The Holtonian

Debate thoughts

I wasn't impressed with the debates, though the press was right for once, they said the debates weren't going to be that impressive, and they were right. I think bush bumbled too much and kerry was more articulate but really is an illogical fool. I got tired of both candidates saying the same thing over and over. I really wanted to slap bush and say, "Come up with some new material, we know he's a flip flopper!" I'll still vote bush and still think Kerry's the worst Democrat they could've put up there. Dean, would've been at least a little more consistent, he's against the war and has always been, at least more than Kerry has. Not saying i'm a dean fan, but i think the parties should put forth their best candidate and dean seemed to have the most spine and at least thought for himself, though i think he's wrong, he like bush stuck by what he said. Even the crazy "YEAAAH!!!" I think bush has a good shot and don't think kerry did much of anything to boost himself, and if he does get a "bounce" or something its will be mostly people who aren't really intelligent and could go which ever the wind blows.

Job Update

For those who missed my email update, my job situation has been solidified. My boss told me today that I've been approved for the promotion which means I A. Get to keep my job and B. get a promotion. Its been a rough waiting period seeing two good buddies leave (one layed off, one walk out). But it came at a good time as first off Wifey's car was back in the shop today for a broken coolant hose and a broken seal as well. Though her car still smelled like anti-freeze when we got home, though it could have been on the ground from earlier. Unfortunately we had to drop a few g's into the piece o crap. We're saving for an accord or camry, but probably an accord and hope to have one by thanksgiving so we won't have to fly up to Indiana to see my family.
      So its some good news at a good time. We're just so thankful for God's faithfulness which we kept having to remind ourselves of.

Car Hunt

      The car hunt went as expected. The wife and I have totally different out looks on cars. The problem we have is the need for two cars, her cav is very unreliable with things going wrong that always go wrong with american cars. Mine leaks oil at a good rate and is not in great shape but runs fine. Really we just want a car that we can drive to say Indiana (our destination for Thanksgiving) and not worry about whether our car will make it or not.
    I really liked the Element, more than I thought I would. The interior is nice, its spacious, more than the accord. The backseat is huge! and very roomey. And the little bit of trunk was bigger than I expected. It drove nice, a little different from our small coupe style cars. The exterior wasn't great, I mean I'll admit its not the hottest thing on wheels, but the interior redeems it. The floors are rubber so no stains, the seats are stain resistent material. The back seats come out, but they're heavy so thats tough, but the also fold up into the side and clip in place with a carrabeaner. Good stereo and all that stuff... its a fun car. They didn't budge on the price though so doubtful we'll get one soon. I basically said, I can afford X dollars and the guy sort of laughed at me. Basically what I can afford is the manual no AC version which I don't want.
      Wifey didn't like the car at all and didn't want it for herself. She wants more of a bigger SUV though we can't afford one. We tried the Matrix out... THE MATRIX.... and it was a great car, but not for us. I mean if they had this when I was going to college I'd totally have gotten it, but its a bit too small for us right now. So we left frusterated at both our lack of funds and lack of a consensus on a car.
      But we've talked it over some and what we figure is wifey will hopefully get a teaching job for the spring or if not that then a job that has regular hours and a consistent pay check so we can budget better our income. Then we'll look for an accord with medium miles (around 50K) and get that for her. Then she'll have that for a few years, then when the kids start rolling out then we'll get an suv or van. Meanwhile maybe in the next year I can squeeze out an element or something. Depending on what the finances look like.
      My thing is the element is a great A to B car. Its reliable, not great looking, but durable. So its what I want in a car. But time will tell... time will tell.

