This story seems insane: Two planes clip each other mid-air flying at 500mph. The smaller of the two manages to land safely in the Amazon jungle and the other spirals out of control and crashes killing 150 people. Definitely a tragic event, but also very remarkable that the small plane was able to take being clipped by a 737 and still fly well enough to land safely.
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Sunday I got a call from Jordan who remidned me that Far-Less was playing in Chapel Hill that night - which I had completely forgotten about. I decided to go check it out and was glad I did because I had a great time seeing the guys and catching up a bit.
The last 10-15 shows I have been to have been "indie" rock shows and I had forgotten how bruttle 3 guitars and a drummer can sound. Combined with the right sound system, it is amazing big and powerful these little instruements can sound and it was great to see a good hard rock show. I also watched most of Heislegend from the side/back of the stage and while I love their old stuff, I wasn't as impressed by some of the newer songs.
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Well, it finally happened...Leigh brought home a dog from work today that is to be our dog. Of course we had talked about this before and I had met her (Raya) and agreed to that we could keep her, but it is still a pretty big deal. Leigh spayed her yesterday so she is still kinda sleepy and on drugs, but we are trying to crate train her and slowy introduce her to the cats.
The Harkey family grows once again. Come see us - all of you (just not at the same time).
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We all know local car dealer ads are over the top a lot of times, but is this one funny or unsensative? I vote for funny.
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Keep an eye on this blog - pretty interesting (to me at least). Dean is running 50 marathons in 50 days and frankly that blows my mind.
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On the way to the cafeteria today I saw a guy walking by carrying one of those "For Dummies" books. What was the topic? None other than "Dungens and Dragon for Dummies". Not only is it amazing that they even make such a book, but that I caught a guy with a copy makes it that much more interesting. Good to know we are an equal opportunity employer.
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By now I am sure you have heard all the controversy surrounding the quote the Pope made about the Muslim people. Good article here. The thing is though, are the Muslim extremist not supporting the comments by threatening violence against catholics? Do they not see how ironic this all is?
I guess the thing to keep in mind is that it is primarly Muslim extremist that are making the aggressive claims. Just like with any religion or group of people, the extremist often end up being seen as a representative of the majority of the people when in fact they are usually a super small pocket of the overall group and don't represent the group as a whole.
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Time really flew by this week and it is hard to believe it is already Friday. I spent the weekend visiting family in Wingate/Monroe only to drive home Sunday night and then drive back to Charlotte for work Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week has been a blur with the delivery of our new furniture, really busy times at work and no weekend plans to speak of really. I do know we are suppose to go to a wedding on Saturday afternoon, but I have no clue who the person getting married is!
It is sad to think that this time next month Jeremy won't be here anymore. I am going to miss him - I really enjoy hanging out with him and Robbie and Amy when in Charlotte. Don't make me tear up Jeremy.
Oh yeah, Grant launched a new blog. It will be cool to check in on that and see if he keeps the posts flowing. Maybe now he will actually read this site!
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After several recent interactions with car salesman, my impresson of them has completely changed. I used to always picture car salesman as these sleezy guys who try and bully you into buying a car at a bad price and that you ultimately want to hate but need to work with in order to get the car and deal you want. However, what I have found is that the modern car salesman is not this way at all. While they obviously still try and sell you on the car, they tend to be overly nice and make you feel like they are trying to help you out. They use the good cop/bad cop approach to make it seem like they want to get you a good deal, but the manager is the one pushing back. This has probably always been true, but I think they are getting more effective at it. The last 4-5 car salesman I interacted with a lot were all people that I wanted to help out by buying a car. In some way or another they made me want them to get the sale because they seemed like really nice people. Only after it started happening consistently did I begin to thing that this was probably the new tactic to get people to buy cars.
Speaking of which, we did get Leigh a new car, and since I was well armed with information on the MSRP, invoice price, dealer incentives, hold-back, etc I got the car for the lowest possible price. Don't go buy a car without knowing these things or you will pay too much.
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I got a really strange call last night while fixing dinner:
A lady called and asked me if I knew a James H. Since I wasn't sure why she was asking (Note: my dad's name is James H) I played dumb and tried to get her to tell me more. Apparently there was a car parked outside the restaurant she worked at and it had been sitting there all day. The windows were down (despite it raining) and in the back seat was some luggage with "James H" on the luggage tag. She said her manager was getting ready to have the car towed and so she went through the phone book and called the 4 people with my last name listed in Raleigh trying to find someone who knew James H.
