• Category Archives The Blog!
  • Category from original Joomla! site

  • What is it About Cowboy Boots?

    There is something about Cowboy Boots. I’ve asked this a couple of times in the last two or three days. It is amazing how putting on my cowboy boots can nearly instantly make me feel better. No lie.

    I have trouble with my feet and I sometimes have trouble with my back. I did some things last weekend that kind of upset both the feet and the back. My back hurt from my left ear to half way down my left buttocks. I was plenty uncomfortable and miserable into Tuesday. I have often said that my cowboy boots were/are the most comfortable pair of shoes I own. So my mother says to me,

    ‘why don’t you wear them then?’ Ok, I give. I put them on and within moments I was feeling better. I know this is what will happen. I can’t believe I don’t remember this. Even the foot doc said that if they feel good I should wear them. 

    There is something about cowboy boots that when you step into a pair that is right for you, you know it instantly. They feel so good that yoyu almost swoon. It’s when the heel is just the right height and the box of it is just the right width and they feel and look ‘RIGHT’. I don’t think I’ve ever wore another type of shoe that I had that feeling about. No pair of walking shoes or tennis shoes, or even my beloved Crocs, has given me quite the feeling of pleasure on my feet. 

    I’ve worn my boots for two days now and my back pain is nearly gone completely. My feet, though tired this morning and a bit sensitive where feeling much better by the end of the day. I’ve had these boots for about five or six years. I’ve had to have them resoled once as I wore them so much I wore a hole in the bottom. I’m needing to have the heels done again. I really wear my boots. I remember not too long after I got them, I’d been wearing them all day and doing a lot of walking on concrete and then I went to the gym and as I walked to my car in my tennis shoes I realized how hard it had become to walk in my bouncy tennis shoes. I love my boots. And anyone else that I have spoken to who have a pair of cowboy boots feel the same way.

    There is something about the way cowboy boots are made, fit, something that they are just the most comfortable things to wear on the feet. 

    I spent a lot of time in my youth in the Midwest. I remember my father and grandfather having cowboy boots. In fact, they had two pair. Or at least my father did. They worked in plumbing and air conditioning. He had a pair of boots he wore to work and a pair of boots for dress-up. 

    Now, with needing to have the heels on my boots done I thought, I need to get another pair. I don’t want to be out of boots for however long it might take for the cobbler to do the heels.  Thus, this evening I found myself making my way to Shepler’s. I walk in, in my boots that need new heels, their black by the way, and I start trying to find the right boot for me. I start with what is usually me shoe size. And then went up. I found a pair that, when I put them on, I felt that pleasure that comes with knowing you had found your glass slipper, i just nearly to swooned. I looked at a few other pairs. Some looked really cool and none gave me anything close to the same feeling. And so I bought a new pair of boots. I now have a pair of black Laredos and a pair of brown Justins. (That’s for those of you who know something about shoes and or boots.) I can now get the heels done on my one pair and I have that required pair of black shoes and pair of brown shoes, only their boots.

    What is it about Cowboy Boots? I don’t know for sure, I only know that they are the greatest footwear there is. I love my cowboy boots.

     

    Cheers

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


  • I Love the DJ

    Yeah, who hasn’t fallen in love with the DJ. The DJ who mixes the music you love so much and gets it just right.

    You thought I was talking about that one on the radio didn’t you. Ha. I am referring to the really cool iTunes DJ. Trust me no radio DJ could mix what I listen to. For one, no station would allow it. They are all so format restrictive. Not even some of the independents could get it like I like it. I such a varied collection of music that they would be fired for trying it. Once in a while I run across a station that careens wildly from one extreme genre to another. Not very often. So I love the DJ in iTunes. It chooses 15 songs to play and as it finishes one it adds another. I get to see the list of upcoming selections and time my activities around them so I can be closer for my more favorite songs, unlike shuffle where you get a random-ish selection but you never know what’s next. Don’t get me wrong, I make heavy use of this feature in other circumstances as well. 

