tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:20:39 +0000<center>A Claar family blog. Because blogging is cool.</center>http://www.claar.org/blog/noreply@blogger.com (Doug)Blogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-6969730127764697822Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:05:00 +00002009-01-01T11:20:39.753-08:00No, that's not my Mario impression ("itsa cold"). It's the sad fact that I didn't so much ring in the new year as rhin it in. And, while all the kleenixes wouldn't qualify as weapons of mass destruction, they could be weapons of mass discomfort. My jokes get worse when I'm sick or tired...cue Bill Cosby: And tired always followed sick. Worst beating I ever got in my life, my mother said, "Well Ihttp://www.claar.org/blog/2009/01/baby-its-cold-inside.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-1370082776729167763Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:40:00 +00002008-10-15T21:47:23.409-07:00Bought two Emprex (no, I won't link them, that would be too good for them) products for our vacation. The first, a multi-format memory card reader, failed before we left, and I was able to return it. The second, a 16 Gb thumb drive, failed after we got back, with all of our vacation pictures--over 5 Gb--on it! Fortunately, I had offloaded them to my PC, but it was a close thing. Now I have to http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/10/emprex-products-stink.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-3192399856511654464Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:46:00 +00002008-08-14T12:01:19.446-07:00Now, here's a really smart web site! On this auxiliary page (only read by paranoids like me), it says (emphasis mine): Please do not put the email address of the participant being donated to in the email address field of the donation form. This may cause the participant record to be overwritten in our database with the donor's information. Wow. So any random person can accidentally (or http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/08/stupiddangerous-web-site.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-6135132195547795719Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:01:00 +00002008-08-04T21:12:18.431-07:00I read that US Airways is now charging for drinks, and JetBlue is charging for pillows and blankets. What's next, seat belts and toilet paper? "In the event of a sudden cabin depressurization, please slide your credit card for 15 minutes of air. Should the airplane be forced to land over water, flotation devices are available for 3 easy payments of $19.99. Flight attendants will distribute the http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/08/new-airline-charges.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-1549763690848432671Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:54:00 +00002008-07-07T20:46:17.999-07:00 Some folks we know are getting married on the 19th. We've sent in our RSVP, we're going. Now we find out that the Sabercats division championship will be in San Jose, and we have tickets! ...at the same time as the wedding. Who woulda thunk I'd face the playoffs vs. wedding stereotype/dilemma? Think it would be tacky to go to the wedding looking like our friend Mark, shown here in his Sabercatshttp://www.claar.org/blog/2008/07/didnt-see-that-coming.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-2957014291176519344Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:28:00 +00002008-04-07T22:34:28.579-07:00Maybe it is just me, but when I saw Omaha Steak's "40% off Friends and Family" sale, I thought "Why would I want to do that"?! Or, as the joke goes: "Good lord, a pig like that, you can't just eat him all at once."http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/04/it-just-sounds-wrong.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-3439998520582473917Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:40:00 +00002008-04-03T22:16:48.344-07:00 It's amazing how inexpensive an entire season of arena football is, compared to--say--one Sharks game. Of course, we like the Sharks, too, but row 7 for one of their games is really going to hurt. Our seats are really cool--actually, when the pyrotechnics go off, you can feel the heat--although the noise level is pretty high. It's really exciting when they make a touchdown. Oh, and this one's http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/04/two-words-season-tickets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-3178041392388105671Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:16:00 +00002008-04-03T22:21:04.537-07:00This is just sooo wrong, on so many levels. In particular, the "organic" part. It's just against nature!. "We make it easy for you to blast out some nice, fattening pancakes". Speaking of things that are wrong, I was at a doctor's office this morning. Up until today, I thought the old magazines bit was just a comic shtick. But now I have that fine medical insurance (initials KP). There were twohttp://www.claar.org/blog/2008/04/fat-blaster-and-revenge-of-sith.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-6916422130881855728Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:45:00 +00002008-02-19T12:12:50.073-08:00Yeah, the weekend was pretty boring. As in, my son and I bored a hole underneath our driveway for a sprinkler pipe. We rented a power tool, and did the 20' in an hour. It's pretty cool working on a project with your son when he's old enough to actually help, and even contribute some good ideas. We had a blast! (Not to say that we used explosives..now, that would have been really cool!)http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/02/it-was-boring-weekend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-3921233325840492618Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:48:00 +00002008-01-21T18:13:06.996-08:00So we went away to Pacific Grove for a couple of days. It was nice there, and we had a good time. Which was pretty much totally wiped away when we got home. We had contracted to get our fence replaced, as the last storm had knocked part of it down. (I'd repaired that section, but it was clear that it needed replacing). When the fence company didn't show up on the appointed day, and didn't answerhttp://www.claar.org/blog/2008/01/well-it-was-relaxing-time-away.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-6331640780906977211Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:30:00 +00002008-01-15T18:32:10.826-08:00So, as of 6:30 PM, we've received 2726 bounces from this spam attack. Heaven only knows how many went through, or were silently dropped by spam filters. Sheesh.http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/01/spam-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-862382535615416826Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:11:00 +00002008-01-15T12:15:00.249-08:00I use a program at work named Fanfare SVT. It is horrible about stealing focus! This means that, at random times, it will decide that you don't really want to be using that browser, you want to be talking to it! So it takes the things you were typing into that other unimportant application, and puts it into fanfare. ...Which explains how kp.org ended up in a Fanfare test case, and why I had to http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/01/i-hate-programs-that-steal-focus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-138270349583680274Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:56:00 +00002008-01-15T10:49:10.413-08:00Wow, claar.org is getting hammered by email bounces. 