Closing a Park, thanks to the economy??

Wow .. never heard of them shutting a pretty large park down before ... 

From Metro Parks...

 

Otter Creek Park Closing

Due to budget cuts, Otter Creek Park, located approximately 25 miles southwest of downtown Louisville along the Ohio River in Meade County, will be closing effective December 14. 

 

FAQ: Learn more about Otter Creek's closing: http://www.louisvilleky.gov/bikelouisville

 

=====================================================

Mayor Announces $3.4 Million in Service Cuts To Help Offset Budget Shortfall

Monday December 1, 2008

Libraries, parks, paving, Neighborhoods and Brightside impacted

Mayor Jerry Abramson today announced additional spending reductions that include closing libraries and community centers one day a week and eliminating all street paving through June 30, 2009, to help close a $20 million budget hole.

The reductions across city government departments will save an additional $3.4 million for the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. Most of the cuts are effective Dec. 14 to maximize the cost savings.

“I know these cuts are painful – and I am pained to make them,” Abramson said. “We are in very difficult economic times that require difficult decisions.”

The cuts, and their savings, are:

• Eliminating street and road paving, $1.43 million
• Closing libraries on Sundays, $165,0000
• Closing community centers one day a week, on Mondays, $105,000
• Closing at the Mary T. Meagher pool one day a week, on Sundays, $27,000
• Closing Otter Creek Park in nearby Meade County, $180,000
• Reducing grants to arts group by 50 percent, $511,000
• Reducing funding to Waterfront Park and the Belle of Louisville, $92,000
• Reducing grants to economic development agencies, including Greater Louisville Inc., Greater Louisville Sports Commission and area business groups, $270,000.
• Eliminating funding for the Starfish swimming program, $90,000

(Jefferson County Public Schools leadership plans to recommend ending Starfish due to budget constraints.)

Abramson also announced more than $527,000 in spending cuts in programs in the Neighborhoods Department, more than 11 percent of the agency’s budget. Services impacted by the cuts will include Brightside, the city beautification program; Studio 2000, a youth arts program; and the city’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration.

Today’s reductions follow other spending restrictions announced two weeks ago to manage a $20 million revenue shortfall, the result of a global economic downturn that’s now hitting Louisville. The measures include furloughing non-essential employees for three days; restricting hiring, travel and discretionary spending; and a 10-percent pay cut for the Mayor and his department directors.

Abramson is continuing to talk with union leaders about personnel savings options, including rolling back the 2-percent annual raises for employees effective Jan. 1, 2009. The raise rollback option for all city employees, both union and non-union, would save about $2.6 million over six months. That’s equivalent to the salaries and benefits of about 100 employees for six months.

More reductions will have to be made to meet the budget shortfall, Abramson said, but he will not cut funding to social services agencies, such as community ministry groups, that are helping more people in need during tough economic times.

“Every agency in every area of city government will be affected,” Abramson said. “Working together, we can manage through this tough time.”

Bicycle Safety Month Local Activity

Glad to see the LMPD not sitting back in regard to the recent biking accidents. Luckily these efforts benefit not only bikers such as myself, but also pedestrians. 

As part of Keep Louisville Bicycle Safe Month, the Louisville Metro Police Traffic Unit was out in Cherokee Park and Seneca Park monitoring driver's speeds last week.  They worked a few hours at a time and at different times through the week Tuesday through Friday. The very first day they worked, they issued 56 citations, 48 for speeding.

 

Here are the numbers for the week:

• Total citations: 195
• Arrests: 2 (1 for a DUI)
• Warnings: 2 

The officers received a lot of positive feedback while conducting the details, in email and from calls from pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists.

 

In the very near future, Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) will be conducting traffic details targeting illegal behavior on the part of cyclists. LMPD has been working with local cycling organizations to identify some of the areas around town where cyclists might be putting themselves and others in the most danger by unlawful behavior and by not following the rules of the road. The goal is to increase education for safer bicycling.

 

If you are unsure of the rules of the road, or feel you could become better educated, there are a number of ways to find help:

• Visit Louisville Metro's Bike Louisville program www.louisvilleky.gov/bikelouisville where you will find information about bike safety, bike laws, see bike safety videos and see bike maps to find the safest routes.
  
• Take bike safety classes with Bicycling for Louisville.  They actually have confident cycling classes starting this week.
  
• Visit the Louisville Bicycle Club's website to post questions or join a discussion group.

If you would like to let the Louisville Metro Police Department know about areas around town where you feel cyclists not following the rules of the road are placing themselves and others in danger, please contact LMPD's Public Information Officer Sgt. Robert Biven.

Don't Vote Video

this is a great PSA video about voting .. while it's too late to register I sent this to a few friends anyway. 

