tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:28:55 +0000The day to day doings of a geek, husband, dad, and observer of life.http://billpap.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Bill)Blogger318125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-7925856877617349748Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:34:00 +00002009-12-26T22:54:08.207-07:00What is it with women? I know this is a question that has been asked by men throughout the millennia, but this one is with regard to a specific situation. Why do women, upon asking a question seeking approval or agreement, regardless of the answer will feel that they must justify their position on the situation? For example's sake, we'll take a hypothetical proposed trip to the hot springs.If http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/12/decisions-decisions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-5754629323717408862Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:41:00 +00002009-09-23T16:18:42.184-06:00The pains that are withheld for me I realize and I can see . . .That suicide is painless it brings on many changesAnd I can take or leave it if I please.So says the theme song for the movie and TV series, M*A*S*H. It is no secret that I have attempted suicide on more than one occasion. From the point of view of a person so horribly desperate, depressed, or terrified to believe that suicide is http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/09/through-early-morning-fog-i-see-visions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-5343025556961109514Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:41:00 +00002009-07-28T11:04:40.222-06:00travelworkThose who've been in and around the US armed forces for any length of time will be familiar with the term "clusterfuck." This is a situation which has degenerated to near-total chaos, with little prayer of any of it coming to a point where it makes any sense at all. A Chinese one is where it's degenerated to absolute chaos with no prayer of returning to any sense of normalcy. Luckily for me, Ihttp://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/07/anatomy-of-chinese-cluster-fuck-or-how.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-6083634497994552700Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:08:00 +00002009-07-27T19:11:02.778-06:00So, the trip to Vegas was interesting. I was surprised with how spectacular the mesa country through Utah is... I would've stopped for pictures, but we were on a mission heading out to Vegas and figured we didn't want to make an eleven hour drive into something longer. We made great time, occasionally slipping over to the wrong side of 100mph. Zoom, zoom!Once in Nevada, we got a quick http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/07/road-trip.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-6796732824996017194Wed, 27 May 2009 19:28:00 +00002009-05-27T13:38:19.580-06:00For the past few days, there's been a bit of extra military air traffic over Colorado Springs. The US Air Force Academy's commencement going on as I write, and the Thunderbirds are giving their annual demonstration for same. I've seen the Thunderbirds many times over the years, having lived on or near a good number of the Air Force's installations as a kid. We also were stationed at Nellis, http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/05/low-flying-aircraft.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-5489741302397350578Mon, 25 May 2009 04:34:00 +00002009-05-24T22:41:35.520-06:00Being new to Colorado, I'm still amazed at how much open space there is here. My memory from living hear in the 1970s tells me that there's a lot less of it than there used to be, and my family who've been here a while tell me that the lights of homes and development creep further and further up the hills as time goes by. It still does, however, amaze me how open the spaces are here.Today, Amy http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/05/open-space.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-45594312055829090Sat, 23 May 2009 03:03:00 +00002009-05-22T21:17:19.601-06:00When I was a kid, we moved a lot. It's the life of a family with a career military man at the head of the household. How much did we move? I ran through the list of primary and secondary schools which I attended before I went into the Air Force, and we counted thirteen. Now, I'll grant that some of that is the fact that you change schools into junior high and high school, but still... That's http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-am-packrat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-470210311041503421Fri, 22 May 2009 03:17:00 +00002009-05-21T21:39:49.772-06:00I never really thought of it as "I'm owning a business" when I started this. I just figured I was a dude with a camera, a selection of lenses and lighting, a functioning computer which runs Photoshop, and the desire to take pictures of people and things. Of course, I also wanted to get to the part where I could convince other people to pay me for my pictures. That started a couple of years http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/05/becoming-business-owner.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-2807027204116153905Thu, 21 May 2009 14:49:00 +00002009-05-21T08:59:33.529-06:00A couple of things have come to mind that I need to do. First, I need to work a bit harder at getting past my procrastination habit. My parents will attest to the fact that I've been this way since my early years, with it being most prominent during my high school years. Back then, I would have six weeks' warning to get a project done only to get it started two days before it's due. I http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/05/things-i-need-to-do.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-4010864670998484395Mon, 04 May 2009 22:30:00 +00002009-05-04T16:43:39.095-06:00I had some time in the car this afternoon, and I have a few gripes from the roadway that I felt necessary to share with the world...First, to the young lady who was driving the red Grand Am with the passenger side wing mirror hanging loose: Hang the God damned phone up and drive, would you? You were weaving like a drunk, and I have a feeling you'll be more capable of driving a straight line andhttp://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/05/roadway-rantings.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-6439921785845343747Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:28:00 +00002009-04-24T11:11:07.164-06:00I haven't slept well for the past couple of nights... It's pretty normal for me to have a sleepless night every once in a while, and I do my best to not have them on consecutive days (Ambien is your friend!). Unfortunately, nothing I could've done the past couple of days could have been enough to get me to sleep through this set.This morning, I was stirred awake by the guitar intro for Matthew http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/04/thoughts-from-fuzzy-mind.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-2450501815854280607Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:29:00 +00002009-04-03T15:34:27.110-06:00For the first time since last spring's wreck, I got back in the saddle. The discovery that while I'm not 100% flatlander anymore, I'm still flatlander enough (and out of shape enough) that hopping on the bicycle in the rarified Colorado air took a lot more out of me than I expected. I will say that riding along the trails at Garden of the Gods is a heck of a lot prettier than anything I rode http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/04/back-in-saddle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-5149858764400073726Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:42:00 +00002009-03-24T08:46:09.759-06:00That was my reaction last night about 11:30 when I heard a couple of clangs followed by WHAM! in my bedroom. No clue what it was, I went with the assumption that the cat had once again found her favorite play toy for night use -- a golf ball -- and was slamming it against the walls. Eventually, after ensuring that I didn't need to change my shorts, I was able to drift back to sleep.This morninghttp://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/03/holy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-872409113442678295Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:34:00 +00002009-01-02T08:57:33.449-07:00So the new year is a couple of days old, and I'm looking back at the things that happened in 2008. There were ups and downs in what can only be called the wildest year-long rollercoaster ride of my 41 years (well, at least the last six months of it were). I'd had other years which where I had ups as high as this one... Many were higher than 2008's highs. I've never had a year with a low as http://billpap.blogspot.com/2009/01/hitting-annual-reset-button.