Day off today…

Today was the first day of my weekend. A day with absolutely no football at all. Sure, there was the Pro Bowl, but that really doesn’t count. My TV has been off all day. Mainly it’s been play Flight Simulator day. And it was laundry day as well. Normally I do laundry every couple of weeks. But I kept putting it off last week. It basically boiled down to my sock drawer becoming depleted. But it’s done now.

And for the almost the entire day, my TV has been turned off…

Render unto Ceaser, 2016 Edition, part I

Did my tax return last night. And it was accepted (I filed electornically). I anticipate a refund this year (even more than years past). If you remember last year, I had to pay full price for my health insurance due to a misunderstanding with regard to the advance premium tax credit (a lesson I also took to HR at work so they could pass it on to the next co-worker who gets promoted to full-time). I wasn’t eligible for the credit in advance, but apparently I’m still eligible to take it with my tax return… This won’t be a problem next year, as I have learned my lesson, and I enrolled in the complany provided insurance as soon as open enrollment began.

But we’ll see what happens. Refund should arrive in 3 weeks…

Let’s get steamed….

A couple of weeks ago when I was reinstalling my software, I had some games that I couldn’t install. Due to security issues, The Anti-Christ published an update, that prevented a lot of my older games from working (mainly it was the technique they used to verify the CD-Rom in the drive). I found some work-arounds (namely, no-cd patched and/or installing them on my Windows XP VM). But there were some where that wouldn’t work. Then I remembered the last time I was in Gamestop and I lamented to the clerk about the lack of Windows software, and I was told about Steam. I didn’t join back then, but i did last summer. I didn’t buy anything at the time. Then a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that some of the software that I was trying to install but having no luck was on Steam and on sale.

So needless to say, I have spent way too much from my last two paychecks on games….

Yes, I know that Flight Simulator X is also on Steam, but my DVD version still works perfectly fine. I’m not much for online gaming, which is what the Steam version is mainly for…

Uh, oh…

I just did a back-up of all my stuff last night. And now I have the urge. To put Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 back on my tower. I’m trying my hardest to resist it. I have to remind myself that I hate Win8.1 for a reason, and there is no reason to go Win7.

On the other hand, I do have a current back-up, plus my entire previous back-up. Though it did take longer than when I previously wrote about it.

Man, I have way too much crap on my computer.

So I was at work yesterday…

I generally try to keep the workplace gossip to a minimum, for the most part. Most rumors are best kept to a minimum, especially if there’s no truth to them. Yet there are times when you hear good news through the scuttlebutt. Sometimes you want to share it, like when a co-worker gets promoted. Or you need to keep it quiet.

Long story short, I heard a couple of items on the scuttlebutt that are very good news if they’re true. But I cannot confirm them. So I guess the right thing is to hold my tongue on them.

But I will say this: Things are looking up.

So, I got a calendar 10 years ago….

It all started when I got a calendar. Actually I was in the midst of a system rebuild at the time, and I had downloaded and installed a browser called Flock, and being a ‘social’ web browser, when you first ran it, it gave you instructions on how to set up a blog. And that’s how The Voices From Within My Head came in to being. I had actually thought about blogging for a while, but this was just the right nudge to get started. I had also been originally inspired to start a blog by Igwanarob. As of tomorrow, this blog will be 10 years old. Since then:

• I’ve replaced my tower. Twice. And I’ve gotten 3 laptops. Two of the towers died (Magic Blue Smoke off the motherboard for the first one. The secod one just stopped). Laptops didn’t die. I got the first one as a contigency in case the tower died, and then by boss at the time sold me his a year later, so I sold my first one. Then I got comfortable with my tower, and so I gave my laptop to a co-worker. The last laptop was given to me by my mother, and it sits in the lving room, on standby if my tower bite the dust.
• I moved. Twice. First from Puyallup to Parkland. And then from one apartment to another.
• My 2 brothers moved out and went our separate ways. Then one brother and I moved back in together. As long as we have our separate rooms, we can tolerate each other.
• I’ve gone through 9 cable boxes, 6 hard drives, 5 video cards, 4 tv cards, 2 wi-fi cards, 3 usb hubs, 2 joysticks, three game pads, 4 printers, 3 crt monitors, 1 lcd monitor, 3 keyboard/mouse combos, and 4 DVD burners.
• I’ve gone from Windows ME to Windows 10. Even Windows 8.1 (which is what my current tower had when it came from Worst Buy). However I did manage to successfully skip Windows Vista. I did dabble with Linux on occaision, but mainly I’m a windows person, though I hate to admit it….
• I’ve changed jobs. Left one job not on good terms, started another, then made peace with the first employer (and I still work for him, btw), and the second job I started made me full-time (complete with vacation, sick leave, and benefits).
• I’ve done jury duty. Twice.
• I’ve joined Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter (actually this is my third time on Twitter). the MySpace account got cancelled a long time ago…
• I quit Usenet. On occaision, I thought about getting back on board, but the there is too much noise, not enough signal to make it worthwhile anymore. Besides if I want to read something in NANAE, I can use google now…
• I started drinking. And I quit drinking. I don’t need to be drunk, and I just don’t like alcohol. Trust me, you don’t need to drink. It’s not worth it…

