Kirkpatrick's Twisted Slant - "This blog goes to 11"

These are all the Blogs in the Etc category.

Tuesday, 25 July, 2006

NEW BLOG

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 8:34 AM

Wednesday, 12 July, 2006

August

Look for a potential re-opening of the blog in 2 weeks or so. There will be a new URL, new interface, same crap-ass attitude.

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 8:36 AM

Friday, 9 June, 2006

Lost in translation

The vagaries of the English language, or any language for that matter, sometimes lose or create meanings when being translated. Our group, which celebrates birthdays religiously, was throwing a quick

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 9:22 AM

Wednesday, 7 June, 2006

Emoticons

Can emoticons disarm a vicious statement? In the age of email and instant messaging and text messaging, emoticons have become a semi-essential tool in relaying the mood of the messenger. Without the

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 8:48 AM

Tuesday, 6 June, 2006

Completely random, unrelated thoughts

Today is 6/6/6. I wonder how many death metal albums are being released today?

**********

I’m one of those people who says “thank you” in a lot of situations where I’m being served, a

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 10:13 AM

Friday, 2 June, 2006

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 10:16 AM

Tuesday, 9 May, 2006

One Year Old

On my Gmail portal page, I’ve seen the following "Quotes of the Day" display this past month.

Benjamin Disraeli – “How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.”

Robert Wi

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 10:56 AM

Wednesday, 3 May, 2006

Sopranos, Spam, and Good Excuses

While this season’s Sopranos is shaping up to be possibly the best season yet, Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, has picked up a trait that is disturbing. I’m not sure if he’s doing it in cha

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 8:06 AM

Friday, 28 April, 2006

XM Radio

I’ve been introduced to the world of satellite radio this past week. I got a deal on an XM receiver thanks to someone who knew someone who was related to someone who had helped out that Nigerian prin

Read more | 8 comments

Posted By James at 12:24 PM

Thursday, 27 April, 2006

Please don't use a blacklight in our room

When you see the photos below, you assume that the hotel you’re booking online might be a decent place for a trip to Disney if you’re not staying in the park’s campus hotels. But just like a lifelong

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 10:06 AM

Monday, 17 April, 2006

Casinos

As I’ve been searching for airfare for my first trip ever to Vegas in September, it got me thinking about gambling and the proliferation of casinos in the past 15 years. Even as recent as the early 1

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 10:08 AM

Tuesday, 4 April, 2006

Amusing, but dangerous

While what I’m about to describe is a very funny visual, I am very worried about the future consequences of said person. The first time I saw it I was amused. An old lady, on her motorized cart, was

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 9:43 AM

Tuesday, 28 March, 2006

The DaVinci Blog - decoded

Since it’s been asked by several people, it probably behooves me to explain my blog headers I’ve had. The 2 titles have been paraphrased ripoffs from pop culture. Currently, the "This blog goes to 1

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 1:04 PM

Monday, 27 March, 2006

Busted

I get great stories from the cops who work the Gwinnett Gladiators hockey games, most of which can’t be repeated in front of company. Stories about hookers plying their trade in cemeteries to a guy w

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 9:49 AM

Wednesday, 22 March, 2006

Fire + Paper = More Fire

Sometimes you wonder how people live to be a certain age without having accidentally killed themselves. I was reminded of this on Sunday when I was in the park with my daughter and I was pushing her

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 10:49 AM

Tuesday, 21 March, 2006

UPS - United Parcel Service or Unknown Person's Shirt?

There are patches of forest between some of the buildings in the office park where I work. One of these areas near my building has a steep berm with some trees and beyond that is a mini forest consis

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Posted By James at 10:40 AM

Friday, 17 March, 2006

St. Patrick's Day

There are times when holidays and other special occasions converge on the weekend and make it one long celebration. When Christmas Eve lands on a Wednesday or Thursday, most people take the entire we

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 1:36 PM

Wednesday, 15 March, 2006

No cash on hand

I’m curious if anyone ever made money as a kid running a lemonade stand? A few months ago when I was taking my daily walk through the neighborhood on a weekend afternoon, there was a group of kids sel

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 11:52 AM

Monday, 13 March, 2006

Dressed for the occasion

We had an errand to do yesterday that involved us having to go to the Country Club of the South. For those of you not in Atlanta, the Country Club of the South is one of the most exclusive subdivisio

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Posted By James at 10:52 AM

Friday, 10 March, 2006

A more mature James?

