May 29th Draft - Previously Unpublished

I'm really getting behind on these Blog posts. I already have two waiting to go. I just haven't had much time to get them out.

Memorial Day
I have today off and Kris decided to schedule Spring Cleaning on my day off, with the kids off at their GrandParent's and Dad's house. So I get to do the work myself. Fun.

We rented a carpet steamer, which I must say, does not work a whole lot better than our Spot Cleaner. It does a good job of getting the carpet cleaner, but I don't notice much more difference between the two. We're going to get in a habit of doing a monthly follow-up with the Spot Cleaner, as I had alot of luck using it at the apartments. Well, except for when that stupid bitch, Gayle, closed the bedroom windows before the carpet could dry. That stupid bitch.

This evening, Kris and I are going to have a Beer Brat and some Samuel Adams - always a good decision. It sure beats teh hell out of a cold sandwich, soggy chips, and a pop tart.

Maybe I was a little too harsh
I know the dumb bitch means well and is only trying to help. But she is trying to lecture me on the finer points of parenting when she, herself is not a parent. I'm apologize, Vanna, but you are a teacher. Your naive theories on how parenting should work and how counselling will fix everything are just that - theories.

You have no idea what its like to be an actual parent, and on top of that, a step-parent. You have the luxury of only seeing your "kids" for a few hours or playing "aunt vanna" for a little while. You don't get it. And to pile your generic Dr. Phil - solutions to this problem is not going to make it any better.

Finally, the fact that you can bundle that in with all of the pain and suffering you are carrying with you from childhood just really speaks about how petty and childish you really are.

Note to Parents and Family
I moved to Wisconsin because I wanted to find a better life for myself than what was available to me. I saved my money for six months to leave and find something else. I didn't do it to punish anyone and I didn't do it because I was mad. I decided to go out and try to find something better - that's all. I do appreciate and miss my family, but I have to make a life for myself and it just wasn't happening in Texas at the moment. I know Dad understands that and the rest of you guys are beginning to understand it. I ask that the rest of you try to understand that. Sometimes you have to jump into the unknown to find yourself.

May 22nd Draft -- Previously Unpublished

Pay has been a little tight this week. I was paid on Friday and we are sqeakin' through this week. I got my new motherboard and am waiting my dad to send the 2 Gig Proc he has. I'm also trying to get my Care Package together to send out. I just have one las thing to pick up and I can send it out.

Kids and School
The kids are about a week out from Summer break. They are getting antsy about finals and then the last day festivities. Jacob has been running around with his dad and his friends and has been trying to con me into buying him a P22 airsoft pistol to play airsoft over at his cousin's house. I told him he could get it if he behaved himself and got his school year finished up.

Jada has been running around outside, herself. The last few days have been nice and warm and she spends the time sunning herself. But it has also been a little hot, so she has been drinking alot of water.

Lily has had a severe case of dry skin or something, we're hoping it isn't ring worm, but she's constantly scratching herself raw. I gave her a oatmeal treatment bath and that only seemed to make matters worse. So I gave her a nice cool bath in the SudSaver. She's seemed a little better, but we will need to keep it up.

Kris and Work
Kris has been pulling some later afternoons, staying until 3:30 each day. She's trying to make up some additional hours during the week so she won't have to come in on the weekends. An extra hour a day, translates into an extra $140 a pay period plus whatever she does on the weekend.

Weekend Plans
This weekend, we were planning to go see a movie- Over the Hedge. Not sure if we'll get to, but it would be a nice change of pace. I haven't seen any new movies since late last summer. I believe Serenity was the last one I saw.

May 17th Draft -- Previously Unpublished

I had some good news this week. Earlier in the week, Theresa brought me in her office for a short chat. My 90 days had come up and I got my first raise. I'm now working at $9.50/hour. Sweet!

My first paycheck come in on the 20th, so it will be interesting to see how much of a difference the raise will make. I estimate, it will equal about $100 extra per pay period. I know we can use that.

School Year is almost gone
The kids' school is winding down and they are becoming fidgety about their summer. Jacob will be going to a summer sports camp, while Annie may end up in summer school.

Both are excited about summer, but will mostly spend it moping about how bored they are.

Dumb Bitch Threatens to Report my Blog
Recently, I was contacted by a dumb bitch about my blog. She was given a two word reply to her complaint. Her complaint dealth with the subject of a few of my posts. Let me explain something to you. My site is privately owned. I pay for it, its my content, and the terms and conditions you think would apply to my site only apply to Geocities' Free sites. As a paying customer, I am free to post content on my website.

My blog, on the other hand, is hosted on a separate site, which Geocities do not control. Both sites feed back to my web address in coding - only. Why? Because the Blog is set up that way. The Blog is hosted from their blog server. The page that holds that code is housed on my website. The actual text of the blogs are hosted by Blog and appear on my page dynamically link.

