Fuel Calculator

A lot of people have been complaining about the rising cost of fuel in America. I made a fuel calculator to help understand the impact of fuel costs. You can download it here. Instructions: 1. Download the Excel spreadsheet. 2. Fill in the yellow highlighted cells. The red text is the verdict! Notes: - The default values are my situation. - I picked $3.15 as an arbitrary "future" price. You can look at the tables at bottom to see other price points..

Katrina Remants

It's raining! It's pouring! ... A couple of my colleagues at work had commutes of 1.5+ hours due to slippery conditions, idiot Cincinnati drivers and aggravated by the styrene leak on the East side of Cincinnati which has closed a part of the city. So much rain, that I had to partially drain the pool a bit after work. It was nearing capacity. (If I did not do it manually, the weak side would have waterfalled and gravity would have stopped at about the half way mark, and I would have to refill half the pool!) Have to check on it again before work.

The Stigma

Shortly after 8 am on Saturday, I woke up and realized that I needed to run to the grocery store. I ran through the shower, pulled on some jeans and the first shirt on the pile, which was a white tank top. I gathered fruit, crackers, diet pop, protein bars, and frozen pizza (it was on sale!!) and went to the check out. I contemplated a potted flower with bright maroon blossoms. Yep, it would be a bright addition to my already cheery kitchen. I placed it in the cart and headed to check out. It was still early so I wasn't all that surprised that there were few people in line. The cashier was an older African American woman and as I approached the cashier, she smiled at me. I'm a talker and as she was handing the receipt to the person in front of her, I asked her how she was. She smiled and said OK, looking up at me. Like a brick wall, the woman turned off. She quietly and wordlessly scanned my groceries. She made as little eye contact as possible. The bagger asked me something. I didn't understand. She muttered something again. I guess my ears were blocked up. I apologized and she said it slower. She asked if I wanted my flower in a bag. Sure. I was not confused by the cashier's change in attitude. I quickly remembered the shirt I was wearing, which said simply "AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati L I F E G U A R D" The cashier quietly passed me the slip of paper to sign, which I signed, before heading out to the Jeep. (Note: The point of me reciting this story is to highligh how some people feel about the disease. And how HIV-Negative people, like me, who are associated with HIV/AIDS, observe these feelings.)

Feeling Better and Eating Better

After a relaxing weekend of seclusion and rest, I managed to improve my general physical and mental health. My wrists feel more or less normal and I can tell my inner ear infection is getting better as I have a sensation of draining. More importantly, my energy level is up! So, I did several errands after work then I cleaned my kitchen and mopped the hardwood floors with vinegar water (per recommendation of the people that refinished the floors.) Then I made a nice meal: It wasn't all that difficult to prepare. Steps: 1. Defrost the chicken several hours before dinner. Cut into 1/2 inch strips and put into a 1 gallon bag. 2. Add Montreal seasoning, chili pepper and crushed red pepper. Let sit in bag for 1-2 hours, shaking a couple of times to spread the seasoning. 3. Place the chicken strips on a walled baking sheet. Cook for 15 minutes. Flip. Cook for another 15 minutes. 4. Between 15 minute segments, boil water and add organic spinach pasta. Cook for 9 minutes. 5. Heat up spaghetti sauce (check the label for the one that's lower in fat and lower in sugar. These sauces can be sugary!!) 6. Layer: Spaghetti, sauce, chicken. 7. Lightly sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. As you realize, the chicken provides protein and the spinach spaghetti provides a lot of good stuff (I tried to find the chapter in Abs Diet book that talked about the benefits of multi grain/veggie pasta, but I was not successful.)