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-3068393055109272279Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:30:00 +00002008-12-29T10:34:59.880-07:00For the first time in many years, I have managed to get my weight under 230 pounds. It wasn't intentionally done. Instead, it's a side effect of living single, eating less, and drinking much less beer.Friend of mine keeps harassing me and telling me that I need to buy a new pair of jeans, as mine are "just a lot droopy in the ass there, dear." I rather like the fact that I'm losing enough http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/12/weight-loss-fun.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-498607473566088660Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:01:00 +00002008-12-01T13:07:45.193-07:00I have, since the beginning of September, made five trips between Pennsylvania and Colorado. One of the things I've noticed is that people seem to believe that there is some sort of invisibility cloak over their cars such that they can go mining in their sinuses with impunity. The worst I've seen was on the NJ Turnpike last year when some bloke was so deep in there that it appeared as though hehttp://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/12/automotive-nose-picking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-3945594333625687535Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:12:00 +00002008-11-13T12:16:10.157-07:00I just got me a free week of vacation, only with lots of extra stress thrown on top of it.The hard disk in my company-provided laptop died, and I have no other machine with office apps on it with which I can do the bulk of my work. I could answer e-mail from my Treo and take the occasional call when they came (or conference calls when they came up), but the vast majority of my work just simply http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-worse-than-that-its-dead-jim.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-4530552029492339883Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:08:00 +00002008-11-11T16:28:30.333-07:00familyLots of things have gone on, and gone wrong, since my last post. I've made two trips across the country to Colorado Springs, and only one heading back. Instead of being here to watch a bit of footie or hang with my brother, this time it's to try to discover myself, as it were. I don't recommend driving across Kansas, although it's amusing how one can find a "Scenic overlook" whilst driving http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/11/changes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-4900362232856076561Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:58:00 +00002008-08-05T13:13:24.885-06:00As posted earlier, I took my son last weekend to the Colorado Rapids v. Everton match in Denver on Sunday night. It was a crazy couple of days, and well worth it.Friday afternoon, we were off to the airport. While the traffic getting there gave me some heartburn, the security annoyances and other chaos were minimal, so we made our plane without worry. My son spent a vast majority of the time http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/08/very-busy-weekend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-3023354491195295167Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:19:00 +00002008-07-28T13:22:35.597-06:00Last night, as I was doing fifteen things at once, I had the TV on for background noise. My wife was upstairs putting the kids to bed, and I didn't want to sit and listen to the laundry do acrobatics in the dryer downstairs. Obviously, one doesn't pay full attention to the TV when in that mode, let alone listening 100% to a commercial.Let's just say that I did not hear the word "snack" at the http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/07/speak-properly-and-be-understood.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-3469785871550242094Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:04:00 +00002008-07-27T19:21:57.274-06:00My wife calls me a wiseass (or some variant thereof) on a shockingly frequent basis. The shock, frankly, is more due to the infrequency with which she levels that accusation than anything else.Unisys did their annual regional picnic at Hersheypark again this year, so I loaded the whole famn damily into our way sexy minivan and headed into Central Pennsylvania for a day of standing in lengthy http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/07/those-pants-dont-make-me-look-fat-its.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-3089011308126186190Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:27:00 +00002008-07-26T10:35:46.272-06:00Today, I finally am well enough to get my entire lawn care regime done in one go without sitting down in dire pain afterward. Only took about fourteen weeks (and I'm sure my next-door neighbor who has been cutting my lawn all this time is just happy I'm taking care of it!)... It's still not "I can sleep comfortably," healed, but at least the vast majority of my day-to-day activity is back wherehttp://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/07/humans-1-0-amphibians.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-1232943300023913063Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:06:00 +00002008-06-13T19:09:51.076-06:00Earlier this evening, we were talking about golf when tangentially one of the many pubs we frequented whilst living in the UK came up. I mentioned that while I may well be about twice the age of the average patron of that establishment now, I'd love to go back some day to see if it's really as fun as I remember.Little brother said "You just want to see if the reply to a shout of 'Points out of http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/06/was-talking-to-my-brother.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-3470942962787296748Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:21:00 +00002008-06-11T20:35:04.323-06:00workReading the June 9 dead tree edition of Computerworld, I find an interview with Gordon Bell. One of the questions asked was "What job would you want outside tech?" He answered with "I don't think there are any... I feel so fortunate that I'm doing something I like."My wife and I got to talking about that, and she said that "I find that a lot among you people." You people? What? Tall guys? http://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/06/choices.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16134515.post-6778805200092976061Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:10:00 +00002008-06-04T18:25:50.560-06:00On Saturday morning, I opened my RSS reader to find that Everton was announcing a preseason tour of the US this summer. Last time they were here, the closest they got to Philadelphia was Columbus, OH and the match was played the day my wife was sworn in as a US citizen (which meant that my choices were "go to the match" or "live to see my 39th birthday.")This time, they're playing in Chicago andhttp://billpap.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-352700.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill)3