I’m like a walking static electricity battery when the weather turns cool and dry. Every damn thing I touch shocks the crap out of me. Seriously, I’m afraid to touch anything metal. I recently found out that one of my PC’s has a metal start button on the case and if I press it, it sends a static charge thru it and will actually make it shut down. Instantly. I guess PC’s don’t like 20,000 volt surges, who knew? This got me to thinking of ways to harness the power of static electricity. After watching that new show, The Walking Dead on Hulu.com the other night, I got an idea.

People in post zombie apocalypse situations need electricity. Lighting, heating for bubble baths and playing zombie shooter video games on a PC requires electricity. A steady, reliable source of electricity. I was thinking that if you captured zombies rather than kill them, you could enclose them in an area with a metal fence attached to a bank of car batteries. The ground in the penned in area would have to be carpeted, preferably a kind that is best for creating lots of static electricity. As the zombies perpetually shuffled around in the pen they would create huge amounts of high voltage electricity and every time they touched the fence the charge would be directed to the bank of batteries. Zombie power! Commonly available transformers, car batteries and power inverters would be all that’s needed to convert the power to 110 AC.

Do zombies need to eat? What if they don’t get a steady supply of flesh and or brains? Do they become inanimate after a while or are they like perpetual motion creatures, already being dead they can’t die except when they are horrifically injured like from a head shot or decapitation? Maybe my idea needs more research. I don’t think the government is doing enough in this area, we all know a zombie apocalypse is going to come some day and without more cold, hard data we could be totally screwed!

Where to begin! Actually it’s all quite boring, I haven’t been up to much since I used to post. I spent a lot of time playing WoW (World of Warcraft) and watching a helluva lot of TV. Over 2 years playing WoW and I finally gave it up just a few months ago. I made a few really good friends there so that’s pretty cool. You haven’t missed any girlfriends for me to talk about and I’m fine with that, it’s by choice. I haven’t been in the mood to have anyone in my life that would or could tell me what to do with myself, lol. Not that I would listen anyway… and that would be detrimental to any relationship. Maybe someday I’ll get back in that saddle. Maybe not…

One thing you all did miss was 2008′s Hurricane Gustav, I evacuated New Orleans for that, It was mandatory even though the brunt of it hit Texas. I was away for just a short time and it did do some damage to the house I was living in then, but very minor. Knocking on wood, I’m glad we didn’t get any major hurricanes here this year although we had a few close calls.

Overall my health has been pretty good, there is one issue though that I have had that isn’t actually making me sick but has been difficult to deal with. I talked about going in for surgery to have a defect in my liver transplant incision fixed here. Well, they repaired it and it tore open again when I was at the gym exercising. This time me and the doctors decided not to repair it anymore because we feel it would just keep returning. Unnecessary surgery is no fun. It’s not currently a health risk but it looks godawful and has become quite large. It’s a bulge on my right side where my innards are trying to force their way out. Not cool, but again, not currently a health risk. I still see my doctor’s every 6 months and get blood samples taken every 6 weeks so they can monitor my health on a regular basis.

See, I told you it was all very boring but I had to get this post out of the way so I could post about current stuff. Stuff that will be more fun! Stuff like this!

I know that had to make you smile! See you next time!

Yeah, it’s been a very long time since I’ve posted to this blasted thing. Two years! Lately it’s been on my mind more and more and finally I’m doing it. I even made up a brand new template for the occasion and Halloween.  I’ve surfed around my old links to see how many blogs are still in action and I see quite a few have either disappeared or are just dormant.I will have to update all my links, lol. I wonder how much Facebook has to do with that?

Here’s an update to the previous post, my folk’s house is completely finished from Hurricane Katrina’s destruction and came out extremely well. At the moment I only have this one photo of the outside, none from the interior remodeling. I’ll try to get a few from the inside later.

The finished look

I’ve moved into another house, about a year ago. It’s quite a bit larger and I like it here much better. It’s an 80 year old shotgun style home built from what they call barge board. This is wood that was salvaged from very old wooden barges that used to travel on the Mississippi River back then. The walls are very thick solid wood with no insulation or sheetrock on the inside, the inside of the wall is the wall, period. Oddly enough the utilities have been pretty reasonable although it takes a lot of a/c to keep it cool in mid summer. It’s 2 bedrooms with high, old fashioned ceilings and very high windows. The river is only about 3 blocks away, I can see ships passing from my front porch which is pretty cool.

