Monday, May 29, 2006

Nirvana cover...

by the ukulele orchestra of Great Britain. Great version...but they need someone else to sing the lyrics.

http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/1691441/

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Quicky

For those of you who are or may be in the market for a new hdd, outpost.com is running a special on 400GB Seagate hdd's with free shipping for $99.99.

http://shop1.outpost.com/template/harddrives/

Enjoy

Friday, May 12, 2006

Shopping

Well, yesterday I got to see my aunt Kathy from Sebastian, Florida. It felt good to talk to her about stuff. I helped to get her notebook working on the wireless so she could do some work for her company. She works for Piper (the airplane company) down there in the lowest reaches of Florida. I told her that back in October I wasn't far from where she was in Melbourne. Which, come to find out was only about 30 minutes from where she lives.

I then had to run out to my aunts house to pick up Trenton because she wanted me to take him to get some clothes to wear to the service today. So I went out there and got him and we went to Belk's here in Cullman. We picked out some nice khaki pants, button down shirt, and a tie. Then we went elsewhere to pick out some shoes. I have never felt so weird before, taking a 12 year old kid to pick out clothes. I didn't know where to start or what to do. I consulted a nice girl about picking a matching tie which she agreed in my choice.

After that, Trenton and I came home to replace the starter on my aunts car which has been giving her trouble. This is something my cousin would normally have done so, of course, I volunteered to do it as well. After about an hour struggling with the blasted thing we finally got the old one off. Putting the new one back on wasn't quite as bad once I figured out their secret. Thus, we got it all buttoned up and it worked...but...the new starter needed shimming. It fit too tight against the flex plate. The flex plate is really the output of an automatic engine. Its quite similar to a fly wheel in a manual transmission. The flex plate bolts to torque converter for the automatic transmission. but both have a large gear on them for the starter to engage and turn the engine over. Well, mom and I ran it down to a mechanic we know so they could shim it for us.

After all of that, mom and I went to walmart for a few things. I didn't know what to get mom for mothers day so I let her pick it out herself. Mom is always modest about what she picks out for herself and she picked out The Chronicles of Narnia dvd. I put it back and got her the special edition, if i'm going to get mom something its going to be the best with all the extras. Then I recuited her to help me pick out something for my aunt. Backstory time. When my mom was working second shift she would carry me out to my aunts house so she could babysit me while mom was at work and when I started school mom enrolled me at West Point HS near my aunts house. She would take me to school and I would ride the bus to my aunts house after school. Then when mom got off work she would come pick me up at her house. Then later when mom shifted to first shift, she would carry me out to my aunts house at like 4:30am so I could catch the bus from her house and then she would pick me up at school in the afternoon. So, my aunt and uncle were really like a second set of parents for me and Dale was a brother.

Anyway, here is a picture I scanned of me and Dale from when I was 16 and he and I were racing circle track cars at Moulton Speedway.
~Brian

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Arrangements

Well, yesterday my aunt went with my mom and I to the funeral home so we could help her make the arrangements since none of us have ever done something like this before. So, the service is going to be held at McCracken funeral home in Cullman on Friday at 2pm.

We then had to do some quick shopping for appropriate clothing for this since all of my formal wear is in Mobile now. After that we went back to my aunts house and mom and I worked on cleaning up for a while since we knew that there would be many people coming and going over the next few days. After I ran across some of Dale's stuff I had to stop for a while and just go sit outside with Brittany and Trenton.

I didn't really understand before why people brought so much food when something like this happens but now I guess I have gained some perspective on it and it makes sense. When mom and I left there was starting to be quite a bit of food starting to accumulate.

Mom and I went home cause we were so tired and needed a nap. Once we got home she had some more phone calls to make. Eventually, I just passed out on the couch for a few hours. Don't know if mom got a nap or not. Then I woke up to a news report about some storms blowing through the area with straight line winds up to 60 or 70MPH.

I watched House MD last night on Fox and it was a pretty good episode. One of the shows on TV I actually try to carve time out of my schedule to watch. Tonight is a new episode of Lost.

Thor typically prefers to sleep in my room and most times on the bed with me. Over the last two days I think he can sense something is wrong and has been very good. I don't think he has ever been as cuddly as he was last night and this morning. I really think he has been a huge help to me and mom to try and get our minds off of the whole situation.

Well, time to go do something other than sit in front of this computer and type...

Brian

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I hate late night calls...

I hate late night calls because you never know what they are about. It could be a friend needing a boost because of a dead battery. It could be someone calling about a project due in a few days or hours. It could be some random wrong number.

But not this one. This is one of those calls you don't expect, you don't want, and you never want to listen to or believe. This call was to tell me that my best friend is no longer with us. He was the closest thing to a brother I ever had. I keep playing over in my head that maybe I could have done something before and it wouldn't have happened even though everyone keeps telling you that there was nothing you could do.

I can't explain what I feel for my Aunt and Uncle, his parents. A very emotion rich part of The Two Towers comes to mind here, where Theoden talks to Gandalf about his son and says something along the lines of "...a parent should never have to bury their son..."

So, those of you out there please say a prayer for my aunt, uncle and their son. They really need them.

My 'Bro', i'm going to miss you.

Brian

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Sorry for the length between posts...

Well, Brenda commented that she did not find her name on my blog so....here's to you Brenda ;)

Why haven't I blogged...well I have been lazy. However, this weekend was The Suck. I had two, count them...two hard drive failures. The first seems to be a complete loss. I lost all my music, some archived projects and videos. Probably some pictures of friends as well :( But both of these drives were 300 gig Maxtor Maxline III's, model number 7L300R0. I would recommend staying away from them because having two of the fail in three days is NOT good. One was less than 6 months old and the other was less than a year old. Good thing they have 5 year warranties on them. But it still doesn't replace all of the music I lost.

So, I have ordered a Seagate to help me get by till I can get Maxtor to replace the two failed drives. I used to like Maxtor, I guess this may be why they have been purchased by Seagate cause their quality isn't what it used to be.

Enough for now,
~Kisea