My Dear Trixie

On Sunday, September 13, 2008, Louisville saw the unpredicted side effects of Hurrican Ike. As a result over 75% of the LG&E and Duke customers were left without power. We were one of them. 

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, I came home from my daily work bike ride commute and opened the door to let the dogs out. Trixie did not come right away, although it wasn't the first time she didn't hear me. My youngest female dog looked as if she had rubbed her face in something, which was odd. I then started calling for her and noticed that my male dog went back inside, which was also uncommon. He went to the spot where Trixie lay. She was laying there on the floor, facing away from me. 

In a sad hope that she was just resting I rustled the dogs in, threw my things down and went to her. She had passed away during the day and, in hind sight, I'm guessing was about 30 minutes to one hour before I had opened the door. 

This is truly heart breaking. 

Trixie came to live with me in June 2007 as a foster dog for the IMPS rescue, a rescue that I volunteered for. She had come in to the rescue along with another dog, Buddy. He was Heartworm positive and she had 6 - 8 tumors around her breasts that were immediately removed. Unfortunately they were not tested for cancer but I can only assume they were cancerous. They were puppy mill animals and I'm assuming they were no longer worth keeping. They were set to be put down that day and a rescue working rushed in to save them and bring them into the rescue.

Trixie lived with me from June 2007 until September 17, 2008. She looked older but was the biggest puppy in the household. She had a sweetness about her that you could not help but worship. She just wanted to lay there and give you kisses as long as you'd let her. She was a truly remarkable dog, however she was overlooked by people because she had a white face and 'appeared' to be an older dog. She wanted to cuddle in your lap, she had to sleep touching you, she found toys in the house that disappeared years ago, ... I mean she was a dog that you ended up worshipping. 

In October 2007 I noticed spot on her chest and we went to the vet to have them looked at. Surgery soon followed, which included the removal of the tumor and two of her breasts. The biopsy results showed the tumor was cancerous. Soon after we began chemo-therapy. After weeks of chemo we began the countdown to hopefully a long and healthy life for a dog that really deserved it. After everything she had gone through and after everything she had to offer the world, she DESERVED to have a long and amazing life. 

The scans in April came back clean. Crystal clear. I could barely sleep leading up to the scans just out of fear of what the results would be. I wanted to scream and celebrate because we made 6 months. The doctors said that if we made it a year Trixie's long term prognosis would improve significantly. 

We were at 11 months.

I wish I would have been there just to remind her that I loved her. I hate that I had no warning of this. The last time I saw her I was hugging her, as she was air kissing me a hundred times, and telling her that I love her. She was perfectly healthy, completely happy, and as lovable as ever. Why couldn't I have been prepared? Why wasn't I warned?

It appears sudden whatever happened and I hope that it was. I'm told that what happened to her is similar with cancerous tumors so maybe one had come before we made it to the next scan. I will unfortunately never know and have to live with unanswered questions now. She at least was in the company of the other dogs, and the one that loved her the most appeared to be there next to her until I got home. 

She deserved a longer life .. I just feel so robbed in all of this. 

A few months ago I had even decided that Trixie was not going to leave my house because I don't think I could have let her go. Besides I don't think anyone would have loved or appreciated her the way that I did. I never made the formal decision but in my heart she was mine. 

I am torn between being upset and feeling numb. I think because Trixie was so healthy that it hasn't fully hit me yet that she's not here. I just cannot believe that she's gone .. I mean she wasn't sick. I knew that she was not 'cured' but from how she acted I never saw an ending in her life. I expected years and years with her. But I am thankful for the time I had with her, and that the time is longer than what she would have had otherwise. 

So .. I sadly sit here, and after 6 days of being powerless I have my electricity on. In the moment I want to rejoice in the moment I can't help but remember that she's not here to take it in with us. I will miss her so much .. she was such an amazing dog .. 

pajama party

yums .., originally uploaded by joschmoblo.

one of the perks of working for velocity ...

i was finished with my assignment and decided to stay and watch the show, even though i was minus the low light lenses. in the process of 'waiting' i decided to take a few shots for my own.

life is innocent and precious

life is innocent and precious, originally uploaded by joschmoblo.

while i'm not 'openly' an emotional person, it is hard for me to be rational when animal's lives are at stake.

this baby bunny was 'victim' to my father's dog a couple of weeks ago while we were visiting him for father's day.

the bunny IS alive when i took this photo. anyway, before my dad placed the bunny back with it's mother, i 'freaked' out and called the vet because it didn't feel right to me.

as i suspected, now that the baby contained a foreign smell from the dog it was surely to have it's life ended by it's mother as soon as it was returned to it's home.