I’m not gonna bore you with what I’ve been doing since I last updated this blog (I’ll save that for another post lol) so I will finish up with some wacky stuff like some crazy ads.

I wonder if it really works?

I have a feeling she'll be planning your funeral the next day...

How fast can you crawl?

See you soon!

You’ve probably been wondering where the hell I’ve been, but I’m still around! Just been very, very busy. About the only thing I have to update you guys on is the progress on the house since Katrina. It’s coming along pretty good now as you can see from the photos below, the folks may be able to move back into it within the next few months. Yes, they’re living in the FEMA trailer out in the front yard! Talk about cramped living space, omg it’s just tiny. Right now they’re having trouble getting somone to come out and do repairs on it, the floor near the bathroom is rotten and about to fall through because of a water leak.

This photo was taken right after the sheetrock was all pulled out not long after Katrina

Here’s the same camera angle shot today, now with sheetrock! Amazing huh?

Here’s a good shot showing how high the house and slab was raised, the A/C unit is on stilts!

And the new deck in the rear looks great!

Anyway, Mardi Gras season has come and gone and I didn’t bother to attend any of the parades. I guess after you’re seen hundreds of them it gets to be the same old, same old. Know what I mean? And besides, if you’ve seen one throng of drunken tourists stumbling down Bourbon St, you’ve seen them all. LOL

I’ve pretty much settled into the house I’m renting, love the place actually. It’s nice, quiet and cozy. I built my mom a new PC for Christmas, she seems to like it much better than the old one which was running Win 98, this one runs XP. The new one is 3 times faster and has lots of cool features the old one doesn’t. My mom is pretty good with her computer, amazes me sometimes with the stuff she knows how to do.

Sometimes though she cracks me up. Today she called and said her email wasn’t working and if I knew what was wrong. After asking her a couple questions it was obvious she didn’t have an internet connection. When I asked her if she could view any web pages she told me the internet was disconnected because the workers were putting in new sheetrock upstairs. Well mom, I think that might just be the problem! You must have an internet connection to receive emails, lol. Love you mom! (She reads my blog)

Well folks that’s all I got, hope you and yours have been fine and I’ll be stopping by to see how ya’ll are! Take care and be good!!

Recently I happened to notice that the label in one of my favorite pair of jeans stated that they were made in Pakistan. I was shocked! I quickly went to my closet and looked at the inside labels on the rest of my Levi jeans, they were all made in some foreign country. How could this be? Blue jeans were invented here, Levi Strauss was an immigrant that started his original business in San Francisco and his now famous jeans were invented by him in 1873. I realize that their jeans are a worldwide favorite and it does make sense to manufacture them in other places beside the USA, but I do not sit well with them being imported into the USA from foreign lands.

Dammit, Levi jeans are an American institution and importing them is akin to importing apple pies from China (if they were, the pie tins would be lead lined). Now, I’m the kind of person that prefers my clothing labels to be sewn on the inside, I do not believe in sporting “prestige” labels for companies that manufacture the goods. I payed for them and I do not like the idea of being a walking billboard. But one label that I’ve never minded being displayed was the little red tab on the back pocket of my jeans, but now I don’t know whether I should be embarrased or ashamed to wear them.

I looked up the history of Levi Strauss and Company and they have a nice write up with a timeline of all the companies important events which you can read here “History of Levi’s“. The glaring omission is their move to manufacture overseas and import jeans into the USA. Apparently they’re ashamed of it to, it’s like a dirty little secret. Shame on you Levi’s, you’ll never be the same…

Hope you guys had a great holiday and have a happy new year!

Hope you guys have a great holiday week, and that Santa brings you lots and lots of goodies!!

Life has been rather mundane around here lately. There’s not much to report. Seems like all I do is sit at my desk and write code and edit web pages all day long. That’s a good thing but it does get boring at times! The exception was Jules coming to visit about 2 weeks ago, we spent most of a day touring New Orleans and the French Quarter. It was a lot of fun and even though I’ve seen every square inch of N.O. many times over it’s kind of cool to sort of see it through the eyes of someone that’s never been here.

We had the obligatory cafe au lait and beignets at the French Market in the morning then later we stopped and had lunch at the Desire Oyster Bar and Bistro in the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon St. The meal was quite good, I chose the Crawfish Etouffee and Jules ordered the Cajun Shrimp Alfredo. It was actually quite inexpensive, if you’re ever in town, you should check it out. Tres good! Anyone else coming to New Orleans, be sure to let me know and we can meet up too!

