All day today I kept feeling like it was Friday. I'm really gonna want to sleep in tomorrow, but I've got to work. I went to bed at 9:30 last night, and I still couldn't get up until 8:00 this morning. It was a nice Halloween, though. Michael was a dalmatian (really cute, too), my wife was a witch, and I just wore a scary mask and a black cape thing. This is the first time I've dressed up for Halloween in a very long time, but I guess it's different when you have kids. We just took Michael out to our friends' and families' houses, then came home and gave out candy to the few people who happened to come by. I took a shitload of pictures today, and I'll probably put them up tomorrow sometime. I also rented The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Traci and I watched the first one, but we're both too tired to watch the second, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

This is the fourth driveline failure I've had in the nine years I've been driving (twice on my Jeep, and twice now on the Ford). Actually, they've all occurred within the last 2½ years. Maybe I should stick with a front-wheel drive car from now on--I've had fairly good luck with those.

I replaced the u-joint on my truck, and when I tried to drive it into Springville, as soon as I got up past 20 mph it started vibrating very badly again. I didn't want to risk having it break again, so I just pulled off to the shoulder again and had my sister-in-law take me back to her place. I called my wife, and she and my mom came up from Price to pick me up. Before we left for home, my mom took me back out to my truck, then she followed me (very slowly) back to Jaysen's apartment. I just left my truck there, and I'm going to call my wife's uncle tomorrow to see if he will tow it to Price for me. He owns a used car dealership and several tow trucks, so he usually has somebody in that area at least once a week anyway. Last time I had a break-down far away from home, he only charged me $60 for a 50-mile tow, including the installation of a new fan belt. Hopefully it won't cost me more than $100 this time.

I suspect that either the driveline or the output shaft got bent when the u-joint failed, so this is gonna cost me some big money to get fixed. A new driveline is over $200, and though I can install it myself, I think I'll leave it to a professional, but only for the warranty that comes with it. A new output shaft will probably cost around $200 as well, and I'm sure it's pretty labor intensive, since the transfer case will have to be taken apart, and that I definitely can't do. I think it's time to scrap my truck and buy a car.

Oh boy...on my way to work this morning (around 6:30), I was about 1/2 mile from the exit from I-15 that I usually take to get to work. I was doing about 75 mph in the center lane, trying to pass a few cars before I had to get off the freeway. All of the sudden, my truck started vibrating like hell, and I thought either my transmission or transfer case had blown up--there was a big trail of smoke and dust behind me. Both the regular shifter and the 4-wheel drive shifter were vibrating so badly, I was afraid one of them was going to hit me and hurt me. I got over to the shoulder as quickly as possible and locked up my brakes. I got out of the truck, looked underneath, and my driveline was disconnected from the output shaft on the transfer case, just lying on the ground. The u-joint had broken, but luckily the driveline had stayed partially connected until right before I came to a stop--otherwise, my driveline would have been smashed beyond repair, and it's likely that my rear axle would have been torn from its mounts as well.

I had to walk about 1/2 mile to the Wal-Mart at the south Springville interchange, where I called my wife collect ('cause I had no cash), and she called my brother-in-law in Springville, and his wife came out and picked me up. They let me borrow their car, so I went to take a closer look at my truck, then came back into town to get parts. All I needed was a new u-joint and new straps and nuts, and I'm heading out now to fix it. Hopefully I'll be back on the road quickly, but it may not be that easy. The driveline vibrating did something to the oil seal on the transmission, and some oil leaked out. Hopefully it's not a big deal, but I guess I'll find out for sure on my way home.

Bleh...gotta drive in to the office tomorrow. I always like to leave town really early, partially to avoid traffic, but mostly to avoid driving during that awful time when it's too light for your headlights to do any good, but still too dark to see anything. That's the perfect time to hit a deer. Unfortunately, daylight savings has fucked everything up for me. Last week, I left town at 6:00 am, and it didn't start to get light until I was just coming out of Spanish Fork Canyon--it was perfect. But tomorrow, I'd have to leave at 5:00 am to achieve the same result. I'd rather leave late enough tomorrow that it's full daylight for the whole drive, but I have a damn meeting at 10:00 am, before which I need at least a couple of hours to prepare. I guess if I can manage it, I'll be getting into work at 6:30, then. :(

Ty put a new layout up today, and it looks mighty fine. =) Even without any graphics yet, it's pretty sweet. Good riddance to Times New Roman, I say!

It would be so awesome to have a watch like this (here is a better picture). I'm sure not a single person reading this knows the significance of that watch (well, except my mom), but anybody who does knows how cool it would be to have one.