Today I pat myself on the back. I could have had a typical James-style meltdown last night and actually was able to compartmentalize it, partly because of outside forces. As a parent, especially a f

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 1:32 PM

Tuesday, 7 March, 2006

No longer disease-free

Most of you aren’t aware of this but I have had an abnormal growth in my right hand which restricts my usage of it. It appears that my tendons are bunching up into one area right below my ring finger

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 12:01 PM

Monday, 6 March, 2006

A Parent's Nightmare

Thursday was one of those days that parents don’t tell new parents about. I’m sure everything is magnified when something happens to your first kid but Thursday afternoon will definitely go down as t

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 10:44 AM

Friday, 3 March, 2006

No blog today

Yesterday afternoon Ally fell about 7 or 8 feet from the top of a slide at the park. She's OK but pretty banged up. The ER took CT scans and body x-rays and it showed no breaks or internal bleeding.

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 7:14 AM

Tuesday, 28 February, 2006

Money to burn

I’ve always contended that if I had money to burn, one of the first things I’d do is offer people $1,000 to get on all fours on the sidewalk and bark like a dog. It wouldn’t be about demeaning that p

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 10:57 AM

Monday, 20 February, 2006

Calling someone out on the carpet

I try to keep this blog limited to my writing only but I have to relay an article written in Friday’s Chicago Sun-Times by Neil Steinberg. Neil writes a general interest column, sometimes veering off

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 1:36 PM

Thursday, 16 February, 2006

Red Light Special

Target is an interesting phenomenon when you compare it to Kmart. While Target is considered a cool place to go to, Kmart always has been and still is stigmatized as a cheapo place to shop.

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 8:59 AM

Wednesday, 15 February, 2006

Were they really the Good Old Days?

"People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children." – Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes).

Was life really better when we were kids? Every generation a

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 9:33 AM

Wednesday, 8 February, 2006

Low flying jumbo jets and lazy typists

Driving back from lunch on Tuesday and I noticed a large plane in the distance that was relatively low in altitude. I was just pulling into my work building so I stopped and parked in the visitors lo

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 9:49 AM

Wednesday, 1 February, 2006

Cheapo haircuts

I’m curious if I’m in the majority or minority of guys who get haircuts at one of those nationwide haircutteries (Super Cuts, Great Clips). It’s embarrassing to admit but for most guys they just want

Read more | 7 comments

Posted By James at 10:18 AM

Friday, 27 January, 2006

Hooter-iffic

“I read Playboy for the articles”
“I surf porn for research”
“I went to see Brokeback Mountain on its opening night, but only because everything else was sold out”
“I have a girl

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 10:09 AM

Tuesday, 24 January, 2006

Fun burger and sandwich toppings

Maybe I just didn’t notice at the time and it’s been around forever but in the past decade there have been 2 kinds of toppings added to a lot of menus that really kick tail. The first is onion rings

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 10:42 AM

Thursday, 19 January, 2006

Blog - what an ugly word

I don’t like the word “blog”. Even before this medium was “hip” and the AOL Drones hadn’t heard of it yet, I never was enamored with the word. It’s too close to “glop” or “glob” or any other gooey,

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 7:45 AM

Tuesday, 17 January, 2006

Mitsubishi

On Friday, I passed the 100,000 mile mark on my 1999 Mitsubishi Mirage’s odometer. I was actually disappointed when I looked down and saw 100001, since I really wanted to see the numbers “flip over”.

Read more | 7 comments

Posted By James at 12:49 PM

Monday, 16 January, 2006

Sergeant Slaughter and Me

(To the tune of the military chant “I don’t know what you’ve been told”)
Sergeant Slaughter’s turning green
Someone pissed in his canteen

That was a chant we would sing in gr

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 12:47 PM

Monday, 9 January, 2006

College email

Megan is in grad school now getting her Masters degree to become a nurse practitioner and she is in her second semester. Her first class was last week and their instructor asked if anyone had read th

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 11:43 AM

Thursday, 5 January, 2006

Traffic cam woes

I’ve talked about georgianavigator.com and while they’ve improved their website in some aspects, every once in a while something pops up where you shake your head. One nice feature in addition to whe

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 6:49 AM

Wednesday, 4 January, 2006

Does anyone here speak Jive?