Car Troubles... and Looking for another car... again

So after more car troubles the wife and I have come back to the never ending car search. Though this time around the car I have my eye on may make you sick to your stomach. Oddly enough the car I think looks to be a good deal is the Honda Element. I searched all day friday for cars, not much work to do at work, and found the Element to be usually cheaper than the Accord. I'm looking at 2004 models as the used car market this weekend was pretty slim. Usually its jam packed with stuff, but I also realized with the 2004 models going out they'll be cheaper, and with payments as low as a used car can be I figure its not too bad. I worked with a loan calculator at work and figured out the best scenario.
      The only problem I see with the Element, besides its unusual looks, is the wife enjoying the car. I did a side by side comparison to the Accord and the Element is a little bigger in some areas, smaller in others, but they're basically the same car. Same engine for sure, but the Element has some little extra features that appeal to the dork in me. For one is no-cloth floors, they're rubber. Thus allowing for easy clean up. And the seats are made of stain resistant stuff, not the normal cloth stuff. I figure this is a good thing because I'm a slobb, and so will future babies. Another feature I like would be the seats fold down or come out... I think... there's a picture of two mtn bikes in the back seat with no back seat so thats an assumption right now. The Element also seems to be cheaper, with all the same bells and wistles Accord is about 3000 dollars more.
      Also one of my things is owning a car that people go, "Whelp, thats the Holtons..." Thus the reason why I never put hubcaps on my sentra... people know its me. But we'll see right now we're lacking the monthly income to afford a monthly payment. With the promotion I should be Ok, but until then we may just have to wate.
      Another car I'm looking at is the Toyota Matrix.... THE MATRIX...it actually is a little cheaper than the Element but in my opinion way uglier. The problem I see with the Matrix is its built I think off the corolla which makes it off the bat a smaller car interior wise and motor wise. Since Honda doesn't have a midsized they built the Element off the accord, at least thats what i'm guessing looking at the engine and size of the vehicle. Though I just checked the interior of the matrix and its pretty swank, everything can fold down so you can max the space. Which i think the Element does too. I don't know its sort of a toss up. The Matrix gets way better gas mileage but its a smaller car so you'd expect that. We'll probably look at both.
      I basically trying to pick a car I'd want in a few years. We're hoping that we get this one, possibly get a second when wife starts teaching. And her's would be more of the family style car aka a van or bigger suv... i'm opting for the van. But we'll see. We can't afford squat right now.
      The inlaws and inlaw grandparents are in, they got in last night. We're taking them out to wherehouse row i think. I need to run over to Suck Creek Cycles to fix my bike, the chain changer thing is out of wack. Let me know if you have any observations on either of these two cars.... besides the fact they're the ugliest cars that Toyota and Honda make... though I think the Rav 4 and CRV are uglier.

I have Vertigo!

I must say the beginning guitar rift is the best! I think I'm crying....

Job Stuff

······Well I was entertaining an offer from Josiah to go help him at coptix... but it looks like he couldn't wait for my decision and hired someone else... oh well no matter. I couldn't work those guys anyway... they're too cool for school and I'm too lame for the game...
······Besides that I'm pretty much getting the long desired promotion at work. After months of dangling me out to dry and leaving me in suspense they've given me a light to look at and have basically told me that upon the super super boss's approval I'll be promoted. Which is good cause I have no money. So much praise to be given there. I'd shifted my attention away from worry about it for sometime, but the thought and worry was always there in the back of my head.
······In other news my next invention that I thought would revolutionize home living has failed...

Thats right the potato light bulb... thought it had a chance... I failed. Back to the drawing board. Maybe Spageti dental floss.

Gaming Giberish: DS vs PSP...I've played neither so i'm going on what I've read

With the recent release of the Nintendo DS I figure I should use my knowledge to discuss this topic of portable gaming. I read up for a long time, article was like 6 pages of back and forth with some subarticles in between about the PSP vs DS and which is better. So far it seems a toss up and all the gamers who wrote the article agreed its a toss up. As we have it now DS (Stands for Dual Screen) has two screens, how ironic. The top screen will be the main one, with the bottom one being a stylus type device that can possibly act as a palm pilot and also be used as a controler at times. Nintendo brags that gamers will be able to talk to each other while gaming... though if one is standing right next to one, one would thing talking would suffice... but I don't work at nintendo so what do i know. The system will also have a wifi type device making multi player gaming easy. So far not too many games have been revealed. One i saw is a metroid game where its only multi player, the graphics look somewhat shaky though.

   The PSP, has a lot more game developers behind it which is what made the PS2 so great, millions of games. However what Sony has always lacked is that marque game that sells the system. For Nintendo they have tons of marquee's Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong the list goes on. Playstation has had Tekken and not much else. Xbox at least has halo, they don't have much else, but they do have halo, which is by far the best first person shooter on any console.

