Waiting On The Water

The little boy sat on the front porch and watched as his mother mowed the lawn.

The hot early afternoon sun pounded down on him, and he felt the rough concrete of the porch scrape his skin as he shifted positions, trying to stay comfortable.

The short awning over the front porch offered little in the way of shade. The sun was at such an angle that nearly all of the concrete surface was bathed in the afternoon light. He felt the top of his head and it was hot to the touch.

The little boy swallowed hard, having little moisture in his mouth to help him. He was thirsty and tried waving to his mother to get her attention. She was rather intent on mowing the lawn and did not see him.

He stepped out into the yard and waited for her to make another circuit. Around she came and saw him standing there. She slowed the yard tractor to a crawl and disengaged the blades. Throttling down she asked him what he wanted.

“Mama, can I get a drink of water? I’m thirsty.”

“I can’t unlock the house right now honey, I need to get the yard finished.”

“But Mama, I ain’t had a drink all day. I’m really thirsty.”

“No, you’ll just have to wait. I need to get this done.”

And with that she throttled the tractor back up, re-engaged the mower deck and set about her task of finishing the yard, leaving the little boy standing there watching as the tractor rumbled and rattled away.

He turned around and looked at the house. He had already tried the front door and it was locked. The garage door was closed and he didn’t have a way to open it as it was much too heavy for such a small boy to lift on his own. Trying to walk around the back of the house and go over the fence would only make Mommy come after him. He didn’t want Mommy to be mad at him for a drink of water.

Despair welled up in him as he walked back to the front porch and sat down again, the hot concrete stinging the exposed portions of his legs. Tears began to fall from his cheeks as he sat there and waited. He wiped his face and tasted the salt on his fingers. That helped at least a little.

He lay on the porch in the sun, watching his mother go around and around in her mindless task.

Silently he wept as he watched.

He was crying even harder when she finished and pulled up to go in the house.

“What’s the matter?” she said, obviously annoyed.

“I’m thirsty Mama” he managed to sob. He was hyperventilating slightly as children do when they are upset.

“Well then, get in the house we’ll get you a drink.”

She opened the door and they made their way into the kitchen so he could get his water. He drank greedily from the glass when it was offered, then asked for more when he emptied it.

She gave it to him and he made his way into the living room to sit in the floor. Tear tracks were still on his cheeks as his mother turned on the television to watch her afternoon soaps, then made her way to her chair.

The little boy sat alone on the floor with his water, forgotten. He picked at his tennis shoes while he sipped from the glass.

His mother sat in her chair and watched her show, blissfully unaware of the world around her.

The little boy cried as he made his way to his room, still sipping his water.

Why?

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is still my site, I’ve just changed the name to something a little more acceptable to my personal tastes. I’ve been growing more and more unhappy with the overall look, feel, and title of the site so I decided to do a little house cleaning and make a few changes.

So, “The Village Idiot” has become “Geek, Interrupted.”

I chose “Geek, Interrupted” because:

• I am a Geek
• I’m a family man, college student, and a Geek all at the same time. I find that life sometimes barges its way in when I least expect it as I’m sure it does to all of you as well. I wanted the title of the site to reflect this.
• “The Village Idiot” carries negative connotations, even though it was never in reference to myself.
• I wanted to build a more mainstream site that I could launch more short fiction and other stories from.
• My experience and familiarity with HTML and CSS, as well as Photoshop has led me to develop a better site.

So, I hope you enjoy the new look and feel. I look forward to your feedback.

Oh, and don’t mind the sawdust. I’m still cleaning up.

Doomed

I don’t normally make consecutive posts of unoriginal material, but I had to post this because it is a pretty powerful social commentary (at least from my warped perspective).

Little Gamers is Copyright 2000-2004 Christian Fundin & Pontus Madsen.

Danged Gnomes

Heh. This Red Meat strip is particularly funny. Bug-Eyed Earl always manages to make me laugh.

Red Meat is Property of and © 2004 Max Cannon.

Something

Our second open house was this past weekend. We netted two more visitors, both whom adored the house. Funny thing though, I don’t hear my phone ringing with any appointment showings or offers.

*sigh*

The pressure and stress that were removed by taking two online courses this term instead of face-to-face sessions is slowly being supplanted by the encroaching stress and madness of the house not selling.

If I wanted to exchange stressors I’d go golfing instead of going to work.

---

Dad is slowly renovating his house in anticipation of our imminent arrival whenever we finally manage to sell the house. He’s had the bathroom redone and new carpet put down through the majority of the upstairs space. The basement will wait for another day. In the next few weeks he is having the roof re-shingled as well. The current ones are nearing three decades of service with nary a leak. Not bad. Still need replacing though.

We all stopped in last night at his place and checked out the new carpet which was a really nice berber with tan and brown accents. Since the majority of the furniture had been moved for the carpetlayers Emma had free reign to crawl around as she saw fit. She wore herself out and Daddy got a full nights sleep last night because of it.