I registered to vote today, no problem at all. I expected some animosity from the secretary who told me I was wrong, but she just sat at her desk while some other woman helped us. The county clerk even came over and apologized for the misunderstanding.

I've got several projects going on at my house, and hopefully I can get a few of them finished this weekend. I built a gun rack in some cabinets in my "office," and now I have to do some finishing touches, then I'm going to paint the cabinets and drawers. I got a light green-gray for the outside, and a much darker shade for the inside. I also need to get a lock for the gun cabinet, plus hinges and handles for all the other doors and drawers, but I doubt I'll get to that this weekend. I'm also going to sand and paint my front stairs, then put some non-slip treads on them, because they're damn slippery in the winter. And finally, I'm going to try to finish all the yardwork that needs to be done before it gets too cold. I did about half of it last weekend, so the rest should be do-able this weekend.

I wasn't feeling well this morning, so I called in sick to work. Later in the afternoon, I was feeling a little better, and I decided I would go down to the courthouse and register to vote in the upcoming municipal election. My wife and I went down there, but the woman in the county clerk's office told me that I couldn't register today, and that I would have to wait 'til next week, because all registration cards were due 20 days before the election (which didn't make a bit of sense to me). I had read on the Utah State Elections Office website that you could register to vote in person at least seven days before any election, but only mail-in cards were due at least 20 days before the election. I explained this to the woman, but she told me I was wrong and that I couldn't register to vote today. I got really pissed off and left after spewing forth a little profanity, then I went straight home and called the State Elections Office. I told them what had happened, and they confirmed that their website was indeed correct, and that the Carbon County clerk's office was breaking the law by turning people away who wanted to register to vote. She said she'd make a few phone calls and get back to me.

About 20 minutes later, she called back. She had called the clerk's office and explained the law to them, but the secretary there still insisted that they had always done things that way and would continue to do so. Luckily, the county clerk, Robert Pero, just happened to be in Salt Lake today in the same office building as the Elections Office, so the woman talked to him personally and explained the situation to him. He agreed that they should never have turned me or anybody else away for any reason. I had appeared in person to register and should have been allowed to do so. So Robert said that he'd have a talk with everyone in his office tomorrow and that I could come down then and register.

It kinda sucks having to tattle on people who don't know how to do their jobs, but when it's something as important as my right to vote, then I don't care what I have to do. I just really hope that bitch that turned me away gets in some kind of trouble.

I've heard several helicopters fly over my house today, apparently all looking for two murder suspects who have been running from the PPD since last night. Here's the story from KSL:

"Police are on the lookout for two men, in connection with a double murder. It happened in the town of Dutch John near the Flaming Gorge Dam. Investigators did not release details of the crime.

Police spotted their vehicle early this morning near Price. They spiked the car's tires, and the suspects took off on foot in the town of Price.

The suspects are described as two white males. One is six feet one inch tall with a muscular build. He's in his mid to late 20's.

The second is five feet ten inches tall with a medium build. Both are wearing jeans and dark jackets.

If you spot these men, call the police immediately."

Whoa--as I was typing this, another helicopter flew over, and I grabbed my camera and ran out into my back yard. It was flying away from me, but they circled around, I think to take a look at me, then returned to their original heading and kept going. Here are some pictures.

It's really quite embarrassing when you pump $35 worth of fuel, but when you go to pay for it, you realize you've forgotten your wallet.

I'm an idiot. Last night, I never checked to make sure the IDE cable was fully connected to the motherboard, ‹sarcasm›and apparently the CD-ROM only works when the cable is connected.‹/sarcasm› =) The CD-burner still doesn't work, though, so I guess it's going with me next time I go target shooting.

Ehh...I just fried the secondary IDE port on my motherboard. My sister bought a CD-burner at a yard sale for $5, and the only thing wrong with it is that the tray wouldn't close all the way. I took it apart and found that the loading mechanism was a little off-kilter, so I fixed it, but I didn't put it all the way back together. I took the cover off my computer and set the burner next to it, then unplugged my CD-ROM and plugged the cables into the burner. Then I booted my machine up, but Windows wasn't reading the drive. I moved the burner to make sure the cables were plugged in all the way, but when I touched it, the bottom of the case on the drive touched the circuit board, and my computer just turned off completely. After that, the power switch wouldn't even turn it on, so I waited a few minutes then tried again. It booted up, but still wouldn't read the drive. So I shut down, plugged the cables back into my old drive, and when I booted up again, it still wouldn't read it.

