Pulpreligion

Bold new url...

2009-02-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

... same lousy content.

We've moved the blog to blog.pulpreligion.org as I make some adjustments and search for a place to host my main page, which will probably just be a landing page at this point.

Don't forget to update your links.

--P

Blogger failure

2009-01-05T13:50:00.001-08:00

Somehow Google's killed my blog. If you can see this, then it's working again.

I really hate having to deal with google support.

--Chris

Yay! It's working now.

Because of some odd configuration (read google hasn't reset www.pulpreligion.org yet) I have to use the ip address rather then the name of the google redirect server.

They changed the IP it seems.

-C

Analogies gone wild

2008-08-15T15:36:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of www.zoitz.com

FOUND: One shoe box, contents disclosed within

2008-03-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

So Mrs. Pope and I were out this past Sunday doing some running around. We'd decided to finish up our shopping and take the kids to the park. It was a beautiful day out and I decided to take the little road that ran around behind the mall, rather then get on the highway, to get to the park. We were riding behind this gold colored sedan when it suddenly moved into the opposing lane of traffic (not a big deal, we were in the mall parking lot still, and there was no oncoming traffic.) and the driver hung a shoe box out the side of the car. I pretty much knew that the driver was going to toss the shoe box off into the bushes, so I honked the horn as if to say 'Hey, I'm right behind you here, and I'd rather you not do that'.

Undeterred the driver flipped the box over onto the embankment of the creek that runs behind the mall and proceeded to make a U-turn. I was none to pleased with the drivers blatant littering, so I followed. My wife took pictures of the back of the other car, and we wrote down the license plate number before returning to ' the scene of the crime'. I hopped out of the car and walked over to where the box lay on the embankment and the box is moving.

The area we are in is one that frequently sees stray cats getting left there, so my first thought is, this box has a kitten or something alive in it. I call the police, the police number tells me to call 911, and I do, relating the entire story so far to the dispatcher. They assure me that a car is on the way and I let them know I'll be waiting.

Just after I get off the phone with 911, my wife walked over from car and joined me on the embankment. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she leaned over and opened the box just enough to see what was inside. 'Oh my God!' she exclaimed and stepped back from the box in horror. This was just to much for me. I went to where I could see into the box, and sitting there, in the box is a approximately 10 inch blue vibrator gyrating merrily next to what I could only assume was a bottle of lube.

The officer arrived shortly there after and I retold the tale to the officer who responded thusly: 'You mean like a dildo?' he said. "Yes" I said. With undisguised disgust he reached into a uniform pocket and removed a pair of lytex gloves before reaching into the box, removing the vibrator, and turning it off.

It's really really strange what people throw by the side of the road.

If this is your vibrator, I suspect you'll have to contact the Medford Police to claim it.

And here it is nearly March

2008-02-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

Normaly I try to post more often at the beginning of the year, mostly because all of my major time consuming projects are finished, and I've got a little spare time. Not so this year. Currently I'm working on a major project for work that's required nearly constant meetings and a trip to Google HQ.

Home life has only been slightly less hectic. Mrs. Pope and I are expecting the arrival of a new little pope this summer. That a long with the normal pile of start of year things has me a little strapped for time. But it's good, keeping busy has made the first couple of months of the year just fly by.

So, as I said above, I recently went on a business trip to Google HQ. It was nice, these folks really know how to take care of their employees (In general, I'm sure that some would disagree). It depresses me a little every time I have to look at these blue cube walls. Their campus is huge. The small area that I had time to see had 4 buildings, a major cafeteria, a secondary restraunt, a very cool search statistic display, mini-kitchens around every corner, a pool, gym, laundry. I didn't see a kitchen sink, but I'm sure there was one there.

Crazy sauce.
--Pope

Opera files complaint — an open letter to the Web community

2007-12-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

It's about time.

Opera files complaint — an open letter to the Web community

12 Bugs of Christmas

2007-11-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

My wife sent this to me the other day. Seems fitting somehow.

12 Bugs of Christmas

Official Google Reader Blog: Feed Your Television

2007-05-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Official Google Reader Blog: Feed Your Television
Hehe. I'll have to try this when I get home. Not 100% sure why I would want to use reader on my crappy old TV, but it does have a sort of 'coolness factor'

--Chris

Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so.

2007-05-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Holy crap kids. I sense a great loss of time in my future.
Blizzard Entertainment

On the other hand, it will likely be a couple of years till blizzard gets done with this, so I've got some time to prep.

