nxtplato's republic

Pictures...

2010-01-04T20:44:00.000-08:00

Someone has been jealous of the "new dog's" pictures, and the amount of camera time she's been getting.. so here's some Bubba shots...

Yes, bubba.. that's a camera, and it works a lot better when you HOLD STILL.

Yes, Bubba, that's your pappa...

sleepy puppy...

2010-01-02T23:09:00.000-08:00

She's so cute when she's sleeping. It's the awake hours you have to worry about.

And now... Time for a Quote

2009-12-22T15:23:00.001-08:00

I wouldn't normally post some silly quote. Wait. yeah.. I totally would. But this isn't some silly quote. These are rules to live by. These should framed in the halls and meeting rooms of every educational institution in the world. The original in it's original context can be found here.

From Mike Rowe, or Dirty Jobs fame...

"
Obviously, I'm ripping off Stephen Covey, whose seven better-known habits got my attention not so much for their content, which I find suspicious, but for their surprisingly modest number, which I find manageable. Here then, are my "Seven Dirty Habits," each gleaned from a worker I met on the show, and bolstered by true stories of personal enlightenment and lingering humiliation.

Never follow your passion, but by all means bring it with you.
Beware of teamwork.
Vomit proudly and whenever necessary.
Be careful, but don't be fooled--safety is never first.
Think about what you are doing--never how.
Ignore advice such as "Work smart, not hard." It's dangerous--and moronic.
Consider quitting.

Wolfhaven

2009-10-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

New pics posted from our trip down with Joe's mom. Any excuse to go to Wolfhaven is okay in my book.

Pics Here

A Love Story...

2009-09-28T13:15:00.001-07:00

Love Story

I will seek and find you.
I shall take you to bed and
Have my way with you.

I will make you ache, shake &
Sweat until you moan & groan.

I will make you beg for
Mercy, beg for me to stop.

I will exhaust you to the point that
You will be relieved when I'm finished with you.

And, when I am finished,
You will be weak for days.

All my love,

The Flu

bugz

2009-07-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

This little guy was hanging out behind the building today. Isn't him cute? About as much color as your average Monday is apt to provide.

Green Day

2009-07-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

It only took about 5 years, but I finally got to see Green Day in Concert.

To say that they were amazing would be an understatement.

Not to take anything away from the rest of the band, but Billie Joe Armstrong is one hell of a showman.

Not a good picture, but those are real flames up on stage. Hot enough we could feel them, and we were about 100' away.

Green Day has mastered the art of iconography. A few basic images can really stir the emotions.

And they still play the classics.
------------------------------------------

The Bravery opened, and did a wonderful job of setting low expectations. The lead singer looked (and acted) like he was tweaking. I don't really like them to begin with, so I may be overly critical. Meh.

Green Day came on to thunderous noise from the audience. Seattle was the first stop on the tour, and they damn near brought the house down. This is one band that really does know how to play to the audience. Garth Brooks is the only performer to come close what I saw lastnight. The showmanship was as good as I've ever seen. The one thing that was very impressive was the audience interaction. From something as simple as borrowing someone's sunglasses to having audience members up on stage to sing, they were all about the show and making sure the audience had a good time. Billie Joe Armstrong even brought someone on stage to play guitar for Jesus of Suburbia, their 9+ minute anthem from American Idiot. The kid did an amazing job, and impressed not only the band, but the entire audience.

I will be going to see them as often as possible. And next time, I'll take my GOOD camera.

Behold the Power of Thor!

2009-05-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

So my friend's anemic, hemophiliac dog came over to play today. The memory card in my little camera (not the Sony!) decided to fritz on me, and didn't save the shot properly. With a little cropping and a LOT of re-coloring, I was able to fix the picture. Unfortunately, the camera caught a little of the Norse god trapped in this cute little puppy....

Okay, so here's what he looks like when he's not being all-powerful & god-ish.

And.. Just for the record, here is a shot of Thor, Norse God of Thunder and Jack, the god of... um... well... the God of Joe! Locked in mortal combat...

KLR Therapy

2009-05-23T20:44:00.001-07:00

It was truly a beautiful day for a little KLR therapy. We left the house pretty early and met up with the rest of the mob down in Hoquiam, WA. A quick re-fuel for all parties (bikes included), and we were off! We got to chill on the beach for a while (where the pic above was taken). From there we headed out to Forks, home of the Twilight phenomena. If you don't know, don't ask. If you really want to know, google is your friend. Then a quick stop in Clallam Bay to rest a bit, and we tackled highway 112 between Clallam Bay & Joyce. Always a blast, it was just as fun this time as it has been in the past.

Around 330 miles all told. Got to finish the last Bartimaeus book, rock out to Green Day, and even started another book! Being confined inside a helmet for most of a day has a calming, reflective effect that I've sort of forgotten since last summer.

the voices and the songs

2009-05-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I get so lost in the voices in my mind (internal dialog, not a psychiatric episode... mostly), that I forget the rest of the world. I don't see the TV, or hear the music, or the other people. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

Sometimes, I get so lost in the music (either in my head or for real), that I can't hear the voices. I'm guessing... If I could ever find a balance between those two.. It might be something.

I'm not quite sure what, but something.

Haunted and Hunted

2009-03-15T16:31:00.001-07:00

Haunted and hunted by questions and what ifs, secrets and lies, troubled truths, and unanswered why's. Nobody seems to know, and whoever knows doesn't care. I know I'm not supposed to look, but I can't help but stare. I'm fragile, broken, bent and bruised, crumpled up and thrown away, useless and used. Fucked up in the head, troubled heart and soul, living but already dead, filled past empty but never full. I'm a troubadour who's lost his voice. The words come and go but don't speak to me and I don't know why. I lie there confused, staring at the ceiling, searching for the sky. Where is this going? Are we already there? It's déjà vu. I've already come and gone, and I don't know where.