Heh.

---

Today has been an exercise in boredom thus far. I’ve become less than satisfied with myself recently but I’m at a loss as to what to do about it. I basically show up to work, log onto the PC, and watch four e-mail accounts and surf the web all day. I always bring my homework with me, but somehow it never gets done. I bought new CCNA study guides to study for my CCNA exam, but I’ve barely cracked them open. I need to get off my ass and do something with my life. I don’t want to look back and say “Yeah, that’s how I made my career. How I made my money.”

God, life isn’t about settling. Not for me anyway. I’m sick of settling for good when I could have great, or the best. I’m sick of being this 350 pound freak that walks down the halls here at the office. I’m just sick of being stuck in a rut.

I’ve gotta do something to change. Get out of this pattern of motion that appears to be a life.

A Day In The Life of a Family Guy

This morning I awoke at around seven o’clock and made my way into the living room to greet Cheryl as she ferried a laundry basket from the dining room to the laundry room. She awoke at six am when Emma fussed for her bottle and fed her. I showered and called Dad to let him know we were up and ready to go out for breakfast with him.

He arrived around half an hour later and smiled when he walked in the door. “There’s my little sugar!” he said as he held his arms out. I was holding Emma and she lunged for my father. He took her on their customary walk through the house so he could once again show her what a closet was, and how water faucets are turned on.

Shortly afterwards we made our way out to the garage where Emma and Cheryl got in the car with Dad. I got in my car and we both drove to Chillicothe to get the tires rotated on the car. Cheryl, Emma and Dad met me at the tire shop where I dropped the car off. We then drove to Frisch’s and had a wonderful breakfast together. Emma dutifully hammed it up for everyone in attendance to “her” breakfast session and broke everyone’s heart. She was particulary fascinated by the sound a coffee cup makes when a spoon is stirring coffee. *tink tink tink tinkle tinkle tink*

Each one of us stirred our coffee to her delight and she made little squeals, causing other restaurant patrons to stop and smile.

After we left the restaurant we drove around the city while we waited on the car to be finished. It was raining hard and Emma would hold her hands out to feel the cold drops hitting her skin as we walked out of the restaurant.

We drove back to the tire shop and Dad dropped us off. I was delighted to find that there was no charge for the tire rotation since I was a new customer and they could not sell me the extended service plan I asked for since I have nearly 25,000 miles on my existing tires. (side note: the tire shop offers an extended service plan on new tires, regardless if they sell them to you or not. you buy it, then never have to pay for rotation and balancing for the life of the tire.)

With our newfound fortune, we made our way to Wal-Mart to buy Emma an inflatable swimming pool, as well as pick up some necessities. We also bought her some new toys which have occupied her throughout the day.

After Wal-Mart was Kohls where Emma would stretch her arms out and feel the different fabrics. Denim. Cotton. Silk. Polyester.

On the way back from Wal-Mart we stopped at Tim Horton’s where I bought myself a large Earl Grey tea and Cheryl a large coffee and a pecan buttertart.

We sat in the oil change place and watched her play with some of her toys while we sipped our coffee and tea and watched the rain fall in the parking lot.

We took the long way home and went a little too fast over some hills causing all of our stomachs to leap into our throats and Emma to laugh and giggle loudly. Not long after she drifted off to sleep.

We came home and settled in for the afternoon. Emma was in her crib and Cheryl and I snuck back to the bedroom for a nap and some much-deserved time together.

Emma awoke with a smile, jibber-jabbering. Cheryl got Emma’s swimsuit out and put it on Emma. She modeled her new bathing suit for Mommy and I. I phoned my Father (waking him from a nap) and told him to come in and see what kind of pool he had bought (by proxy) for his Granddaughter. Not wanting to miss such a chance Dad came in and found her in an empty inflatable swimming pool with loads of toys around her grinning from ear to ear.

We all sat in the living room, some on the floor some not watching Emma play, and in turn playing with her. She would play for a few seconds, then come to one of us for a quick snuggle then just as quickly jump back to playing with her toys. Another bottle followed and eventually another nap.

Dad and I watched Red Planet on the Sci Fi channel while Cheryl puttered around the house, getting it ready for tomorrows horde of walk-thrus.

Another trip to Chillicothe to the pharmacy to pick up Emma’s Zantac.

Now, I hear Cheryl vacuuming the floors and cleaning up while I watch the nugget. Emma is gleefully playing in her exersaucer occasionally jumping a few times and successfully managing to rattle the walls when she does. I laugh and tease her as I queue up some MP3s to listen to while I occupy her.

I think of today and of this morning. I remember the way that Emma held out her hand to feel the rain. The way she waved to Mommy while I was holding her this morning. The smile on my father’s face when he saw her.

It has been a good day. I look forward to tomorrow.