      From a pure looks standpoint I like the DS because it looks more like a laptop, which for some reason I like better. I also like how, like a laptop, it folds up which keeps the screen safe. The PSP has a cover that clips on, but that doesn't seem as good to me, it could get lost. I've heard rumors that the PSP will be a multi-media device and be able to play movies and music, however for a $150 I doubt it will have the memory/harddrive of an ipod to store movies and music on. It may make little discs one can buy much like the Gameboy SP has done lately with some kids cartoons. Another major difference in the games is cartridge vs discs (mini cds of sorts). Nintendo loves its cartridges, which killed the N64. A cartridge can't get the video quality of a disc plain and simple. However Nintendo feels that a cartridge will be far superior in a handheld than a disc. This could be true as they still have not made a cd player that doesn't skip when you jog with it.
      What Nintendo did learn from the 64 was be first! The 64 came out too little too late in relation to the Playstation 1. This year the DS will come out end of november just in time for Xmas, the PSP is supposed to come out next year but it could be pushed back. And the fact remains that much mystery remains about the PSP. Sony hasn't even put it on its website yet. So much like the article I read, I'll wait to see which one does better. I thought about about buying a SP but am not really sold on the game choices. There's a few games I like, metroids, mario kart, and the original nintendo games, but other than that I see nothing out there. That and it could go the way of the virtual boy here real soon when the DS comes out.

Covenant uses local celebrity for its propoganda

Kudos to Paul for finding this hilarious picture of me. The funny thing is on covenant's website they're using this for propogating their day of prayer... their only day off the entire year. I find it so funny because first off, this wasn't on day of prayer it was right before break on impact. I think Ute was headed towards the Bowery and me and Farkey were supportin the hall up there on the stage. Secondly its funny cause you can see my growth I was working on as I geared up for HOJO on Impact (Holton and Roe's Spring Bonanza).

I wonder if Covenant knows they have to pay me a fee for using my image in a public forum such as their website... hmmm, me being a local celebrity and all. I mean Cigna Account Managers are so popular right now that we are literally mobbed as we step out on Broad Street. I have women throw their bras at me, Old men throw their canes at me, and the smokers throw their cig butts at me. Its insane, I mean I knew my job at Cigna would make me popular, but I wasn't prepared for the intense spotlight it would bring. I guess Covenant's just trying to hook itself up to one of its most successful graduates. First that dude who shot Lennon and now me...

Long post about our weekend (Warning may cause boredom)

The wife and I were planning on having a day to work on the house and a night to go out on a date on saturday. Unfortunately we had more work at home than we anticipated. Apparently some water seeped up into the house via through the concrete and soaked various things in our basement. it wasn't a matter of water linking in, but water seeping up. But we had tons of boxes, some carpet and various other stuff that all got wet. It seemed that if cardboard or some other absorbant material was on the concrete the more water was absorbed up.
...So we spent the day taking things out of boxes, putting them in new boxes and then putting everything off the ground. I built a sort of table with some sinder? blocks, 2x4's, and plywood. Hopefully that will keep stuff dry and water from seeping up as well. I guess we need to get some sealant and do something with it but as I told the wife, "its a basement who cares..." The moisture levels haven't been as bad since I put most of the plastic down on the crawl space either... that is until Ivan.
...Then the wife went with Roe wife to the mall to shop around and I went biking. Guild trail was pretty fun I must say. It was tough up through Ruby Falls as I had not rid in over a week, but once I got past it I was ok. Right around the stone foundation of the old CCC camp a giant tree had fallen on the path. I stopped to ponder if I could somehow stay on my bike and make it over it. I thought if possibly I were a true Mtn biker I could do it, but upon further thought/rest I realized it'd be pretty tough for even an experienced guy to do it. So I picked the bike up and climbed over it. Then i came to the T where you either go left to Craven's House or Right to go along the base of the mtn, or Reflection Riding. I had contemplated on maintaining the though ride and go up more to Cravens but again a tree was blocking that path too. One that seemed hard to get over even by climbing standards. So I opted for the less difficult, but more fun right way. It was pretty cool since there were a lot of streams that had formed and riding through streams, some not that shallow, was pretty fun. I got plenty wet and muddy but it was all in good fun/exercise. And I basically went till i ran out of gas and water (had a little for the ride back).
...I then met up with the wife (after a shower obviously) and took her out to Carrabas. I thought about doing a cheap date thing, but realized I hadn't taken her anywhere over 6 bucks in a while. So she got the usual, Rigatoni Martinelli (something like that) which is the best item on the menu, and I, being more adventurous, tried the mezzaluna, which was good but no Rigatoni Martinelli. We had thought to try a movie but instead opted for blizzards and returning various items to various stores.
...I traded in Josiah and Mesh's gift House Party 3 at best buy for OK Computer, though I was ticked off because they wouldn't take back Mariah Carey's Glitter because it looked in their minds like I had opened it. Which I thought to myself.... Why would anyone open or watch this movie. So to make this long and boring post short...I still have Glitter.