What does any of that mean? That means Geocities cannot and will not do anything about a person's individual complaint about my privately owned website. As I have posted before, if you have a problem with the content on my website, you are at no obligation to read it, you came to my website of your own free will, and I'm not going to censor myself just to make you happy.

Why older sisters are less intelligent
Because they think they are an authority. When an uneducated person tries to argue semantics with a person who has several years of webpage design under his belt, they usually just come across as a stupid bitch.

Mayday is to Mothers' day as Fathers' Day is to Payday?

This last week was quite busy but saw the return of some very bad habits. Andrea's grades are still horrible, she still refuses to do her work in and after school, and my promise to disconnect cable if her grades haven't risen is fast approaching fruition.

Honour Amongst Peevs...
I'm sure you all have heard about Andrea's daily dally and tattle regarding homework. The simple explanation is (a) she doesn't bring homework home, (b) she doesn't do the homework she does bring home, (c) she cannot seem to organize her materials well enough to get them turned on in time, (d) the homework she does turn in is either incomplete or hurried through with no actual effort attempted to see that it is done right. This is compunded by (e) - not paying attention or participating in class and (f) not bothering to ask her teachers for any assistance until it is too late.

Hmm, toss in (g) not caring that her grades or bad, (h) lying about even having homework, and (i) expecting Kris to do her work for her. Then there's (j) waiting until bedtime, the night before its due to actually do any of her work. FInally there's (k) purposely making plans that she insists we cannot break, shich pushes the amnount of time she can spend on work to almost nil.

Kris had enough of it and told Andrea she was grounded from going anywhere, talking on the phone, or watching TV until her grades were a C or higher. Unfortunately, that jst won't be possible as Andrea consistently puts off all actual work until the very latest. Most of her teachers are fed up with her as she makes almost no effort at all to do the work, turn it in on time, or do anything to work them - showing she is concerned with her grades and wants to learn.

Instead, Andrea has made herself into an outcast that no teacher wants to deal with, almost no students want to partner with, and most other adults wish to avoid at all costs. I don't blame them one bit. Andrea expects the very best out of everyone when it comes to rewarding her or doing favors for her. But when she is asked anything of her, she refuses to give them anything.

I think she should be held back in 7th grade another year. She doesn't want to do the work and as far behind as she is from missing school and refusing to participate, sending her along to 8th grade is only going to hurt her. Andrea says she wants to do well in school, but like most things, having to make any effort to accomplish that goal is too much to ask of her.

Last week, she spent the entire week watching DVDs in her room and screwing around with her Aunt. Every day, she told us she did not have any homework and that she'd finished it all at school. On Sunday, she comes home with eight pages of Science to complete, four pages of English, and two ro three in Reading. She didn't work on any of it and later admitted she had gotten it on Wednesday, but hadn't brought it home until Friday. It was obvious she hadn't done anything, even though she wswore she had worked on it over the weekend.

Bye bye sweetheart...
So, I pulled the plug on her DVD player. I took the RCA cables and hid them, I took her popcorn snack from the cabinet - partially because she kept slobbing popcorn all over the living room after repeatedly being told she was not supposed to eat in there. In other words, any rules I make for her, she deliberately refuses to follow them when I'm not in the house.

Kris had enough of it and grounded her. I'm sure it won't stick because Andrea knows just how to manipulate her. She tries it with me and I stare her down. I know she's nothing more than a lazy little slob, so her ACT does very little to phase me.

I plan to disconnect the cable this summer and Andrea is not going to stay home. She's gonna be shipped to either grandparents or her dad's. I told her if she didn't get her grades up and keep them there I would disconnect the cable. She was also told she would have no more sleep overs until her grades improved. And she would not be allowed to play volleyball if her grades were not high enough.

Why are you so mean?
Last night as her punishment began to sink in, after her whining to Kris had failed, Andrea asked me why I was so mean to her. I told her, "I'm being mean to me because you're making me do it. You refuse to be responsible and do the work you know you need to do. You keep lying to us about homework. I warned you there would be consequences for not getting your grades up. If you want to blame someone for this, blame yourself."

Andrea doesn't want to do any work. She doesn't want to make any effort. She just wants to slob her way through life, letting everyone else take responsibility for her and allowing her to take all of the credit and rewards from their work. She refuses to compromise on anything and cannot see beyond anything other than what she wants immediately and is incapable of organizing or goal setting.

Andrea doesn't have sympathy or understanding for anyone and views each person as yet another resource with which she may consume. She is a parasite which feeds off of everyone and contributes nothing. When she learns her "host" will no longer tolerate her actions, she assumes they are just at fault.