needless to say the bunny and i took a 25 minute car ride to shively animal hospital were it was then rescued by an animal sanctuary. it will now live a long healthy life in an animal sanctuary instead of seeing and unfortunately ending. and no, this is not the first animal i've taken to shively .. :o)

life lesson: if a baby animal is caught by another species and you try to save it, please DON'T RETURN IT TO IT'S NEST. instead call a place like shively to see if they can get the animal to a sanctuary. as the vet reassured me, returning the animal will ends it's life only a bit later than the dog may have.

anyway ...


yesterday, at the flickr mixr, a dog was left outside for a seriously extended amount of time, while the owners sat inside and took their time eating.

it was VERY humid, in the 80s, and sunny the whole time. the car had to be burning up. while the restaurant claimed to have called the police, someone along the line wasn't doing there just and did not come to see the situation. VERY upsetting.

where's the sense of responsibility and why do some many people think that it stops at humans???

it's at times like that when my red hair comes alive and i have to resist speaking my mind to their abusive animal owners ...

Updates and some rambles

I'm giving myself about ten minutes to catch up on things ... hahah .. with me and my tendency to ramble I may not get far.

1.) Trixie had her 6 month follow up xray to cancer. It came up clean .. :o) We're halfway towards a good long-term outcome for her. Yesterday I found a bump on her underside but it's where her mastectomy was so the doctors say that tumors should not be found there. Anyway it's literally less than a week after her scans so I'm forcing myself to NOT freak out and give it a day or two thinking it's just a skin infection or something.

2.) The holiday weekend was a good one. Nice and long although I did get a bit lazy at times. I stayed up way too late so I'll be HURTING when I have to get up for work in the morning.

3.) I jacked my back up two days (royally) although it's better now .. I pretty much just bit my lip and went on .. and I think I've mentally talked myself out of the pain. I do that more than I realize because I'll look down and there is a huge gash on my leg and I have no clue where it came from .. hahah

4.) My niece's birthday was this weekend .. Great day .. my sister is keeping my cousin's daughter for a few days this week and so she was there too. We went bike riding multiple times, played with bubbles, played games, etc. It was fun to play with the girls and I always look forward to it. My cousin's daughter gave me a big bear hug and told me I was the coolest adult ever .. I love that .. :o) I was super cool Saturday night too .. we had a Wii game night with the girls which included primarily TONS of 4 player Mario Kart and my sister and I working on our co-op career in Guitar Hero. Haha .. good times .. :)

5.) My niece got a pug for her birthday .. too cute. My sister bought it 3 weeks ago and My Dad and his wife eagerly volunteered to parent it so my niece wouldn't find out. I bet my Dad's wife went home and sulked over missing that dog .. talk about a cute pug!!

6.) I shot on Abbey Road this weekend and learned why I'll never pay $25 to go see that. Just not my thing .. I mean the Beatles are cool and all but I just didn't see why people were paying $25 to see a bunch of tribute bands. Oh well .. for those who did they appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves so it all works out in the end. Met some hot photog but dangit if he wasn't from NY .. oh well .. still nice eye candy, eh?

Ok .. ten minutes is up and yea, I barely touched the surface. I'd like to say I'll do this more often, but I probably won't .. oh well .. maybe I'll look into mobile blogging ...

At a loss

So .. I don't blog enough.

Not that it's important to get things here, but that there are details worth writing down that I don't make the time to take note of.

For an extended time now a sibling of someone close to me has been slowly passing away. While there has been more notice than in some cases, is there ever enough?

That person passed on last night.

Given the impression that they're doing ok, it was upsetting to call and hear the opposite. I'm used to someone who is strong and has an answer to everything, and the voice on the other end of the call was not from that person. It really hurts me to know that they're suffering as much as they are.

It reminds me that no matter how strong and brave we are, in the end we are all human and we all have our weaknesses. Family being one of them.

Loved ones dying is such a sore subject with me. Most of my life I lived without having anyone immediately connected to me. Then it happened. Ever since then, the thought of a close loved one passing reminds me of how much that hurts and how it leaves you destroyed and barely surviving.

I remember that it was something I emotionally barely survived and the thought of them going through that now is just so upsetting. While I know it's a part of life, I still don't think it's fair.

Race Results to date

Papa John's 10 Miler
Time:
Finish = 2:12:22
Pace: 00:13:14 minute mile
Run Speed: 4.53 miles/ hour

Goose Creek 5k (3.1 miles)
Time:
Finish = 35:58
Pace: 00:11:34 minute mile
Run Speed: 5.18 miles/ hour

Derby Festival Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles)
April 26, 2008
Times:
5k = 1:17:10
10k = 1:55:51
15k / Finish = 2:43:33
Pace: 00:12:29 minute mile
Run Speed: 4.81 miles/ hour


Next Year's Goals for the Papa John's 10 Miler and the Mini Marathon:
Papa Johns: finish in 2 hours or better with a pace of 00:12:00 minute miles and running speed of 5.0.
Mini Marathon: finish in 2:30:00 or better with a pace of 00:11:27 minute miles and runing speed of 5.23.