Hope for the worst, plan or the best. Everything is what it is. Is this a game, or is it a test? Am I winning or losing, is anyone keeping score? What are the rules? What's the point? Does it fucking matter anymore? Turn up the music, turn the world down. The songs all know me, and comfort me when everyone's around. Eventually the impossible becomes the inevitable. The unstoppable object moves the unmovable force. Whatever has happened will happen, and what was will never have been. You killed what I believed in, and undone things that never happened. The past isn't what it never was, and it will never be that way again.

You can't be mine without me. I'm not strong enough to hold you, and I'm too weak to let you go. There's so many things I never want to tell you, and so many secrets you should know. I can close my mouth, but you can read my eyes. See my empty soul, my deepest secrets and my
darkest lies.

Rambling thoughts, running words, dreams and lines. I've over run my pen, and over stayed my time.

Another Day - Another Dog Pic

2009-03-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Nothing exciting to write about - but I thought I'd share another picture of the mutt...

100th Post

2009-03-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while. There's lots of stuff going on, but I haven't been able to find a voice lately. Lots of thoughts and ideas and random words, but as often seems to be the case, nothing has coalesced into cohesion for a while.

I could probably write a ½ a novel in the middle of the night, but then I’d have to find someone who could translate what I wrote. What could be translated probably couldn’t be printed.
So here is another empty post. I am going to throw up some pictures.

In other news, I did get a new MacBook. :D Well, a "new" refurbished MacBook. So, attached to this post are a few pics. Taken with my Sony a200 DSLR. The first is the native picture. Reduced to make it a little more palatable for the web. The second is the cropped and chopped version.

Cheers.

sleep is over rated

2009-02-20T03:15:00.000-08:00

I've never understood the need for hours and kittens of sleep. Long studded tires have showered that sleep depravity has no lasting side effects.

Why, even now I'm composting this entry with only three or seven light years of sleep. The ceiling tiles are my fiends, and we have discusionsionsionsionsionsions late into the early bacon and eggs grand slam.

Syrup potatoes socks dog fleur flower folk song double bubble double bubblle iPhone lollypop.

I would like to clothespin by pointing out just how much more worry you, too can get down, if you can cut forward to a few spam of slip.

the dog

2009-02-18T22:47:00.000-08:00

Jack on a morning run through "his" field. Yeah, the picture is washed out, but he's still cute.. tongue out and everything...

the dumbest thing i've seen today

2009-01-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

That's a package of toilet paper in that cardboard box. why it was ordered and shipped instead of purchasing locally, well.. that's another topic.

I'm just wondering who came to the conclusion that they had to protect the toilet paper with packing materials...

argh

So that's the dumbest thing I've seen yet today. the day is young, though.

1.7.09 - musing of the day

2009-01-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

The snow is all gone. Now it's raining. Flooding, actually. I feel sorry for the dog, his area is flooded, so we moved his house. I think he's confused now.

I think this might be original to me, but it's entirely possible it's a quote, or part of a song I heard somewhere....

----
Just because you agree with something someone has to say, that doesn't make them wise. Just because you disagree, does not make what they say a lie.
----

I know, right? way deep.

np

Holiday Party

2009-01-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a LONG time since I posted anything, so I figured I'd put up
a picture of snowy Seattle.

Ride Withe the Wolves

2008-09-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

The weather is about 100 times better this year, and some interesting
bikes have come out!

Trinity of Knowledge

2008-09-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this was a two paragraph post, but fuck that.

Google

Wikipedia

?? Amazon? maybe.. Dictionary.com? possibly.. MSN, Yahoo? probably not. More likely the BBC, or CNN. I think I might even vote for Wil.

When you want to know something, or HAVE to know something, where do you go? I guess I google, and go from there.

Descartes

2008-09-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for
every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

René Descartes (1596 - 1650)

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http://www.nxtplato.com

Optimism vs. Reality

2008-09-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

All my life, I've heard people question whether the "glass" is half full or half empty. An age old question, meant to query whether someone is an optimist (the glass is half full) or a pessimist (the glass is half empty). I would like to answer the question from a more scientific point of view.

The glass is neither half full nor half empty. You have failed to measure accurately.

Best Thread from the PAX forum

2008-09-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the SUMO bags are awesome, and I'm probably going to have to waste some money on one (or more) of them....

But the best thread has to be this one...

PAX '08

2008-09-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

PAX '08 in one word -> WTF!

First off, a thanks to Y, for introducing me to the world of Penny-Arcade. Thanks. Wow, what an event. About a million people (many of whom in desperate need of deodorant!) crammed into the convention center. Games as far as the eye could see. And one hell of a mix of interesting people.

We got to see demos for FarCry 2, which looks incredible. The new level creator is reminiscent of the SimCity 2000 system, and I think we'll see some really incredible levels available for multiplayer. We also got to see the latest iteration of Prince of Persia, and Spore (which I was already going to buy). It was also very cool to meet Wil Wheaton. I bought one of his books, which he autographed for me, and got a shirt for J.

The concerts were pretty different. I did find a new band I think I could tolerate, but it sounds like we missed the good stuff on Saturday night.

I'm actively recruiting every geek/nerd/gamer I know, and already planning a bigger better trip to PAX next year.

Hero Worship

2008-08-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

Y and the incredible Wheaton

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