I rarely use my CD-ROM drive, so I'm not too worried about getting a new board soon, but if the occasion arises, Ty said he has a PII board I could borrow. I think I'll just wait 'til I get enough money to build a new system, but this time I'm definitely not buying from EBC again.

After getting over my initial annoyance at Jack Black, I'm starting to like Tenacious D. Their website is especially cool, with all the animated skull and dripping blood and flame GIFs. =)

Jeez:

"A 29-year-old Price man reported to police on Saturday that he received a letter from New Jersey with a powdery substance inside. The recipient later confessed to engineering the scheme. The "anthrax" was chocolate milk mix and sugar. FBI officials in Salt Lake City said Monday they arrested the man for filing a false police report and making false statements to the police. Price police Lt. Ed Shook said the man showed the letter to five neighbors, all of whom were tested for anthrax and had been started on antibiotics as a precaution."

This right here is a sweet layout. It kinda hits you in the face, then makes you smile. =)

I'm curious as to what Stuart's got brewin'. I guess we'll all find out in less than two days.

Both my mom and my sister called to tell me that the house where the suspected anthrax was found is just down the street from my mom's house, and it's just around the corner from my place. I took some pictures of a news crew setting up, but nothing much else was going on. A police car was just leaving as I pulled up, but there wasn't any quarantine or anything in effect. I'm sure it's either a hoax or a false alarm.

A friend of mine at work just told me that he heard on the radio that somebody in Price received an envelope in the mail containing a white, powdery substance, and that their house has been quarantined because they thought it was anthrax. I doubt it's even true, but if it is, I'm fairly sure it's either a hoax or it will turn out not being anthrax. I can't find anything on any local news sites, because none of them update their sites except once a day. I'm sure if it's true, it'll be on all the national sites soon.

From the Salt Lake Tribune: Women Uniting for War on Porn:

"The parallels between [smut and terror] are uncanny," says Women For Decency Director Janalyn Holt. "Pornography destroys families. It's not a one-time shot like an airplane flying into the World Trade Center. But little by little, blow by blow, it can be just as destructive. We are getting bombarded on all sides."

The past few days, my truck has been making an annoying noise when it gets up around 40 mph, and no matter how hard I listened, I couldn't tell what it was or where it was coming from. It kinda sounded like a piece of stiff wire banging against something, like maybe it was wrapped around my front axle. Then yesterday, I was driving and the noise started up, and I tried listening very hard again trying to figure out where it was coming from, when I saw something moving on my antenna. Then suddenly I remembered: several days ago, I found a washer sitting on the ground in my driveway, and I picked it up to see if I could tell where it came from. I didn't know what it was from, so instead of just dropping it back on the ground, I slid it onto the antenna on the truck, and forgot all about it. So this noise that had been plaguing me this whole time ended up being caused by me.

Wow, it's Friday already. I've been waiting most of this week for the shit to hit the fan, anticipating some very long days and grueling work, but it never came. I'm still waiting for something from the consulting department at work, but I guess if this project isn't a priority for them, it shouldn't be for me either. It's just hard to believe the week is over already, after expecting it to drag on forever.

I finally gave in and cranked up the furnace today. It was 58° inside when I woke up this morning, and it had gotten down to 36° outside last night. There were some dark, nasty looking clouds rolling in late yesterday evening while I was outside barbecuing some hamburgers, and I really expected it to snow last night. I guess when I fix the front-end on my truck, I might as well replace the front driveline--I can't make it through the winter with two rear-wheel drive vehicles.

Traci and I went out to dinner with Ty and his wife last night, and it was so nice to get out of the house for once. My mom watched Michael, and as bad as this might sound, it was nice to forget about him and have a couple hours to ourselves. We ate at Grogg's (a little brewery/restaurant outside of town), where I've only been two times before, but both times I only had a few beers. The food was pretty good, but it took awhile to get to our table. The beer was pretty good, too--it's nice to have a couple beers and actually feel like you just had a couple beers. It normally takes a six-pack of regular Utah watered-down beer to feel like you've had any.

I've got a huge, long list of things I need to do in the very near future, most of which consists of spending a lot of money. Xmas is coming up, as is my mom's birthday and my in-law's wedding anniversary, plus my cousin's wedding is this weekend. I've got to replace some steering components on my truck, and I've been wanting to get a new couch for my office. And on top of all that, I am probably going to buy a car next week. I've got about $1,000 in cash saved up, plus my next paycheck will have over $300 in overtime, and with my wife's meager paycheck and whatever we have leftover in checking after paying bills, we should be able to get a decent vehicle.

