The Machine That Made Me the Man I am Today

Sure, like you have anything better to be doing than reading about people reminiscing about the Commodore 64 on CNN.com.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Taken on my way into the Hong Kong office. Humidity caused the lens to fog up and take this impressionistic picture.

See the Sky About to Rain

082407_19381a.jpg, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Taken in the middle of proverbial nowhere when I was driving back from southern Georgia. I drove there to buy a pinball machine and the trip ended up taking about twice as long as I had suspected.

Well, I Laughed

The Internet is flooded with Chuck Norris related material. Don't tell me you haven't noticed that! Most of it is supposed to be funny, but is not. I finally have come across a Chuck Norris story that made me laugh. It is the following:

Chuck Norris was the fourth wise man, who gave baby Jesus the gift of beard, which he carried with him until he died. The other three wise men were enraged by the preference that Jesus showed to Chuck's gift, and arranged to have him written out of the bible. All three died soon after of mysterious roundhouse-kick related injuries.

Places Named After Numbers

I was driving to work when I noticed this sequence of numbers.
Places named after numbers, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

By the Pool

By the pool, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Lisa, add a bench and towel hooks for out by the pool.

Update: A couple of people have emailed asking what this post means. It doesn't mean anything. I meant to text it to Lisa from Lowe's as idea for a bench to put out by the pool. I inadvertently sent it to the account to automatically post the cellphone picture to my blog as well. Mystery solved.

Crisis Averted

Crisis Averted, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Smog Town

Smog Town, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Tuesday fire

Hail No!

You would have preferred "Hail Hail Rock and Roll!" or "Hail to the Chief!"? Sorry, but those puns make zero sense in this context.

Spring in Atlanta or a Mustard Gas Attack?

Pollen is here, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

I took this picture as I was walking back to my car after jury duty. See the green mortar between the bricks? That’s no mortar, it’s pollen! See the green covering the bricks? Same thing. Thus begins the nightmare two or three weeks in the spring when Atlanta is drenched in pollen.

The pollen haze is one of two things that drive me crazy about Atlanta – rush hour traffic is the other. I cannot say which is worse. Traffic is year round, but the pollen fills the sky with a caustic haze that burns your nose and throat. It reminds me of the tear gas I smelled (from a great distance of course) when the police had to disperse the rowdy street crowd at a long ago Carbondale Halloween party.

Did I mention I have jury duty? That means I know how to choose. Or, as the judge told all of the potential jurors, I am “an upright and intelligent citizen.” I reluctantly choose traffic as being the greater of Atlanta’s two evils.

I can type no more into this cell phone – I want to go home.

A Boy and His Dog

A Boy and His Dog, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Nap time. It must be a pretty exciting Nascar race...

Wii will rock you

Wii will rock you, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

One of the cool things about the Wii is that if you have friends who are fellow Wii owners then their Miis randomly stage a parade in your machine. A friend of my friend Pete has decided to stage an impromptu one-person march on my Wii.

Happy 40th Birthday to Me

Puerto Rico Sunrise, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

I’m spending my birthday away from my family sitting here on the beach in Puerto Rico, but fear not - no wacky mid-life crisis for me. I’m on a business trip.

Not to brag or anything, but my life has had a few bumps along the way, but is turning out about as close to perfect as I could ever hope. I would have to be an idiot to have a mid-life crisis. I realize that was a softball pitch there – keep the obvious clever rejoinders to yourself please. And the Karma Police should note that I said I’m not bragging.

Louder than Bombs

After suffering through a perfect storm of every thing going wrong that could go wrong while transferring my web hosting from Earthlink to Namesecure, biroschik.com is back up and running. My thanks to the tens of you who noticed the site was down. It is nice to know somebody cares.

The steve at biroschik dot come email is still dead for now, but I can be reached at the Yahoo, Google and Mindspring addresses. Use the yahoo email if you want a quick response. Quick being a relative term. I find myself only checking emails once or twice a week these days. I will respond eventually, but I don't look at emails every day so let this website be your comfort until you hear from me.

Building the Perfect Beast

Wood bench, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

Making this wooden bench is not as easy as it looks. For example, I cut the slats for the bottom from 8-inch wide planks. There might be one or two extra slats in the discard pile.

Hurricane Feet

Feet, originally uploaded by biroschik2000.

As much as I tell myself it is not true, with my manicure, pedicure, and facial experience almost complete it is official – I have migrated from Yuppie to Maspie (Middle-aged suburban professional). I don’t feel very bad about the transition either.

I just coined the Maspie term off the top of my head, but feel free to use it.

The Price is Right

Too bad the actual price is only marked down to $199. The person who placed this on the machine had the right idea.

Where Kinder Eggs Come From

I'm ashamed to say I actually believed that Kinder Eggs were sold in cartons like these in Germany.

Home Again Home Again

Driving home after the first day back to work after Christmas vacation.

The Holidays are Officially Over

With the annual January 1 removal of the yard decorations thus ends another successfully Christmas Holiday Season.

I Know Scott Drinks More Than Coke

Nevertheless, I choose to take the high road and refuse to purchase this excellent Christmas ornament from Scott’s top competitor. The high road – that and even I, the master of the spontaneous purchase, refuse to pay $25 for a Godzilla ornament.

Band of the Hand

A test photo to make certain the camera phone is submitting pictures to the blog.

Happy New Year

One of my resolutions for the year is to update the website more frequently. I have decided the best way to do this is to let go. Surrender. I have always created my Site from scratch. Any sort of third party application I used I customized to look like the rest of the Site. Guess what? This is a big pain and an even bigger time sink. I find it tough to find time to add pictures to an online website when it takes four or five hours just to write the code for the pages. Whip a bunch of stuff up on Flickr? I can find time for that.

Starting with this Site re-launch, I am not going to sweat it if not every page on the Site looks the same. You are welcome not to sweat it as well.