Just when I was talking about cryptic license plates last week, the Mother Of All WTF License Pl

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 9:06 AM

Tuesday, 3 January, 2006

The impressive Georgia Aquarium

The wait is over and it was worth it. The Georgia Aquarium opened up last month and we finally got to see it over the weekend. At 8 million gallons, it’s the largest aquarium in the world. While I

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 1:04 PM

Friday, 30 December, 2005

Cops getting hummers, inflatable jobs, and indestructible food holders

In between periods of the Gladiators hockey games that I work, we go down to our locker room which is across from the referees’ room. There is always a guard on duty there and is usually the same guy

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 9:29 AM

Tuesday, 27 December, 2005

Post-Christmas musings

While I’ve not really cared about Christmas since maybe my college years, my interest has been regained with being a father now. To see my daughter with huge eyes on Christmas, thinking that Santa ha

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 10:16 AM

Monday, 26 December, 2005

That's a large sticker you've got on your car there

As I’m walking through the parking garage at work on Friday, a Mazda Miata parked closest to the stairway had one of those transparent stickers on the windshield. It was one of those large ones that

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 1:24 PM

Friday, 23 December, 2005

Some holiday thoughts

This year I used cash to buy Christmas gifts for Megan so there wasn’t a trail in our bank records since she does all the finances. What was odd about that was, especially in places where the cost wa

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 9:22 AM

Thursday, 22 December, 2005

Globules of disgusting, discarded hair

A big selling point for houses, at least in Georgia, are hot tubs in the master bath with Jacuzzi nozzles. I’m not sure if we’re the normal family, but in the 5 years we’ve been down here, you could

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 10:12 AM

Friday, 9 December, 2005

Random Friday thoughts

As I was driving home last night I noticed a house that was festively decorated. Not only was the house and bushes draped in lights, but they also festooned their flag pole with lights. I don’t know

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 10:05 AM

Thursday, 8 December, 2005

Name Changes

One of these is not like the other:

Amol Deodhar
Devi Duvvuru
Ramnath Kottan
Jhansi Shyaam
Kiran Velagapudi
Steve Badlamudi
Amandeep Gill
James Kirkpatrick<

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 1:17 PM

Tuesday, 6 December, 2005

Rules for meetings

For those of us who toil in cube farms, here were some thoughts rolling around my cranium yesterday while surviving yet another mind-numbing meeting.

Rule 1
Never ever have a meet

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 10:37 AM

Friday, 2 December, 2005

I sent WHAT to WHOM?

Today is flashback day. This is the story of email address domain names and the havoc and embarrassment they can cause. Back in the day when Erich and I were still in Chicago, he worked at a company

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 10:43 AM

Friday, 25 November, 2005

Nicotine fixes on company time

Is there a group that gets less sympathy than smokers huddling outside their work building in the middle of winter in order to get their nicotine fix? Since just about every building bans smoking now

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 3:09 PM

Thursday, 24 November, 2005

Happy Turkey Day, eh?

Thanksgiving was always a fun time in college because I got 3 Thanksgiving dinners each year beginning my sophomore year. My college roommate’s parents had a summer home in Kenora, Ontario (about an

Read more | 0 comments

Posted By James at 2:25 PM

Wednesday, 23 November, 2005

Ummmm, OUCH!!!!!!

I have been debating making this story public besides the few people who I emailed last week, but the story is too funny (and cringeworthy if you’re a guy) to keep it under wraps. Last week my teenag

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 9:38 AM

Tuesday, 22 November, 2005

Life can be so fragile

One of the scarier moments in sports happened last night in Detroit at the Red Wings game against the Nashville Predators. I will tell the story as it unfolded to me, because there was such a huge am

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 9:34 AM

Friday, 18 November, 2005

Why I love the internet

Just like the four basic foods groups, there are four basic internet groups which have benefited us all (at least from a guy’s perspective) and made life a lot easier. We owe a lot to whoever was the

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 11:11 AM

Thursday, 17 November, 2005

A pleasant shopping experience

I had missed the IKEA craze in Chicago in the 1990s when it came to Chicago mainly because the store was in the suburbs, I didn’t have a car, shopping is for chicks, and I didn’t have much extra money

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 8:31 AM

Tuesday, 15 November, 2005

Breasts and hot dogs

You won’t find me commenting on many weddings, because as a guy all we truly care about is whether or not there’s an open bar at the reception, but I feel the need to talk about the wedding I was at t

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 9:26 AM

Thursday, 10 November, 2005

No blog until Tuesday

Out of town on Double Secret Probation business.

