Sunday, January 04, 2004
A little bit about some resolutions for this year. (Pardon a minute while I relocate my keyboard to the front side of the cat. One of them has taken up residence between me and the keyboard's usual spot.)
Ok then. Some resolutions. First, I'm going to take college courses in pursuit of a bachelors degree in logistics management. Its the work I do every day anyhow and I really need that sheepskin to justify my already outrageous salary and to further my skill set so I can ask for even more money later.
So I'm already signed up for my first class beginning in just 2 weeks. The books are ordered and in the mail. Two nights each week should be a realistic expectation for my first foray back into higher education. After this first term I may try to take 2 classes just to get things accomplished sooner.
Second resolution- like every other adult male in America, I need to loose some weight! Thirty pounds off would be about right and make me very happy. That's not an impossible goal but it will be a tough one for me as I am a lazy eater and like eat too many bad things. Beer is high on this list. Mind you I am not promising to quit drinking beer! I may commit to drinking light beer even though that really goes against one of my life's cardinal rules. Right now I am so close to weighing 200 pounds that it is scary and I've never had a 40" waist in my life before now. A 36" waist would make me happy. So- 30 pounds and 4 inches off my waist, that's my goal. Less eating and more exercise!
I need to get on my bikes more, both the indoor one while the weather's not conducive to outdoor riding and then either or both of my mountain bikes when spring arrives.
And I need to get very busy on that effort because I intend to travel to Indiana this summer for my 30th anniversary reunion of my old high school. Its bad enough that I'm bald and short, I'd rather not be so big around when I see my old class chums.
Next- blogging on this silly bit of real estate I've scratched out here on the world wide web. I will try to post something of interest (to me) on a regular basis. Based upon my 2 previous resolutions, I think you can see a conflict building already. I'm compelled to keep doing this even though WE has not shaped up the way I somehow thought it might when I started. I somehow thought I had lots more ranting and venting to do and thaat WE would become a place for me to launch rants and diatribes against those things that really bug me. But it hasn't worked out that way and I still feel that I haven't really found my voice and place in the blogosphere. But here I am anyway and I guess I'll keep on until I get it right.
(BTW, WE will be having a birthday later this month! What shall I do to celebrate?)
That's it then; higher education, weight loss, improved fitness and continued blogging. And last but not least, I am going to search for a new church home. The church we currently (occasionally) attend really does not meet my spiritual needs and I am going to seek out another place of worship to call home.
Those are my resolutions. What are yours?
Nate 2:56 PM - [Link] Say something...
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Very weird... I have NO idea how or why people do things like the ones found on this page but it sure is neat! No practical value but certainly entertaining and creative.
Nate 12:48 PM - [Link] Say something...
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Rockface Game This one might occupy you for a bit also... I keep crashing!
Nate 12:36 PM - [Link] Say something...
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I DO NOT recommend that you try this at work! Its not X rated or even R rated, its just addicting and remarkably fun!
Nate 12:32 PM - [Link] Say something...
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Federal gun law does not mix terms from the Salt Lake Tribune
On average, one person a day was sentenced to federal prison for gun crimes in Utah, with some of the most violent offenders facing 50 or more years without the possibility of parole. The average sentence is 3 1/2 years.
"This gives us [more] prosecutors willing to prosecute our cases," said Jeff Sarnacki, resident agent in charge of the Utah office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Before Project Safe Neighborhoods, many of these cases were passed back to the state court system. But since its inception, federal gun prosecutions have increased 68 percent nationwide, according to numbers released this month by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah and the ATF produced a video about the project which is shown to felons as they leave the state prison.
"I'm a prosecutor. I'm not a social worker, and as such, if you violate federal gun laws, you will be prosecuted," U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner warns felons. "There will be no leniency."
But not all released felons have paid attention. Benjamin Jorgensen, 28, was released on Aug. 12 and two days later rearrested for possessing a Ruger .45 caliber handgun and ammunition. He was indicted in September, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on Jan. 22. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Sarnacki says sending gun criminals to federal instead of state prison has saved Utah $4.5 million in the past four years in housing costs alone.
So, bad guys, spread the word. You'll get lots more jail time in a Federal lockup for using a firearm and utah's doing its part to lock you up!
Nate 11:33 AM - [Link] Say something...
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Peace Elusive in Strife-Torn Midwest
Once described by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as "an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, surrounded by mystery, deep fried and covered with melted cheddar," the Midwest has long baffled outsiders.
The region was first discovered in 1956 by Mark Polo, a Levittown, N.Y. accountant, while searching for an overland passage to Anaheim and the famed treasures of Disneyland.
"Polo's young daughter had a notoriously weak bladder, so he was forced to seek emergency refuge at the ancient Stuckeys Oasis near Bettendorf, Iowa," explained Julian Whitby, a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Institute for Midwest Studies. "He was impressed by the region's rich culture, gigantic pecan logs and sparkling clean restrooms."
from Iowahawk, of course!