ANd if you wanted to call me, you would’ve reached me on:

1. A Nokia 3595 (T-Mobile Prepaid).
2. A Nokia 6030 (T-Mobile Prepaid).
3. Samsung T619 (T-Mobile Contract).
4. Motorola RIZR Z3 (T-Mobile Contract). This was the first phone I bought from my boss).
5. T-Mobile Shadow (aka the HTC Phoebus).\
6. Blackberry Curve (I realized very quickly that I do not like Blackberrys).
7. Another T-Mobile Shadow.
8. HTC Touch Pro 2.
9. HTC HD2.
10. HTC MyTouch 4G.
11. HTC Senstation. (These last two phones, I actually had for less the 2 days, as there were other factors that necessitated me returning them).
12. HTC EVO 3D (now on Sprint).
13. HTC One (M7)
14. And finally HTC One (M8). Some of these phones I got on contract. Some were hand me downs I got from my boss at the time.

This blog started with a calendar. And then a post about a Seahawks game. Actually come to think of it, it may have started even earlier, but those early posts were long since deleted. But I still have plenty of Voices to write about….

Hello Monday

Yes, the world calls today Tuesday, but it is my Monday. And I'm off to work. Whether or not it'll be a good day is up in the air. All I can do is drink my coffee and hope for the best. But it can't be that bad. I mean I still have a job. And so far I've made two out of three of my buses to work....

Have a nice day. If it isn't nice, then try to leave it at least better than yoy found it...

Yet another passing

Today it was Glenn Frey. I was born in the ‘70s (73 if you really need to be that nosy). By the time I had my first radio, The Eagles had already broken up, and Don Henley and Glenn Frey were just solo artists. In all actuality, my father was in the army, and we were stationed in Germany. And the only English radio stations were controlled my the Army. So, I never heard any Eagles. I did hear a good deal of The Heat Is On, and there were a couple of Don Henley songs that I remember.

Btw, they did reunite again in the ‘90s…

Sorry, this was the best quality video I could find...

With David Bowie, Lemmy, and now Glenn Frey, there must be one heck of a concert going on in the afterlife…

So now football season is over

So now that football season is over. Sure, there are still a few games left, including a Super Bowl. But the Seahawks aren’t going to be a part of it. Though I should also add that I made it a point to thank HR at work for giving me Sundays off during football season.

Tonight there will be no Sunday Night Football. I suppose I could Hulu Thunderbirds, South Park, or I could Netflix.

But I shall do none of that. Tonight, it’s turn off the computer and watch 300.

Cancer sucks…

First there was Lemmy in Mortorhead. In all honesty, I never listened to them. I saw them first when they did an appearance on The Tonite Show with Jay Leno right after Jay Leno took over the show.

Then there was David Bowie. This one hurt. I didn’t even know he was sick. He wanted his cancer to be kept secret, and I admire him for that. I could never keep something like that quiet. But he did leave his fans with a parting gift, releasing an album right before his passing. He will be missed.

And then there was this one:

And then there was Alan Rickman. You may know him as Snape. Or Hans Gruber. Or the Voice of God. Or the Sheriff of Nottingham. On a side note: Roger Rees, who play the Sheriff of Rottingham in Robin Hood: Men in Tights also passed away this year earlier.

Cancer sucks.

Btw, here’s another one by David Bowie, covered by the Wallflowers:

It’s over…

The Seahawks season is now over. I think we did good during the last game to come back from 31-0 to lose 31-24 to Carolina. But it’s now on to other things. Like the Sounders FC and the Mariners. Spring training is only a few weeks away, and they’ll do better than last year. I hope. The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) is always unpredicatable. And the Sounders FC are always perrinial play contenders….

Roll Tide…

Alabama just won the College Football Champoinship game, defeating Clemson. Now the Bowl Season is officially over. Now there will be no more Monday Night Football. I think I’ll start Netflixing and Huluing from now on. After all, when I got my Blu-Ray player, I did make sure to get one with apps…

But I digress. Roll Tide. Until next fall. But meanwhile, there will be the Sounders FC, the Mariners, and The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) in general.

Now back to Jonny Sokko and His Flyong Robot…

So long, I never used you to begin with....

My computer no longer has Bluetooth. In the fall of 2009, I bought a USB Bluetooth dongle from Wally World. I installed the drivers from the cd-rom, and always had problems with it. Then I downloaded the right drivers from the internet, and it worked fine. I could pair my smartphone with it, and with Windows Mobile, I could sync my phone with it. And I could use my bluetooth headphones with it as well. Therein lies the problem. I never used my bluetooth headphones on my computer. I always had my computer hooked up to my 250w stereo system, and had my sound routed through that. And after I upgraded to Android smartphones, my phones synced through my Google account. And I never needed to tether my internet connection with them. At home, all my gadgets connect to the same house Wi-Fi.