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 9:35 PM

Wednesday, 9 November, 2005

Dear [firstname]

Today we have a first. I got an email from one of my ex-coworker friends named Chris Harber and felt the need to post it. Chris, like all of us

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 11:17 AM

Tuesday, 8 November, 2005

Jelly Bellys

Is there a more concentrated form of taste bud enjoyment than what resides inside a Jelly Belly? Besides what the pharmaceutical companies can make for you, it’s the smallest bundle of legal joy you

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 9:18 AM

Monday, 7 November, 2005

My PIN number is...

I love new technology. Most of the times it's always better than what was available before. With that being said, I’m not a fan of the newer debit/credit card readers at cash registers that use the

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 9:15 AM

Tuesday, 1 November, 2005

Creepy with a side of tastelessness

This picture creeps me out for several reasons. I wonder who approved this as the best way to get donations? First, this is Carl Brantley, who is the current international president of Delta Tau Del

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 8:53 AM

Tuesday, 25 October, 2005

Sick

As someone who has spent 33 years on this planet, I should know better than to eat something that doesn't taste "just right" just because I don't feel like cooking something else. 10 hours of project

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 11:26 AM

Wednesday, 19 October, 2005

Meat-On-Meat

No, this isn’t the title of a gay porn video or an episode where “crossing swords” at a gangbang went awry. In the midst of attempting to sober up at a Rhode Island diner after a night of a few too m

Read more | 8 comments

Posted By James at 10:32 AM

Tuesday, 18 October, 2005

Food pairings and other habits

One “food rule” that I seem to be in the minority on is putting ketchup on a hot dog. I don’t know why this perfect combination of sugary, mashed tomatoes and intestine-cased animal-parts log is give

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 9:24 AM

Monday, 17 October, 2005

A day off

No post today. I'm trying to clear my mind from last week's events and will hopefully be more lucid tomorrow. Between my daughter's surgery (she's fine now) and our cat who is probably in the last we

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 9:39 AM

Friday, 7 October, 2005

Pranks

One thing I’ve noticed in writing this blog is that a lot of memories are coming back that are good to put to paper. As a lot of you know, my short term memory can be suspect, although I’ll never adm

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 10:42 AM

Thursday, 6 October, 2005

The Unspoken Uncomfortable Eye Diversionary Tactic

As of yesterday, I have moved from the 2nd floor to the 8th floor of the building I work in. I got spoiled being able to walk up a flight of stairs and not have to wait for the elevator. For our flo

Read more | 7 comments

Posted By James at 9:14 AM

Wednesday, 5 October, 2005

Bathroom patrol

There is one theorem in life that I hold to be time tested and true. No, not the one about girls that put out are immensely more popular. What I’ve decided is that female janitors clean bathrooms mu

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 9:32 AM

Wednesday, 21 September, 2005

I’ve got Kansas and Minnesota

***DORK ALERT***
I collect quarters. There. The secret is out. Go ahead and make fun of me. Ever since the U.S. Mint began distributing quarters with the states on the back, I have collected

Read more | 7 comments

Posted By James at 9:50 AM

Tuesday, 20 September, 2005

Experimenting with caffeine

About a year ago and friend had informed/warned me about the drink Rock Star and the hallucinogenic effects it has on the user. He said that once you finish one of the cans you appear to be in

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 8:59 AM

Thursday, 15 September, 2005

In search of the perfect stir fry

No matter where we live, besides finding the appropriate pubs and pizza joints in the area, the next order of business is to find which Chinese carry out place makes the best food. It really is a cra

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 8:13 AM

Wednesday, 14 September, 2005

New storm names

In the interest of tongue-in-cheek equality, a rotation of ethnic names for hurricanes and tropical storms is well overdue. Not only are we running out of Anglo names to use, I think that our Hispani

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 8:58 AM

Tuesday, 13 September, 2005

Grease spots and early morning sports

Another daily rant has been postponed because I’ve been having a glut of “mini-thoughts” the past few days.

