Productive = Happy?, Firefox, Hypocrite?

I really am surprised just how much I can get done during a weeknight after work.  For the better part of three years, the majority of my weeknights went in a similar manner, attend to the pets, eat dinner and then either play WoW or watch reality tv.  Well since I started doing some fence installation after work it started me on a pattern of trying to be more productive during the week.  I have found that I enjoy working outside in the evening.  Even on hot days, by that time of day the temperature is much more pleasant.  Last night may have been my most productive week night to date.

After work I stopped at Home Depot and grabbed 6 landscape timbers to help finish up the border around the pool.  I got home, quickly attended to the pets and then headed outside.  I ripped up the other side section of the pool landscape border.  The side sections didn’t look rotted like the back section was.  But when I pried it up it revealed the lower section was indeed rotting out as well.  After disposing of the rotted wood in the trench I took to installing the replacement border.  I busted ass outside until about 8pm and managed to totally finish both sides.  That was much more than I expected to get done.

My productivity didn’t end there.  Earlier in the day I received an email from my buddy Francois, the rep from the french timing chip system.  He sent me an update for the timing system that supposedly addressed some of the issues I was having.  So after working outside all evening I went inside and set up the timing system to apply the update. I was skeptical that it would fix anything.

So after applying the update I pulled out my test chip and ran it over the lines.  It had a horrible detection height, only a few inches.  I was pissed off.  I was so pissed that I pulled out my video camera and documented the problem so I could send it off to Francois.  After doing that, just for the hell of it I grabbed one of the regular chips and chucked it across the lines.  BEEP.  It worked just fine and registered immediately.  Hmm.  I took it a step further.  I wedged another chip into my shoelaces, opened the sliding glass door and ran across the lines fast.  BEEP.  Wow that worked too.  I repeated my test multiple times with multiple chips using multiple foot placements as I crossed the lines. The BEEP BEEP BEEP was music to my ears.  So why did my test chip show such shitty detection?  I decided to program another test chip.  When I ran that across the lines it was like day and night.  I was getting detections close to a foot and a half in the air, awesome! Evidently my original test chip has something wrong with it.  I left everything set up until Ali got home so I could proudly show her the new and improved performance.  She was excited as well.

To hopefully address the issues we have had with people having their chips come off during the run we ordered small 4 inch zip ties to use instead of the fragile ball ties that apparently break too easily.  I am almost bummed out that we don’t have another race to time until July 4th.  My mood was great for the rest of the evening.  Getting that much accomplished on a Wednesday night made me feel great.

You would think that someone immersed in IT as I am that I would have at least installed and used Firefox before, an alternative web browser that doesn’t suffer from all the exploit attempts that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer does.  Well the other day at work I finally got around to installing it.  It’s pretty damn nice.  I love the plug-in capability of it.  You can pimp your Firefox browser in countless ways.  The interface is as easy to use as IE.  There were a few default settings that seemed a bit odd but they were easily changed to better suit my tastes.  I find myself using it more and more.  I did notice that certain websites, my blog included, display a bit differently in Firefox.

On one of the message boards that I run we have had a little thread going on about the presidential campaign.  I offered up this post regarding the subject. The last paragraph surprised me when I went back and read it but it’s true if I am being honest with myself. I’m that bitter about illegal immigration.

I have heard that republicans have been going out and voting for Hilary in primaries just because they think they can beat her. Pretty pathetic.

Don’t get me wrong, pretty much anyone short of Dick Cheyney is an upgrade over Bush. But as I said before how anyone could endorse a candidate that wants to “stay the course” in Iraq  is ridiculous, he simply can not be elected. McCain seems to be a good guy overall but I just can’t support him on his war stance alone, not to mention other issues. Plus the dude is too damn old.

I like Barrack, he is the most personable, the strongest speaker and the least soiled by years and years in the political grinder. He is a total departure from anyone I have seen running for president in my life time and I like that. I don’t care if he’s black. Unfortunately there is still tons of racism just under the surface of much of America that may be exposed in the voting booths.

That being said, if Obama was a Mexican I would not vote for him. Ironic and hypocritical I guess but I’m just being honest. I have so much resentment over the invasion from the south border that I would probably vote for McCain if the democratic candidate’s last name ended in a Z. 

Actually I doubt I could bring myself to vote for McCain.  I would probably just abstain.