It is very cold in my house right now. And I refuse to turn my furnace on--I mean c'mon, it's only the beginning of October. I'll just make-do with a sweater for now. Besides, I need to change the filters in my furnace anyway, which I'll probably do this weekend.

I've been on stand-by for a project at work that our consulting group wants me to do. As soon as they get the forms I'm supposed to update, I'm supposed to drop whatever work I'm doing at the time and get busy on their project. I was supposed to start yesterday, but I haven't heard a thing from the guy who was supposed to contact me when the time comes. I was rather nervous about this whole thing from the start, because it's for a very important client, and as far as I had heard, it should have been done by today. I guess as long as I'm not the one holding everything up, it shouldn't matter to me when it gets done.

I watched part of a great show on TLC last night called Hyperspace. It was hosted by Sam Neill (the guy from Jurassic Park), and it was one of the best shows about space I've ever seen. The graphics were just amazing, not necessarily because of their realism, but because they represented events that take place over long periods of time--such as the forming of a planet or galaxy--in such a way as to explain the processes better than words ever could.

I was too tired to stay up and watch much of it, but it's on again Wednesday, three one-hour episodes. So I'll definitely catch it then, along with Junkyard Wars, which I completely forgot about and missed the first two episodes of the new season.

I was hoping to watch the Raiders play the Cowboys today, but the game wasn't on TV. So instead, I watched Enterprise, which Ty had recorded and lent the tape to me. Most people I've heard talk about it say it was just ok, but I thought it was very very good. I don't get UPN, so I don't think I'll be seeing a lot of that show, but when it gets to syndication I'm sure I'll see them all...eventually.

I bought a 5-liter box of wine (yeah, the cheap stuff) yesterday, along with a dirt-cheap bottle of port. The wine, Franzia Sunset Blush, is quite good. The port, on the other hand, is nasty--I should have sprung a few extra bucks and gotten something better. Some champagne would have been nice. =)

Jesus Fucking Christ...KSL is showing LDS General Conference instead of the NASCAR race today. All the Mormon-owned media around here piss me off.

Damn, I'm finally finished adding all the entries I've posted to my different sites since 1998. Including this entry, that makes 933 total entries. The only problem now is that it takes Greymatter a very long time to add a new entry. Oh well, I think it was worth it to have it all in once place, and in the same format.

Update: When adding this entry, Greymatter did it very quickly, so it must only go slow when manually entering the date and time. When I finished adding all the old entries (but before adding this one), I replaced gm.cgi with the old version that doesn't allow modification of the date and time on entries, so now everything's perfect!

Shit...I'm almost wishing I hadn't even started adding all my old entries. I've added almost 500 so far, and I've still got around 100 left to add, plus I'll have to give new filenames to all my recent Greymatter entries so they'll work with all the old ones I've added.

Registration is due on my truck at the end of the month, and when I got a safety inspection done yesterday, it failed. The left tie-rod end and right ball-joint need to be replaced, which means even if I fix it myself, I'll still need to take it somewhere to get the front-end aligned. I hate to spend another dime on that damn truck, but I've already spent so much on it that I can't get rid of it for what I'm into it. I've got a brand-new set of tires that'll fit it, but the rims that they're mounted to won't fit, so I guess if I end up getting the wheels aligned, I'll throw those tires on while I'm at it.

Don't forget, tomorrow is the Atroxi.com Radio Show...check the site for details. I'll probably be in the IRC channel (ugh, I just typed "chat room," but had to backspace because I hate the phrase) all day, so stop by if you've got nothing better to do.

Hahaha...Jeremy Mayfield got fired today. Let's hope Rusty Wallace is next in line to get the axe (not likely, though).

I intend to spend some serious time getting my archives entered today, so hopefully tonight the site will be back in full swing.

This whole archive conversion thing is taking way longer than I expected. I started working on it Friday night, and eventually stopped Saturday morning around 8:00 am, when I finally went to sleep. I haven't worked on it since, only because it's so time-consuming (and I've been so tired). The past two mornings when I've woken up I felt like I was hung-over.

I'm finished with all of 1998 and 1999, and I've just begun January 2000. In Feb '00, I switched to News Publisher, so the conversion should go much more quickly when I get to that point, since all the entries are in a single text file, and they're all consistently formatted.

I think I'll begin working on it again this evening when I'm through with work, and I may possibly be finished tonight. Until then, you can browse through the several hundred entries I've already added.