At this point i began to panic a little bit. While I didn't know of a reason why my dad would be in Raleigh and why he would abandon a car with luggage in it, I wasn't sure what was going on. I immediately called my Dad's house and spoke to my step-sister who said he wasn't home yet because his car had broken down. Whah? She said he would be home in 10-15 minutes.
About 30 minutes later my Dad called and said his car had broken down, but in Charlotte and he hadn't been to Raleigh anytime recently. The car abandoned here belonged to another James H and all was well.
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After talking to Amy about how her brother's wife's family house burnt down and what to do to salvage the computer files, I started wondering if I didn't need to do some kind of off-site backup. Hard drives are so cheap now that for under $100 I could easily backup all the important documents and pictures on my PC and give the hard drive to my parents or a friend. Seems like overkill, but I would be devistated if I lost all my computer files in some natural disaster.
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I am thinking about taking Tuesday off so I have a nice 4-day weekend. We don't have any plans so it might be a waste, but I have about 16 days of PTO left for the year and no plans to use it all on some super trip. Plenty to do around the house and a movie or two to see, sounds like a plan.
Anyone have good plans for the weekend? I don't other than Tiger Thief tonight at Kings, be there or be square.
I posted this on SUR today: Silent Uproar Records is pleased to announce the addition of Charlotte, NC's Stemage to our roster. This entire project was conceived, written, and performed by Grant Henry of Metroid Metal fame and will mark his full-length, debut release. Stay tuned for album pre-order info and some tracks added to our online player.
How rad is that?!?!
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Thoughts on this job?
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The scratching continues, but I digress...
We got Leigh a new car the other day while I was in Charlotte. It is a 2006 Honda Accord and she likes it a lot. We determined last night that it fits her personality and it is nice for her to have a new care since she has had the same once since she was 18. Thanks to Mom and family for buying her old car - I hope it treats you as well as it has treated us over the last 8 years - and thanks to the Hinsons for giving her the car in the first place.
Lot's of music this weekend with Tiger Thief playing tomorrow night and Birdmonster playing on Sunday. The good thing is both shows are in Raleigh so I don't even have to drive to Chapel Hill. Should also be a good long weekend for chilling out and getting some stuff down around the house (weather permitting - thanks Ernesto!).
As much as it sucks working in a cubicle sometimes, it sure is nice to be back at my work home in Raleigh with all my posters, music, etc. I was beginning to feel like I was living on the road there for a while.
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I have so much Posion Ivy on my legs and it itches so bad that I literally am going crazy. I want to scratch it sooo bad, but it is already all over my legs and that will only make it worse. I have tried hyrdocortizone cream, Calymine lotion, Benadryl, all at the same time, and they still itch to the point of craziness. Sucks!
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Did Jeremy drunk call me Saturday night at 2am and say I Love You? Jeremy, weren't you hanging out with Amy, Robbie and his mom? Do you really love me?
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I think if I worked in Charlotte I would go broke. I am always craving coffee, and when there are multipe coffee shops within 2 seconds of you at all times, I tend to drink too much of it. Of course I guess I would slowly learn to drink the cheap stuff. It is pretty convenient having coffee places, little stores with a selection equivelant of a nice gas station (or "bodega" as the Austin kids like to say), good food like Chick-fil-a and Quiznos, etc. At that is just at the University office. I can't begin to imagine the possibilites if working in the Uptown office all the time. Just this week I had several good lunches there and there is something fun about meeting Jeremy or Amy for lunch during the work day. It is defintely a completely different work experience than Raleigh where we have to drive 10 minutes to get anywhere decent and even then we basically have about 4 choices.
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You would think that when I am in Charlotte I would post more because that means I am in a hotel doing nothing. However, it seems being out of town = not much updating the site.
Jeremy and I went to Big Ben's British Pub last night for some dinner and ended up playing the Trivia game they had. We did OK most of the way through and ended up in a close 3rd place. Our downfall was there was only two of us and most teams had 5 or 6 people.
I also went with Amy to the mall the other day so I could get some new shoes. While there we did some casual engagement ring browsing and it was pretty entertaining seeing how the people at the stores reacted to us. Despite me trying to show my wedding band, they still tried to talk to me like I was the one buying the ring for Amy. I guess they thought I was into mutliple wives or was getting an early jump on securing a new one.
Staying in a hotel sucks. I dont' sleep well and I want my normal simple food.
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This weekend was pretty productive and included enough fun to still make it feel like a weekend. Today I spent 5 hours outside cutting down weeds with our new weedeater, cutting grass, etc. I had no idea I was out there that long and I came in exhausted. Other weekend activities included a cookout, some car browsing, TV watching, etc.
