Trip to Sacramento...
Mood:  happy
Topic: ramblings
I just finished writing this even though I started it over two weeks ago...

Here it is in all its glory...the story about hanging out with the best friend in the world in my recent trip to Sacramento...

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I had an absolute blast hanging out with my best friend, Joe, on Friday. I hadn't seen him in, easily, 6 or 7 years. We had met in the 5th grade when I first moved to California back in 1992. I was 10 when we moved there, and only 14 when we moved out of California to live in Utah. I'm not sure which year Joe came to visit me in Utah but I think it was my sophomore or junior year, so probably 1998 or 1999.

Anyway, this last weekend I traveled down to Sacramento to go to a wedding for a friend of the family. When I was born my parents lived in a cul-de-sac and all 5 of the families were good friends and actually have stayed good friends even 20+ years later. My parents were the first to move out in 1984. Anyway, one of the kids in the families just got married and my mom, dad, sister, niece, and I all came down for the wedding. I had met Joe when we moved back to California in 1992. Joe and I planned to meet up on Friday afternoon.

He and his brother, Jonathan, showed up at around 3pm. They had to drive from Fresno (a 3 hr trip according to mapquest, a 2 hr trip according to them). Everyone else at Susie and Walt's house were gone: headed for the rehearsal dinner that night. So Joe showed up and I asked him what he'd like to do. We went over our options and eventually decided it would be an awesome idea to drive (another hour and a half mind you) to Travis AFB where we used to live. So we all hopped into the Nissan truck that Joe and Jonathan showed up in and chugged our way west to Travis. We showed up just as the sun was going down. The whole car ride over was spent talking about the "old days" and laughing about various things. It was so much fun to get to hang out with Joe again, and I hadn't seen Jonathan since we left in 1996. He is 19 now which means he was around 9 or 10 when I left.

Most of the ride from Sacramento towards Travis I didn't recognize. The first point that I remembered anything was when we drove by Vacaville (east of Travis) and I saw a sign for the Nut Tree. The Nut Tree was a really cool gift shop type store that had all sorts of different things to buy and look at. A "specialty" merchandise store. I remember when mom would buy some unusual hot sauce there. It's also where I've seen my first (and so far only) real life Venus Fly Trap.

Anyway, we drove by Nut Tree and I remembered that there was an In-and-Out Burger nearby; we later verified that when we were driving back the other direction. I think there was a Target being built when I was moving ten years ago; now there was a whole plethora of commercial development there. That's when I first started tripping out...

When we got onto base I start remembering things that I had long forgotten about. The only way I could describe it would be an acid flashback; only in my case without the acid. Slowly my mind started to remember roads and buildings. The main gate was closed (and apparently has been for a while due to construction/reconstruction) so we entered through the nearby "Hospital Gate." Our first stop was the Base Exchange (BX). A civilian equivalent would be...well...Wal-Mart I suppose. They sell almost everything there, from clothes to electronics; even furniture. They have convenient store type food available, but most food can be found at the Commissary (across the street). We went into the BX and looked around and reminisced. Then we all ate a Cinnabon (compliments of Joe). We stopped by the liquor store and picked up a couple little (50mL) liquor bottles: Grand Marnier, Courvoisier, and two Capt Morgans. The first two Joe and I shared straight; the rum we mixed with the Dr. Pepper we drank while watching a pretty good movie by the name of "Hitch." I would even say it was a borderline "great" movie.

After the BX we drove and got some gas (and our Dr. Peppers) then went and drove by my old house. It looked almost the exact same as it did 10 years ago. Well, what I could see anyway. We couldn't quite pull into Cannon Drive because the road was blocked off. Construction of some sort. We did drive by the side of it after we did a U-turn but nothing too exciting there. As we drove back we passed by "No Name Lane" which was a street where one of our former priests lived: Father Bruce Brown. I have become accustomed to calling him "Father Bruce" but when I mentioned him to Joe and Jonathan, they didn't remember any Father Bruce. After a while I was like "come on, Father Bruce Brown...you have to remember him!" "Oh yeah, Father Brown, yeah!" Apparently I'm the only one on a first name basis with him? They remembered him then, and I mentioned that "Father Brown" is now up in Portland and I go to his mass occasionally.