I'll be Your Sky Captain Today and Tomorrow

Roe and I went out after a get together to honor Morris to see Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow. Now any person, who was a kid with an overactive immagination will like this movie. It has just about everything sci fi in it, though it doesn't tend to make any sense, it makes for a great movie. Its a ton of fun, and realize you're going to see a movie that doesn't have to make sense and is aiming at a child's belivability. Go in like an excited kid and you'll enjoy it. Out of all the summer blockbusters this was the one I looked forward to most. There's something about a P-51 mustangesque plane flying through a downtown metropolis dodging giant robots that rings of coolness.
   I had pretty high expectations for this movie and was pretty much gearing up for a let down. Pretty much every movie I ever get jazzed up for ends up sucking... I was really looking forward to both Waterworld and the Postman and felt like I was let down on both accords. But this movie met my expectations (postive ones) and was enjoyable. I was really hoping the movie would hit it out of the park, but it was more like a game winning triple than a game winning grandslam. Good, to possibly great, but not the best. Spiderman 2 was still far better i must say as the movies go this summer. But this one was fun. Plus i mean Jude Law is so hot right now. Roe and I were talking and hoping Law doesn't do a flameout like Ben Stiller has.

Corporate world.... sigh...

I had a bit of a bummer today at work, one of my good buddies at work got layed off today. He knew it was coming however didn't think it would be for another week or so. What stinks is they just had a baby not too long ago and he hasn't found another job yet. The whole situation reeked of corporate stinkiness. Imagine the higher ups going through everything you did during a day with a fine tooth comb just to come up with enough dirt to justify them laying you off to save money. Thats basically what happened. Basically they're trying to widdle down our staff to about 7 to 10 I'm guessing and we're at 11 right now. My beef with this is they hired someone about a month ago, and then began pushing to lay off three people.

What stinks is we were all sort of hired under false pretenses, though I guess everyone is in one way or another. The job's responsibilities have increased a 100 fold since I've been out of training with more work to come soon apparently. Basically they find something no one else wants to do and give it to us. I'm not trying to complain, just trying to explain how it is.

But it stinks cause my buddy was the guy I talked to most of the time I wasn't working. But I guess the show must go on.

In other news, the pulse had a great article about the dangers and folley of socialized medicine... just another reason not to vote Democrat! I mean if socialized medicine were to be inacted you can bet my job would be gone pretty quick, as well as millions of other people employed by the healthcare industry.

Whats going down in Choltie Town

Things are going in the holton hood. Work's coming to a head today as I pressed my boss about the job grade upgrade. I told her that I felt that I was in a weird holding pattern as far as I had been pulled off probation a month ago, but had not been given the subsequent upgrade to a 47. I sort of exasberated, to use that word slightly incorrectly, that I felt I had worked to the best of my ability, gotten my book of business up-to-date, and really could not tell what else was expected of me. I mean I could do more, we could all do more, i mean that's life. And I'm not trying to dismiss the fact that I could do more, but the fact is I've done more in the past two months and proved myself (in my head and to my co-workers) that I'm not a 45, but really and truly can hack the 47. What does that mean? Well we'll see. The boss is going to talk to the boss and hopefully by the end of this week I'll have something to hold onto.... I'm hoping for the upgrade. I asked the only other guy who's been upgraded if the bump was significant. He being of my age area told me it was very significant and when he gave me the percent it sent me strait to the calculator and left me with much hope that similar things could be in store for me....