    I was voicing my love of the iTunes DJ and some very nice Apple Salesperson expressed how if I loved that, had I tried the Genius feature.

    No. Sorry. I’m not really that interested in dealing with a schizophrenic computer program. I really don’t think it will cope very well if, as my sample songs I give it Andre Segovia and Def Leppard. It might freak a little over the Carpenters and U2. Abba and the Dropkick Murphys, the Eglish Guitar Quartet and Los Straightjackets. Yeah, I do that to my computer and I’ll be needing to get it pyschoanalysis. Seriously. I just went from Andre Segovia playing Eight Lessons for the Guitar – No. 8 in E minor to Gary Hoey playing Stomp and Shake from the Endless SummerII soundtrack. Ah, and now my all time favorite. King Harvest playing Dancin’ in the Moonlight. In in a few minutes I’ll be listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo followed by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.

    I like using this feature better than trying to create play lists and spending hours trying to decide what song is going to sound best after that song and then what should come next. I’ve done that. Anyone remember mix tapes? Cassettes that you put together your favorite songs from either other tapes or vinyl? Yeah. You had to time it just right so that you didn’t have too much time between songs. You didn’t what to waste too many of those precious seconds of that 30 minute or 45 minute side. 

    I do use the shuffle feature on my iPod. It, by itself doesn’t have a DJ. In this case the shuffle is a reasonably acceptable substitute. It’s just not the same as the DJ. sigh. Still, in my car it would be better than what I do now. Put a cd in and listen to it for a week straight and then find another and rotate the same 5 or so cd’s. I have got to get a stereo in my car that will let me hook up my iPod. There isn’t much on the radio these days except NPR. Hey, that’s where I first heard Gogol Bordello. 

    No, no Genius and no DJ on the radio is ever going be as good as my personal DJ in iTunes. It’s just way better. Now I’m off to chill to some Louis Jordan and the Beach Boys, the Tossers, Elton John and Cher, and whoever else pops up.

    Chees

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


  • Having Birthdays

    So, I had a birthday last week. It was one of the big milestones. I think I am much more enthusiastic and positive about it that many people have been in the past. I certainly have no problem telling people my age when the ask. Ok, I don’t really look it. I’m getting close. I don’t act my age that’s for sure. I still love my blue jeans and rock music. In fact in two weeks is the anniversary of Levi Straus patening blue jeans. I think I may have a party to celebrate the occasion. I love my Levi’s. I digress. So I don’t look my age, I don’t act my age so it makes little difference to me to tell others my age if they ask. Actually, I get a kick out of it. Most people don’t believe me, I’ve had to produce my driver’s license as proof even to friends or co-workers. As a result I had little issue with approaching such an epic birthday.

    I don’t mind birthdays really. Birthdays mean I’ve made it another year, and I’m still here. It means I’ve had another year of experiences and opportunities to touch the lives of others. Birthdays are fabulous things and given the alternative, well I’ll take getting older any day.

    Birthdays do tend to mean we are getting older and our bodies don’t alway take to the aging process as easily or as gracefully as our minds and spirits do. As an example, last year I had to get new glasses. I do a lot of work on the computer and I’m a big reader. So it was inevitable that I was going to need bifocals at some point. It so happens that point was last year’s Eye Doctor visit. It’s only the smallest change they can make; however, there is still that need. In addition to being a reader and such, I’m a bit stubborn. I’ve figured out how to read around my glasses for a while now. Old habits die hard. I swear it has taken me since last July to figure out just where to look to get the maximum comfort out of these things. And sadly, I must admit, I only this afternoon truly embraced the need for the bifocal. Sigh. 

    I sigh not because of the defeat of getting older. No it is due to the inefficiencey with which I must now learn to scan my pages. I am accustomed to having fairly good peripherial vision even for a myopic eye glass wearer. It doesn’t work so well with bifocals. I have remembered and tried to grasp what the technician told me when she gave them to me. “Point your nose at what you want to read.” Ok. I didn’t realize this meant that I was going to have to point my nose and nearly every single word and actually move my head down to the next line. Ok, it’s about 4 words and 2 lines. Still you get the point. I am accustomed to just moving my eyes. Sigh. This is just inefficient. 

