SRHuston Dot Net

Saw this cute fuzz ball on the tree outside the house in the back yard, and had to snap a couple photos.

This is kinda scary, but it’s happening in all sorts of places. Seems to be the latest gang “thing”. It’s usually 3-5 members in a team, with one older one hanging back from the younger ones. While the target is paying attention to the youths, the older member slips behind the mark and goes for their money and/or valuables.

Here’s a photo of this in action:

You ever wonder what happened to people you “used to know?” Every now and then I do. I thought I’d summarize a few of them, for the hell of it. Not necessarily because they’ll read this, but maybe they’ll do a little egosurfing and find their name here, then leave a comment and say, “Hey, this is what happened to me.” Might be fun. As a side note, when I started reading this off to my wife, I discovered that it sounds more humorous if read with an “Andy Rooney” voice.  Try it.  Now, in no particular order:

• I wonder what happened to Randy Johannsen. He and I were pretty good friends from about 5th grade until high school. We drifted apart a bit then, but still were friendly (we just had different interests and didn’t hang out as much anymore).
• I wonder what happened to Brian Salmon. He and I had fairly different interests from the start – he was always more athletic than I was. But he was always a good guy, and we got along very well.
• I wonder what happened to my 10 year reunion. I don’t frequent those websites that gather all kinds of personal information about people and then send them spam every day, mostly because of the spam they send every day (which is why, though you may find me there, you won’t reach me through there – I bounce every message from them). So if it was planned through one of them, I never heard about it. I figure it’s not that hard to find me – any idiot with a web browser and my name could do it fairly quickly.
• I wonder what happened to JoAnne Barlieb. Last I heard, she got married to a guy she’d been dating, I think her senior year, also named Steve. I seem to recall joking with her about the coincidence. I seem to recall she thought it was funny. I could be forgetting a patronizing tone, but it’s my memory, so there. She probably knew I had a crush on her, but at least wasn’t a bitch about it like some of the girls I knew in school (which is part of the reason they’re not mentioned here – I really don’t care what happened to them :> )
• I wonder what happened to Darrel Wonderlin. We didn’t hang out much in school, though his sister was in my class. We did hang out a bit after I graduated, and for a while there we went bowling at Laurel Lanes on Rt 73 at least once a week. When my parents and I moved to North Jersey, I think he came up once, but we pretty much lost touch after that.
• I wonder what happened to Ed, whose last name I don’t recall now and I’m too lazy to go find my yearbook, but who taught me to “always remember your ABC’s; but start with ‘A’ and end with ‘P’, otherwise you’ll break the rhythm.” If Ed’s reading this, he’ll probably remember that line. To anyone else, it’s a funny story. Really it is.
• I wonder what happened to Jamie Hort, who was always a bully to me until he left for Catholic school and returned the following year, and then we got along great for some reason. I never figured out why, but since he was always the bigger kid in class (and our last names were close enough that we always ended up in the same homeroom) I didn’t question it much. We didn’t hang out very much outside of school – the occasional visit here or there, the occasional sleepover, the trip to his parents beach house when I laid on a surfboard for entirely too long and got sunburnt all over my back and his older sister Kim felt so bad for me that she tried to rub aloe on it or something (I didn’t care, I’d thought Kim was cute too). Last I’d heard, I think he also got married, and had at least one kid, maybe two or more.
• I wonder what happened to Tyrone Crawley, who I also didn’t hang out with much outside of school, but got along famously with during our time there. I always had this feeling that I’d find him somewhere famous – not so much in a sports setting, he never seemed to care much for athletics though he wasn’t half bad. But a senator? I could see it.
• I wonder what happened to James Boyte, who once went to the house of a “friend” to find my calculator sitting there which I’d mentioned was stolen earlier that day, and retrieved it for me. Of course, others figured he was the one who stole it, but we only crossed paths twice a day that particular time of year, and I had it after the first meeting and it was gone before the second. Funny that. James was another “good kid” that probably just grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Or the county. Or something.
• I wonder what happened to Jasmine Marvin. Last I heard, I think she went out to UCLA or something. That girl was definitely going places. And if she happens to read this, I’m sure she’s glad that “me and those people” from the poster in Mr. Hartmann’s English class in 7th grade aren’t the only ones in the room anymore.
• I wonder what happened to David Bainger and Adam DeFrank. Also guys I didn’t hang out with much, but I always had the feeling that if I were to knock on their doors and say, “Hey.. um.. can I crash here tonight?” that they would have given me the pillow from their respective beds if necessary.
• I wonder what happened to the “Dynasty Crew”, or the “River Rats”, or whatever the hell you’d have called the group of us that would go to the diner, have coffee and breakfast at 10pm, then sit by the river and play guitars/bongos/whatever until the bugs bit us in the rear too much. Molly, Joe, Hacker.. well, Waryne, I know what happened to him.
• I wonder what happened to Karen Kelly. Oh, wait.. Karen Crespo. I kinda know what happened to her. She got married (I was there). She came to our wedding. She took pictures, which I don’t think I ever saw. She had two kids. She emails my wife. Now and then I see an email from her too. But I haven’t seen her in years. So I wonder :>