Am I in the majority or minority on the following: does anyone else hate the grease

Read more | 7 comments

Posted By James at 9:26 AM

Monday, 12 September, 2005

Random thoughts for Monday

I always feel guilty when there are beautiful sunny days outside on the weekend and I’m inside watching football or baseball. I’ve always been pretty fanatical about being outside when the weather is

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 9:31 AM

Friday, 9 September, 2005

A joke for the weekend

Someone forwarded me this joke that made me laugh out loud.

The Shortest Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl "Will you marry me?" The girl said, "NO!" And the gu

Read more | 0 comments

Posted By James at 4:02 PM

Wednesday, 7 September, 2005

Cruel Inventions

Who was the original inventor of the urinal space? Was he an exhibitionist who enjoyed being elbow to elbow with another man who is also holding his unit? While I don’t have stage fright, this has b

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 9:54 AM

Monday, 22 August, 2005

Random thoughts for Monday

Poop...suspended in mid-air
I witnessed an unusual, yet semi-sensible, idea yesterday in regards to dog walking. As I was taking my morning walk, a lady was jogging with her dog with the

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 8:49 AM

Wednesday, 17 August, 2005

The incredible shrinking Christmas party

Continuing with yesterday's theme of company perks on a downward trend, I present to you my work Christmas party timeline.

Every year that I was at CCC Information Services in Chicago, the Ch

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 8:53 AM

Tuesday, 16 August, 2005

When the bubble was popped

Since the height of the internet bubble came crashing around 2000-2001, a lot of perks went by the wayside for most companies. When I was at Brokat Technologies, we had beer and food on Friday aftern

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 9:16 AM

Thursday, 11 August, 2005

Spam or just filthy language?

**Warning – Bad Words are listed below. Many of them.**
I really have to be careful with what I type when using my work email account, as most bad words trigger a filter/alarm that either deletes

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 8:50 AM

Tuesday, 9 August, 2005

Supercells

No, I haven’t run out of ideas to write about but I do have to comment on the deluge of water the Atlanta area has received for this year. For those of you who live in Atlanta, can you recall a day i

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 8:42 AM

Thursday, 28 July, 2005

Christian singles groups that meet at Hooters - is that really newsworthy?

I think I have a nimrod for a new newspaper delivery man. On Sunday I got no paper so I reported it missing and then got 2 delivered to my door. Today instead of getting the New York Times, he deliv

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 10:00 AM

Tuesday, 26 July, 2005

An ode to the Mac

I know I’m writing to a limited audience with this post, but I can’t let the Red Wings’ letting Darren McCarty go be unspoken about. Darren has been the heart and soul of the Red Wings this past 11 y

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 4:57 PM

Tuesday, 26 July, 2005

I don’t tan; I burn

As I survived another steamy weekend in 200% humidity, my thoughts turned to the true mortal enemy of the northern European descendant – the sun. My skin has always been a lighter shade than most I k

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 8:25 AM

Monday, 25 July, 2005

A question for the crowd

This pertains to cell phones versus land lines.

Megan and I are maybe a day or two away from doing 2 things regarding our phone situation:
1 - We have 2 cell phone providers and are not

Read more | 7 comments

Posted By James at 10:41 AM

Thursday, 21 July, 2005

Harry Potter

Oh to be J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. For the latest book that just came out last week, 6.9 million books were sold in the first 24 hours. The previous record was 5 million 2

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 8:42 AM

Monday, 18 July, 2005

Thankful for Life

I had an eye-opening moment yesterday on my way to the airport to pick up my wife. There were 2 rather bad accidents that I encountered on the way there. The first one closed all but one lane and t

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 9:29 AM

Thursday, 14 July, 2005

Drunken Correspondence

I think we’ve all made the mistake of Drunk Dialing at one point in our life, assuming you like to partake in the reassuring sensation of deadening your brain with the fuzzy embrace of too much alcoho

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 7:37 AM

Wednesday, 13 July, 2005

Observations and Clarifications, but no Obfuscations

Having this blog for several months now has made me realize a few things:
1 – The positive response that people have given me privately is very encouraging.
2 – Forcing myself to write Monda

Read more | 8 comments

Posted By James at 10:19 AM

Monday, 4 July, 2005

Random thoughts for July 4th...

As I was eating some Doritos with my grilled, beer-soaked Johnsonville brats yesterday (nothing better on a 4th of July weekend than soaking some brats for half a day in beer), my thoughts turned to S

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 12:34 PM

Friday, 1 July, 2005

30-Love or Man-Love?