Weekly Update

TIRED – My wrists and ears are still bothering me so I had to work from home again on Friday. I’m worn down and it will be nice to lay back this weekend. Although it would have liked have gone with the boys to Chase's family cottage in Cumberland, Kentucky. STELLA – This new show on Comedy Central just kills me. Definitely absurdity at its best! Remember Michael Ian Black from the show "Viva Variety?" HEARDHEADED - I can be hardheaded sometimes. I can be a bad listener, sometimes, and regrettably I pissed off a friend this week. It takes a man to say I'm sorry and I am. EIN JAHR MIT DEM FLEDERMAUS – Die Fledermaus’ one year anniversary was this week. In honor of this, I'm going to republish 6 of the more popular entries from the last year (assuming I had a good post every other month.) ROLLERBLADING - I've decided to invest in a pair of rollerblades. A new friend wants to help relearn it. I'd like to get into the habit of blading the 8 mile loop at Miami Whitewater Park. TAG (ADAMS) – I pretty much have all apps are key installed, data restored and things configured to my liking on new laptop. TAGGED – In the last week, several bloggers had a 1 by 1 tag team.. on music. Being the organized person I am, I compiled a list, from about 13 bloggers ,in Excel. What a random, queer mix!

Doing the Military Thing

In the gym, I was just about to pull off my underwear to wear the ones I had designated for the gym. I searched my gym bag. Searched Again. I guess I’ll have to hire the Hardy Boys to figure out where my undies went. I had put them in my bag this morning. I had very loose work pants. My Tendinitis was really acting up. In retrospect, I should not have worked out at all yesterday.

Tag Me!

Moby tagged me, giving the following instructions: List ten songs that you are currently digging … it doesn’t matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they’re no good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Voilà! Carry My Urn to Ukraine - Army Of Lovers The Littlest Birds - Be Good Tanyas Shalala Lala - VengaboysMr Es Beautiful Blues - EELS Gay Bar - Electric Six Veronica - Caramelos de Cianuro Jardin d'Eden - Mc Solaar The Promise (Original) - When in Rome Free - I Wish I knew how it feels to be free - Lighthouse Family Nightswimming - R.E.M. And the people I chose to tag are: Sane in a Mad World (Chris) East Meets West (Shane) New! TheDelaine's Journal Nowhere Man Zeitzeuge

Driving Adventure

School has started and now my simple 7 mile drive to work is a dangerous adventure, thanks to the deranged soccer moms, anxiously whizzing kids from school to school, like a bee collecting nectar. So, the new school opened yesterday across the street... I had originally planned to back out of my driveway. I waited a few minutes. Back to back cars. No openings. So I opened the gate, turned my car around and sat at the edge of my driveway. A car pulled out of the school, narrowly missing the car behind her. The woman, a plain, heavyset woman was snorting into her cell phone through her large nostrils. The car behind her laid on the horn. She drove by and there were more back to back cars, most of which were minivans. One after another. Nobody let me in. Several minutes passed. "Come on people, I got to get to work, too," I muttered. Going down Queen City Avenue, no less than 2 people swerved in front of me causing me to have to brake or hit them. And yes, I was driving the speed limit. The construction is now 10 months past its completion date. I hit it just right. Cars were backed up approximately ½ mile... 45 minutes from beginning to end. Yesterday when I left at 8:10 (from oversleeping,) it took only 25 minutes…

Happy 30th Birthday, Jeremie

Jeremie had his 30th birthday. We celebrated on Saturday. Some pics: (1,000 words in these pix, 2,000 words in the unpublished pix.)

Weekly Roundup

Wow! Not done one of these in a while... ENERGY – I’ve recovered from my ear infection and I have energy back. I’ve had a really productive week. In the absence of Blake/Tag, I had the time/energy to paint my bathroom. It should be done by the end of the month. My house is the cleanest it’s been in a while. WRIST – My wrist is hurting. Insert joke about homosexuals or self-gratification. No, seriously, it hurts. It was better on Sat but it hurts as I type. I’m worried I may have to lay off weight lifting for a bit. That would suck. MO - Speaking of gays, Westsiders like to call us "Mo"s. RAIN – We actually got a bit of rain this week in Cincinnati. I’m sick of watering my lawn (or, more accurately, feeling bad for letting my lawn look so yellow!) Sometimes, I wished I lived in Seattle to get some rain for a change. Been very hot & humid this summer. PODCAST – I’m going to produce a podcast in the next couple of weeks. (Basically an audio magazine.) I’ll do one and see how people like it/see how much work it takes. More to come soon. SIX FEET UNDER FINALE - Like the rest of the Civilzed world, I bawled. Thank goodness I wasn't at a finale party for this one. Talk about awkward.

