At long last, my video interview project is finally taking shape. I put together a decent intro animation and some subtle but attractive graphic and video overlays that add both utility and gentle pizazz to the end result. I still want to add music to the intro and some respectable credits. For taking as long as it has to get this far, having the end in sight is a pleasure.

Laptop down

My laptop is seriously troubled, possibly boned. It spent about 5 hours running a hard drive scan, dispatching bad sector after bad sector. It seems to be working now, but my faith in the thing is shot.

Even worse, I don't seem to have the Dell/WinXP disks I thought I had, with which to mop up this impending mess. This surprising lack of media strikes at my very core, and I had to take a deep breath, step back, and crack a beer before I put something through the nearest wall. The rest of the day has been salvaged, but only as a result of fastidious control of nearly uncontrollable rage.

So, that's how it's going... I am so disheartened.

Testy dispatcher

I took a 3-hour test today for a gig with the county Sheriff's department. It was a tough test, timed and unforgiving. My reading comprehension and note-taking are strong, and they helped counteract some drawbacks from some skill sets that were maybe a little less robust than I had hoped.

The test was pass/fail, and I am confident that I passed. I should know for sure within two weeks. I gave it my best, and I feel pretty good about it. The time-sensitive nature was a bit of a surprise, but after the first five minutes, I realized what pace the thing demanded, and rose to the occasion.

There were about 12 other applicants testing. I am surprised how many people show up to this type of thing looking... well, pretty casual. No flip-flops today, and it wasn't like it was an interview, but some people didn't show up dressed to play.

Big props to Grandma for helping with childcare and transportation, or I woulda never made it.

Easter laughs

My Dad and his fiancé Denise came over last Sunday, and we had a good time. Some of the laughs:

Brian, carrying a plastic hog to show to Grandpa, the former peace officer: "Pig?"
Tom, to Brian: "No son, he's retired."

Grandpa, to Mackenzie, defining sleep apnea: "That's where a fat person goes to sleep, and the fat from their neck slops down over their throat, and they can't breathe."

Both those exchanges still crack me up.

jogging

I went for a jog last evening. I saw 2 jackrabbits, navigating the natural channels of the foothill brush. I still get a kick out of random wildlife sightings.

Preaster

We're rolling to Mountain Ranch, for a day-before-easter egg hunt, pre-Easter. "Preaster," if you will. My dad was to attend, but we got our Saturdays & Sundays mixed up. We hope to see him & Denise tomorrow, at our place instead.

Inspiration

I like to watch survival shows - shows like "Survivorman" with Les Stroud, and "Man vs. Wild" with Bear Grylls. They are enjoyable to watch, as they mix education, adventure and often beautiful scenery. Bear Grylls did a show from the Sierra Nevada that I could watch over and over, even with the sound off. The place is just that gorgeous.

In that vein, a news story out tells of two Frenchmen surviving a terrible ordeal in the wilds of French Guiana.

"He was infested with worm parasites that had burrowed into his flesh and had trouble speaking and moving after swallowing venom from a poorly cooked giant spider. He was covered with bites. His brother, Gilles, said he looked like "he'd just come out of a concentration camp". His blood pressure had plummeted and doctors said that without proper nutrition he would have died within three days."

Wow. Seven weeks in the jungle - refutes the slanderous myth that the French are all a bunch of wimps.

I feel like a dinosaur

I have been trying to put more workout days on the calendar, and three days ago, we did legs. Two days thereafter, the pain fairy arrived, leaving my legs tender. My gait closely matched that of the velociraptor from Jurassic Park, as I pick my knees up a little too high with each step.

I picture myself in 5 years, just as pudgy and weak, but having spent the intermittent years beating the crap out of myself; knees aching, muscles scarred internally, I will continue my piecemeal, ignorant quest to, as Lester Burnham put it: "look good naked."

Meet the new blog, same as the old blog

New place, new delivery system, same old blog.

I've been blogging for years at my domain, tombickle.com, using handwritten code and DreamWeaver, which has come to strongly resemble the ease with which Daniel Lewis wrote and painted in "My Left Foot." If the technical equivalent of my left foot was the only avenue available to me, this might make sense. With other means at my easy disposal, however, I feel more and more like a wingnut as I struggle along with this odd and unnecessarily difficult method of blogging.

No more. I've stopped hemming, and slowed precipitously on the hawing, and chosen a dedicated blog forum on which to hang my yammerings. I researched it myself, and couldn't find a significant difference among the choices available. Thanks to Greg Crist for his Google-based opinion that blogger.com is the way to go.

Trust me to listen to the opinion to one of the few people I know who doesn't have his own blog. This oddity is precisely representational of how I make all my decisions - badly.

So, on with the show. My goal as I strike out in this new area is to blog at least once daily, aiming for at least one post that is of interest to the world at large once per week. Blogger promises to facilitate with entry methods including text messaging and audio blogging - how exciting.