Jades 8th Birthday, Mothers Day, and Flaming Bananas

2007-05-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Jade turned 8 this past weekend, and we had her birthday party on Saturday. Her core group of friends showed up and a great time was had by all. It was pretty low key, mostly because of how busy we've been the last couple of weeks. Jade seemed to really enjoy herself though, and by the end of the party was wearing the decapitated head of the piñata from earlier in the day and a pair of new sunglasses.

Then Sunday was Mothers day. Bri wanted breakfast for mothers day this year, so we dropped Amelia off with her grandma and headed over to the Morning Glory in Ashland for breakfast. It's on of Bri's favorite places to eat, and is quite yummy. Plus they have large cups of coffee, a life saver for those of us who don't really like to get up on the weekends. The place was packed! It's fortunate that it was only the two of us, we pulled up a couple of stools at their counter and set about ordering breakfast. I had a french toast dish stuffed with ham and swiss. It was great. There's very little you cannot add ham and cheese to and not have it come out better. Bri' was slightly less impressed with her breakfast, an omelet stuffed with asparagus, bacon, and brie. It seemed to be lacking in cheese, and fell all to pieces on her plate. After breakfast we wondered around downtown Ashland for a while, then went back to Bri's grandmothers to visit with her, and to hang out with Bri's mom.

Later that evening we went over to my parent's place for dinner. There was a miscommunication and we ended up being late for dinner, but hung out anyway as I had desert to cook. I made Bananas Foster, which was a blast. I've never tried flambé before, and was a little concerned about being able to pull it off and not have it tasting heavily of rum. But it turned out quite well.

Tea, Ashland Hospital, Boston, Fair

2007-05-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

About time I post something! Been busy with life, liberty and the pursuit of not going crazy. Started playing Travian. It's kind of a combo between Civ and Settlers of Catan. It's been enjoyable so far. As for Tea, I've been drinking Zhena's Gypsy Tea's Earl Grey. It's a pretty good blend and is enjoyable for bagged tea.

Briana's grandma has been in and out of Ashland hospital the last couple of weeks. What started as stomach surgery has turned into an ordeal that's just going on and on. She's out of the hospital now, but no thanks to the nurses and staff at said hospital. Between their lack of timely medication delivery, rotten bed side manner, and general lack of paitent care by some of the staff, we we're seriously afraid for her. I highly encourage the avoidance of Ashland Hospital. Even with the higher patient to care provider ratio at RVMC, I'd rather go there.

I've got a couple of trips lined up in the next couple of months. The first is a week long jaunt to Boston for training on the search system we use at work. Should be fun, but I'm a bit wary of Boston in June. I'm gonna plan for chewable air.

Then in July we're taking our yearly trip to Oregon Country Fair. I'll be working on the nighttime security team again. It was pretty fun last year, so I expect a good time will be had this year. I suspect we'll be camping behind Canterbury Candles again this year, hopefully sans the drama from of last years fair.

Ninja Attack!!! A meme

2007-03-23T15:10:00.001-07:00

St. Valentine's Day 2007

2007-02-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

A Valentine for my wife

So here comes another Valentines day
And though my beard is a little more gray
It's all okay because I am with you.

Two lovely girls are growing fast
And I know that this time won't last
But it's okay because I am with you.

So here's to another year
I'm sure it will bring us cheer
And I can only attribute it to you.

Happy Valentine's day, my love.

Somebody set up us the bomb

2007-02-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Whoa, A bomb threat in Medford. You've gotta be kidding.

Bomb threat at KTVL

Did I miss a memo or something? When did a local TV station in backwater Oregon become a serious target for detonation?

If the guy is looking for media attention, he's got it in spades.

Google Hijacked my Domain, well kinda.

2007-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

Recently I started fooling around with the Custom Domain settings for blogger. It was pretty neat, and for about a week I had this blog fully functional and answering to requests for http://www.pulpreligion.org. Then it broke. Suddenly. And all that can be seen there is that strange 404 (which does not look like the normal blogger 404).

I moved the custom domain settings to answer to pulpreligion.org at that point, and that's what you see here. When I try to move it back to www.pulpreligion.org google complains that there is already a blog hosted there. (The magic 404 blog, it seems.)

The really agrivating part is I can't seem to get a message/bug report to anyone with the power to fix this issue. I've been on the mailing list for blogger problems, but haven't gotten an official message on a fix.

And the help site is less then helpful.

I wonder if it's time to start shopping around for a new site to blog on.

R.I.P R.A.W

2007-01-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Robert Anton Wilson January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007

Hail Eris.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-08T16:46:00.000-08:00

Happy 2k7 folks.

The new year is only 1 week old and already I'm needing a vacation. Mostly it's personal stuff, moving my Grandmother out of the Los Angles area, getting the house back into order after the Holidays, and so on.