Most morning radio show stunts are retreads of things that originated in larger markets like New York, L.A., and Chicago. When out-of-state friends tell you about a wacky skit that their “morning zoo

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 8:49 AM

Tuesday, 28 June, 2005

The Johnson family from Bangladesh

The main reason we have Caller ID at home is not to see which friends are calling but to know when not to pick up if it’s a telemarketer. I was expecting a call last night when I got the standard “Un

Read more | 0 comments

Posted By James at 8:24 AM

Friday, 24 June, 2005

A "Value-For-Money" Monarchy

From Thursday’s New York Times….

Queen keeps a lid on costs
“Taxpayers paid the equivalent of $1.12 each last year to support Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family, a “good valu

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 8:33 AM

Thursday, 23 June, 2005

Steve Dahl

With my job as an internet application tester, a majority of my time is in front of a computer monitor so music and/or a talk show becomes my savior from insanity. I got hooked onto Steve Dahl

Read more | 0 comments

Posted By James at 8:19 AM

Sunday, 19 June, 2005

Father's Day

Allow me for one day to be a softie. For those wanting a testosterone-filled post, today is not the day.

My Allison,

I know today is Father’s Day but to me it is Daughter’s Day.

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 2:52 PM

Friday, 17 June, 2005

Road closed due to baking ingredients?!

I love it when you get traffic reports on the radio and the delays are due to weird things being spilled onto the highway. Today’s Spill Du Jour was a flour truck tipping over and emptying its conten

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 10:13 AM

Thursday, 16 June, 2005

California jury verdicts

I don’t like to pile on to stories that are told ad nauseum, but I must comment on the Michael Jackson case. Because I was involved in an email chain yesterday (not related to Michael Jackson) that m

Read more | 1 comments

Posted By James at 8:16 AM

Thursday, 16 June, 2005

DVR update

The best thing that happened to our house last weekend was that our Comcast DVR died. The replacement came yesterday and I will put Comcast’s new DVR up against TiVO’s, which is a strong statement.

Read more | 8 comments

Posted By James at 8:16 AM

Wednesday, 15 June, 2005

The Golden Years

I just got something from the vending machine and received a quarter in change. The thing was so old and dirty to the point where you had to squint to see the year it was minted. The date was 1973 a

Read more | 6 comments

Posted By James at 8:24 AM

Monday, 13 June, 2005

Weekend in Chicago

A good weekend in Chicago was had by yours truly, indeed. I will post photos of the weekend hopefully later this week, including some pretty cool Wrigley photos.

Some observations about t

Read more | 2 comments

Posted By James at 10:54 AM

Wednesday, 8 June, 2005

Jury Duty - The Aftermath

There were 2 subjects that I hadn’t brought up in my jury blogs earlier this week.

First was what happened on closing arguments today. For the entire trial, I was in the front row, usually

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 8:36 AM

Monday, 6 June, 2005

Freak of the Week Award

At the Dairy Queen on Saturday, this guy with a backpack walks in and heads for the restroom. Of course in the black hole that is my heart which has no faith in humanity, my first thought is “must be

Read more | 5 comments

Posted By James at 8:56 AM

Friday, 3 June, 2005

Jury Duty - Part 3

(Please read the previous 2 days’ posts before you read this one)
The government’s wire tapping of this gang’s cell phone calls netted them over 30,000 calls. Since these were all in Spanish, th

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 9:55 AM

Thursday, 2 June, 2005

Jury Duty - Part 2

(Please read yesterday’s post before you read this one)
As soon as the jury pool that is not chosen is excused from the courtroom, the prosecution began. This was a federal criminal case, so the

Read more | 3 comments

Posted By James at 8:41 AM

Wednesday, 1 June, 2005

It’s ironic that “jury” rhymes with “hurry” – Part 1

It’s been 2 months since I was called for federal criminal jury duty, but since so much happened because of my experiences there that it bears retelling, now that I can spill the beans. One of the ha

Read more | 4 comments

Posted By James at 11:04 AM

Tuesday, 10 May, 2005

The Kirkblogtrick Manifesto

Another blog in this blog-bloated world.

"Oh James, that is SO 2003. Next thing I know, you'll be telling me you just purchased a Sony Walkman cassette player."

A friend (tha

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Posted By James at 4:42 PM