Nate 11:11 AM - [Link] Say something...
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Saturday, January 03, 2004
I'm back. BSU had control of the remote for the tv tonight and after watching America's Most Wanted she then found the tv adaptation of the play Saturday's Warrior. Now this play has lots of emotional value to her, one of the songs was sung at her first wedding, and the play upholds LDS values, which she was at the time, and its about children... So rather than being on the couch watching tv I'm back here in the palatial Wasted Electrons World Headquarters and ski gear closet.
I've already mentioned the amount of snow that has fallen since Christmas and how it has affected almost everything we do outside. Here's a picture of son Noah in the driveway, as we were finishing up our shoveling out task from the other day.
Do not misunderstand, I'm not complaining about the snow! The state desperately needs to refill our reservoirs after 5 continuous years of drought. We do live in a desert here and all those golf courses need lots of water so this snow is just the beginning (hopefully) of that much needed water increase. So while it takes a bit longer to get to work and some days I get sent home early because of it and sometimes my socks get wet getting into work, that's ok. I like the snow and I hope it dumps like this every winter from November until March.
And I like the snow! It makes going outside in the winter to play worthwhile. I've lived in England, Florida and Louisiana and while each of those places had lots of good things to do, winter in those places is not much fun. Its dark and it rains all the time and all the fun stuff of summer becomes out of the question. But there's no snow to play in either and so winter time in those places just didn't add up to much fun to me.
In the mid-west where I grew up, we lived for snow days in the winter when the roads were to drifted and the snow too deep and we didn't have to go to school. I think I still have the transistor radio that my dad always kept loaded with fresh batteries that we listened to every day before school if it had snowed the night before. All we needed to know was that school was closed and we were fueled up with Malt-O-Meal and sent, bundled up, outside to play. So snow seems like a good idea for winter time to me and it is just one of the reasons I settled here in Utah.
Nate 10:44 PM - [Link] Say something...
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Did I mention that its been snowing? The driveway needs shoveled again! And I ran out of icemelt and there is none, NONE to be bought in town. If you arrived today from Florida and needed to clear the driveway of the house you rented in advance, you would be SOL. There are no snow shovels, no icemelt and no snowblowers to be bought anywhere in the county. If you haven't seen the pictures over at Karen's blog, go take a look at what I'm talking about. I have some pictures of my own driveway that I'll try to post later.
Nate 8:17 PM - [Link] Say something...
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Finally! I've been trying to get logged in hear here for a while now and Blog Studio has been balking me at every turn. But I'm in now so maybe I'll get something of interest posted...
First, I've been listed over at Globe of Blogs. Its a listing service I found the other day and they have kindly listed Wasted Electrons among their many other blogs. So check them out maybe you'll find a new blog to visit every day, and isn't that what we all need, another blog to add to our every day list?
If you are visiting from GoBs, please take a minute to visit my visitor map and leave me a dot to show where you're from. And I love comments so if you find something interesting on WE, I'd love to hear your opinion, so don't be shy.
And I have a Globe of Blogs button to add over there on left side, which I will try to get accomplished in the very near future- like tomorrow because once I get back to work next week who knows when I might get to it.
What else? If you are one of my many visitors searching throughout the web for Kel-Tec gun reviews and information and if you find my review and list of links helpful, how about tossing some coins in my PayPal account so I can keep buying bullets. I'm amazed at the number of people that visit every day that are searching for information on these little guns. The folks at Kel-Tec took two weeks off over the holidays and I'm certain from the visitors to WE that they must have shipped a bunch of these guns out their doors before they knocked off. And the CNC machines better still be warm so that production can get cranked back up next week. I just wish their guns, my P3AT in particular were a little more immediately dependable. Mine will be shipped off next week for some attention by the very good gunsmiths at Kel-Tec and hopefully they can resolve this gun's particular issues.
Later- New Year's resolutions and some pictures!
Nate 8:09 PM - [Link] Say something...
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Friday, January 02, 2004
Ok, ok, ok. I know I bragged that I was going skiing on Tuesday but shoveling out the driveway turned out to be more effort than we expected and we didn't go. And Wednesday we did change the Tracker's clutch cable making it much more enjoyable to drive. That went pretty easy.
None of my regular ski partners wanted to go yesterday and so I stayed home too, taking down the Christmas tree, putting away all the decorations and digging the nativity scene out of the front yard snowfield. And I got to read my current book, DEEP FIRE RISING by Jack DuBrul.
But today, right now, I'm getting ready to hit the ski slopes at Powder Mountain Ski Resort. There is LOTS of fresh snow so I've got to get out and play in it.
Of course, that means no more posting until later tonight. Terry's at work today and posting bunches, go wish him a Happy New Year.
Nate 9:46 AM - [Link] Say something...