I really think that I can easily do better than that, assuming I can further strengthen my weak knees. I plan to continue training and reevaluate this later

Beating a Dead Horse

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

from: http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Beating_a_Dead_Horse

Earthquake...

Writing with a purpose for a change ...

So .. this morning we had an earthquake. The epicenter was in Illinois but it was about a 5.2 and we felt it pretty good here.

It was literally at 5:38 this morning and I know that because at 5:39 I sent a 'Holy shit! Was that an earthquake?' text message out then called someone to make sure it wasn't a weird dream.

I figured it was so because I remember the last earthquake and here is a quick recap .. I was in between classes so I came home take a nap. Into the napping part it felt as if they were jackhammering in my street. Oddly enough they WERE actually doing construction at the time .. but were gone to lunch, so it wasn't unbelieveable until I looked outside and saw no one. Hence .. the earthquake ..

This morning when I woke up and things were rattling I knew right off the bat what was happening. My front bedroom window rattled and creaked pretty bad so it had to be decently stronger than the last quake. I think it may have lasted about 15 - 30 seconds but I was barely awake.

I hate to say this but I will... earthquakes are fascinating to me and I ONLY say this because I don't live near them and I am ignorant of first hand knowledge in regards to how dangerous they are. I'm guessing it is the same with a lot of people who don't live in an earthquake zone because all I heard today was 'did you feel the earthquake? wasn't that cool?' Again .. to us it's a little rattling and a few crooked photos about once every 5 or 6 years .. we are fascinated because of ignorance .. but at that same time that is one of the reasons that I don't live close to a fault line ... so I prefer the ignorant fascination to knowing how bad they can be. Same applies to hurricanes ..


Here's the best part ..

In my opinion we humans get so self absorbed into thinking that we are the ultimate dominant force on the planet. We have completely taken over this place and our hands have removed the natural element from just about everything that we can. We're ruining the planet and doing damage that we haven't quite grasped the extent of.

This quake and every other natural disaster like this, as bad as they really are, send a painful reminder to us that we are NOT invincible and that everything is NOT within our control. While for some people this reminder wipes out their comforts that they had yesterday, for distant people like myself, that little shake was a gentle reminder to quit taking things for granted.

Now combine that with the weather that we've had for the past few months (and tonight) and I'm, as always, concerned with where things are headed..


Sorry for any typos .. thiis is from my babytop.. :)

A Few Updates .. :)

I need to get on here more often ...

1.) We did the Papa John's 10 Miler this past weekend. For 3 reasons I'm not 'allowed' to do the races anymore, but I decided to test the waters and see how it goes. Needless to say we're doing a 5k on the 12th of April (with the intent of running the whole thing) and then the mini - marathon on the 26th (i think .. it's that saturday). I came in at 2:12:22 and came in 12 minutes ahead of the 3 people I was with. Considering one is consistently WAY ahead of us and I am not a runner by a long stretch, I was pretty pleased.

2.) I got Derby press passes for myself and two others. I am thrilled about that!! This is my 3rd year shooting the Derby events and I can't wait to take advantage of the additional access!!

3.) I ordered myself the Nikon D300. I needed a longer lasting 2nd camera and the D1X batteries are shot lived. This is supremely rated and will be very loved in my house. I think it will be great because we all know that I won't put down the D50 for a second, so now I'll just consistently carry two cameras ... I can't wait until it arrives!

4.) We're up to going to the gym 6 days a week now and putting in 1.5-2 hours. I'm really pushing myself on the weight training .. at this point I'm going for getting my upper body and mid section in better shape.. look good now but there's always room for improvement. I'm pretty pleased with things right now but while I'm using the gym as a work de-stress tool I may as well make the most of it .. :)

5.) We had a flickr meet this past weekend and it was a pretty good time. I definitely learned that it's better to not announce that you hate your photo being taken because that causes people to take more of them. I probably should have just went with it .. but if you saw 90% of the photos of me you'd know why I hide .. I know I know .. we all hate photos of ourselves but I can't help but think mine are just awful!!

UGH ..

So .. I've taken sick .. and probably more sick than I should be out of my own stubborn attitude.

Yesterday I went to an all day long Pervious Concrete seminar downtown. I woke up that morning feeling like I had a UTI. I went to the store, bought a box of cranberry pills, and figured I'd see how I felt after the seminar. Well, I felt fine, went to the gym for a hour and a half, came home, and no worries.

Then, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like, well .. shit. I did not know what was wrong with me. My earlier pain was back and in addition I was feeling sick, running a fever, cramping real bad, ... It kinda freaked me out because I didn't know what was wrong with me.

