I have not had much of a chance to blog lately. Due in part to not having anything compelling to write about and that I have spent a lot of time playing xbox. Its strange how addicting this is for me. I know in the grand scheme of life the time I spend playing the games is basically wasting my time. I am reverting back to when I was in grade school, junior high school and high school.
We have taken the house off the market because of the lousy housing market in the US. We need to save money to be able to bring more to closing or to apply to the principal amount thus we would owe less on the house and thus we would need to bring less to closing.
We have finished the basement (mostly) and now we are in the process of going through all the crap in the crawl space under the house. We have tons of stuff to get rid of and we are planning on honey of a garage sale.
I really need to start doing more exercise as my job really has no physical activity and thus I am gaining weight. I am trying to do different types of exercises when I can. Things like going swimming with the kids and cutting the grass and hopefully using the treadmill when the basement gets more cleaned up.
The job is going great. I am so blessed with this job. I have the confidence of my employees as well as the owner.
That is about it for now. This is nothing really compelling but I did want to keep my adoring fans informed about the goings on of my thrilling life.
I love you B.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Fantasy Football 2007
Today's post is specifically for my league mates in my 2007 Fantasy Football league. But is also for anyone that might be interested in fantasy football but didn't want to take the time to learn about it.
There are several different iterations of how to play fantasy football. No matter how you prefer to play fantasy football the end result is still the same. It is to enjoy watching more football games than just your hometown favorite team. It is also to have some bonding time with people that share the same interests as you.
I have been playing fantasy football since the mid to late 80's when the Washington Redskins won the super bowl. I have typically run the league myself because the point scoring method used by others frustrated me so much.
The philosophy I use in my league is that no one position is more valuable than others. For instance a field goal kicker can potentially score as many points as a running back or a quarterback. So don't put all your eggs in one basket (i.e. having one big star on your team and getting scrubs for the rest of your team).
So, on to the basics of my fantasy football league.
At the beginning of the football season a group of people get together for what is called the fantasy football draft. Often times this is the most enjoyable part of the season. We get together in one place to construct our fantasy teams for the new season. Each fantasy team consists of the following positions:
1 - Quarterbacks
2 - Running Backs
2 - Wide Receivers
1 - Wide Receiver/Tight End
1 - Kicker
1 - Team Defense/Special Teams
6 - Bench positions
The bench positions are to be used for your reserves. If you choose you can have 6 running backs on your bench. It is up to you.
When the draft starts every team owner has a salary cap of $50.00. A random drawing is held to find out who begins the draft by introducing a player. When a player is introduced the bidding begins. Every owner gets a chance to put in a bid. Every bid must be in increments of $0.10. The bidding goes around the room and every owner can opt to raise the bid or sit out. Once you have opted out of bidding on a specific player you can always jump back in when it comes to your turn.
Every owner must introduce a player into the auction until all of their roster positions are full. No one can skip their turn.
This goes on until every team has every roster position filled. Depending on the number of teams this process can take 4-6 hours.
Before the kickoff of the first game of each week every owner must submit a starting roster. If you do not submit a starting roster the previous week's roster will be used. Each week you will go head to head with another owner. the players on your team will be given points based on the following:
There are several different iterations of how to play fantasy football. No matter how you prefer to play fantasy football the end result is still the same. It is to enjoy watching more football games than just your hometown favorite team. It is also to have some bonding time with people that share the same interests as you.
I have been playing fantasy football since the mid to late 80's when the Washington Redskins won the super bowl. I have typically run the league myself because the point scoring method used by others frustrated me so much.
The philosophy I use in my league is that no one position is more valuable than others. For instance a field goal kicker can potentially score as many points as a running back or a quarterback. So don't put all your eggs in one basket (i.e. having one big star on your team and getting scrubs for the rest of your team).
So, on to the basics of my fantasy football league.
At the beginning of the football season a group of people get together for what is called the fantasy football draft. Often times this is the most enjoyable part of the season. We get together in one place to construct our fantasy teams for the new season. Each fantasy team consists of the following positions:
1 - Quarterbacks
2 - Running Backs
2 - Wide Receivers
1 - Wide Receiver/Tight End
1 - Kicker
1 - Team Defense/Special Teams
6 - Bench positions
The bench positions are to be used for your reserves. If you choose you can have 6 running backs on your bench. It is up to you.
When the draft starts every team owner has a salary cap of $50.00. A random drawing is held to find out who begins the draft by introducing a player. When a player is introduced the bidding begins. Every owner gets a chance to put in a bid. Every bid must be in increments of $0.10. The bidding goes around the room and every owner can opt to raise the bid or sit out. Once you have opted out of bidding on a specific player you can always jump back in when it comes to your turn.
Every owner must introduce a player into the auction until all of their roster positions are full. No one can skip their turn.
This goes on until every team has every roster position filled. Depending on the number of teams this process can take 4-6 hours.
Before the kickoff of the first game of each week every owner must submit a starting roster. If you do not submit a starting roster the previous week's roster will be used. Each week you will go head to head with another owner. the players on your team will be given points based on the following:
- Completions (.25)
- Incomplete Passes (-.25)
- Passing Yards (20 yards per point; 2 points at 300 yards; 4 points at 400 yards)
- Passing Touchdowns (3)
- Interceptions (-1)
- Rushing Yards (10 yards per point; 10 points at 200 yards)
- Rushing Touchdowns (6)
- Receptions (1)
- Reception Yards (10 yards per point; 10 points at 200 yards)
- Reception Touchdowns (6)
- Return Yards (30 yards per point)
- Return Touchdowns (6)
- 2-Point Conversions (2)
- Fumbles Lost (-2)
- Offensive Fumble Return TD (6)
- Field Goals 0-19 Yards (4)
- Field Goals 20-29 Yards (5)
- Field Goals 30-39 Yards (6)
- Field Goals 40-49 Yards (7)
- Field Goals 50+ Yards (8)
- Field Goals Missed 0-19 Yards (-4)
- Field Goals Missed 20-29 Yards (-3)
- Field Goals Missed 30-39 Yards (-2)
- Field Goals Missed 40-49 Yards (-1)
- Point After Attempt Made (1)
- Point After Attempt Missed (-2)
- Sack (1)
- Interception (2)
- Fumble Recovery (2)
- Touchdown (6)
- Safety (2)
- Block Kick (2)
- Kickoff and Punt Return Touchdowns (6)
- Points Allowed 0 points (10)
- Points Allowed 1-6 points (7)
- Points Allowed 7-13 points (4)
- Points Allowed 14-20 points (1)
- Points Allowed 21-27 points (0)
- Points Allowed 28-34 points (-1)
- Points Allowed 35+ points (-4)
That is about it.
Good luck every week except for when I play you. Playing fantasy football is 10% skill and 90% luck. You are at the mercy of injuries and bye weeks. you could be statistically superior to your opponent and should crush him only to have his wide receiver have a career day and his kicker kick 7 field goals. Have fun. Be nice!
Monday, August 6, 2007
I'm a Ramblin Man...
I haven't blogged in a while and there hasn't been enough significant things going on that would be blog worthy. So I thought I would share some thoughts about what has been happening.
Let's see, well, I fell down in the backyard of a neighbor's house and really hurt my knee. It wasn't dislocated or sprained. Just really bruised. Well after about 2 weeks I started getting an excess of fluid build up on my knee. I am going to get it drained on Thursday.
Both of my softball leagues are finished now. Both of the teams weren't all that impressive. But I got out of the house and got a little exercise.
My niece left Ohio after four months. I don't think we made as much of an impact as we probably would have liked to. She is defintely her mother's daughter. But then again her mother couldn't wait to get out of the house and on her own.
Work is going really well. I am learning a lot and I really enjoy what I do. I love the people I work with and I really like the customers I deal with.
I have been playing an unhealthy amount of Gears of War on the Xbox.
We have been going through the basement crawl space to pull all the stuff out and decide what we are going to sell, throw away and donate. We are going to have ahoney of a garage sale.
B and JHGIII are going to be travelling to Oklahoma in a few weeks which means me and my angel get to spend some quality time together for a few days. I can't wait.
The basement is about 98% finished. I still have a few little things left.
I think I am finally getting the garage to a point where I want it to be.
JHGIII went poo poo in the potty chair today. B and he went to Target to buy some big boy panties. Spiderman and Go Diego Go. He was very excited. So were we.
We are probably going to pull the house off the market in the next few days until next March.
That is all about for now.
Let's see, well, I fell down in the backyard of a neighbor's house and really hurt my knee. It wasn't dislocated or sprained. Just really bruised. Well after about 2 weeks I started getting an excess of fluid build up on my knee. I am going to get it drained on Thursday.
Both of my softball leagues are finished now. Both of the teams weren't all that impressive. But I got out of the house and got a little exercise.
My niece left Ohio after four months. I don't think we made as much of an impact as we probably would have liked to. She is defintely her mother's daughter. But then again her mother couldn't wait to get out of the house and on her own.
Work is going really well. I am learning a lot and I really enjoy what I do. I love the people I work with and I really like the customers I deal with.
I have been playing an unhealthy amount of Gears of War on the Xbox.
We have been going through the basement crawl space to pull all the stuff out and decide what we are going to sell, throw away and donate. We are going to have ahoney of a garage sale.
B and JHGIII are going to be travelling to Oklahoma in a few weeks which means me and my angel get to spend some quality time together for a few days. I can't wait.
The basement is about 98% finished. I still have a few little things left.
I think I am finally getting the garage to a point where I want it to be.
JHGIII went poo poo in the potty chair today. B and he went to Target to buy some big boy panties. Spiderman and Go Diego Go. He was very excited. So were we.
We are probably going to pull the house off the market in the next few days until next March.
That is all about for now.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Getting older, injuries and pain
The last 4 days have been hell on my body. I'd like to say that I can still play softball like I used to when I was in my early twenties. I'd like to say that when I am injured I heal as fast as I used to when I was in my early twenties. I'd like to say a lot of things. But the simple fact is that I am getting older. I am 38 years old now and while my mind is still as young as it ever was, my body just doesn't see things the same way.
Granted I am more heavy than I have ever been in my life and I get only a fraction of the amount of exercise I used to get when I was younger. But gosh darn it whoever invented this whole getting old stuff just wasn't thinking things through.
So on Saturday afternoon I was over at a neighbors house playing whiffle ball with him and his son. It is something we do from time to time. I pitch and his son hits the ball and runs the imaginary bases. Sometimes he actually hits the ball where we can catch it. This time was a little different in that he hit the ball over my head and I actually went for it. I thought ah what the heck, see if you can catch it.
I actually caught the ball. It was what happened 1 second after I caught the ball that was the problem. As I was stumbling to catch my balance I thought to myself "Oh man this is gonna hurt"
WHAM! I hit the ground. I stuck my left knee out to try and cushion the fall. Which means my knee took the brunt of 275 pounds of human being falling on top of it. Still clutching the ball I rolled around the ground in pain. I waited for about 60 seconds and a feeling of euphoria came over me. It was enough of a feeling that allowed me to get up and hobble home. When I hit the door my wife had seen me limping as I came up the driveway. She is so good to me, she hopped right up and got me a bag of ice.
So last night I was playing softball. The knee was actually not bothering me that much. So I thought I would try to get some exercise. When I hit the ball I usually try to go to right field. it is a widely known fact that the weakest players are put in right field. People that can't throw or run or catch.
The past few games i had been struggling in trying to get the ball out there. Last night was different in that when I swung the bat to try to hit it to right field my body contorted in such a way that caused me to (as the doctor told me this morning at 5:30 am in the ER) strain my rib cage. Whatever I did, it hurts.
So here I sit this morning on a heavy dose of Motrin for my ribs and a large bruise on my left knee. But I am happy. I am happy because I caught the whiffle ball and I went three for three at last nights softball game.
They say you are as old as you think. Well I think I am 21 but my body doesn't agree with me.
Granted I am more heavy than I have ever been in my life and I get only a fraction of the amount of exercise I used to get when I was younger. But gosh darn it whoever invented this whole getting old stuff just wasn't thinking things through.
So on Saturday afternoon I was over at a neighbors house playing whiffle ball with him and his son. It is something we do from time to time. I pitch and his son hits the ball and runs the imaginary bases. Sometimes he actually hits the ball where we can catch it. This time was a little different in that he hit the ball over my head and I actually went for it. I thought ah what the heck, see if you can catch it.
I actually caught the ball. It was what happened 1 second after I caught the ball that was the problem. As I was stumbling to catch my balance I thought to myself "Oh man this is gonna hurt"
WHAM! I hit the ground. I stuck my left knee out to try and cushion the fall. Which means my knee took the brunt of 275 pounds of human being falling on top of it. Still clutching the ball I rolled around the ground in pain. I waited for about 60 seconds and a feeling of euphoria came over me. It was enough of a feeling that allowed me to get up and hobble home. When I hit the door my wife had seen me limping as I came up the driveway. She is so good to me, she hopped right up and got me a bag of ice.
So last night I was playing softball. The knee was actually not bothering me that much. So I thought I would try to get some exercise. When I hit the ball I usually try to go to right field. it is a widely known fact that the weakest players are put in right field. People that can't throw or run or catch.
The past few games i had been struggling in trying to get the ball out there. Last night was different in that when I swung the bat to try to hit it to right field my body contorted in such a way that caused me to (as the doctor told me this morning at 5:30 am in the ER) strain my rib cage. Whatever I did, it hurts.
So here I sit this morning on a heavy dose of Motrin for my ribs and a large bruise on my left knee. But I am happy. I am happy because I caught the whiffle ball and I went three for three at last nights softball game.
They say you are as old as you think. Well I think I am 21 but my body doesn't agree with me.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Basement (a photo bistro for your eyes)
Well the basement is finished. It is finished to the point that I could take pictures and make a blog out of it for everyone to see. This project took amost four months and probably cost around $1,500.00. It could have taken much less time and less money but we learned as we went and we only spent a few hours a day working on it. It was a labor of love that I am GLAD is finished.
Before (this is a picture of what it looked like when we came to view the house before we bought it.)
After
Before (Also, a picture of what the basement looked like before we bought the house)
After
Another after picture
Another after picture
This is the built-in tv stand I built in order to cover the sump pump. It is the PERFECT SIZE for a brand new flat screen TV.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
An extra-ordinary example of BAD customer service
July has been a busy month for me in that I have been spending all my extra time working on the basement. So needless to say I haven't spent much time posting to the blog. Something happened today that made me want to tell the world (or at least my little world) about.
I spelled the word extraordinary with a hyphen because usually when you here that word you think it is something special or something great. This specific example is so horribly bad that it was extra-ordinarily BAD.
So, I work for a small Internet based company. What the company does specifically is unimportant. We were in need of moving our web servers to a hosted facility or co-location facility. This type of facility is a large building that has a lot of air-conditioning and a lot of power supply backups and generators and large men with guns.
After much searching we decided on a location in the Dallas area called Info Mart. This is a building that a lot of small companies use to host these types of hosting facilities. The particular company we chose was Premier Voice and their web site is http://www.premiervoice.net.
We were all set to move our servers into their facility and then we made a site visit a few days prior to the move. Our infrastructure manager had made several visits prior to the site visit we made a few days before the scheduled move.
When we arrived we noticed that we were in fact one of the the first tenants in this new location. The facility was so new that there was NO physical security. There was no card access installed. There was NO video surveillance cameras in place. Heck when we arrived there was one person in a back office and every single door in the location was wide open. We could have easily walked off with equipment and they would never have been able to tell who did it.
Not only that but in the short amount of time we had a router installed in the location the internet connection went down three times.
So we told them that we did not want to move our equipment into this facility. We asked them for an invoice for the time we spent in the location and then we wanted to terminate our relationship.
We received this email from them.
> According to our records you have signed a contract with Premier
> Voice to receive services for a term of 1 year. No more, no less.
> Remit payment for the amount invoiced or your account will be sent to
> collections, and you will risk possible legal action against your
> company. Please advise.
>
> Brian Haney
> Controller
> Premier Voice
We responded with this email.
> Brian,
>
> Give me a call this afternoon so we can discuss this.
>
> The invoices are way wrong, since we only ask for 2 cabinets, not 20.
>
> Second, I was told that there wasn't a term on our agreement, that it
> was month to month.
>
> Third, the facility was not ready when we were ready to move in.
>
> Our president was in town to help with the move and he was so
> distressed that he told me we would not use the facility.
>
> I discussed this with William when I came over to remove all of our
> equipment from the rack.
>
> We have agreed to pay the setup fee and first month, but expect all
> billing to cease as of the end of June.
Then they sent this email...
> We have a signed 1-year agreement. We do not offer month-to-month
> service, no one in this business does. And it is certainly not our
> fault your president was distressed, if the facility was not what your
> company needed you should have worked that out before signing the
> contract and moved in. You owe the full balance of the contract, and
> it needs to be paid immediately per the terms of the MSA, or it will
> be sent to collections.
>
> Mike Faulkner, President
> http://www.premiervoice.net
> Premier Voice - Better Business VoIP
Then we sent this email
> Boy, am I glad we didn't go with these guys.
>
> Their facility was not ready for any use on the date requested, our
> Internet connection was dropped twice, including on the day that I
> removed the equipment.
>
> They had no locks on the doors, or cameras. The room they provided was
> clearly still under construction a week after our scheduled move in
> date.
>
> Our first invoice included charges for 20 racks, when we asked for two
> and weren't using any.
>
> These guys were a real rip-off and I would not recommend them to
> anyone.
And now comes the email that really tipifies who this company is. Mind you this email is from the PRESIDENT of the company.
> Dumbass, the 20x is the monthly MRC per month, per 1x cabinet, for the
> length of the term…10 months, 2 cabinets, equals 20…If you guys had
> any clue what you were doing maybe you would have a better shot at
> finding the right provider. It is not our job to educate potential
> clients, either way, your contract is going to the attorneys for
> collections. Enjoy.
>
> Mike Faulkner, President
> Premier Voice - Better Business VoIP
.....I was speechless.....can you ever imagine the leader of a company talking to someone in this way?
I spelled the word extraordinary with a hyphen because usually when you here that word you think it is something special or something great. This specific example is so horribly bad that it was extra-ordinarily BAD.
So, I work for a small Internet based company. What the company does specifically is unimportant. We were in need of moving our web servers to a hosted facility or co-location facility. This type of facility is a large building that has a lot of air-conditioning and a lot of power supply backups and generators and large men with guns.
After much searching we decided on a location in the Dallas area called Info Mart. This is a building that a lot of small companies use to host these types of hosting facilities. The particular company we chose was Premier Voice and their web site is http://www.premiervoice.net.
We were all set to move our servers into their facility and then we made a site visit a few days prior to the move. Our infrastructure manager had made several visits prior to the site visit we made a few days before the scheduled move.
When we arrived we noticed that we were in fact one of the the first tenants in this new location. The facility was so new that there was NO physical security. There was no card access installed. There was NO video surveillance cameras in place. Heck when we arrived there was one person in a back office and every single door in the location was wide open. We could have easily walked off with equipment and they would never have been able to tell who did it.
Not only that but in the short amount of time we had a router installed in the location the internet connection went down three times.