So if all goes well I might be able to afford my house soon. Which is good... cause I'm not entirely sure how we've afforded it thus far.

In other news, wifey's back in school and I must say I've got a lot of beefs with the current administration at Covenant right now. So they want my wife to buy a 50 parking pass, despite the fact that she's only at school tuesdays and thursdays after 3 PM. Talk about lame. I mean its not like we didn't pay 20K a year to go there for four years. I'd love to write how I really feel but that whole tongue holding thing is keep me from doing it. That college vexes me beyond belief. I could write for days about various things and various complaints but I'd find myself in hot water with just about everyone so I'll stick to posting pictures of gnomes.

Helen GA Trip----A German Town with a Confederate Feel

If you've read Crabb's blog already this will be old news, but I'll put the photos up that you won't see anywhere, but on Hard Copy... remember Hard Copy? That was a great trashy entertainment show.... anyway pictures

Here's the mayor of Helen Georgia. He was very kind, yet very short he welcomed us with his hand and his sign...

My wife...insert you're own thoughts on this one...

Here, Santa tried to get up on my girl... so needless to say Santa won't be delivering much this Christmas... Look at that fat man trying to pucker up to my wife! Thinks he's so great cause his belly is like jelly.... well mine is too, so there! Fat St NICK!

Here I mourn over another defeat at Settlers... Though I won twice on Friday night, saturday night I was relegated to the biz spot and played both games trying to get one settlement built on a port with no luck till the last round when it was all too late.

We had a great time.
Best part of trip: Toobing down the riva.
Funniest Part of trip: LAC getting "attacked" by a tree while tubing and screaming for help
Best Food of trip: Wife's homemade macaroni hands down. She never makes it cause its too bad for me but when she does I melt like the cheese into the noodle. A close second was the Crabb's London Broil.... hmmm i'm gettin hungry
Trip Quote: "Take it Easy" Explanation that won't convey the story well at all: The crabb's parked poorly infront of the cabin. They have an SUV and parked it pointed down hill on a gravel surface. All good if it was a 4x4... but it wasn't. So after carefully going back and forth and spinning the tires a bit we got the thing out and we're heading out when this dill in a tie comes from the house next door and asks, "Whats going on!" in a not nice tone. We explain that we got stuck and we're ok thinking he must be concerned with our safety. He very rudely goes... "well.... take it easy...." in a condescending tone that in no way meant for us to take it easy as in relax, but to take it easy on the prescious gravel that we had moved. I then proceeded to use the phrase, "Take it Easy" every five minutes to bring some levity to the situation. The guy was a dill... he probably was a 7th day adventist and was mad that we didn't worship on the correct day (deduced by the tie on a saturday---no one should wear a tie on a saturday--Holton's opinion number 45).
Only Souvenir: Scarlet Fox Wine from Interesting Dutch Wine Guy
Good German Food Eaten: Ruebens. Though not very different they were good, and cheaper than the authentic German food.
Most Oxmoronic Food Eaten: A Philly Cheesesteak, ordered in Helen GA, at a German Cafe... explain that one to someone from Philly, specifically Dave Graham...

A Beautiful Beer

PBR's have to be one of the greatest inventions known to man, a pint of beer for a dollar.... a dollar I tell you. And surprisingly enough they're not that bad, frankly I like them more than BL's and Buds. Plus they're BIGGER and they won a blue ribbon back in 1802.

A little St. Louis everywhere

As we hiked along friday afternoon last week at Foster Falls Tennessee, I happen to see a cup in the distance that looked very familiar. However it has no connection to the surrounding states, but rather is a Ted Drews Cup from St. Louis. Ted Drews is the best Ice Cream (or if you will custard) St. Louis has to offer, but how it made it this far, I don't know.

What Lies Beneath... in my basement

Today I had the horrible task of laying the vapor barrier in our basement. Basically its laying plastic on top of the dirt so that the moisture doesn't seep upwards into the basement. So hopefully this will stop things from getting moldy and keep our dehumidifier from working overtime.

