. I'd have time in the off-season to do what I wanted to do and I'd still get to keep my family in Redding. I'd be gone more during the summer but home (and under foot) during the winter.

What to do?

I'll sit the wife and kids down and get a feeling from them. Both jobs are exciting opportunities. One is to teach others how to fly; give them the benefit of my experience. The other is just plain old flying in a fire environment; using my skills and abilities to better aid someone else.

Both offer something I need...stability. Set hours and expectations. At this point in my life, the ebb and flow of on-call charter, not knowing when or where you'll be, not being able to plan to do anything, is just not for me anymore. Too much stress and right now, I don't need anymore stress.

So my prayer is....where do I go? What should I do? What's the best for me AND my family? Would appreciate some prayer help on this one.

Eric

Thots...

(HT to Mikey's Funnies. Mikey's Funnies )


~ A backward poet writes inverse.
~ A bad Scrabble player: Inconsonant with bad vowel movement.
~ A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.
~ A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
~ A Christmas sign from a department store: "Big pre-Christmas sale. Come in and mangle with the crowd."
~ A Christmas sign in a bridal boutique: "Marry Christmas."
~ A Christmas sign in a stationery store: "For the man who has everything: A calendar to remind him when payments are due."
~ A Christmas sign on a reducing salon: "24 Shaping Days until Christmas."
~ A Christmas sign on a toy store: "Ho, ho, ho spoken here."
~ A Christmas sign outside a church: "The original Christmas Club."
~ A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
~ A laugh is a smile that bursts.
~ A lot of money is tainted - It 'taint yours and it 'taint mine.
~ A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
~ A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.
~ A plateau is a high form of flattery.
~ Acupuncture is a jab well done.
~ After a certain age, if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.
~ Anyone can give advice, but a real friend will lend a helping hand.
~ Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
~ Bibles coming apart are owned by people who are not.
~ Children and dogs are good judges of character.
~ Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
~ Children will soon forget your presents; they will always remember your presence.
~ Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the driveway before it has stopped snowing.
~ Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you? But when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window!
~ Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.
~ Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
~ Does your life shed light or cast a shadow?
~ Don't let school interfere with your education.
~ Don't let the diapers fool you. I'm the boss around here!
~ Don't make fun of children or the elderly - they are your past and future.
~ Don't think of it as getting hot flashes. Think of it as your inner child playing with matches.
~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.
~ Ever wonder why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
~ Ever wonder why you don't ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
~ Familiarity breeds children.
~ Give God what is right, not what is left.
~ God loves us not according to how we do but according to who God is.
~ He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless dead.
~ He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree.
~ Honor is a gift a man gives himself. (A woman, too, of course...)
~ How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
~ I considered atheism, but there weren't enough holidays.
~ I know that there are people in this world who do not love their fellow man, and I just HATE people like that.
~ I must have money...I still have checks in my checkbook.
~ I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then I want to move in with them.
~ I wonder if Dracula ever had ticks.
~ I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else.
~ I Xeroxed a mirror. Now I have an extra Xerox machine.
~ I'd explain it to you, but your brain would explode.
~ If brains were taxed, she'd get a rebate.
~ If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of Progress?
~ If corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?
~ If he says that you are too good for him, believe it.
~ If I melted dry ice, could I swim in it and not get wet?
~ If I wanted to hear the pitter-patter of little feet, I'd put shoes on my cat.
~ "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have stopped eating vegetables."
~ If knees were backwards, what would chairs look like?
~ If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?
~ If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.
~ If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.
~ If you're in a car going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?
~ In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
~ It makes me mad when people say I turned and ran like a scared rabbit. Maybe it was like an angry rabbit, who was running to go fight in another fight, away from the first fight.
~ It's scary when you start making the same noises as your coffee maker.
~ Jesus paid the price. You get to keep the change.
~ Just BEFORE someone gets nervous, do they experience cocoons in their stomach?
~ Know how to prevent sagging? Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.
~ Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.
~ Man's way leads to a hopeless end...God's way leads to an endless hope.
~ Many girls like to marry a military man...he can cook, sew, and make beds and is in good health, and he's already used to taking orders.
~ My memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
~ Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
~ On anniversaries, the wise husband always forgets the past - but never the present.
~ On your mark...get set...go away!
~ Once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall.
~ Opportunity knocks but once; temptation leans on the doorbell.
~ Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind.
~ Procrastinate Now!
~ Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.
~ She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.
~ Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.
~ Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell your storm how big your God is.
~ Tell me, where is this "bright side" that you speak of?
~ The distance between the ticket counter and your plane is directly proportional to the weight of what you are carrying and inversely proportional to the time remaining before takeoff.
~ The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
~ The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.
~ The reason most people play golf is to wear clothes they would not be caught dead in otherwise.
~ The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
~ The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
~ The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.
~ The grace of God is the mending glue for broken hearts.
~ There are only two kinds of people in the world: Those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord," and those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning."
~ There's always a lot to be thankful for, if you take time to look for it. For example, I am sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt.
~ These days about half the stuff in my shopping cart says, "For fast relief."
~ Things today are a lot like they used to be back in the day when things were different than they are now.
~ Those who get too big for their breeches will be exposed in the end.
~ Trouble in marriage often starts when a man gets so busy earnin' his salt that he forgets his sugar.
~ What did Adam say on the day before Christmas? It's Christmas, Eve
~ What level of importance must a person have, before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
~ When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.
~ When a man marries a woman, they become one; but the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.
~ When sign makers go on strike, is anything written on their picket signs?
~ When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.
~ When you open a new bag of cotton balls, do you throw the top one away?
~ Where there's a will, there's a lawsuit.
~ Which is worse: Ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?
~ Who sings "Love Me Tender" and makes Christmas toys? Santa's little Elvis
~ Would the person who took the step ladder yesterday please bring it back or further steps will be taken.
~ Wrinkled was not one of the things i wanted to be when I grew up.
~ You don't stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.
~ You know you're getting old when you stop buying green bananas.
~ You know you're into middle age when you realize that caution is the only thing you care to exercise.
~ You may be addicted to Narnia if you randomly knock on the backs of closets...just in case.
~ You stop believing in Santa Claus when you start getting clothes for Christmas.
~ You're slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter.