Thunder? Lightening? Hail? Lava flow? Hard to say, but be on alert: I biked over eight miles today and should herald some type of natural disaster.

As part of my move cross-country, my movers lost some items on me. Two of them weren’t all that important, as they were replaceable, but the third was a lock box that had the “dreaded irreplaceable items”: a 50-sheet photo album and a collegiate award. When I first told the moving company, they told me it would take six weeks to trace, and after six weeks I was told “sorry – please fill out a claim”. In the last episode of this story, I was left furious and without much hope of having this work out – the story now continues…
Continue reading Lo! I Am Furious – Part II →

It’s been just a week since I’ve last played Halo. I’ve been busy, I guess, with all sorts of things, the Easter holiday not being the least remarkable. Does that mean that it’s time for some re-runs? No, but I might dip into that “I wrote these a while ago” bag of Rants and run with some of those, so the site keeps moving along… some of those are actually pretty good and sorta timeless so I’ve got no issues with that – the only reason why they haven’t been posted is to spread out the Ranting a bit. But what else has been going on?
Continue reading Re-Runs? Hardly →

This blog is stopping me from book writing, but I can’t help myself! Bah.

And now a scene from my local Starbucks…
Continue reading ARGH! →

While building and testing SharpMT, I’ve been forced to rebuilt my entire MT server. Net effect: bookmarks will have changed and trackbacks might be broken. Otherwise, business as usual. I also now have a test server set up at home, so this should be a one time debacle!

I’ve added two new sections to the site, as this “thing of mine” seems to keep on growing every week. I’ve added a software section for both SharpMT’s, the RantsTab, and a few other tools that I’ve “saved” from my shareware company which is now closed. As most of these donation-ware applications tell you to look at this site for more information, I’ve added a donations page to help that process along. Otherwise, it’s business – or un-business – as usual!

Had to share two bits of information, however off-topic they may seem: “Ozzy Says He Now Believes Pot Leads To Other Addictions.” This from MTV.com, Ozzy has opted to weigh in on the use of pot. While I can see both sides of this particular argument, I do find it rather comical that, well, this is Ozzy! He was also quoted as saying, “One thing leads to another. Coffee leads to Red Bull, Red Bull leads to crank.” Guess I should switch to decaf? Anyway, the boy obviously has a platform – he could run for the presidency in ’04, provided he gets a translator to speak to Congress for him… maybe Sharon can help.

The other bit of news is to celebrate the expulsion of another stupid person from my day. Well, at least the possibility of it, as I saw that “McDonald’s tests self-ordering kiosks.” It seems that McD’s is in the process of testing these self-ordering terminals because they believe it will help out with order speed and accuracy. After all, most mortals use ATM machines these days, so we should at least be qualified enough to feed ourselves – at least that’s what McD’s is hoping of the mass populous. I’m thrilled because this removes the possibility of encountering another buffoon in my day-to-day life, even if I do eat at McD’s like once a month. Stop and Shop have some registers that are self-service and it’s great… as F. Gump once said, “You know – one less thing” to worry about.

This weekend started out harmlessly enough. I picked up another four chapters from my “editing staff” and planned to roll them into my master draft copies that I keep. I went to see the Yankees game this Saturday at the Stadium. I had lunch with my parents on Sunday. Seems like a normal and pleasant weekend, no? It’s amazing how leaving out details can alter one’s perception of things.
Continue reading Move or Die! →

Mocha Malted Frappuccino! Had my first one day at local Starbucks and well, I can’t say it was anything earth shattering. I mean, it was good and all, but so is a regular Mocha Frap. Certainly wasn’t as “new” as the Mocha Coconut that was introduced last summer – or the CocaMochanut as I end up ordering it, first thing in the morning.
Continue reading New Frappuccino! (And more SharpMT news) →

Some life updates… I turned Comments on for all new posts starting last week, because I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of more email these days for any number of reasons – all of them good. I figured that if there was some new information – or commentary; always welcome! – on any of my topics, it would do us all some good to have it available out in the open. I also turned on the TrackBack feature of MovableType but I have no idea if it’s configured correctly – time will tell on that! Otherwise, what else is going on in Randy’s world?
Continue reading Strange Stuff Abound →

Over a year ago, Steve mentioned to me that he was going to start a web log (blog) to track his progress of authoring while working on his book . While he was telling me about it, he told that he thought it would be funny if I started my own blog, since I always seem to have something to say about everything. I realized that he was right: I do have option on most things, but what I actually realized was that there also seems to be a never-ending stream of bizarre or unique events that happen to me, which causes me to have some strange story to tell. I decided to give the site a shot, and I started this web site in February 2002. After fighting with Network Solutions about my domain name for most of March, I wrote the initial posts and finally I went “live” with the site on April 1 – I find to be a rather fitting date of birth. Three providers and two website designs later, and the site is still running, offering two or three new posts per week. And the madness of my own life shows no signs of stopping, either, so it’s bound to keep the site going. Right now, I’m sitting at my desk at my day job – where I haven’t been paid for over a month now – in a Starbucks barista’s uniform, after having spent the last hour in a traffic jam just to get to here. Normal? Most people wouldn’t think so. I was planning on telling the story of why I’m dressed like this, but as is usually the case, when I drive to work there’s always something that happens that preempts my original writing.
Continue reading Happy Anniversary to… well, Me! →

Been a busy week, on international, national, local, and in my own little sphere of existence. While watching CNN’s Headline News I was treated to a number of headlines that caught my eye – some of which sparked a response in my mind – so I thought I’d ramble a bit here. First and foremost: a salute to the troops all over the world – you’ve decided to use your lives to defend our country and I thank you for it. No bullshit here; my support is yours. God knows the Army would have no use for me specifically – I’ve got an abnormally short wingspan (due to T-Rex type arms,) I’m literally blind without glasses (3500 over 20), and if laid horizontally I’m shaped like a speed bump. Unless the Intelligence wing of the armed forced pulled a Karl-from-Starship-Troopers type recruitment – and put an Atari 2600 joystick in my hands – I’m useless. So. What else is going on out there?
Continue reading Swimming Upstream, in a Stream of Consciousness →