Though While I started cleaning the debris out of the basement--glass, old pieces of metal, wood, and what not I noticed something that looked kind of strange.... here's a picture...
height="240" border="0" />
Now you might say, what in the world is that??? As I did when I first saw it under some debris
So here's a better picture...

And here's the full monty!

Thats right, a dead cat... No its not Smokey the inlaw's cat... unfortunately, but its was both, scarry, cool, and very errie. Then what do I find next to it but this...

I'm guessing this is some sort of ground hog or mole or something. I'm no animal expert. Though after finding these and a dog's tooth in our garden I'm starting to think this house was built on an old Pet Semetary. All I need to hear now is the Ramones going, "I DON"T WANNA BE BURRIED IN A PET SEMETARY.... I JUST WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE AGAIN!!!"

But nevertheless I pressed on and continued laying the plastic down. It was very cumbersome and I only got half way, though I did the harder half first so the rest should go quickly do to less duct work to work around. It was a horrible time though and I gashed my leg pretty bad on some hooks and banged my knee. I must say the explitives flew as I was home alone and in my basement. I'm hoping to possibly knock it out soon, though getting the nerve to go into the dirt has been hard, evidenced by it taking me three months to start it.

Holton's Go Camping

We went to Foster Falls last night for a bit of camping. It was a lot of fun, exercise, and escape-iness. Foster Falls is a great place to camp because
1. Its free
2. Its about 20 minutes away
3. No one knows about it because it doesn't have a website and is not on the state website for parks.

It has some great swimming, camping, hiking, and climbing, though we opted for just the middle two. I took a ton of pictures, but two things are ticking me off right now. First off is my camera. Its pictures aren't coming out right and I'm pretty much doing everything I can by the book so its kind of just annoying me. A good 1/4 of my pictures were just trash. Also I check my pictures offline, they look fine, then I upload them, the look terrible on the website, not sure why because if I click on the same picture, same file offline its fine. So here are a few that made the uploading process.

Here's a picture of the falls.

Good old beans cooked via fire! We forgot a spoon so I went old school and took a stick and widdled out the middle of it to fashion a spoon for me wife! It worked well and gave the whole trip a more survivor feel.

Here's the tent in its errected state. It was a bit difficult to get going but is rather huge, the demensions of this pic are off so it looks smaller than it is, Its a four man tent, but it would be pretty snugg with four in there.

"I HAVE MADE FIRE!!! COME ON BABY LIGHT MY FIRE!!!" Tom Hanks---Cast Away

We made some good old dogs via the fire, as noticed, I'm a bit crazy. Wifey was like, "Pose normal..." Which I explained that this was my normal pose.

I was so tired after hiking, setting the tent up, making the fire, and all that I just couldn't even lift my arms to eat.

We had a really good time, but were not up for more than a night. We almost cancelled at the threat of rain, but wifey explained that it was now or never. I'd camped there twice before and its really nice and secluded though the area around the park is getting more and more developed as people look for other living solutions than Chattanooga. I hate the fact that I have every camping gear necessity yet I never use it. I had never used my ridge rest for camping outdoors, I had never used my pack for camping (only ireland) so it was good to go out and use all the gear. Though You kind of feal funny carrying the entire world on your shoulders for a night but it wasn't a big deal.

We're just going to relax for the rest of the weekend. I may go for a ride tomorrow if I have time. Monday I'll probably have to do some work on the house either mow the lawn or finally put some a moisture barrier down in the basement which I've been meaning to do since we bought this place.

Bike Ride

I had a crap bike ride today, I barely made it to Ruby Falls and was just beat to the street. I turned back a little past Ruby Falls after I just realized I wasn't going to get any better, though I kept going hoping I'd conquer my fatigue. But I figured since tomorrow I'm riding with a buddy from work I'd better save it for tomorrow. I've also decided that I might not should (like that?) ride every day. I think I need to give my body time to recoop after each ride. And maybe once I'm the shizzle i can push it every day. But as I am far from the shizzle I should just work on improving my form and lung capacity. Wifey thought it was a good idea to not go every day but I finally found a form of exercise that I enjoy. I hated running even when i was moderately in shape, I hate weight lifting because of my hatred of gyms, and Badminton? Well it just doesn't get the heart up enough.