We are also in the process of trying to find Leigh a car. She has narrowed it down a bit, but I still don't know what the final choice will be. We are going to try and test drive a couple tomorrow.
Today when I came inside I was covered in grass from head to two and after taking off my socks and seeing that it looked like I still had socks on (white feet from being wet and in socks all day, brown legs from being really dirty) it reminded me of being a kid. I grew up on a turkey farm and spent a lot of time working and getting really dirty. I always liked coming home and taking my socks off and seeing the white feet thing described above. It has been I long time since I worked hard enough and got dirty enough to see this again. Good times, good times (not really).
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This article, about a Detroit judge ruling the NSA's spying was unconstitutional, obviously has a liberal perspective (not that this is bad, just worth noting that it isn't exactly an unbiased source), but it still seems like a pretty landmark decision.
Personally I don't care if the NSA spies on me. I mean I guess in general it seems like a bad idea that the government can encroach on our freedoms, etc but do I personally care if the NSA taps my phones or reads my emails? No, not really. As we move into a world with more and more terrorism I think things like this will keep coming up. I know people put a lot of emphasis on the constitution and fight against anything that violates their rights (and they should), but do we really think a document written 200+ years ago when the world looked so different is going to be valid as-is today? Won't it need some tweaking (yes Scott, they are called Amendments), some serious tweaking? I certainly want my rights protected, but I am willing to compromise a bit to ensure the safety of my family. I mean if you are a (mostly) law abiding citizen why do you really care if the NSA taps your phones? Is it more about that fact that you think your rights are being violated than the actual action itself?
I need someone to speak for the other side of the argument.
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As nice as it is to see friends and family in Charlotte, I have been going way too much lately. I feel bad for Leigh because it seems like every other week I am gone for at least a night or two. The good thing is that this is not typical, so hopefully things will slow down some soon. Speaking of Charlotte, I will be there next Tuesday through Friday racking up Hilton Honors points.
Meanwhile we have to figure out some way to get Leigh's car to Monroe and get Leigh and I both back Raleigh next week. I haven't quite figured out how to pull this one off yet.
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I really want one of these electronic door locks. I have often thought how cool it would be to be able to swipe a card to get into your house - face it, keeping up with keys sucks.
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Oh yeah, if you can read this then you are seeing my new site design. The last version of the site (designed by Mason) served me quite well for a good while, but since I look at this every day it was time for something new. This design was mostly designed by me ripped off from a template, but Robbie helped with some of the CSS stuff that made it all fit together right. Thanks Robbie.
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Whoever said we didn't know what we were getting into when we bought a house that we planned to fix up, was right. Yes, I admit it, we had no idea what we were getting into. Leigh and I are both feeling very stressed out, overwhelmed, and just exhausted in general. To think, just a few short months ago we had no worries, tons of extra money every month, and lots of free time. Now I know things will get better over time as we get more and more done and start to feel settled, but we have learned quite a few valuable lessons from this experience so far:
1. Leigh and I are not patient people. We want things the way we want them and we want them done now. We don't like waiting to slowly do things over time.
2. Leigh and I are control freaks. We don't like being at the mercy of contractors who never show up when they say they will, do things like they say they will, or perform the work as good as we expeced them to.
3. Leigh and I are not good at making decisions. While Leigh tends to overthink decisions and never arrive at an answer, I tend to not want to think enough about them and choose something just so the decisions is made. With our powers combined, we suck.
4. Upgrading a house is expensive! Don't be fooled, doing major improvements to a house cost of a ton of money. Tough to come up with $20k for home improvements when you just bought a new place AND still have your old one to pay mortgage payments on.
5. Life goes on.
Before this sounds too much like I am just whining, I will say that I know things will get better, but right now we are at the point where I needed to vent a little bit. When we are done with the upgrades to the house we will have an amazing place, and we should turn a pretty penny when we sell it one day (a quick Zillow search already shows it valued at $14k more than we paid for it - 3 months ago). I think the key is realizing that we don't have to do everything at once and feeling comfortable with the fact that there will always be more that we want to do than we have time or money for. It is defintely not worth constant worry and we have to find some things to enjoy in our life so we stay sane.
Speaking of which, we went to the beach yesterday and it was beautiful.
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This Snakes On a Plan stuff is getting out of control. I was sitting on the beach today minding my business and what flys by? One of those planes that flies down the beach pulling a banner - this banner happened to be a massive "Snakes + Plane = 8.18.06" and snake picture. Snakes on a Plane being advertised by a plane? Surely they understand how genious this marketing plan is.
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I am starting the day with a 1300 calorie defecit thanks to my run this morning, so I need to eat, eat, eat!!