I got something rather interesting in the mail the other day, a notification from the local government that a sex offender has moved into my neighborhood, about two blocks away. Even has the guys photo on the card! I think this idea should be expanded to include ex-cons that were convicted of violent crimes, home invasions, domestic violence and burglaries as well. Wouldn’t you like to know that your neighbor was once a jailbird? Or would that be carrying it too far?

That’s about all I have folks, see I told you there was nothing to see here! LOL I’ll leave you with this cartoon that I thought was hilarious…

I’m feeling much, much better since my surgery. I still have some mild pain when I move around, enough to make me wince occasionally but it’s bearable. I can’t say much for the scar, it’s going to be one of my uglier ones I think. Not that any of them look great or anything like that, but you know what I mean. But enough about that, here’s some news you can use!

Those who’ve been following the two plus year saga of life after Katrina will be amazed to hear that work has actually begun on repairing the folks house. Lo and behold, FEMA waves it’s mighty, magical bureacratic powers in the breeze for what seems like an eternity and stuff actually gets done. Are you amazed or what? What, you don’t believe me? I actually have photographic proof of this strange and unusual phenomenon in action.

In this photo you can see the huge mess that comes from tunneling under the foundation.

Here’s what one of the holes looks like that they’re digging to be able to reach the pilings under the house to get it jacked up. It’s going to be raised 3 feet off the ground and it will take about 6 weeks.

Of course the interior still looks like this, but hey, what do you want? It’s only been two years! Give the govmint a chance will ya! They’re giving it their best!

Of course my mom is ecstatic now that work has begun in earnest. All the planning she’s been doing on the interior is now going to become a reality, she get’s to redecorate the entire interior with all new stuff. It’s going to be a nice home once again, one of these days…

Hope you guys are having a good weekend!!!

Just a quick update to let you guys know the surgery went just fine. I got home yesterday evening and I’m glad I didn’t have to stay overnight. The new incision is about 5 inches long and they used surgical super glue to hold it back together on the outside but I do have some self-dissolving stitches on the tear internally. And yes, the pain medication is pretty decent but it still hurts like crazy. Especially when I woke up this morning after the pain killers wore off overnight. I felt like a dump truck had run me down then backed over me a couple more times for good measure LOL.

I am able to get up and walk around but it’s very limited. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to work in a few days. Thanks everyone that stopped by for the nice comments and concerns on my condition in the previous post. I’ll be back!!

I just can’t seem to stay away from doctors and hospitals. I’ll be going in for a one or two day stay tomorrow, Monday the 29th for some minor surgery. The incision from my liver transplant from 3 years ago has come apart internally in my right side just below my ribs and must be repaired. As you can imagine I’m not too thrilled about that! You would think after 3 years of healing that you wouldn’t have to worry about such things but apparently not.

I know how it happened too, I was working out at the gym the morning of the day I noticed it. It doesn’t hurt much, just a bit sensitive but there’s the danger of an internal infection if I don’t get it fixed right away. It couldn’t hardly come at a worse time since I’m so backed up with blog design requests right now. Actually, when would it be a good time? LOL And this is after my doctors have urged me to get more exercise and lose a few pounds. This what I get for listening to doctors? I think it was all part of their evil plan to operate on me again. They just can’t get enough of me.

So, bright and early tomorrow morning I’ll be headed across town to get sliced up again, hopefully it will be just as minor as he claims. Just a few stitches maybe a small synthetic skin patch but they still have to cut me open to get to the tear so it’s gonna hurt for quite a while. No physical activity for at least 6 weeks!! Just when I was totally getting into the groove of working out at the gym!!

It’s Electric Shock Season Again YAY!! Not Really…

Every winter it’s the same old thing, every thing metal that I touch shocks the crap out of me. Today I felt my first shock of the season. The worst item is car doors. I can pretty much depend on it, just getting in and out will give me quite a jolt, it makes me hate to touch anything with my hands.

Often I’ll use my jacketed forearm or elbow to push a door open or closed to lessen the jolt. Sometimes I can build up a nice charge that will jump as much as an inch across! Bright enough that you can see and I hate it!! Anyone have any tips on how to stop it? It doesn’t seem to matter what I’m wearing or type of shoes or even if I’m walking on concrete, wood or carpet. I always get shocked. Annoying!!

I’ll give you guys an update on my condition in a few days, hopefully he’ll give me something good for pain!! hehe