Serious Trouble

There was this team of goons. Wild west type goons that were trying to kill my girlfriend my mother and my puppies. They continuely came back and time after time I would beat them back. There was about eight or so but they were relentless. Finally 3 demons appeared and offered to help both sides if only to see who would ultimately win if only to promote the bloodshed and ultimately see a winner in this battle. The first was a wise monkey who gave me long suffering. As long as he was in my life I would suffer. I think he represented addictions/envy. The next never took shape but caused my flesh to randomly tear off in strips. This was guilt I think. The last was a griffin who had endured even worse pain than I can imagine. This was fear I think. He whipped me several times with his tail so I could taste his pain. This was the only one of the three demons I actually spoke to. I told him that from the beating I received from him I could tell that his pain was far greater than I could ever feel and that I had an intimate respect for that. All these demons did while the goons would attack me at night is just watch and help out occasionally on either side. Finally, they gave in and realized that I was not going to be defeated nor was I going to win against the constant barage of cowboy goons. At one point they stopped the fighting and said we are in an eternal struggle and that only by drinking from the same sweet tea would peace between us be achieved. The monkey demon said all this as he laid out the tea and I got the impression of the yin yang but not the traditional yin yang the one with three opposing forces wrapped in an eternal struggle. I went to reach for the tea and woke up.

July 1st 2005 3:45 am

Moving to a new blog

Go here for the latest. This blog is going away.

Hell has frozen over and I am back to blogging!

Back once again, haven't blogged in almost 6 weeks. Here is the run down. The trip to yellowstone was awesome. Blog to follow. Circjobs is a done deal. That side gig was killing me. Working at a lesiurely pace now with AMF. Rob and I are building a membership system for them pro bono. Laura is doing fine and we are having a good time. Mom is doing well enough, she is having problems with Arthritis so if you have any home remedies please feel free to let me know. I am battling stupidity at work when it comes to LDAP on the mainframe versus Active Directory. Also .NET is kicking my butt trying to connect to a mainframe LDAP just to check mother's maiden name for a single sign on project at work. Other things on the Mike P front... I am beginning work on a new personal site details will be released later. Let's just say its going to be a custom fancy blog with calendar and lots of goodies. More details to follow. Here is a pic with me and my band.

Take care and have a good day.

The day before Yellowstone 2k5

Just a quick note. Laura and I are packing up to head off into the backcountry of Wyoming, deep into the heart of Yellowstone National Park. Yes, I am determined to get my as chewed on by a bear if it kills us both.

Today, brought several trips to various stores for a variety of camping accuterments. But I think all in all we are ready to go. I for one will be ready for a serious break from laptops, programming and just life in general.

For the duration of our relationship, Laura and I have been road warriors. We both have driven 100 + miles for the past year and half to see each other one way. Every weekend we take turns or since her recent move to South Arlington, her and I have been flying on occasion. Regardless we are true tried and tested road warriors for love. So as only true road warriors would vacation we are flying into Denver only to rent a car and haul ass 594 miles to Yellowstone National. Here is the mapquest information.

Back to packing, then eat then watch Blade Trinity, sleep then hit the road jack at 6 am tomorrow. Ready or not here we come.

The Treo 600 (You ain't up on this!)

Being a geek, and subsequently loving all things that are geeky, e.g. cell phones, pdas mp3 players, laptops, Star Wars and the like, I drooled the momment the first Treo burst on the scene back in 2001.

I bought a handspring visor back in the same year but the Treo had everything I wanted the cellphone and the Palm OS with all its array of various downloads and functionality. I freakin had a boner for it, but I couldn't justify it to myself. $400 for a cellphone is steep even for a die hard gadget freak like me.

So with the income tax check hitting the bank and the snide comment or two about the grandpa phone. I had to break down. No, I more likely could wait to break down. I was peeing my pants to buy this damn phone. I have kept an eye on these bastards for 4 years. The 650 came out around November of last year. So I knew prices would eventually drop on the 600. (I am still a cheap skate when it comes to technology.) But my god I had 4 years of crappy phones, filled pockets with other "necessary" gadgets and a buring desire to get the all in one.

The point of failure came when Rob came to my cube and said "Hey, Mahon let's go to the mall so I can get a new phone." After about a nanosecond of hesitation I agreed and we left for the mall. I knew from research that Verizon was 1) offering the Treo 650 in the next few weeks and 2) that Verizon is the best from consumer reports. So I knew who my carrier would be.

I walked up to the counter and they of course asked if they could help me. Help me... Save me more like. Save me from this burning freaking desire to get a damn uber phone, to fill the void in my life caused by MP3 players, cell phones, pdas, cameras and memory sticks all being strewn about the wasteland of my backpack like dead soliders in the war for the unifying theory of personal technology.

"Hell yes you can help me." But they couldn't They don't sell the Treo 600 at the mall. But they do at Circuit City! I couldn't hardly wait for 5 o'clock to roll around. I think I had a fine film of foam around my mouth at this time. My gadget libdo was in overdrive and nothing short of a blatant techno-orgy would fulfill it.

So 5pm rolled around and I headed straight for the shangri-la of Circuit City. I was prepared to spend around $400 bucks for the Treo 600. I was a nervous wreck though because my credit sucks and I thought for certain I would be turned down.

The Verizon guy set me free though in about 2 minutes when he told me that I wouldn't have to put down anything and that I could get the Treo if I wanted. Not only no down but he gave me the mail in rebates as instant rebates plus an additional rebate of $50 bucks. So out the door I rolled out with a uber phone for $162 bucks and change.

Its been almost two weeks now and I still love it. Taking pictures and emailing like a mad man. I have racked up almost 20 mg of downloads on the phone so far. I have no fear of space though since Wal-Mart had a 1 gig SD memory card for $83 bucks. I am so happy with this phone and with Verizon. Great service tons of features and a new world of software has opened up for me. Time now to learn some Palm OS programming stuff. Once I have something written and tested I will post it up for all to download. Have fun and whatever you do look good doing it.

Mike P

The 15 Mile Midnight Riders

It's 1:58 am and I will be peddeling my ass off in exactly 24 hours. Why? Because I am insane? Because I don't own a car? Because I want to be healthy? Too all those questions the answer is postively and uncatagorically NO. The truth of the matter is I have a nut case for a best friend, who tirelessly drags me in to odd and strange situations if only for the "life" experience.

The route and logistics are all laid out on his blog. http://divineguitar.blogspot.com/ and you can read his take on this trip. I, however am still up at this late hour, writting some code for something I really don't care about and I only want to sleep. Tomorrow @ midnight, no, probably more like 1:45 am on perhaps mile 11 of our midnight run, we may not be such close of friends but I will try to keep a smile on my face and air in my lungs.

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