We then drove around base a little bit and ended up parking at the youth center that Joe and I used to hang out at. Joe's mom used to work there. The second we went inside the building (which was open just 5 more minutes) we took a whiff of the same scents that lingered in the hallway when we were there 10 years ago. The girl still working there that evening didn't seem to recognize the name of Joe's mother or the two other women Joe mentioned; nor did she seem to care. We walked around the youth center a short while and then eventually made our way into the gymnasium. I'm not sure if they lowered the rims or not, but it seemed like the rims went from about 12 feet off of the ground to just about 6 feet. Could have just been that we are twice the height we used to be. *shrugs*

After we visited the youth center we left and walked around Travis. We went first to the new skate park across the street between the baseball fields. Then we ventured back to Joe and Jonathan's old house (just behind the youth center a little bit). The house was obviously not occupied by anyone. Neither were the houses surrounding it for that matter. From the looks of the other houses on base it looks like Joe's old house was now one of the oldest buildings on base. There were probably plans underway to build new houses there. We then walked around Travis a little more and ended up circling our old Sunday School building and reminiscing about all of that.

After a few hours on base we ended up venturing off base and ended up visiting our old middle school: Golden West. It was around 7:30 or 8 or so by this time. Of course no one was there, but we just went ahead and snuck onto campus and shared stories of different classes we had together and separately. I still remember the room where our math teacher, Mr. Deter, laughed so hard that Hi-C came out of his nose and when our history teacher, Mr. Noble, would tell jokes like "what did the hat say to the hat rack? you stay here, I'll go on ahead (on a head)." We circled around the back of the campus, and Joe reminded me of the spot where we stood during a solar eclipse. We wandered by the gym and talked about the time he slam dunked a basketball and broke his wrist. See we were only in the 7th or 8th grade, which would have made Joe about 12 or 13. Not quite the right height to be able to slam dunk a basketball. It's because the bleachers were drawn back at the time, as were the basketball hoops. Which meant he could climb up on top of the bleachers and slam it; the broken wrist, however, meant he shouldn't have.

We then headed out to Vacaville to find the movie theater. Joe and Jonathan had been back to Vacaville more recently than I had, of course, so they recognized things better than I did. We eventually drove over the back roads east through Vacaville and by the area where the Nut Tree was. The movie theater that used to be there had been converted into a church. So, we stopped by a nearby Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership and asked one of the salesmen inside where we could find another. He directed us to a theater not too far away and that's where we headed. We stopped by the theater and Joe and I bought the tickets while Jonathan parked the car. It was one of the most crowded movie theater parking lots I had ever seen. After he found a parking spot, and Joe and I got the tickets, we walked to a nearby Quizno's Subs shop and ordered tuna sandwiches (it was a Friday during Lent, which meant no meat). The subs were actually really good. We then grabbed our Captain Morgans and our Dr. Peppers and headed to the theater. Don't worry, though, Jonathan was our DD and didn't drink anything.

"Hitch," as I had mentioned, was actually a really good movie. I suggest you go see it :)

Anyway, after the movie we drove back to Sacramento. It was on the drive home that I learned the hard way that "Jackson Blvd" is the one that turns into Highway 16, not "Jefferson Blvd." After driving a few miles down the wrong road I called Annie (the daughter of the couple we were staying with in Sacramento) and she informed me of my mistake. So, we turned around and made it back around 1:30.

As we were pulling up to the house I asked Joe if he wanted to come in and see if anyone was awake or, cause of the time, if he'd rather get started on his way back home. He opted to go in and that's what we did. Susie was still awake. My mom had just gone to bed so I went and got her up and the 5 of us stayed up another half hour telling stories and laughing it up.