    Still Birthdays mean I’ve kept the world on its toes for yet another year. 

    Cheers

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


  • Doing Stuff…this week.

    It’s been a busy week. This turns out to have been a really good thing. I’ve been a bit on the go all week. Most nights I wasn’t home until almost 9pm or later. Ok, for some of you this is no big deal. For me, this is definitely a change in behavior. It really started at the weekend before.

    I had been puzzling over how to handle Monday. See my niece had a soccer game that I really wanted to see and Fleetwood Mac was in town and I really wanted to see them as well. So on Friday I had pretty much decided that I would just do both. I get off work early enough to make it to my niece’s soccer game, it was about an hour and a half and then I should have about an hour and a half race back across town, near where I started, and catch Fleetwood Mac. 

    I am so glad I did that. My niece’s team lost the game 2 to 1. However, they played much better than the last time I saw them and the last time they played that team they lost 5 to 2. It’s a really improvement. Oh and Fleetwood Mac

    was really good. It was the longest concert I think I’ve been to. No opening act. They came on at 8:15, (tickets said the show started at 8:00 so that’s really good), they played for almost two and a half hours. No joke. I really enjoy Mick Fleetwood’s drumming. It was interesting watching Lindsey Buckingham play guitar, he has to have the most cramped playing style. No wonder he was shaking his hand out after a few songs. It makes my hand cramp just to think about. Stevie Nicks was… Stevie Nicks. What can you say. No Christine McVie, she gave it all up a few years ago. John McVie was there. In my opinion, he would have to be. It wouldn’t be Fleetwood Mac without him. I’m really glad I went. I would have been very disappointed to find out this was their last tour and I had completely missed them. 

    And so that was Monday. Keep in mind. I still had to work on Tuesday. My plans for Tuesday were not near as elaborate just more stuff to do. Work, the gym, and then I meet with a friend and his girl friend to discuss some stuff for his website. He’s just got his site and was ready to figure out how to make it do what he wanted. He’d offered dinner in exchange for knowledge. It was a good trade off. We nearly closed the place down. So for Wednesday you’d think I’d be aiming to get home earlier and relax. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I worked late, hit the gym and then a trip to Borders. They have been having a great cd sale. It was 50% off on most cd’s. Well, I spent a bit of cash on that. I got some things I really wanted and a few things that, I like the artist or a few songs and might not have gotten at full price. I’ve got about two thirds of them in my computer. I’m learning to love the DJ function in iTunes. That’s a whole other story though.

    So on Wednesday at work our department admin says our new boss, (this is also a whole other story however, I try to keep office stuff out of this blog), wanted to take us all out to dinner on Thursday. This was the day I had been counting on for some chill time. Nope. Work, the gym and dinner downtown with the boss and the rest of the crew. It was a really nice dinner and a pleasant outting all together.

    Friday…I finally made it. Our company is only open a half day on Friday this should help. Ok, so it did. Work, the gym and then the haircut that I’ve needed for two weeks and then home to get cleaned up and have a bite before going out to drumming. I did have a some time to relax in there. It was a good week though.

    It seems there is, or maybe for me, an added bonus to being so busy and having so much to do. I lost weight this week. I’m not saying it’s the only reason. I did may the gym a few times and I changed some eating habits and they likely helped as well. I do think the activity had to help. 

    Now we’re to Saturday. My birds that have felt neglected all week because I haven’t been home to let them out to play, decided 8:00am was as late as I was going to get to sleep. And even after getting up they were determined to make sure I wasn’t going to try to go back to bed. I’ve even been dive bombed a time or two. They are going to be so pissed off at me when I make them go back in their cages so I can go out and do all the things I’ve got planned for today. I’m not going to get it all done, that’s ok though. 

    How was your week? 