So there you have it. A few people I wonder about now and then. If you know them (or are them), feel free to chime in. And if you’re someone who knew me some time ago, and your name isn’t there, fear not – it doesn’t mean I don’t wonder about you necessarily. Just that in the span of time I started writing this, I ran out of names to put down. Or ran out of energy to put them down. Or ran out of caffeine to remember them. Or all three. So leave a comment anyway.

I guess trying to post daily during a holiday break, when I sometimes wasn’t near the computer all day, was a bad idea.  Oh well, not the end of the world.  On the bright side, I did get my workbench almost finished – I’ve got a couple more things to do, then I’ll post photos for all to see.

Power tools are a wonderful thing :>

So, for no reason other than to say I did it, I’m going to try to post something in here every day.  I won’t say for how long, so that if it stops after two days I can say, “See, every day for two days.  Mission accomplished.”  Of course, that means I’ll need to think of something interesting to say.  And my interesting thoughts are usually spur of the moment (as well as tending to be “you had to be there” comments), so I’m not sure how inspired I will be.

At the very least, I’ve got something to start it off.  Within the last few minutes, Akismet canned the 200th spam on this site for me.  Hooray for despaminazation.  Go ahead, look it up.  I’ll give you a dollar if you find it.  And not in a marketroid‘s dictionary.

hello. it’s a nice day for your ideas…
very good post…
very best idea!…

These are just some of the spam comments that Akismet has caught for me.  Granted, WordPress would have caught them anyway, and I’d have deleted them.  But now they’re separated out, already detected as spam, and I don’t have to do anything about them (though I tend to delete them just for the satisfaction, instead of waiting the 15 days it would take before they disappear on their own).

The ironic bit?  They’re all attached (or would have been) to the post I made in October, about using ROT13 to screw with spammers in ICQ.  Now that gives me an additional chuckle :>

We had our annual Christmas Party last night, and it went wonderfully!  We had a lot of people show up, some who we didn’t expect to see but called during the day or evening and then headed up here.  Plenty of food (of course, because Stephanie usually makes too much food for something like this), and lots of fun was had by all.

A big Thank You to all who attended.  Hope to see you all again soon (some of you I know I will), and that you all have a joyous holiday season.

Seems it’s that time of year again – time to set the clocks back this Sunday. However the folks at Dreamhost have brought up the interesting (and maddening) problem of what Congress thinks will save everyone so much energy and make all our lives easier.

Instead, it will likely cement the fact that I hate changing the clocks twice a year, especially since now I’m sure I’ll have some devices which were previously smart enough to do it on their own, and I’ll have to “correct” them anyway.

I still think Gallagher had it right – “If Con is the opposite of Pro, is Congress the opposite of Progress?”

(Only sounds right if sung like a muppet, a-la Muppets Take Manhattan)

As promised, gobs of wedding photos.  They’re all in the gallery, specifically the wedding album.  Not to be confused with the White Album.