And that, in a nutshell, was my daily excursion with Joe...

2.10.05

Yet another reason to put an end to Valentine's Day...
Topic: ramblings
Valentine Balloon Blamed for Power Outage

Feb 15, 5:16 PM (ET)

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) - A Valentine's Day balloon caused an electrical outage affecting more than 2,100 homes and businesses, power company officials said.

The outage occurred Sunday night when a heart-shaped metallic Mylar balloon drifted into an electrical substation, said Phil Miller, the general manager of Mishawaka Utilities.

"It said 'I Love You' on it," he said. "It looks like someone didn't hold onto their Valentine's gift tightly enough."

Miller said the balloon, trailing a wet string, drifted into the substation near the University Park mall in the city just east of South Bend.

The string caused a short circuit in a bank of capacitors, which are components that store electrical charges within the city's power transmission network.

"(The balloon) didn't look too pretty when we pulled it out of there," Miller said.

Power was restored to most customers within an hour, he said.

Smallest surviving baby ever born...
Topic: ramblings
Well I posted articles on some of the largest babies ever born, so why not post news of the smallest one to ever be born and survive, right?

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Baby Said to Be Smallest to Survive Goes Home

Feb 9, 1:51 PM (ET)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A baby who may be the smallest child ever to survive has been discharged from a hospital more than four months after she entered the world weighing about as much as a cell phone.

Loyola University Medical Center said Rumaisa Rahman was discharged on Tuesday weighing 5 pounds, 8 ounces (2,520 grams), a far cry from her 8.6-ounce (260-gram) weight at birth on Sept. 19, 2004.

The hospital said she is "the smallest surviving baby in the world known in medical literature." She joins her fraternal twin sister Hiba who was also born on the same day in a Caesarian procedure and who weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces (566 grams) at birth. She was discharged a month ago and now weighs 8 pounds, 8 ounces (3,700 grams).

Doctors said her prognosis was very good and expected that she would have normal physical and mental development.

The babies were born to an Illinois couple originally from Hyderabad, India. They are the couple's first children, the hospital said. Rumaisa means "white as milk" in their native tongue while Hiba means "gift from God."

Heading to Cali tomorrow!
Mood:  happy
Topic: ramblings
Wow, I haven't actually rambled on my own in a long time. Recently it's just been pictures and articles that I've been posting on here...

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'm heading to Sacramento for a wedding. A friend of the family is getting married tomorrow. My parents have known him longer than they've known me, so what does that tell you?

Well, I suppose that just tells you that he's older than I am...

Anyway, I am trying to plan a meeting between myself and my friend, Joe, from Cali as well. We were bestest buds when I lived in California a decade ago. We haven't seen each other in like 6 or 7 years. He's living in Fresno right now, so hopefully he can make the trip up to Sacramento on Friday and we can hang out.

I have been a little under the weather since getting back from Seattle last weekend. Hopefully I'm feeling better soon so me and Joe can hang out without any problems...

--Bryan

What does that tell you?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: ramblings
I happened to notice on the television today that there were three infomercials on, all at the same time, and all selling the same thing: the "Little Giant" ladder. What exactly is the benefit of overloading the few non-cable channels (6, 8 and 54) with the same product?

Steaming pile of cow dung...
Topic: ramblings
As Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) said in Jurassic Park, "That is one big pile of shit..."

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Massive Manure Fire Burns Into Third Month

Jan 28, 8:15 AM (ET)

By KEVIN O'HANLON

MILFORD, Neb. (AP) - Urban dwellers who enjoy dining on filet mignon at five-star restaurants would probably just as soon not know about David Dickinson's dilemma.

Bad for the appetite, you know.

But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure.

Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market.

Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it.

While city folks might have trouble imagining a dung pile of such proportions, they are common sites in rural states.

In July, crews fighting a blaze in a three-acre manure lagoon at a dairy farm in Washington smothered the flames with more of the same - a blanket of wet cow manure.