So .. I was up until about 6:30 before finally getting more than 30 seconds worth of rest (I learned that curling up and not moving for about 30 minutes made the pain more tolerable). I gave up, got up for good at 9:30, and went to the doctor at 11.

Well, long story short .. my dumbass should have gone to the doctor yesterday because I just assumed that this was something like a cold and that it would just go away eventually. Instead I went to the gym and the extra blood flow and so on spread it around and made it worse. So instead of a UTI I now also have a kidney infection.

Dumbass...

Needless to say life sucks right now but I panicked and addition to my prescriptions I bought up anything and everything to make sure that this doesn't repeat and that, in general, I just do better. Now I'm just sitting here reminding myself that I really don't need to go to the bathroom and that I don't need to get sick either. Good times ...

Go Big East!!!!

So .. the Big East .. rocks ..

Here is the seeding of the Big East Teams for the NCAA Tourney ..

No. 2 Georgetown
No. 3 Louisville
No. 4 Pitt
No. 4 Connecticut
No. 5 Notre Dame
No. 6 Marquette
No. 7 West Virginia
No. 12 Villanova

The Big East is tough this year that I'd love to see one of teams win it all .. preferably the Cards .. :o)

How I Gained 5 Pounds ..

It's a simple story actually...

Work right now, ... well it just completely, utterly, supremely, and insanely SUCKS! It sucks so bad that it's bleeding into my personal life making even more problems in my life.

So .. I have been going to the gym 6-7 days a week for weeks now just to 'work away my rage' so that I can destress back to my normal level. Seriously... and it's not so easy to unwind after working at my job... it takes a good while and some hard work for me to calm down.

My year with my trainer only has 4 sessions left and I decided that I like being told when to be at the gym and what to do. So, I have started taking free weight and cardio classes because I LOVE working with free weights.

So now I'm going every day and working with weights more than I did before which leads to the 5 extra pounds.

I'm not mad though because if anything I look like I'm doing the opposite and personally I'd rather weigh more and look like I'm in shape than be skinny and flimsy. But it just stinks because I was over a personal 'threshold' / goal and now .. well I'm not. Dangit .. oh well.

I guess with my gym addiction it is a GOOD THING I don't have worse habits .. because I'd be a raging drunk by now .. ha ha

A Few Tweaks .. to keep things interesting

So .. lately I've been revamping my schedule and thinking ahead seeing as a few things will be changing over the course of the next few months.

1. Sadly enough the last UofL home game was today ... I could cry knowing that our seniors won't be back next year .. On top of it, that also means I used my last season ticket today. The season went by way too fast .. I'm sooo sad .. :o(

2. I only have 4 sessions left (I think) with my personal trainer. I am, of course, not going to renew that. Nothing against my trainer because she's awesome, but I have spent the last year getting myself into good habits that I was hoping the trainer would help with. Mission Accomplished and I think I'll do a good job of keeping it going from here on out.

3. My class schedule right now is light but it will unfortunately pick back up in June .. dammit.


Anyway ... after March Madness unfortunately I'll have a lot more free time. At the same time I'm being relative unproductive here at home lately, wasting time on this laptop, so I've decided to both work on mini-projects and also to pick up classes at the gym instead of just going and doing whatever.

Bottom line .. I like being told when to go to the gym and what to do. While I prefer to be in charge of my life .. there are times when I'll admit I prefer it the other way around, and this is one of those times.

So .. for the past two weeks I've been taking classes .. I think 4 of them a week is what I've been doing. Mainly spinning classes and free weights because the spinning is good seeing as I can't run as far as I could in the past (doctor's orders) and the weights because I love working with free weights.

Anyway I take 2-3 classes with free weights a week and 2 spinning classes a week. Then a time or two of doing whatever, either separate days or back to back .. depending on how I'm spending my evening for the most part. If I'm wasting away in the evenings, I'm leaving my house. While I'm on the 'classes' kick I'm just going to classes. Then .. when the newness wears out I'll go back to weight training.


Good times .. and I know .. no one cares but me. But .. I am obsessed with it right now and of course I have to schedule it all out and have my trips perfectly planned out. It will take a minute to get used to the new schedule and workout routine but hopefully the change in the workout habits will get me off my current plateau .. or so I hope.


So .. today we went to the 11am spinning class for the 2nd week in a row. After that I went home to shower and watch the UK game sin Patterson. Good game though. Then I went to the vet to pick up Archie's meds, to the store, and then I met Angie at 2:45 to go to the game. In a nutshell I'm non-stop from 10:30 this morning until 6:30 tonight.

Then .. nothing.

So .. this is one of those days I wish the gym was open late because I've been wired for sound and unproductive .. therefore wasting away on this device ... but .. I'm now all caught up on American Idol and I'm catching up on Lost now, although these days I honestly prefer the TV to be off.