Basically, Andrea is on the same track her father is on. She is fast becoming a Argumentative, Obnoxious Asshole. The only thing left would be for her to be divorced three-four times, drink about a case of beer a day, and wear socks with watershoes...

Non-StepDemon News:
On the homefront, we recently learned we would need to have the Truck sent to the shop to have the gas lines replaced. Fun. Our 95 Ford Explorer has seen better days, but it has been a damned fine truck. It handles alot like my Ford Ranger, with the added bonus of Four wheel drive. If we had to get rid of it, I would really miss it. Kris had been driving it to work and around as it got better gas mileage than our other car. I have been driving that one and its really starting to show its age.

I am working on a new Site design for Willsroom and hope to have it ready for beta testing soon. I am going to completely scrap the current Tabbed Div and rebuild the site from the ground up. I was thinking about using a PMWiki design, but I'm still shopping around. I do know the Flash Nav Bar is going out as well - many users have had problems with that. I may ask one of the WebDev team to look at creating the Site Map for me, but I'm pretty sure that design will be updated and incorporated into the new page. The Tabbed Div will be retained simply for the News/About Pages as that cuts the files down when uploading to the FTP site.

Mother's Day/Father's Day Care Packages
I will be sending out my parents' Mother's day and Fasther's day gifts soon. Included in this package will be a tin Log Cabin Maple Syrup and a small jug of Maple Syrup from our lovely Wisconsin Maple Syrup farmers... I have to say, both are bvery good, very sweed, and an excellent natural maple taste. Pancakes and Sausage beware!

I am also sending my mom some kitchen stuff that I think she'll enjoy, such as Rubbermade and Gladware Sandwich/Lunch containers, and some bowls. This stuff is super cheap up here, but is for some reason, very expensive in Texas - figures. Mom is also getting a few treats that I know she'll enjoy.

My dad is going to get some goodies for him, as well. I am still trying to figure out what I'm going to send him, but I'm sure he'll enjoy them. I had considered sending him a shirt or something, but I'm probably going to settle on sending him something fun for him to enjoy. Dad's goodies are most likely chocolate covered almonds or something like that. Chocolate disappears fast in this house, so I'll have to ship them out quickly!

May God Grant You Peace and Ser....Seniri...Senility...yeah!

April has ended, a dreadful, hate-filled, obnoxious month of stupid, stupid bullshit. Now we are faced with May, with its goody two-shoed promise of tranquility and happiness....bah, I spit on your tranquility, I deplore your happiness, and I spit on the essence of your May-ness. May sucks.

The Good News
April is over! Thank the heavens, Allah, Buddha, Zeus, and Poppa Smurf. May God strike down the man who even suggests there be another April.

Work has been very busy. I have gone through about 15 repairs in the last month. I have finished up several projects - personal and private that will see us well into June. I was also awarded the Employee of the Month for April, which was a nice surprise. This month has sucked and it was nice to get recognition for the work I've done.

The Bills are getting paid off. I am caught up on the cable and phone bills and am almost caught up on the electricity bill. We will be getting a handle on the rent, as well, though we still have some other outstanding bills to get caught up. By the end of the summer, I hope to have all of our bills up to date, ahead, and ready for the new school year.

The kids are doing better at school, but Andrea had to have TV taken away from her, as you may have already read. Jacob will be attending tutoring (Special Ed) classes at school to help him get caught back up. Both kids seem to be doing a little better with their schooling. And they actually cleaned their rooms!

The dogs are staying their usual - fat, happy selves. Jada spend all day sleeping on the couch and is rewarded in the evening with the occasional walk. Lily was given a nice warm bath, which she truly enjoys. Jada - not as much as Lily, but tolerates it. Both dogs were bathed, dried, and brushed. They are both nice and clean. Hopefully, that will make them less itchy all the time.

Kris is recovering from her sick time. She also has been working extra during the week to try to push her overtime up. We need the money since the hospital started taking a bite out of her paychecks. She's trying to work until 3:30 on most days and then catch a Saturday or Sunday, when possible. No more of the 7 days a week shit, which makes her happy - sorta.

I am working on the next step of my home networking project. Right now, I'm trying to locate a wireless networking card. As soon as I find a good router, I will begin setting up the network. I also need to spend some cash on a copy of Win 2K and a few COAs.

New MP3 Library on Willsroom
I have recently finished compiling the new MP3s for this spring. At a whopping 23MBs, its the largest collection of music I have published to the site in the last two years and it is hoped my guests will enjoy it. I hope you like the Beatles, otherwise, you're SOL.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta...



