to all the spammers out there

To the robots who are programmed to swipe my e-mail address from everywhere on the net:

I do not want software to spy on other people. I already have two legitamite degrees of my own that I earned, and am going to go for a third. I don’t care about your weight-loss system. I have all the inkjet cartridges I need. I don’t smoke as it is, so I don’t need to quit.

I have no need for a “no down payment” mortgage. My credit card payments are just fine, thank you. Your investment plans do not interest me. I don’t care about making $1200 a week in your little “no-risk moneymaker.” I’m sure everyone else is a winner too.

I don’t need anything enlarged. I don’t need medication of any kind, and definitely not the kind you’re peddling. Your “celebrity” pictures are doctored, and I don’t care anyway. I don’t want to see you on a webcam doing anything, much less what you claim you’ll be doing.

If you have more than three letters in a row on your e-mail address that don’t make up part of a name, you’re deleted. If you have more than 5 numbers in a row on your e-mail address, you’re deleted. If you sent anything to my Yahoo! account, you’re immediately deleted, because I don’t use it for anything but a throwaway e-mail address anyway. If you send me mail from a Hotmail account and aren’t in my address book, you’re deleted.

In short, go away.

now we wait…again

So I called up a temp agency this morning and sent them my résumé. The lady told me that if my qualifications matched something, they’d let me know. I guess I should get off the phone line…

designer’s block

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For quite a while now, I’ve been thinking of redesigning my site. It’s had the same form now for at least a year, and it’s time for a new look.

The problem is, for inspiration I’m looking around at the sites that I tend to frequent, and all of them seem to have similar structure and layout. I’m wanting something different, but since I’m not actually a designer, I’m at a bit of an impasse.

So I’ll keep working at it. Who knows? Maybe I’ll figure something out eventually. Maybe then, I can truly call myself a web designer. 🙂

fleeting

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Today has been a long day. And it’s not been a very good day.

This morning, I went to church and found that the brother of one of my friends had been killed in an automobile accident. I didn’t find out anything more about it. I do know that he was younger than I am.

After I came home, I looked at a site featuring local news and learned that the grandmother of my childhood best friend had passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 84. She was something of a grandmother to me as well in my early years. She helped me a lot in my early walk with God. I’m glad that she got to be a great-grandmother, if only for a little while.

It’s hard learning about something about the death of someone like that. Much less friends’ relatives.

As a result, I’m staying down here for another day, and I’ll head back to Birmingham on Tuesday. That’s when I’ll break my big news, too. There’s really nothing preventing me from doing it right now, but I think that I’m going to hold off on it. My life is not the important one right now. A friend has lost a relative after she spent a long while here on Earth walking with the Lord. Another has lost one long before what we’d think was “his time”. Both families are hurting. Prayers would be welcomed.

Life is fleeting. I’m excited about the prospects for my future, but I have to remember that my future isn’t set in stone, and I don’t know how long I have here. None of us know if we get our next breath. Let’s be thankful for the time that we do have. Whatever time we have, it’s short.

…here on German Mountain

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As I type this, I am in the same spot where I practiced 3-point shots from the top of the key when I was young. My basketball court (who knows how many national championships were won on it) and goal were replaced with an outside office/storage area a few years ago.

The bedroom that I grew up in has long been changed. It was originally a porch before walls and a ceiling were added. It’s now a walk-in closet of sorts. The bedroom that I used for most of my high-school years has been converted to have more of a guest-bedroom feel. The wall decorations that marked a boy’s passage into manhood – pennants, news clippings of Alabama’s ’93 Sugar Bowl win, and other things that have long since escaped my mind – taken down, replaced with more formal decor.

The living room of my youth is now my parents’ bedroom. The old patio that I played on when I was young – I still remember the how the cracks ran in the concrete – was replaced with the new living room, and later a deck was added outside of it.

All the pine trees that once stood so tall have been uprooted. Three of them once held two hammocks – one for me, one for my sister. The red top that grew near the old basketball goal is gone now as well. It was the only tree that my sister and I would climb, because it was the only one that had a branch within grasping reach.

This house and yard have undergone many changes during the time that I’ve lived here. But no matter what changes take place physically, it has never ceased to be my home.

Message in a bottle

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For the past week, until this morning, I had not been on the Internet at all.

That is the longest stretch that I can remember not getting online voluntarily since I started college. I just haven’t wanted to. To those who e-mailed me (hey, Ricky!), I’m sorry that I haven’t e-mailed back sooner. I just haven’t felt up to it.

I was sick the first part of the week. The last half of the week, the only avenue that I had to getting online was unavailable to me until the evening, and I didn’t take advantage of it then.

I’m at my home. Well, the home where my parents live. The lines have gotten blurry over the last year, as I’ve divided my time between three dwelling places. I’ll pop up from time to time again on my online home, but until I get back to Birmingham, updates are probably going to be sparse, unless I just get rolling.

Hope everyone out there’s doing all right.

ocean sights

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Yesterday, I went to the ocean.

Every time I make the trip down here, I go to the ocean. I always go to the same place: Satellite Beach. I find a shell for a souvenir for the trip (I’m now up to five), and I walk in the incoming wash. I never stay very long – usually about 15 minutes.

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at the (welded) seams

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My car is falling apart.

For the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that the engine was running loudly. My grandfather noted it before then. My dad says that this is a wheel bearing that needs replacement. I don’t know what a wheel bearing is.

The brakes are squealing again, and I know enough to know that this means that the brake pads probably need replacing again. I also know that the rotors probably should be shaven down, but they cannot because their diameter is too small already. I only know this because I remember the mechanic saying it the last time I had the brake pads replaced, about a year ago.

My car is leaking coolant again. It’s a very slow leak. This isn’t the first time. I bought some coolant to make sure that it was topped off so I wouldn’t overheat the engine, but other than that I don’t know what I can do with it.

And finally, for the second time in three trips to Florida, my air conditioning has gone out. I would say that this meant that I needed to change the freon, but I got freon after the other time it happened to me when I came down here. Therefore, I do not know the solution to this problem either.

The final analysis: my car needs to go into the shop, and I know nothing about cars.

Live from Florida

I’ve taken a bit of a break from the site recently. I’ve been home, and yesterday I made the seven-and-a-half hour trip to Viera, Florida, where my sister and brother-in-law live.

Yesterday, I found out that my transcripts hadn’t reached Florida yet for some reason. I’ve spent the morning trying to get the situation rectified. Hopefully, it’s okay now.

What are the plans for me while I’m down here? I don’t really know. I do know that Brianna and Mike have an off day tomorrow, but they’ve got stuff to do. We’ll figure something out; it’s always fun down here in Florida.