So we told them that we did not want to move our equipment into this facility. We asked them for an invoice for the time we spent in the location and then we wanted to terminate our relationship.
We received this email from them.
> According to our records you have signed a contract with Premier
> Voice to receive services for a term of 1 year. No more, no less.
> Remit payment for the amount invoiced or your account will be sent to
> collections, and you will risk possible legal action against your
> company. Please advise.
>
> Brian Haney
> Controller
> Premier Voice
We responded with this email.
> Brian,
>
> Give me a call this afternoon so we can discuss this.
>
> The invoices are way wrong, since we only ask for 2 cabinets, not 20.
>
> Second, I was told that there wasn't a term on our agreement, that it
> was month to month.
>
> Third, the facility was not ready when we were ready to move in.
>
> Our president was in town to help with the move and he was so
> distressed that he told me we would not use the facility.
>
> I discussed this with William when I came over to remove all of our
> equipment from the rack.
>
> We have agreed to pay the setup fee and first month, but expect all
> billing to cease as of the end of June.
Then they sent this email...
> We have a signed 1-year agreement. We do not offer month-to-month
> service, no one in this business does. And it is certainly not our
> fault your president was distressed, if the facility was not what your
> company needed you should have worked that out before signing the
> contract and moved in. You owe the full balance of the contract, and
> it needs to be paid immediately per the terms of the MSA, or it will
> be sent to collections.
>
> Mike Faulkner, President
> http://www.premiervoice.net
> Premier Voice - Better Business VoIP
Then we sent this email
> Boy, am I glad we didn't go with these guys.
>
> Their facility was not ready for any use on the date requested, our
> Internet connection was dropped twice, including on the day that I
> removed the equipment.
>
> They had no locks on the doors, or cameras. The room they provided was
> clearly still under construction a week after our scheduled move in
> date.
>
> Our first invoice included charges for 20 racks, when we asked for two
> and weren't using any.
>
> These guys were a real rip-off and I would not recommend them to
> anyone.
And now comes the email that really tipifies who this company is. Mind you this email is from the PRESIDENT of the company.
> Dumbass, the 20x is the monthly MRC per month, per 1x cabinet, for the
> length of the term…10 months, 2 cabinets, equals 20…If you guys had
> any clue what you were doing maybe you would have a better shot at
> finding the right provider. It is not our job to educate potential
> clients, either way, your contract is going to the attorneys for
> collections. Enjoy.
>
> Mike Faulkner, President
> Premier Voice - Better Business VoIP
.....I was speechless.....can you ever imagine the leader of a company talking to someone in this way?
Monday, July 2, 2007
A funny story from our daughter
A while back we started a little ritual with the kids at bed time. The kids love for us to tell them stories so to set up the storyline would ask them for three things. Any three things. It could be a book, a rainbow and a popsicle. Literally any three things. It would be our challenge to come up with a story right then and there that would incorporate the three things. Recently we started to turn things around on them in that we would get to pick the three things and primarily JCG would create a story about the three things. She's pretty good at it although her stories tend to run all over the place.
During our travels back from Oklahoma B was putting JCG to bed. B told J a story incorporating a pillow, an earring and a princess. B then gave J the 3 items, a butterfly, a gymnastics girl and a suitcase. J's story went something like this (many less important details will be left out).
Once upon a time there was a gymnastics girl, she loved to play outside, along came a beautiful butterfly. The butterfly flew all around the girl then all of the sudden the butterfly started biting and biting and biting the girl, so she hit it with a suitcase. The end.
I love that girl.
During our travels back from Oklahoma B was putting JCG to bed. B told J a story incorporating a pillow, an earring and a princess. B then gave J the 3 items, a butterfly, a gymnastics girl and a suitcase. J's story went something like this (many less important details will be left out).
Once upon a time there was a gymnastics girl, she loved to play outside, along came a beautiful butterfly. The butterfly flew all around the girl then all of the sudden the butterfly started biting and biting and biting the girl, so she hit it with a suitcase. The end.
I love that girl.
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