In December, Montana officials ordered the owner of a horse feedlot to extinguish a large manure fire that sent a stench over a nearby town.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has informed Dickinson that his smoldering dung pile violates clean-air laws and is working with him to find the best solution to extinguish it, said agency spokesman Rich Webster.

Simply dumping water on the heap is not the answer, Webster said, because of concerns about runoff to any nearby water source.

Dickinson first tried using heavy equipment to spread out the smoldering pile and extinguish the fire.

"But the problem was, it started in another spot," he said. "We've also had the fire department out a couple of times."

And still it burns.

No one is sure how the fire started, but a common theory is that heat from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile eventually ignited the manure.

Wilma Roth, who manages a restaurant along Interstate 80 about a mile north of the feedlot, said her customers have complained about the smoke, which wafts for miles.

"I'd just as soon forget about it," she said.

Dickinson said the smoke is not particularly malodorous - although that comes from a man who works full-time around manure.

"I guess it's just all perspective," he said. "To me, it just smells like smoke. I really don't know how to describe it."

Decades ago, most farmers and ranchers kept their own cows and pigs until they were shipped to market and slaughtered into filet mignon, hamburger, pork chops and bacon.

And with all those animals spread far apart at thousands of farms, it was easier to dispose of the manure.

But huge feedlots - where animals are shipped to fatten on a high-grain diet for their last several months - have become commonplace.

Dickinson has an average of 12,000 animals on hand, each eating about 25 pounds of feed daily, resulting in as much as nine pounds of manure a day per animal - some 54 tons every 24 hours.

Most big feedlots spread the manure over farm fields or compost it to spread later or sell commercially to gardeners.

Farmers in several states are experimenting with using the methane gas from livestock manure to produce electricity. The manure is heated and produces methane gas as it breaks down. The gas is collected and used to power a generator, which sends electricity onto a power grid.

Dickinson acknowledged that while some folks see the humor in his predicament, he takes the fire seriously.

"It's a nuisance, and obviously we are trying to get it resolved," he said. "Everybody's been really patient."

Crash Victim Gets $105 Mln from Concessionaire
Topic: ramblings
And I thought me costing my work a few grand was bad...glad I'm not this employee...

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Crash Victim Gets $105 Mln from Concessionaire

Jan 21, 10:05 AM (ET)

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The family of a girl paralyzed in a car crash caused by a drunken football fan won $105 million in damages from the concessionaire that sold him beer, and the girl's father said on Thursday the case should have far-reaching effects.

The Superior Court jury in Hackensack, New Jersey, assessed punitive damages on Wednesday against Giants Stadium concessionaire Aramark Corp., for its role in the October 1999 accident that left Antonia Verni, then 2 years old, paralyzed from the neck down.

"I believe the jury accomplished two things," Ronald Verni said in a telephone interview. "It should provide Antonia with the necessary medical care and maintenance for the rest of her life, and send a message to Aramark and other vendors of alcohol at stadiums and arenas in the United States.

"Clean up your act and hopefully prevent other Antonia Verni conditions out there."

Aramark, one of the world's biggest food and beverage providers, said in a statement it plans to appeal.

Trial testimony showed that Daniel Lanzaro, 34, had gotten around a rule allowing the purchase of only two beers at a time by tipping a vendor to buy six. The family's lawyer, David Mazie, argued that Lanzaro was also noticeably drunk at the time.

Lanzaro, whose blood-alcohol level after the crash was more than twice the legal limit, is serving five years in prison for vehicular assault. He settled separately with the Vernis.

The New York Giants football team defended Aramark's alcohol policies and said in a statement: "No words can express the sorrow we feel for what the Verni family has gone through."

The conduct of inebriated fans has been a concern in U.S. sports, notably at last November's NBA fracas at the Detroit Pistons' Palace in Auburn Hills where Indiana Pacers players charged into the stands to fight with fans after a beverage was dumped on one of the Pacers.

