AtomicInternet Archived News

Archived News starting from 07-16-2007 and earlier

While I was eating lunch today the UPS guy stopped by with a "mystery package." Assuming it wasn't a bomb, I opened it up to find a Mountain Dew Mini Fridge! I proceeded to jump up and down scaring Lisa enough to stop and explain the significance. For the past month I have been entering bottle cap codes into the Mountain Dew / Transformers sweepstakes. I typically don't enter contests but anything with Transformers on it is gold to me so I had no choice. Fortunately John and Brian helped me out with their codes until I had 25 and entered them all into the July 4th drawing, which won me one of the 250 they were awarding. Ecstatic that I now owned a fridge probably worth less than $50, I filled it up with Mountain Dew and brought it back to work to share the winnings with my fellow cap donators. Today I can confidently call myself a winner. Not as big of a winner as Lazlo in "Real Genius", but a winner nonetheless.

After several possible EMP strikes against my GnomeCam, I decided it was more likely a bad connection. My solution was a single 100ft composite video cable to replace the 3 30 ft cables I had strung together to link the camera and capture card. No longer will your constant surveillance of my house be interrupted by melting images.

Cougarfest, the yearly event I started for 1999-2002 Mercury Cougars ended yesterday. This year it was in Boardman, Ohio instead of our usual location for some variety. I drove down on Tuesday for a total of five nights of intoxicated Cougartainment. I was joined by 18 other early arrivals with our first order of business being a showing of the new Transformers movie, by far the best movie ever made. The hotel threatened to kick us out every night after breaking glass in the pool and parking lot, so the possibility that each night was the last increased alcohol consumption, which directly increased the level of shenanigans and brouhaha. Highlights included inflatable animal violations, pool volleyball, and a nose blowing SPL competition.
Event Photos

Ten months after my last Google Adsense check, another one has appeared in the mail. While not as exciting as the first one, it's still nice to get a free 500GB hard drive from time to time, especially when on the quest for two terabytes.

The great majority of Lisa's relatives live in Pennsylvania, so for their convenience (and not because it means 2 wedding showers) Lisa decided to have her first shower this weekend. I survived by drinking Arrogant Bastard Ale which intoxicated me sufficiently for gift unwrapping. The next morning was her grandparents 60th anniversary dinner where Lisa informed me she'd be looking for a place to bury my body on our 60th anniversary. Special thanks to Jenny for keeping us entertained throughout the trip, and somebody needs to buy me a stuffed snake.

This weekend Lisa and I loaded up her excess furniture in a U-Haul trailer and towed it to her brothers house for donation. While we were there, some flatlanders showed up demanding we accompany them to Steak and Shake. Not one to cross a flatlander, we agreed on condition they would release us afterwards. We survived with only minor indigestion, but my inability to carry a camera left the entire encounter undocumented. My barn is now 75% empty, which means I can once again park a vehicle in it.

Tonight I was given the opportunity to go to Cleveland for some focus group testing for my work. It was my first experience with a 2-way mirror and was a little creepy. Volunteers shuffled into the "bright" room and were asked various questions, then shown some fatheads, then asked more questions. Meanwhile we were in the "dark" room with cheese snacks, candy, soda, and even beer to enjoy while we watched the moderator interview everyone. The volunteers were told about the 2-way mirror and camera taping them, but after a few minutes they ignored it and we could watch every ones reaction to the fatheads. It was interesting to see how many people had heard of Fathead, and how they reacted once they saw one up close (they weren't told what they were going to be reviewing prior to arriving). It felt good to know I work for a company that makes a universally "cool" product, that everyone wanted once they saw it up close. The creepy part was seeing and listening to someone for an hour and then realizing they had no idea who you were when you walked past them in the hallway.

Last night I reloaded my Windows Home Server to upgrade my primary drive from a 40GB to a 120GB (and test the "primary drive failure recovery" in the process). After spending an hour with the recovery lastnight, I should not have been surprised to see the RC1 release, which requires a complete reinstall, was now available. Happier about the RC1 release than I was frustrated about the wasted CTP reload, I quickly downloaded and did a fresh install, which also requires reinstalling the connector software on all my computers. 2 hours later the only difference I can tell between RC1 and the CTP is an install DVD that is 100MB smaller, and about a half-meg larger install for the connector software. After my 3 hour CTP to RC1 odyssey, I'm content to let Home Server secure my data quietly without any love from me. At least until the final release is available.

With summer here, my number of planned weekend events far exceeds the number of Lisa's available weekends. The solution: a second girlfriend. A loophole in international law allows me to be engaged to Lisa in the United States, and have a girlfriend in Canada. Melinda accepted the girlfriend contract and was nice enough to drive me to the annual Niagra Falls trip since Lisa had to work the weekend. After some time practicing of first aid in the imaginary and actual pools, we braved the 90° weather for dinner, the arcade and a visit to the falls. After a night of flatulence and shenanigans, we were off to the park for the annual picnic where we managed to feed a seagull to the point it could no longer fly. Another successful trip with our record of no arrests still in tact.

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