    Cheers

     

     

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


  • The Latest News That’s Fit to Print…Or Not.

    I can’t say there has been that much of note lately. At least not that I thought was really worth writing about. Something happened at my parents’ that I thought would make good fodder for this blog. I’ve forgotten it so I guess not. Oh, wait. I remember it. It will be fun. Guess you’ll have to look for it in a day or two. I’ve now even written it down. This will help.

    I did go see my niece play soccer for her school team. This is the first year/season she has played for her school. She has played several seasons for the YMCA league. My sister played soccer when she was a kid. She was fearless. I’m really glad to see my niece continue in the sport. I have to say I really like the sport though I admit to not always understanding some of the finer bits. I never played the sport for anything other than Phys. Ed. in school and even then, they sort of kept the ball far away from me. I sure do enjoy watching though. I managed to get shouts of encouragement in, in between my conversation with my nephew about the finer points of the coloring of the planet Mercury for his science project. 

    I’m in the process of that thing people call ‘Spring Cleaning’, except not really.

    My living circumstances changed last year about this time. I’ve spent most of the year aquiring the furniture and things that I needed to complete my home. Things like a bed, a dining table and chairs, certain pots and pans. I’ve had help along the way. Some very generous students of my mother’s gave me a couch, chair and two ottamans, and another gave me a large tv. And of course there was the Winter Holiday and my parents gave me some nice cooking items. So I haven’t had to put it all together on my own. I didn’t have to worry really about my office as I brought all the furniture I needed with me to my new home. Now however, I’ve discovered, it’s really not what I want. 

    Now I am in the process of figuring out what I want. Things like a desk, not a computer table. Taking height into consideration is quite a challenge. I’m short. My current computer table is too tall. I have to raise my chair and use a footstool for my feet in order to type comfortablly. I think I want doors and drawers. I’ve got stuff sitting on shelves that really could go in drawers. I don’t need it out all the time. Oh, and then there is the surface area. I want to be able to compute, write bills, and draw or make other art. This is giong to be a challenge. 

    I am looking forward to a new desk though. I’m hoping to replace two pieces of furniture with it and make room to setup my easel. Oh what fun. 

    I had a nice, interesting, somewhat annoying though surprisingly not too challenging time at work last week. It was much more frustrating and challenging for our network team. Our primary domain controller went down. Ok, pretty much gave up the ghost and called it quits. So they had to switch over to a different one. As I understand it, it was definately it’s own challenge. They were mostly down for about 3 hours that I can say for sure. I didn’t get emails on the blackberry from about 5:30 pm to about 8:45pm. So since I work mostly in the desktop support area, this wouldn’t be too big an issue. Except…I also support our Hyperion environment for the accounting and finance people and it is utilizing active directory for user authentication. So some changes had to be made. Fortunately, I have recently setup our development environment for  hyperion so I was able to try and test it there first, since I was doing this remotely, and find out I was going to be better off waiting until I got in the office the next day to fix this. Things were still processing and I had a backup plan if I couldn’t get the active directory to work so better not to  mess with it yet. The story ends with me having them up and running by my lunch time and everyone was able to get back in and work their little hearts out for the rest of the day. Hooray for me.

    That was really all the week I could take. Though, after my niece’s soccer game my parents and I stopped at a ‘mexican’ restaurant for dinner. That was interesting. The only other thing I will say about it is this…they had Greek cheese, and American cheese and NO Mexican cheese. It’s a Mexican restaurant…What’s up with that?

    Stay tuned folks. I promise to add more stuff and articles. I’ll get onto Games about another article or two. In case you didn’t notice, we’ve added a poll. We’re just curious as to what you’re reading so we’ve given you some choices. We’re looking into a few new addon’s for the site. Not sure yet if they will show up here for use or if you will just read about them. I’ve got some new requirements for another site that I help out with and I’m probably going to need to test more software. As always, I’ll try to share the experience. Just in case you don’t want the pain of experimentation yourself.  There will be some interesting stuff coming up. 

    Cheers.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.