Conspiracy Theory

I'm convinced that there is some sinister conspiracy going on to prevent me from listening to my favorite CD.

As some of you may know, my car was broken into in 2003 while I was still living in the Elyria "ghetto". The thieves / operatives took my car stereo and the 10 cds that were in the car at the time. 9 of the 10 stolen cds were just burned copies that were easily replaced. However, one of my favorite cds of all time, Vertical Horizon's Live Stages was also taken. This was my original disc, not a burned copy like the others.

I thought the car stereo was the original target of the thieves, but recent events have convinced me that the stolen stereo was just a diversion for the true target: my Live Stages cd.

I ended up purchasing a second copy of the Live Stages cd and life returned to normal for about 3 more years.

During that time, I went through the exercise of ripping my entire music collection to mp3s so that I would, never again, lose one of my original cds.

Fast forward a few years to 2006. My Live Stages cd almost never left my car's cd changer...for when it did, it was put back in rotation within a matter of days. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that my Live Stages cd was not in my cd changer, was not in my car at all, and was not in my apartment either!

The thieves had struck again! They must have been watching me for 3 years, waiting for that perfect moment to swoop in and take my replacement copy of Live Stages! At least this time they left the cd player intact (no...my new car was not broken into).

I was pretty upset that my Live Stages disc was gone. However, I was comfortable in the fact that I had a digital copy of all of my cds on my computer. But, like the sneaky Secret Service Agent Cummings on 24, the digital archive was tampered with and all traces of the recording erased!

(There's a small possibility that I never ripped Live Stages to mp3 because it never left my car...but I'm still convinced that it was a stealthy ninja garden gnome)

Now they had taken TWO copies of my favorite cd and erased all digital copies of it as well!

I have now purchased a third copy of Live Stages and made sure that the first thing I did when I got it home was rip it to mp3.

So if the conspirators/thieves/garden gnomes who have been infiltrating my cd collection are reading this...be aware that I have made a copy of Live Stages and gave it to Dick Cheney to be held securely in an undisclosed location.

Who needs an mp3 player?

Some people with too much time on their hands figured out how to make a HP ScanJet scanner play music. Even a video clip for your listening pleasure.

Home videos

Year	Description	Length
1982	Eric & Dinah	00:29	View
1982	Evan sings ABCs	01:16	View
1982	Eric's 1st Birthday	04:51	View	NEW!
1982	Eating breakfast with parakeet	03:37	View
1982	Thanksgiving - Cooking dinner	01:37	View
1982	Thanksgiving - With the Bublicks	08:08	View
1982	Thansgiving - Wrap Up	01:45	View
1982	Evan's bank, Eric's diaper	05:24	View
1982	Bathtime	06:52	View
1982	Hanukkah - Intro	02:03	View	NEW!
1982	Hanukkah - Blessing the Candles	01:39	View	NEW!
1982	Hanukkah - Opening presents	08:03	View	NEW!
1983	Evan's 3rd Birthday - Intro	01:14	View	NEW!
1983	Evan's 3rd Birthday - Evan with balloons	00:38	View	NEW!
1983	Evan's 3rd Birthday - Party	08:24	View	NEW!
1985	Grandpa Ben poses Eric and Evan for picture	00:58	View	NEW!
1985	Evan/Eric Birthday - Before the party	02:44	View	NEW!
1985	Evan/Eric Birthday - Party	03:46	View	NEW!
1985	Evan/Eric Birthday - Quacky the Clown performs	13:13	View	NEW!
1985	Family playing in backyard - Buffalo - Version 1	08:20	View
1985	Family playing in backyard - Buffalo - Version 2	11:00	View
1985	Whole family playing in backyard - Buffalo - Extended version	26:14	View
1986	Eric & Ross on bed	00:59	View
1986	Kids in PJs	03:40	View
1986	Eric & Ross - Storytime	06:20	View
1986	Eric & Ross story time - Extended version	08:50	View
1986	Eric Reading	05:40	View
1986	Party with Marcus, Silver, & Baraskys	01:59	View
1986	Eric's dream	03:38	View
1986	Jakki eating breakfast	01:01	View
1986	Reading on the couch	02:05	View
1986	Buffalo Trip - Playing in front yard	15:46	View	NEW!
1986	Murder Mystery Party	21:32	View	NEW!
1989	Buffalo Trip	19:52	View
1989	Buffalo - Naval Park		View
1989	Boatwright Van		View
1989	Evan's lob ball game		View
1989	Ross' Soccer game		View
1990	Eric's 8th Birthday		View
1990	Ross' Letter People (M)		View
1990	Ross' Paper Chain / House tour		View
1991	Eric's Magic Show		View
1991	Ross fooling around		View
1991	Piper playing with ball		View
1991	Eric's 9th Birthday		View
1991	Playing with Toys		View
1991	Ross Reading		View
1991	Ross' 7th Birthday party		View

Its me....Mario!!!

Those smart kids have way too much time on their hands

Quiz Time

Study break time:

Bonus points if you can tell me what the differences are between the following:
- International Business Strategy
- Multidomestic Business Strategy
- Global Business Strategy
- Transnational Business Strategy

Early holiday in Toledo

What's wrong with this picture?

