Countdown to Extinction

With surgery looming some 12 hours away tomorrow morning the reality of things is finally starting to set in. Perhaps the biggest concern I have right now is the unknown– specifically just how much recovery time will I need and just how the Hell much will I regret this decision when I’m laying in bed 48 hours from now in complete agony? Like most things, only time can decide. I ask that you be patient and hang in there– I will be back to update the site further as soon as I am physically able to do so even if it’s just a “Hey, I’m alive” message.  I’d like to also thank all of you out there who sent me get well wishes through email, via one of our social network profiles, and for those of you who know me more personally via phone.  Your thoughts and get well wishes are appreciated.

Some of you may have noticed (if you live in the area of my hometown) that the recent edition of the “Warwick Advertiser” (one of Warwick’s hometown newspapers) “Where In Warwick?” feature was won by one certain history nerd you may know:

Frank Forester Memorial in Warwick NYWHERE IN WARWICK?
Congratulations to Maureen Byrne, Darlene Brozowski, and Christopher Welch, who correctly identified last week’s “Where in” clue. Welch provided some history with his answer: The image is from the Forester Monument found on the corner of Colonial and Maple Avenue in the Village of Warwick. Specifically it is Mr. Forester’s mustache and mouth. “The monument is dedicated to author Frank Forester (aka Henry William Herbert) who wrote the book ‘Warwick Woodlands’ (published 1839) among other noted works. “Forester was an avid outdoors-man and spent many hunting trips in the Town of Warwick woodlands. Forester preferred to stay at the old Wawayanda Hotel, which today is gone (once stood where today the Mobil Station near the monument is), hence the placement of this monument. “One side of the monument was originally a horse drinking fountain, but today is dry– serving as more of memorial to a bygone era. There is a plaque recounting the above achievements of Forester on a rock just behind the fountain. If I recall correctly, they were erected at different times with the fountain being placed first and the stone with the Forester plaque being placed second. I believe the fountain side had ties to the Civil War and was supposed to commemorate the fallen soldiers from the Town of Warwick (who are often referred to in writings from the era as the ‘Warwick Boys’).”

Yes, I have that much spare time– the verbiage is actually from our Beyond DF project on the Google Earth BBS. Check it out when you have spare time (info on how to locate my posts on that site are explained in the aforementioned Beyond DF section).

“Paranormal Activity” is now in official national release and if you still are interested in checking it out (the search results are still pushing around 25 people a day to this very site– sooooooo yeah) be sure to look on Fandango to find out where you can find it near you. The movie right now is listed as number three in active movie viewership rankings and has raked in over $20.1 million USD. Reports peg the film production at less than $11,000 and if this is the case that’s a significant return on investment. Nice job boys. Nice job.

Another article that has resonated with our viewers is our recent “Here Comes Droid For Verizon” article. Again, this is mainly driven from searches and one can only gauge the sheer buzz growing around the launch of this handset. Thanks to DJ ADD for pointing out the Moto Sholes hardware is actually globally available and that means Verizon will potentially not be the only provider with access to a Droid mobile smartphone variant of their own.

For those of you who know me very well– you know I love baseball. As such, I spend way too much effort on my Fantasy Baseball team (the Rhode Island Rabbits). I once heard that Fantasy sports is what AD&D nerds grow up to do to seem less geeky, but in all reality are only more geeky because of it. This is probably true as I was a big AD&D fan growing up and now here I am obsessing over who’s on the DL and who’s going to raise my team RBI to nudge me a point or two up in the rankings. Having said that I finished fourth in my league out of eleven. This was a big achievement considering last year I was in last place in a thirteen team league.

Now my Rabbits are moving on to Fantasy Football with the NFL season in full swing. It’s a public Yahoo! league so you can follow my stats in real time (though I doubt you have as much free time as me right now soooooo… yeah).  Right now I’m sixth out of ten with a 3-3-0 record. Last place here I come!

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Classic DF – 6/1/03

June 01, 2003: [•] First off, you may have noticed that DF.com was down on May 30th. Around Midnight a severe thunderstorm killed power for most of the Town of Warwick, NY and though electricity came back on around 3 AM for most of the Town the server itself wasn’t so lucky. Rock revived it around 5 PM later that day though and it’s been back up since then (obviously). Friday was my last day on the Help Desk and my last day as Lead Technician. It was thoroughly uneventfully yet not without an odd feeling in the air. Hanging right above my head was the next two weeks schedule. This week I was marked for vacation, but the week after I was no longer there. It just felt odd to see a schedule for the first time in four years where my name didn’t reside on it. My new job as a Network Specialist will be tough at first. There is a lot for me to learn and a lot that I want to learn though maybe not necessarily required. I’ve been told I’m going to be focusing on web page design, hosting, server administration, and television production. That’s a mish mosh of tasks and a venerable plethora of job skills will be required. I’m up for the challenge though and look forward to finally putting my multimedia art skills to their limits. I will miss the Help Desk nevertheless. I spent over four years on that job working my butt off and though I believe I did contribute a good amount of skill to it I know that there are many things that feel like they are going to be left unfinished. No doubt some of that can be addressed though as I’ll probably end up helping out over there time to time. So all in the end the change is for the better. Speaking of change, I picked up my new 2003 Ford Focus ZX3 yesterday. Two disappoints: First, no rear disc brakes. Second, no sub-woofer. Still it’s a good deal and at least I got most of what I wanted. I’m very happy with my payments and the car itself. Though I’ve driven it a total of 5 miles I feel like I’ve had it for years. It fits like a glove and I think it better suits my personality than the sedan version. Gette likes it too. The rear seats are noticeably higher in the hatchback than in the sedan. The result is she can now see out the rear window. For the first time ever she demanded to go into the car instead of walking to my mom’s (around the corner), which she NEVER had requested before. She hated being put in the other car, but this one she simply says “Me go Daddy’s car”. Sounds like a plan to me 😉 As far as Daddy/Baby time goes vacation has been great. On that note, it’s time for Sponge Bob Square Pants so I’m off to spend time with Gette.

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