Giant "Sea Monster" Fossil Discovered in Arctic

Giant "Sea Monster" Fossil Discovered in Arctic

Ever Googled Yourself?

Well I have. I actually Google a couple of names.

1. The name I go by (which FYI is not my legal name .. yea I need to get on that, eh?)
2. Joschmoblo which has been my internet alias for probably 15 years now

Why?

1. My name is because it's on all of my photos and because it's unique enough to find with a Google search
2. Because I use it for everything and it also reminds me when I need to do some housekeeping

So .. what did I find?

First I checked out my full name and I, of course, used Google...

1. Me on imagekind.com
   
2. My ESRI thread posts that I have put up over time .. OK that's work related and GIS and mainly over the DS Map Book, which is an ongoing 'quirk'
   
3. My German and Swiss relatives with the same name
4. Some of my flickr photos .. of course
5. One of the FLL EIS documents that I worked on when I was at Corradino. Apparently it's a reference document listing all of the people who worked on the EIS and what they did. I'm down for GIS (I think .. I didn't open it)
6. Me on MoreThanDerby, which is apparently a dead site now
7. Some reference to my photos on Nikon D50 Photos which I don't mind as they're literally referencing flickr

Now joschmoblo...

1. Me on flickr
2. Me on youtube
3. Me on Google Earth (need to houseclean, eh?)
4. Me on upcoming (again .. )
5. Me on nowpublic (they used a photo or two over time but may clean this too)
6. Me on AT&T 's forums (cell phone..)
   
7. Me on GameSpot (that's too active at times)
8. Me on Yahoo with a profile (??) .. I am obviously tabbing this in Firefox to check that out
   

ok .. i'm bored .. and i need to clean out some profiles

Trip to Switzerland

At a young age of 19 I went with my family to primarily Switzerland and Germany, where we stayed with distant relatives that my father met during his Genealogy research. To this day they still consistently speak and work to create the family tree, which has become amazingly large by now.

Here is a link to my Dad's recollection of the trip. Bear in my he's recalling his memories .. ours were full of things that we still laugh about today ... german cows and killer weiner dogs .. makes me smile even now... good people, a good trip, and a great time .. :o)

Google .. again ...

First of all, I royally stink at coming up with 'titles' so do ignore them.

Besides there's never one subject .. there's usually 20 and they go on and on and on .. lol


(1) I want to publicly thank Lele for the damn Google Reader addiction. As if I didn't have Googlte hooked up via I.V. as it was, now it's ten times worse. I have iGoogle up all day long and 9 times out of 10 I have to open up a second instance of iGoogle because I refuse to lose view of all my details.

So sad...

(2) I don't know that I have a 2 or more... I don't have much to say as I'm sitting here further customizing this damn reader. I'm such a techy person as it is ... I've always stayed away from the feeds thinking that ignorance is bliss in my case. Bad bad bad.


I send out emails often enough giving Google free advertisement on all of their web based options. I just love it .. I should move out there and get a job. Actually I should have bought stock years ago when I wanted to because I am guessing it's worth a lot more these days.

Ok .. I don't have much else .. :o)

Trying to be more green

Ok .. for the past few years now I've been making a serious effort on being more 'green,' especially as far as my house and the resources it's spending.

I woke up about a month ago and got pretty 'upset' thinking I need to do more. It's one thing to live green, but it's something else to help support the cause. I need to promote it more, tell people more, and help do my part along with the rest of the world to help the cause.

So ... I've now started a few recycling ideas / efforts at work. I'm preparing to go into our staff meeting tomorrow and declare in the meeting that I want to form a 'green team' for the company, if one does not already exist. We, as consultants, need to practice what we promote, and we as humans can always improve on our green efforts.

Wish me luck .. I'm sure they'll be positive about it .. but it takes a force to make a change .. I want to be that force.

I've decided to get a series of dry erase boards (seeing as paper wastes paper) to hang around the office and write Green tips.... in the kitchen, the copier room, etc. and then change them frequently. I think there are a few other green people myself and I believe that we can do little things to be better occupants of this planet because, in the end, every little detail helps.

Ok .. I know I ramble so without going into any more details .. my head is exploding with ideas and excitement about this.

I'm taking a class to incorporate this into my engineering career and I've already decided that I want to obtain my LEED certification. So I can live a greener life and build a greener world! Maybe my move last year was ultimately to get me where I'm at now because for once I want to do something like this with all of my heart and soul. I'm all about being in front of technological curve and this is both that and it's a passion of mine. So maybe the saying is true .. everything happens for a reason. We'll see...


I posted a topic on the Louisville Flickr boards as well, trying to spread the knowledge. I did not ramble off my 10000 suggestion because most people won't read them, but I gave a few.