600+, and the hits just keep coming. Looking at the IPs, it appears that some zombie army of spambots is sending "medical" spams and forging the "from" address as somejunk@claar.org. A lot of the emails identify their originating system as gosha+stuff, although the IP address keeps changing, so this is clearly a lie. Hopefully they keep http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/01/getting-hammered-by-spam-bounces.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-5904637521407370551Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:23:00 +00002008-01-10T10:40:32.984-08:00(Well, except perhaps for the one I got for flinging myself off the top of a telephone pole on the ropes course at Hume Lake). Get yours today!http://www.claar.org/blog/2008/01/best-tshirt-ever.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-5018577078453617293Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:26:00 +00002007-12-18T06:10:40.972-08:00Hey - My last post was a rant about Food Network. Today, I stumbled upon an interesting article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/business/media/17food.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=9ec7ef029a8c988e&ex=1355547600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss The interesting thing about this article is that it mentions that FN has "no stake" in the celebrity chef's success outside the network, http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/12/food-network-continued.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-2075725225321852659Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:32:00 +00002007-12-04T21:45:46.502-08:00Happii birthday to mii I got a wii It didn't like discs, it's back to the factorii! I miss my wii... It was fun to have the kids and grandma over, all playing WiiPlay. We particularly liked the game where you race on the backs of cows and knock down scarecrows. Sounds weird, but it's fun. We also Wario Ware Smooth Moves, which is just wacked, but fun. A good time was had by all!http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/12/happii-birthday-to-mii.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-6972778147739580921Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:43:00 +00002007-11-27T21:03:17.610-08:00Food Network has cancelled Emeril Live. I've read lots of blog postings about it, and they range from "Good riddance!" to "Food Network that I know and love is coming to an end..." I have to admit that I fall somewhat towards the latter than the former. I wondered what was going on when they shifted him from 8:00 schedule (prime time) to 7:00 (not so prime time). It wasn't a surprise to learn http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/11/bam-were-kicking-you-out-another-notch.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-4862057387779110274Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:48:00 +00002007-10-07T18:29:35.555-07:00OK, enough random blah blah. Here's some actual personal stuff. It's been a real fun week here, with both of us being sick--but both with different things! Fortunately, neither one of us has caught the other's illness, or it would be even worse. But as it is, we kind of just look at each other a lot, and say "Urrr". But other than that, life's marvy. We're both gainfully employed again. Workinghttp://www.claar.org/blog/2007/10/ok-enough-random-blah-blah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-5023810172389234053Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:49:00 +00002007-10-07T17:46:38.024-07:00Well, time to update the ol' blog. Well, way past time, actually, but...First I had to update old entries that had pictures in Yahoo photos, as they've now closed. So now I'm using Photobucket, which my son turned me on to. I know, I could use flicker like yahoo wanted me to, but since when have I followed directions? And hey, Photobucket is part of Google's attempt to take over the world ("We http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/10/photos-random-photos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-1565057740213906641Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:15:00 +00002007-08-13T10:19:10.555-07:00...forbidding computers from asking you to change your password on Monday morning. Because, even if you manage to type it right twice in a row (and so actually change it), you won't necessarily be able to type it again any time after that--like to actually login. And then you have to get your password reset, and the week is just off to a wonderful start! That's all I'm going to say about that.http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/08/there-should-be-law.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-1710628040204896744Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:07:00 +00002007-08-12T21:09:27.735-07:00I was behind a truck the other day. This truck was from the Schindler Elevator company. I thought, Oh my gosh, it's Schindler's Lifts!  Sometimes ya just gotta share the pain... http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/08/sometimes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-4314060023568892005Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:13:00 +00002007-06-18T20:57:01.332-07:0027½ years is a long time. It's as long as I've been in San Jose. It's most of my adult life. It's longer than my kids have been alive. It's longer than my first marriage lasted. And it is how long I worked at HP. Today is the first day I can't say "I work at HP", and everyone knows the company, knows someone that works there. Today is the first day I didn't drive to 19447 Pruneridge Avenue, http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/06/requiem.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-4461819324072052925Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:16:00 +00002007-06-03T21:38:46.922-07:00After knowing that I should do it for years, and always procrastinating until it was too late (and then feeling bad for having not followed that still small voice), I finally decided I was going to have a block party on Memorial Day, no matter what. Of course, I started too late to get a permit to block off the street, so we had it in our front yard and driveway, because I wasn't going to let http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/06/our-1st-annual-block-party.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-6837645040562449326Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:55:00 +00002007-01-03T22:35:00.952-08:00 We're so "Cali"! We went to the beach for New Year's. Yep, we went to Santa Cruz, had lunch at Gilda's on the wharf, and then went to Natural Bridges State Beach to listen to the waves and kick back. It was great to relax, particularly after our "excitement" of having our fridge die the day after Christmas. Since our washer died after Thanksgiving, we are not looking forward to the next major http://www.claar.org/blog/2007/01/were-so-cali-we-went-to-beach-for-new.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5882820.post-116681937159058431Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:16:00 +00002007-01-03T22:37:51.818-08:00la la la <cough> la D'oh - that thing that Homer says Ray - a movie 'bout some guy Me - what it is all about Fa - a spicy asian stew SO - your partner, gay or straight La - tte is a coffee drink Tee - is used by Tiger Woods which will bring us back to Dough - I hope I make lots... Yes, I know it is Pho, but then people would (incorrectly) say "foe" instead of "fah" http://www.claar.org/blog/2006/12/song-for-season-la-doh-that-thing-that.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Doug)0