That incident prompted criminal charges, the suspension of eight players and promises from NBA Commissioner David Stern to improve security operations across the basketball league.

But it did not change the Auburn Hills' policy on beer, which is sold through the third quarter of games.

Arguments...
Topic: ramblings
Well I happened to join this yahoo group called "IdLikeToHaveAnArgumentPlease" a few months ago. For those who don't know, yahoo groups are created and used to share information, tips, support, etc (in this case it is to share arguments lol)

Well for the first few months the group was really mild...then someone posted:

"Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, will ask the Supreme Court tomorrow to
vacate Roe v. Wade.

Rhonda"

That sparked quite a debate as we all put in our two cents about the abortion debate (quite possibly the most heated of them all). I have never known anyone to think that denying a woman their "right" to have an abortion equated to forced slavery. Nor had I ever heard of anyone developing an artifical womb in order to, I suppose, raise and nurture the pre-born rather than "forcing" the mother to do it. I understand women not wanting to go through the pain/work of being pregnant and giving birth, but I also know many women who see pregnancy as a blessing and willingly put themselves through whatever they need to in order to say "yeah, I helped create that." Anyway, they had totally opposite views/perspectives on love, sex, responsibilities, rights, and laws than I do. Which makes for plenty good debating huh? :)

I debated whether I would post the emails and arguments on here, but I think I'll hold off for now. Besides, I will be spending plenty of time responding to them as it is :)

Back to the innocent times...
Mood:  lazy
Topic: ramblings
I was helping a member (what us in the credit union business call "customers") on the phone today and he asked if he could close his Visa. I informed him of our policy: basically we would need him to either come in and sign a form or mail in a request to have the Visa closed. The basic rule is that we have to have a signature to verify they want it closed, just like we need a signature to verify that they did at one time want the loan.

Which got me to thinking...

I know I wasn't necessarily alive "back in the days"...but I do know that times then were much more innocent. I have no doubt that when my dad was my age I'm sure he could have just made a quick call (or sent a telegram perhaps? lol) to close a signature loan that had been paid off. He could write checks without worrying about a hold being placed on them. He could take a business opportunity from a friend and more than likely it wouldn't be a scam...

But things have changed. Now people have to constantly watch their backs, shred their mail, keep close eyes on their accounts, check their credit reports fairly often, and "tips from friends" are often times critiqued to death. Am we all just getting paranoid? Well perhaps, but for good reason. Times have changed. People aren't as nice and innocent as they used to be (unfortunately). Which means we all have to be extra cautious not to have someone do fraud against us. I've never personally had my identity stolen or fraud on my accounts, but I've dealt with plenty of it to know that it is no fun...

It's just too bad that we'll never be able to go back to those "innocent days"...

King of Queens...
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: King of Queens
Topic: ramblings
I must say, the show King of Queens has got to be one of the best shows ever :) I mean most shows these days are funny, but none of them makes me laugh out loud as much or as often as King of Queens.

Doug (Kevin James) plays the husband, Carrie (Leah Rimini) plays the wife, and Arthur (Jerry Stiller) plays Carrie's dad who moved in to live with the both of them since episode one. Most sitcoms have married couples with children; in this show, Arthur plays their 85 year old child. Arthur is definitely the most excentric person you've never met. He screams at the top of his lungs constantly, and of course is slightly senile in his age.

Doug plays a delivery driver for IPS (International Parcel Service) and Carrie is a legal secretary. Doug's personality mimics mine pretty well: overweight guy who loves football, hanging with the boys, and his girl even though he's not the best at showing it. Carrie is a little on the high maintenance side, loves her designer clothing, and can be short tempered at time. Together they live the "blue collar American life"...only unfortunately they're stuck with Arthur.

Seinfeld was definitely my favorite show when it was on tv...King of Queens is slowly approaching the "best television show ever" status. I definitely recommend the show to everyone. Doesn't matter how crappy of a mood I am in, this show always cheers me up :)