Resolutions? More like goals. I'd like to loose a little weight for one. I've never been in great shape, but recently I weighed myself and discovered I'm at the heaviest point I've ever been. I'd also like to get the house into a sellable state this year.

At the very least 2007 should prove interesting.

Flying, Maryland, and the beer that followed us.

2006-07-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

So recently I went on a business trip to Maryland. Having never been there before, I thought it might be a good time. Knowing it was going to take me about 6 hours flying time to get there, I was a little concerned. But one of my traveling companions assured me that they would do everything they could to get me into a seat that would accommodate my 6'5" sell.

So off to the airport I went, bags in hand. We flew United. The lady at the United counter decided to let a couple just swing in front of us while we waited for our flight. And then chastised us for not being their a half hour before our flight. Mind you, we waited about that long for them to deal with the couple that, for lack of a better term, 'cut' in front of us. The customer (dig)service rep was downright nasty, and I was in no mood for it. It was 5:45 in the morning, and I had less then 5 minutes to get to the plane because of her. Then she couldn't figure out how to check us in. All this could have been avoided if their automated self-check in at the airport was working properly.

Finally, just before take off, we're on the plane. Yay! I settled into the tiny space provided for me, forced my legs into the back of the seat in front of me, and got ready for the short jump to Portland.

This is my second, and hopefully last, time flying United. In general I find their aircraft to be less accommodating then other airlines I've flown. The have one row toward the back of the plane, at least on the small planes, where a person of my size doesn't have to 'fold' into the seat. Unfortunately this row was taken by our company execs. Grr, to have money.

We arrived in Portland and I unpretzled myself, and walked the short distance to the gate we were making our connection at. The customer service rep there was quite nice and took care of the check in problems the woman in Medford couldn't. That was nice, and we waited for our next plane to bored.

The plane for the 5 hour flight to Washington's Dulles airport was an Airbus A319. I was pleasantly surprised I could stand upright in it! I thought, oh, this is not to bad. I moved to my assigned seat, 24D. Row 24 is the last row of the plane. Right up next to the wall. No leaning my seat back, and slightly less leg room then most of the seats. In addition to this, the lady sitting in the seat in front of my couldn't figure out why her seat wouldn't go back (my knees) and kept slamming her body weight into it to get it 'unstuck'.

ARG

Anyway, the rest of the trip was pretty good. We ate both nights in 'downtown' Frederick, MD. The first night we ate at a small brewpub on market street. I don't recall the name, nor do I recall the beer, except to note that they haven't discovered hops yet. Their IPA in particular was completely uncorrupted by anything that could have classified it as IPA. Pale, I think is the only thing they got right.

The Second night we ate at a very nice restaurant called Firestone (across from the brew pub, in fact). They had a very good beer selection, mostly imported from other areas. Of note was their offering of Rogue ales. Rogue Brewery is in Newport, OR. It's not more then a 4 or 5 hour drive from home. I could pick up a beer from Rogue for about 7 or 8 bucks a six pack. This restaurant offered the Rogue hazelnut ale, for a whopping 10 bucks a bottle. I may just have to start importing beer to Maryland.

The next day we flew back. More of the same, cramped assed plane. This time however, there we're Friken' SNAKES on the Friken' plane!

Thank god for humor, without it crappy flights cross country would suck.

Random pondering

2006-05-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

If you die from a disease named after you, is it considered suicide?

--Pope

Lost

2006-03-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

So over the weekend my wife and I stayed at the Bad Taste B&B over in the Colestine Valley. Great little place, kinda strange house, but it was good to get up into the mountains for a night. We stayed there with my wife's mother, and several of her mothers friends to celebrate her mom's birthday which is later this week. As the day was getting latter, my wife and I retired to our bedroom to put the baby down for bed, I came out of the bedroom about an hour or so later, and Gina (My wife's Mom), Tracy, Tim, Maya, and a Dark haired girl I didn't recognize were sitting around the table, having a drink and chatting. I went into the kitchen to make myself something to drink, and then went to the table. I figured the dark haired girl was Tim's new girlfriend or something. Then Gina introduced me, kinda. Turns out the dark haired girl had been skiing down the south face of Mount Ashland, and had taken a fall, lost her friends that were with her, and spent 24 hours in the mountains. She walked from the Mountain down to where we were, which I should mention is really far, and spent Saturday night covered in snow under a tree. I guess she had walked up to the door and asked 'Can I use your phone? I slept under a tree last night.' She got ahold of her friends and they came a picked her up to take her to the EMT's on the mountain and get her medical attention (It's pretty damn cold up on that mountain at night).

Brrrrr.