Here is just a cut and paste of that ..



Long story short .. it's one thing to live a 'greener' life yourself but there's no point in keeping it to yourself.

Here are a few things.. feel free to add to this.

Simple Ways to be More Green:

1.) Get rid of the coffee stirs!! Pour in the cream and sugar first, then pour in the coffee. This will mix everything for you perfectly!

Why not just use a spoon? Because it requires either water to clean it or a towel to wipe it off. This option requires nothing .. :o)


2.) Turn them off or put them to sleep! Are your computers on all the time? Either switch them off when you're not using them or set them to auto-hibernate after a few minutes.

It takes a computer a second or two to 'wake up' from hibernation and that saves our resources and your pocketbook.

3.) Save on your heating and cooling bills! Are you heating or cooling the entire house but you live in just a few rooms? Try lowering your temperature a couple of degrees and use supplemental sources (space heaters) to warm the rooms that you're in. Why pay to heat areas that are not in use?

Another alternative is to use a time intelligent thermostat which adjusts the temperature based on pre-set settings, so when you're at home the house is more comfortable but when you're out it saving resources and your money. Price them at the store, they're cheaper than you think!

4.) Buy local! There are so many farmer's markets around town now and so much promotion of local products that there are options now to buy local and not spend the gas and resources to get food from the other side of the country. And .. the local stuff tastes great!!

5.) Turn your car off, I can't breathe! (I had to!!) Are you sitting idle in your car for a few minutes? Consider turning it off while you're not moving, even if it's only 5 minutes. An idling car is still consistently spending our hard earned money and gas and we're also contributing to the air pollution problem.

6.) RECYCLE!!

7.) Save your water!! When you're brushing your teeth in the morning does the faucet stay on the whole time? If it does put a cup in the sink and 'capture' how much water you're normally just sending down the drain unused. You'll be amazed how much you're paying for that's being wasted. It takes two seconds to turn the faucet off and on.

Also, consider adjusting the pressure of the weather when you don't need it coming out at full flow. These two things will save you a lot on your next water bill!!


Ok ... I'll stop for now, but if one person reads this and finds one suggestion useful, then I've done good .. :o) Every little detail helps!!

Louisville .. Then and Now

I'm currently drooling over the photos that are in the Library of Congress archives. As I find comparisons I'm going to 'try' to add them here .. try being the key word.


Central Park:


Year Unknown -
















2006:

I Caved .. .. .. ....

Blame it on my parents this time.

Well, I'm trying but it's not working.

My father is the reason I'm a tech whore... lol. He's either almost as bad as me or pretty close. Had he grown up in my generation he'd be much much worse. MUCH MUCH WORSE .. he made a career as a full time computer programmer, while I only do it part time .. lol

He carried a regular phone up until 3 or 4 months ago when he changed jobs. Now he's gone and bought himself one of the Treos and that has now turned into the most recent PDA he obsesses over (there have been about 6 over the past 5 years). I don't even come close to him as far as over-using my cell phone or any PDA for that matter. OMG he has a PDA IV in or something because he can't carry on a conversation without consulting the PDA for something! It's funny ... but like I said, I know exactly where I got it from. When we were kids we were the first people I knew to have a computer.. by the time the other kids saw one, we were on our third Apple.

OK .. I'm denying the obvious ...

I text my Dad last night (yes with the purchase of this Treo my Dad 'discovered' text messaging and is following suite as another text whore in the family .. lol) and tell him to google the Lifebook and check it out (he is so techy that he pays the $40 a month for internet on his phone, while I do not). His reply a bit later was not anything negative ... I got something like that's a great deal. Well damn ... I was looking for someone to bully me out of it and no one did ..

So .. I did what I always do.. put it in the cart and argued with myself for about an hour over buying it or not buying it. Finally I decided that my time is worth more than this and I know me and I WILL end up getting the damn thing anyway because I need it and I have not bought a computer in years now (and I KNOW ME), so instead of wasting even more time (it's already been since November and probably 30 hours of research and obsessing) just buy the damn thing.

So that's what I did.

Tech whore ...

But .. at the same time I found out that he was shopping himself and looking at a Sony UMPC (like daughter like father). Seeing as he was considering the massive price tag for that, I put a little bug in his ear about buying the HTC Shift instead. So while I may not be buying it for myself .. :o( .. maybe I'll be able to touch it and drool over it if it's at his house .. :o)


UPDATE .. storm sucks, almost as bad as my DSL internet connection. I whined for hours waiting on my internet to start working again so I could fix a typo on this page. Clearly I have issues... Ok not just that, but to continue to stalk Best Buy's website for my UMPC .. :o)

Post Holiday Check In

Ok .. sometimes the holidays are never long enough. I wish we were off like a month for the holidays .. then, maybe I'd start enjoying Christmas a bit more .. :)

Oh well .. back to 'normal' life .. .. .. or as close as I'm willing to get I suppose ..