Ross and I plotting to destroy my mother's computer

Ross, Me, and Mom

Federated to consolidate May credit centers

Best of luck to those of you working at the Credit Center. Still no word on the fate of the Lorain Data Center...

AP Wire | 10/25/2005 | Federated to consolidate May credit centers: "Federated to consolidate May credit centers

Associated Press

CINCINNATI - Federated Department Stores Inc. said Tuesday it plans to consolidate credit centers acquired in its merger with May Department Stores Co. into its main credit services division in southwest Ohio.

Federated, which operates Macy's and Bloomingdale's, plans to close a Lorain division that employs 760 workers and a Parma center that employs 35. A center in Houston, which employs 380, also is slated to close.

Up to 300 jobs will be added at the main credit services center north of Cincinnati, which now employs about 2,000 workers.

The company said the change will help with its goal of saving $175 million next year and $450 million in 2007 as a result of the $11.9 billion merger, which was completed in August.

Executives working at the centers to be closed will be asked to express interest in relocating to facilities with positions available, the company said. Federated has promised it will not cut any May Co. jobs before March 1 next year.

May Co.'s Earth City credit center in St. Louis will remain open.

Federated sold its credit card business and May's credit arm to Citigroup earlier this year for after-tax proceeds of $4.9 billion, but the customer service functions, such as processing new accounts and handling customer questions, remain under Federated's control.

Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, now has 244,000 employees and stores in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

Federated shares rose 38 cents to close at $61.63 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded from $46.60 to $78.05 in the past 52 weeks."

McDonalds promo

I've been collecting the Best Buy Bucks from the McDonalds promotion and decided to read through the fine print to see just what the odds of winning some of the "big ticket" prizes are.

Bottom line appears to be that besides Best Buy Bucks and free McDonalds, you'd be better off playing the lottery.

I found one little gem of a statistic in the fine print that I think you'll find amusing:

The odds of collecting all 4 railroads (Reading Railroad #5023, Pennsylvania Railroad #5024, B&O Railroad #5025, Short Line #5026) in order to win the Dodge Viper, valued at $100,000, is a staggering 1 in 17,836,429,305!

Now, according to the US Census Bureau, the world population is only 6,473,841,545.

This is probably explained by the fact that they make sure that one rare piece is at a McDonalds in Guam and the other rare Railroad piece is located in Saskatchewan...but come on! 1 in 17 BILLION???? Geesh...the odds of winning the Mega Millions Lottery jackpot is only 1 in 175,711,536.

The Vibe GT has been laid to rest. Meet my new wheels.

gotta love the leaper

This guy had the worst job in the park. His job was to pull the "fat" people out of the line and subject them to the Test Seat before boarding the Millenium Force. Since I'm a wuss and don't ride rollercoasters, I was thoroughly entertained by watching this guy single out the obese amongst the Cedar Point patrons.

Mobile Post

374 mph...that'll wreak havoc on my average driving speeds

Mobile Post

I stopped for crazy expensive gas last night on my way home from work and got a laugh out of this. The person that used the pump before me decided that at the current prices, all that they could afford was 7/10 of a gallon.

NPR predicts the current

A 2002 NPR series predicting exacly what just happened to New Orleans. If only more people listened to NPR, maybe LA would have been better prepared for all of this.

This didn't help traffic...

This crazy accident is what snarled traffic and made my commute home today a mess.

It happened on the eastbound side of I-480 today. I was taking I-480 westbound so I got to see the accident without getting stuck in the 15+ miles of traffic jam that it created.

(Yes...that's a Corvette wedged underneath a semi)

WWFSMD?

In honor of a bumper sticker I saw the other day that read, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" I'm going to put up another politically motivated thread here amongst vacation pictures and Jimmy Buffett.

If you haven't read about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, check these sites out:

http://www.venganza.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

According to the creator of FSM, Bobby Henderson, if the Bush-ites in Kansas and the rest of the Bible Belt think that Creationism and other religious teachings should be required in American schools, than the teachings of this rediculous, hilarous religion should also be included in the text books of our nation's youth.

I think this "movement" is a great, light-hearted way to mock the convergance of religion and our government.

If only the Margelism creator had been so insightful to create a national movement around a certain pig...

Thanks Bob

Unfortunately the picture didn't come out very well, however, I thought you might enjoy this anway.

The sign reads "You are in our prayers". It is at a Bob Evans restaurant in Wickliffe, OH.

Why is Bob Evans praying for me? And why should the fact that he's praying for me make me want to stop in and have biscuits and gravy?

UFO

This contraption flew over our car as we drove back this evening. It looks like a pretty cool ultralight...kind of an airboat with a parachute. I can understand how the fan on the back could propel this thing forward, but what I want to know is how does thing take off? How can you achieve vertical lift w/ just a parachute and a fan? If you figure it out, let me know.

Sunset

Beautiful sunset tonight as we were driving back from the OBX. I was playing around w/ the effects on my digicam and I think this picture came out pretty cool.