Host file ad blocking

2006-03-16T14:59:00.001-08:00

This is a downloadable 'hosts' file that redirects most of the Web Ad companies to the local host. Creates broken images, but works great if you don't want to see/hear the Ads.

--Chris

b33r

2006-02-24T22:34:00.000-08:00

We here in the pacific northwest have been blessed with an abundance of good beer. As I type this, I'm drinking a 'Blackstrap Stout' by Bridgeport. It's smoth, dark, and oh so nummy (and goes great with pizza).

In Oregon, and I assume most of the northwest, there are appear to be two types of beer drinkers (I'm just talking about beer drinkers here). Those who have embraced the microbrewery, and those that would rather stick to their tried but true Lager. For the most part I feel that Lagers have their place in the world. They're wet, normally cold, and pretty good at getting you drunk if you drink them in a hurry, and that's what you are going for. When I started drinking beer Lager was where it was at, because mostly that's what you could get easily. Then I was introduced to Ales.

Ales are those seductive beers with real flavor. They range in quality from the very low (we're talking Henry's here) to the very high. The higher end having a better and more traditional flavor IMHO.

For those of you who look at these strange 'ale' critters and then buy your Bud, I would like to challenge you to try something different. You may hate it, but you may not. And if you do hate it, your no worse for having tried it see. Here are some personal tips that I find handy when selecting a beer:

1.) The closer to you, the better it is (generaly).
Try to select a brewery relitively close to home. It doesn't have to be down the street, or even in the same state. But same region helps.

2.) Don't select a beer based on the packaging.
It doesn't matter if the package looks cool, the beer is what counts. I have had some truely excelent beers in some of the most non-descript packaging you could imagine.

3.) Good beer doesn't come in cans.
There are some notiable exceptions to this rule, but I recommend you try the non-canned versions first.

4.) Ask questions.
If you don't know where to start asking a clerk at the market, or better someone who is selecting or has selected a beer already.

And now, my list of people to trust in beer making. At least, in the Pacific Northwest:

1.) Bridgeport
This article started because of one of their beers. I have yet to have one that I don't like.

2.) Deschutes
Mmmmmm. Porter. Many other fine beers come from these guys. Probably the most widely distributed brewery. (I got a Black Butte in Reno NV. Once. I was lucky)

3.) Caldera
One of the more local distrubted brews here. They're normaly very high quality, and tasty.

4.) Portland Brewing
Good quality ales, one of the few that provide a 'mix pack' where you can buy a case and try many different flavors.

5.) Jefferson State Brewery
Not sure if these guys are still around, the beer was great though.

Those are the first five that come to mind. Hey, If I missed your favorite brew, <shameless plug>get me some and I'll see that they make the list.</shameless> ;)

Valentine's Haiku

2006-02-14T00:12:00.000-08:00

This is a Haiku I wrote for my wife for Valentine's day. I hope she likes it.

Winter Narcissus
Blooms in Cold, without your love
Where I could not grow

The red rose of spring
It's lovely flower famous
Pales in your presence

The morning glory
Summers beauty has limit
Yours forever seen

Marigold's flower
Falls bounty in bright colors
Greater is my love

Sanity... . Slipping... Away...

2006-01-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

I think Cowthulu ate my head....

Damn you John Kovalic

Actual Window Manager

2006-01-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

Just downloaded this window manager package for Windows called Actual Window Manager. Looks great. It allows me to roll windows up (Just like my linux box at work). Make a window transparent with a click. And it seems much faster then Window Blinds/Window FX.

Mmmm. Wasabi!

2006-01-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

These are the best chips EVER. Period. I was wandering through 7-11 last Friday night picking up drinks for my wife and I when I saw the goodness that is Tim's Wasabi chips. I don't know if they sell these outside of our region (Pacific Northwest). But I highly recommend them. Just two damn good.

Friday night was the first board game night I've been to in quite a while. Having a new baby kills the social life a little. I got there to watch the tail end of a game of Samurai. Looked interesting and I hope to give it a try sometime. Finished the night up with a 7 player game of Ninja Burger. That game is a riot.

In other news, for the next two weeks, I'm a Seahawks fan. I don't think they can beat the Steelers, but it sure would be cool if they did. Good luck guys.

Alton Brown in 2K8?

2006-01-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Um, I'd vote yes. ;)

(Found this in a fark thread.)

ZOMBIES ate Cambodia

2006-01-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

Oooooh Zombies: http://65.127.124.62/south_asia/4483241.stm.htm

(Yes. I know it's a joke. )

Crazy Test and stuff

2006-01-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

So, I've setup an account at blogger to hang on to my blog posts. And with any luck, I'll be able to use my site pulpreligion.org to front end this. This post is mostly a test to see if I can get the new setup working.

--Pope