The Barefoot Contessa

I have finally recharged the digicam and spent yesterday evening taking tons of new photos of Emma, or as Dad likes to call her, The Barefoot Contessa. They have been posted and are available for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy!

Windows Error Messages in Japan

Earlier today one of my coworkers forwarded this bit of fluff on to me. I found it somewhat entertaining so I am posting it here.

As per my usual habit of debunking urban legends such as this, I went out to my Urban Legends research site to do some background research on it. (I’d rather know for sure if it’s true or not. Just because a friend says it is true doesn’t always mean it is.) I couldn’t find anything to specifically debunk this particular story, and the closest I could come up with were several websites that have taken Windows error messages and redone them has Haiku poetry. This seems far more likely and the e-mail below could be a natural “cut and paste” evolution from creativity to “hey look at this” to gossiped Internet folklore about our screwy Japanese friends.

Enjoy!

---

The following are reported to be 14 actual error messages seen on
computer screens in Japan, where some are written in Haiku.

1. The website you seek cannot be located, but countless more exist.

2. Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent and reboot. Order shall return.

3. Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much.

4. Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams.

5. Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that.

6. Your file was so big. It might be very useful. But now it is gone.

7. Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down.

8. A crash reduces your expensive computer to a simple stone.

9. Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has occurred?

10. You step in the stream, but the water has moved on. This page is not here.

11. Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, but we never will.

12. Having been erased, the document you’re seeking must now be retyped.

13. Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared.

14. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Aren’t these better than “your computer has performed an illegal operation”?

Message in a Bottle

by The Police

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea, oh
Another lonely day, with no one here but me, oh
More loneliness than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair, oh

I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life but
Love can break your heart
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah

Walked out this morning, don’t believe what I saw
Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I’m not alone at being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah
Sending out at an s.o.s.
Sending out at an s.o.s.
Sending out at an s.o.s.
Sending out at an s.o.s.
Sending out at an s.o.s.
Sending out at an s.o.s…

Ten Apples Tall

This past weekend marked our first open house and netted some decent traffic. We had four sets of families come through, two of which seemed like good prospects at the time. No calls for showings have been made yet though so we are starting to wonder. Granted, the house has only been on the market for just over three weeks, but it’s hard to not get discouraged.

It’s a shame too. We put a lot of work into the house and now it looks really nice inside. So nice I wouldn’t mind buying it.

---

Emma seems to have gotten over whatever was making her sick and she has returned to our angelic baby once again. This is good. She has made some real leaps and bounds in the past few weeks. She has gained obvious confidence in moving from a laying to a sitting to a crawling mode in a matter of seconds. She is starting to really move around on her own well now, and can easily pull herself up to a standing position. Just within the past few days she has started experimenting with letting go of the couch or chair and trying to move, only to fall flat on her face. It won’t be much longer now before she can let go and stand on her own, then take those first tentative steps.

Part of me can’t wait to see her start walking. The other part of me that has to chase her rolls its eyes and figuratively smacks me in the back of the head.

I’ve been really lax on both taking and posting new photographs. Sadly, once you get past all the firsts, it’s kind of hard to find a moment that screams to be captured on film. I need to charge the video camera so I can start taking some more photos but keep putting it off (in spite of the fact that it is right next to my feet on the floor at this very moment and could be plugged in rather easily.)

I’ll try to get some more photos posted soon, I promise. Emma has really grown from a three-apple tall Smurf to a ten-apple tall little girl. And she’s cute to boot.

---

School has once again started and I found myself swapping out one of my face-to-face classes for an online class meaning that I am doing my first term totally online. This has its advantages and disadvantages. First off, being online means that you automatically get about four hours of your life back a week for fifteen weeks. This lets me fit a lot more stuff into my week and I don’t have to stress about finding Cheryl a way home in the evenings. It’s also nice because I can work on my homework when I want to, and my teammates and I can schedule our chats to suit our needs, or just totally correspond via e-mail which is my personal preference.

The downside is that there is a crapload of work that you need to do. Holy sweet Mary mother of God. One week I have no less than six assignments due for one class. That’s a lot of work, I don’t care what planet you’re from.

Late last month I e-filed my FAFSA and yesterday I was blessed with my financial award letter from the school. I found out that I received a $1000 grant spread over the next two terms (this one and the next) to help out with my educational costs. This is good as I was starting to wonder if my current scholarship was going to renew or not. Happy day happy day.

I’ve been fortunate so far as my current employer gives me around $5,500 a year to go to college. With that I can take roughly five classes a year, and I usually miss taking a sixth class by about five hundred dollars. Coincidence? I think not. Thanks to the scholarship I got last year, and this grant, I should now be able to regularly take six classes. That will help me to graduate that much sooner. Again, this is a good thing as I’ve been going to college now for the past four years without shelling out hardly any money out of my own pocket. Yeah I’ve had to buy books and stuff, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to budget for 300 bucks worth of books every three months than two thousand dollars of tuition.