I have been working on IE7 at work. So far, there will be some problems for people. They include the following:

• 233MHz Processor or better (most likely, 500 mHz or faster for decent performance)
• 12MB for Full Install
• 64MB of RAM (512+ for best results)
• 800x600 resolution (or higher)
• Must be running Windows XP (SP2, Pro x64 ed., or Win Server 2k3 SP1)
• Must be a valid copy (must pass Windows Authentication Validation)

Processor Requirements
On today's computers, 2.5 GHz or better is the standard. But on people who may be running older systems, such as teachers, businesses, and libraries, you may need to make that final decisions to upgrade a computer that is already 10+ years old.

Face it, making the upgrade to Pentium II processors is more and more affordable than ever before. And if you want to stake a claim on that huge World Wide IntraWeb, you'd better get on your wagon...what with all them thar' new-fangled contraptions that can send pictures to people in a blink of an eye. Yes. It is time to upgrade from Windows 95, straight to XP, you cheap bastard. Just think, your porn will download faster.

Hard Drive Requirements
12 MBs is a huge installation! Maybe back when you were actually running Windows 3.11 and the average harddrive was 40-80MB. Today, the average HD capacity is 80-100 GB and there are even larger HDs on the market as standard upgrades, which hold 250 - 300 GB. For just under $800, you can buy a 1 terabyte (1000 GB) HD.

12 MBs seems petty and wimpy, when compared to my UT Installation, which tops out at 3 GBs - that's right 3GB! I have a game on my desktop that takes up 3 million bytes. If 12 MB is that much of an issue for you, you need to definitely upgrade your HD. A 40 GB HD runs about $40. SO spend some cash, already!

Memory Requirements
64 MB is considered a minimal upgrade. The fact that you would attempt to run any post-Win 95 machine on anything less than 256 MB of RAM suggests you should seriously consider scrapping your plans for using a computer and invest in a quality pen and paper.

Windows XP thrives on at least 256MB of RAM. And 512 MB will have most machines running very smoothly. Once you start jumping into games, graphics, and web authoring, you will need at least 1 GB of RAM (1024MB).

IE7 on a system with 256MB of RAM runs fairly well, but it would be so much better with 512 or more. Give into temptation and excessively low RAM prices and boost your system's RAM. Your surfing will be that much more rewarding. And Windows will thank you by not being as much of a pain in the ass it was when you were running it with less RAM.

Now I hate to break this to you, but 64MB of RAM is pathetic on any Windows machine.

Screen Resolution Requirements
I certainly remember the older Windows 3.1 and 95 machines and how excited gamers were to be playing games at 480x320 and then 600x480. With Windows 98, it was 800x600, then 1024x768 and up from there. As monitors have increased in size, the resolutions have increased to give users a certain "feel."

Unfortunately, 800x600's time to go is fast approaching. The average monitor size will be 17-19", meaning that 800x600 is huge! For Glaucoma patients, 800x600 on a 23" monitor must seem comfortable. For the rest of us, its a waste of space on a huge monitor. With larger monitors, you have the chance to fit more icons on the screen. You also have the chance to do more work.

Operating System Requirements
If there's one way Microsoft knows how to make money, its by discontinuing support for older Operating Systems. I guess I can't blame them. Why support an old OS when you have three newer ones out there. And why should they continue to expend their resources to develop old systems when their idea is to sell you newer, better software?

Personally, I think XP has been a mixed bag. IT does have increased customization and compatibility., but quite frankly, I think Windows 2000 was Microsoft's finest accomplishment. But they don't support Win2K in IE7. What good is it? I had planned to upgrade two computers to Win2K and having the newest browser on both of them would have been nice. You suck, Microsoft!

Windows Genuine Authentication
All I have to say about this is HA! HA! Your days pirating Windows has hit a snag. Unless it is a valid copy of Windows, you can kiss your dreams of using IE7 away. On one hand, I can really appreciate the fact MS has got all of its ducks in a row on this one. But sooner or later, a hack will come out that defeats their Genuine Aunthencraption.

Microsoft had already scored a major zing by requiring Authentication for all new MS Products. This really blows when you're trying to upgrade a customer's computer with an unknown copy of Windows. They may have done it themselves or they may have bought it used from their cousin's nephew's dog did it while they were away at a Shriners' Convention - who the hell cares. If it ain't genuine, baby, you ain't gettin' it.

Final Observations
Its amazing how much of an effort Microsoft goes to copy everyone else. Hell, they've built their entire company around hacking. You'd think they wouldn't mind when someone tries to hack them.

It certainly is spiffy with all its who-zits and what-zits it has. Quite frankly, I think you would be much better served by any of the dozen previous browser which offer a much more stable product. I think Firefox is better. But since it is Microsoft, it will soon become a requirement. They've sunk their resources into screwing over their "legacy" OS customers. Might as well get comfy for this ride.

Where do I want to go today? I was thinking of picking a few apples...