What's going on this weekend? You can see my list of stuff below, but it would be nice to do something fun as well. It looks like the weather is going to be nice, but we shall see how it pans out.
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Time flies when you are traveling. I had a really good weekend and got to hang out with a lot of cool friends, have a nice dinner with my Mom and step-dad, and even manage to kick around a soccer ball some. I really miss being able to do things like that with friends, it feels good to get outside sometimes and do something other than run. Thanks for the good times Jeremy, Robbie, Amy, and Grant and thanks for letting me stay at your place Jeremy.
I got back into Raleigh yesteday and then spent the day rushing around trying to get a report finished and sent out as well as answering questions for the Brinks guy installing a security system on our house. He was a really nice person and actually grew up with the guys in a lot of the bands I like. Kinda random that he now does security system installations.
People do the strangest things when driving. I mean I know talking on the phone is dangerous, but how about flossing? Or eating cereal out of a bowl while reading a paper? I saw people doing both this morning ont he way to work.
We have some rather improtant things tog et done at the house and then it should start to feel a little more like home. Top of the list includes:
- Get blinds for all windows
- Bedroom furniture
- Install towel rods, mirrors, etc in bathrooms
- Have cabinets finished so we can put food and dishes in them
- Build shelves in CD Room and Unpack CDs
- Etc, Etc, Etc
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I am in Charlotte to see friends, family, and ultimately work tomorrow and Tuesday. I am staying with Jeremy tonight and I went for a run earlier this evening. That's all, good night.
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I should have paid attention to that last post and not run this route this morning. Note to self: new neighborhood is very very hilly and running when it is 88 degress with 84% hunidity is bad.
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As I left work yesterday the temperature was 102 degrees. While that is pretty hot, I have experiences 113 degress in Phoenix and 114 in India. However, both of those places felt better than it did here yesterday...why? Humidity - while still over 100 degrees, it started raining yesterday. I bet that is something you will never see in Phoenix.
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I'm sorry, but this is just freaky!
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Well we finally got moved into our new house. Pause for a second and realize how great it is that this finally happened.
As if to solidify the fact that we now live in a house with 1.3 acres and lots of yard and woods, the first night we stayed there I went outside to the storage room to flip a breaker switch - after walking in and out of the room in the dark a couple times I went and got flashlight and came back. What did I find? A nice little snake curled up right in my way. Of course my first reaction was to smash it (we grew up killing snakes when we saw them, not befriending them), but then I thought about my vetrinarian wife in the house and so I went and got her. We proceeded to make a hook with a coat hanger and took the little guy to the woods and let him go. It was just a small corn snake, so even if he comes back, we shouldn't be in too much danger.
So much going on...we are still waiting on cabinets to be finished. One crappy little thing is in the process of putting in the cabinets, the guys stepped on our brand new glass-top stove and cracked it. So now we have to haggle with getting a new stove delivered. Fun, fun.
More to come as things settle down. Including pictures finally.
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I rented one of those steam cleaners from the grocery store yesterday and steam cleaned the carpet in our new house last night. There is onyl carpet in the bonus area above the garage so I didn't think it would take long. Boy was I wrong - I used 21 gallons of water and it took 3 hours. Not fun, but it is one more thing marked off the list and hopefully means our cats won't pee on the carpet up there (because they smell the dogs that lived there before us) now.
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It's kinda surprising that with all the interest in Hybrid Cars, a major car manufacturer would make comments like these. I can't say I really fault the guy, I mean at least he is being honest about things and maybe it is good for people to know that Hybrids typically don't make economical sense. I think if people are buying hybrids based on the gas mileage savings alone then the cost diffirential isn't worth it. It's only when you figure in the environmental benefits (even if they are small in the grand scheme of things, we have to start somewhere) that they start to become more practical.
This display shelf is pretty cool and would definitely be great in a trendy bar. What makes it even cooler? It was designed by a NCSU student (my alma mater).
We plan on re-doing our bathrooms at some point. I know we want to retile them, so maybe we need some of these LED tiles? I think they would be cooler if the LEDs were touch activated.
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After driving almost six hours today for a one hour meeting in Charlotte and lunch with Amy and Jeremy (thanks for blowing me off guys), I came home and decided to go for a run. I ran a little further than I intended to. The good part is I ran the whole way without stopping to rest, vomit, or (this is a bad one) drink water. I was pretty proud of myself. The worst part? My iPod charger is packed in a box somewhere so the only music I had was my own breathing.
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Robozo is the personal blog of a pretty normal (boring) guy living in Concord, NC.