Reunited - Why I Depend on a Reliable Powerbook

I know you are laughing at me that I was so affected by Blake being gone. Well, I have really good reason for it. I really depend on a reliable laptop! BLOGGING – An Apple computer brings out my creative juices. No, my creative ones, silly. iCHAT – OK. I know that the target audience for AOL instant messenger is the daugher of a colleague who is a 16 year old Asian teenager. But, seriously, I use it a lot! My group of friends use it as a quick way of checking in. MUSIC@HOME - I use my Mac to stream music through my Airport Express (and into my living room and back patio.) Many times, I'll have my Powerbook by me for music as I'm ironing in the morning. I have some CDs, but nothing upstairs to listen to CDs... MUSIC@GYM - When Blake died, I happened to have a very boring Audiobook on my iPod Shuffle. Since my Powerbook feeds my iPod Shuffle, I was without music for some time. And this did affect my motivation to go to the gym. QUICKEN – Nuff said, too bad the last back up I have is from April of this year. BROWSING THE INTERNET – I want a computer to browse sites as I please. There are other reasons, but I'm too classy to mention them. Trashy in my actions, classy in what I say.

Good news / Bad News on Blake

It had been 1.5 weeks and I was getting really anxious to get Blake back. For the last few days, especially, I have been anxiously waiting by the phone. Then I got the call from Kevin, a genius at the Apple Store in the Kenwood Mall. He told me that they were unable to repair the unit. It had been back and forth from their repair center in Tennessee and they had not been able to make the necessary repair. He told me that instead of returning the unit to me, that they would like to offer me a brand new model. I gathered the case, cables and such and sped off to the mall. Kevin and the other repair person were very apologetic. They further explained the situation and brought out an unsealed box with my new laptop. “That technically makes Mac #9 for me,” I said, honestly. They weren’t surprised and got into a discussion about the progression of their home computers. As Kevin was processing the order, he said, “well, this is kind of funny. I guess your lunch is on us, too.” Apparently, the local tax had gone down, from 7.00% to 6.50% and the difference was $7.47 which he promptly handed me, in cash. After a bit more paper work, he said, “you’re all set.” “Thanks. It really means a lot to me,” I said, realizing how corny that must sound. What they did was the right thing and very good business. With a smile, I left with “Tag” and a big grin on my face.

Alive!

Hi! I'm still alive and kicking! I'm hoping to get my laptop (i.e. Blake) back in the next day or two so look for some postings after that time!

Emergency Room Visits

I’ve not had the opportunity to write recently and I thought I would give the reasons why... On Saturday, Blake, my 12" friend, and I were working, burning some material to DVD, when Blake started making funny noises. I rushed him to the emergency room in Kenwood. He stayed overnight at the hospital for 2 nights before they finally released him, yesterday. Last night, I noticed he was making new, different noises. Being after hours, I waited until today to take him back to Kenwood store. He will need a small transplant, but the doctor/genius says he will be released in the next week or so. This whole thing has been quite an ordeal for me. And without him, I don’t have the tools to properly blog... Stay tuned.

Jour de Congé – Day Off

I decided earlier in the week that I was getting a bit burned out and that I needed a break. Since I have several vacation days left to take this year, I decided to take a half day on Thursday and full day today. My intent was to paint my bathroom. A small room. A doable task. It's 1:44 pm. I'm at Sitwells and I've not really accomplished anything. After the concert, I went to the gym. With my ear hurting, I was not motivated to do the whole muscle building routine. There were also no hotties to encourage me. Plus, I wasn't on the VIP list for the previous month. Anyway, I didn't do much before my lawyer's office visit. Afterwards, I went to Crossroads, a sports bar I used to go to on occasion. I had no energy when I got home, so I blew the time away. I got up kinda late and piddled around before eating at Thai Café. I really like Sitwells; there was a group of 30 something people behind me discussion South African politics. I'm glad I was not in the discussion as I would have had very little to offer. Like magic, Beth appeared. Anyway, battery is low on laptop. Guess I should get moving.