But there is was, on my usb hub. Due to interference issues, I actually had to get another usb hub to connect some of my components, and still keep them separated. And there were also the process that started up, using memory and processor.

So tonight, I took it out and uninstalled the software. So long Bluetooth. I never really used you on my computer...

At the doctors office....

Not necessarily the doctor's office. But with the company health insurance, I get a discount on my premium if I go in for some 'healthy living' screening. There's nothing new to me in  these tests. In fact there the same tests that the doctor orders even I go to see him. It's just work is picking them up this time....

Of course if work doesn’t pick this up, then I'll take it from there. Hopefully I won't have another $600 bill this time...

Going well so far

Last week, I put Windows 10 on my computer for good. I’m still installing my software, and ‘moving in’, so to say. But today was a significant milestore. I installed Flight Simulator X and Flight Simulator 2004. And they both work. And with their installations, I finally formatted my previous hard drive. I kept it intact as an archive so I could access my documents and stuff (I had two other 1 tB hard drives that used for day-to-day back-ups), and so if I so decided, I could put it back in and go back to that Windows install. I’m also reinstalling my really old games (the ones that wouldn’t even work in Windows 7) on my VMware Player Windows XP VM (I had one previously, but I lost it last June).

Not all my old games are going to be reinstalled. Some I never played. Others I’ll install when I play them. It’s going to be a work in progress for a while, I guess.

But I’m at the point now where I’m spending more time using my computer now, rather than just installing software and updates….

Off to Carolina

The Seahawks just beat the Vikings 10-9. Now it’s off to Carolina next week. They won on a missed chip shot field goal.

But it’s off to Carolina next week. A rematch from week 6. The Panthers lost only 1 game in  the regular season. Let’s make it 2…

What to do now?…

It’s Monday Night. The time when I’m running about getting ready to go to work tomorrow. With Discovery Channel on the tv. And then I realized it. I wasn’t watching Monday Night Football. Football season is over. It’s now the playoffs. And the Seahawks are favoured to win. On the road.

Mental note: tell HR at work that football season is now over, and I can work on Sundays if needed. Actually they do know that I’ll work on Sundays, and I have. Though with Sundays off, I can avoid dealing with Pierce Transit sunday schedules. Where I’d normally make a connection within 5 minutes on a weekday, on Sundays, I have wait upto 30 minutes to make my connections. Or I have to walk 4.5+ miles

So, what should I do now? I guess get ready for work and go to bed….

Once a year….

Ever since I’ve been in Washington, I’ve always noticed one thing. We always got snow at least once every winter. When I was growing up, I always hoped for the snow day from school, not realizing that we would have to make up the missing classwork, and have a snow make-up cut into summer vacation. My last school district actually engineered that into the school calendar. If we missed school due to snow, we came to school that day (it was usually scheduled in the spring). If we didn’t have any snow days, then that was an extended weekend… Now that I’m working for a living, if I see snow, I’ll enjoy the scene while it comes down. Then I’ll sear and curse at it as I have to go to work, and while it’s enough to make your commute a pain in the ass, it’s not enough to close the workplace…

But I digress. Like I said, we’ve always had at least one day of snow every winter since I’ve been in Washington. And today was the day. I didn’t have to worry about work or school (it was my regularly scheduled day off).

BTW, when it snows, it’s cloudy. If it’s cloudy it’s usually not down into the teens. So, I’d probably not be calling out due to snow, unlike yesterday…. In fact, since I take the bus, and I live along a state highway that’s usually the first to be plowed, sanded, salted, and de-iced, I can usually make it to work…

We’re off to Minnesota

The Seahawks are off to Minnesota. They got into the playoffs a couple of weeks ago, but I was too busy to write about it (something about having to wile my phone twice). And then there were the holidays and all.

So we’re off to pillage the Vikings. We’ve been there before this year. And we’ve beat them soundly in Minnesota. I just Beast Mode will be back…

Go/No-Go....

I've always said that if the temperatures fall into the teens, I'd call out at work. Not all the times. Most of the time, I can make it to work, even if it's that cold. But every once in a while, there's a time when I have to walk 4 and a half miles to the bus stop, and then about two miles to work from where I get off the bus. In those cases, if the temperature is in the teens, it's a no-go for me.... If it's even in the 20's. In that case, I can warm up from the excersize of the walk. But if it's the teens it's just pure freezing my balls off cold. And excersize won't warm me up....

So I get up this morning. Saw that it was 19 degrees at 1:30 this morning. And it tends to get even colder (about this time of year, the low temperature of the day is actually reached rght around sunrise). So I placed a call to the night manager....