1.) Last Thursday at around 9 or 10 AM the temperature was still below 10 degrees. Today I rolled all the windows down as I was leaving work .. it was in the 70s at least by mid day .. heck I think it just now got into the upper 60s.

Ok .. I'll be right back .. I'm going to email Mother Nature (if you can instant message Santa Claus I'm sure she has email by now .. LMAO) and remind her that it's WINTER here in the states .. and that means jackets and a few flurries in my sad little part of the world ...

2.) As we here in the great (HA) state of Kentucky know, then Louisville Cardinals basketball team .. well they spanked UK pretty nicely this past weekend. Here's the best part, or parts I should say ...

• UK was completely healthy so the poor sport UK fans can't say 'if only [insert name] was healthy we would have beat you all. Nope, they were scratchy throat free but off course left the game with some bird prints on the their backs from being stomped on .. :o)
• We were missing one of our BEST players, Earl Clark, due to a one game suspension (which I've yet to search the net to find out what the reason was). If anything, we were down an incredible player and still put the cat in its cage. ..
• The final score was 89-75 so there's no way the fans can say you got lucky or they were one wrong play away from the game. Nope .. you lost .. that's all there is to it :o)

Ok .. enough gloating, but to be honest it's a toss up for me .. I enjoy the more competitive games and the end of that was just kinda boring for me. But ... I enjoy that we took away every UK excuse. Now ... guess what they'll do .. blame the new coach.

I'm sure the fire Gillispie are already on the internet now. Poor guy ... if in three years their still struggling start yelling, but like Kragthorpe, who tanked the Cardinal football reputation, you have to give him a chance to play his ball with his team. So .. we wait. ..

3.) I am / have been discussing (with my alter ego) the idea of buying an UMPC for some time now. (A) I want to use it in class as, thanks to that stupid wreck, my handwriting is worse than a left handed person's should be and after so long my wrist gets sore and it gets even worse and (B) something like that is the only way I'll ever get organized and I need to get organized. I am fabulous about using my cell phone for organization but anything longer than so many letters and it turns into a pain in the butt. My laptop is perfectly up to speed with technology so I refuse to replace it, but I need something more portable than my laptop but more productive than my cell phone. Hence .. the UMPC.

I know .. tech whore .. yea I hear it all the time. But ..... ... the last computer I bought was 3 years ago and it was my $400 desktop. My laptop is actually and amazingly almost 4 years old but the specs are still comparable to today and I've upgraded what needed to be upgraded. So .. considering that while I've had my 2 computer for 3-4 years now and my father has bought AT LEAST 3 or 4 (between laptops and desktops) I think I can justify the purchase. Ok ... obviously I'm trying to justify it to myself still .. lol.

Anyway .. I'm looking to get the Fujitsu Lifebook U810 because it's (A) small and (B) sports a decent size keyboard which should accommodate my wrists when they hurt. They're coming out with a model in March that adds the cell phone compatibility and while I'm tempted to hold out for that, here's the deal ... while I'm a tech whore I don't pay for internet service on my phone because the internet just doesn't do it for me and I'd rather not spend $40 a month on something I don't really use or need. So .. I don't think I care about the compatibility and if I do down the road I guess I will buy a card or something.

I thought about getting that $400 Asus Eee PC but it's not a tablet pc so that was a buzz kill for me.

I also debated between getting the HTC Shift and the HTC Advantage, which is still very tempting for me. My cell phones have been nothing but HTC's now for 3 + years and I am a loyal loving follower of anything they make. But here's my self - arguing case ... (A) the HTC Advantage operated on Windows Mobile and I want something that I can install a decent number of 'regular' programs on it and not be limited by mobile programs ... I may as well keep using my cell phone if that's the case, (B) the HTC Shift is going to be about $1500 and can I justify paying the extra $500 because I like the name?? (C) the keyboard is similar to my cell phone keyboard and I'm suspected it will be more of a thumb based pecking / typing and I'm hoping the Lifebook is a keyboard you can type more normally on... again if I'm pecking I'll keep my cell phone.

Anyway I have been shopping since November and while I always want to cave, I haven't yet. I'm just having a harder time justifying it to myself when I just pissed away a good chunk of change over the holidays on things that, unlike this, I wanted but really couldn't justify the consistent use of them like I can with this. So .. we'll see...

I know .. blah blah boring .. it's only interesting to me .. I know that and I'm ok with that too ... :o)



Ok .. I'm off to the gym in a bit to work off my 3 holiday pounds that I think I added (although I hope I'm just paranoid). I guess three are coming off whether they were already there or if they paid me a holiday visit.