Phil Vassar Concert

When I got to work yesterday, people commented on my outfit, which I thought was "cute" and practical. "If Phil Vassar can wear jeans to work today, then so can I." Phil Vassar, an up and coming Country singer was to give a free concert at 12:00 outside P&G's Central building. This is part of a multistop tour that his is doing to promote Prilosec OTC. Phil Vassar is an interesting guy, a great performer and as cute as a button and is built quite nicely. I took almost 50 pictures! (I think some of the co-workers that I've not come out to were wondering why I was so intent on taking so many pictures of him.) All the women and queebos in the crowd applauded when he jumped onto the piano and displayed his backside: The music was quite good. He sings with a lot of soul. I'll admit I bought his new album "Shaken, Not Stirred" and bought a couple of songs from his début album, on the Apple Music store.

Top Ten Reasons to Watch "Oz"

Oz, the series. I've watched a few episodes from the HBO series. I figured out what makes it tick. I've dissected the characters and the sub-plots. I made a top 10 list: 10. Serious drama -- life in prison in America. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. blah bah prison blah 4. 3. 2. blah 1. Frontal

Last Page

I get a lot of my stock photos from a Hungarian site, stock photo exchange, http://www.sxc.hu/ Instead I typed in the following: http://www.hxs.com/ Interesting Dutch site deaing with GSM technology and skunks. I think I reached the end of the Internet.

A Kick When You're Not Feeling Well

My ears hurt from a 1.5 week long ear infection. It was 93 degress outside and was very tired, due mostly to the infection. On the way home, I stopped at Walgreens to pick up the antibiotic prescription for my ears. Fortunately, my drops were there and it was an effortless process to pay for them. I walked outside and was thinking about how nice it will be to sit on my couch, as a late model whie Ford that was stopped in the middle of the parking lot suddenly swooshed backward toward my jeep, expertly swerving into the parking space beside me. I looked. In front were two African American women and in back, six small children, none of whom were wearing seatbelts. I walked toward the car, and the back door closest to my vehicle swung out abruptly, hitting my car. As I approached my vehicle, I yelled, "She just hit my car" (referring to one of the girls in back.) "She did not!" "Yes! She sure did!" I pulled the door back and showed her the white mark that matched her vehicle. "That was already there before. She didn't do nothin'." I looked at the woman and got prepared to say something. Then, I looked at the 6 year old girl with her tied above her head. I was pissed off and surprised myself with what came out of my mouth. "You need to be more careful," I said gently, looking at her. She turned slightly, in embarrassment. I rubbed the paint and some came off. A wash would take the rest off. "It'll be ok," I said. "That's good," the woman began, in a matter of fact manner, "because I don't got no insurance anyway."

How to Piss Off Matt at the Gym

I usually go to the company gym at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, mostly to avoid people. Although there are occasional hotties, most are not, at the corporate gym. On Friday, I went down at the normal time. I was having a very busy day and, I decided beforehand that I would only do a few of the major machines, in less than 30 minutes. When I got to the gym, I could not leave fast enough. The other members were driving me crazy. I left as soon as I could. For those of you at the company gym who wish to annoy me, here are some pointers: - Don’t wipe off your nasty sweat after using a machine. - Moan and grunt extremely loudly when using weights. Make enough noise that I can clearly hear you, even through my headphones. - Stroll around the gym without really working out. (“Yeah, we all see you buddy; we know that you’re making a guest appearance at the gym, opposed to your normal one. We get it: You’ve got muscles.") >- Take up several machines at once; do not even consider allowing those on a circuit to use your reserved machines. If they ask, act very annoyed and say that you’ll be done with your workout in 15 minutes. - Have really bad form. (Don’t exercise the full muscle group or swing your arms for dumbbells.) - Have a smug, stern, bitchy look on your face. ("Yeah bitch, I'm talking about you. How's about you do us all a favor and lose that fucking attitude?") - Get very close to me while using free weights. Better yet, brush up against me while I have dumbbells in the air. - Sit and watch me undress in the locker room. Be very obvious; don’t even pretend to be doing anything besides staring. (This only applies to overweight men age 50 or above, as this demographic group is the only one that engages in this activity.)