QotD: President Obama

How do you feel about the results of the election?

Relieved.  Excited.  Hopeful. 

I am elated that the election turned out as it did, I believe Barack Obama is going to be a huge step in the right direction for our nation.  I don't expect him to be able to follow through on all of his campaign promises, but I do expect him to try.  I think our economy is damaged more severely than any one administration will be able to repair but I think he will get us on the right track.  I am hopeful that he will work with all Americans, Republican, Democrat, other party, or no party at all to find the best options available. 

I am not fearful of the accusations that have been tossed about regarding Obama.  I don't believe he is a socialist, communist, terrorist, Marxist, or any other "-ist" with a negative connotation.  I do believe he is a realist and will address the issues that are weighing the US down.  Energy independence, healthcare, immigration, international relations, military actions, the economy.... I believe he will surround himself with experts in these fields who will be able to give honest answers to his questions, not just parroting what he expects to hear.

I'm very excited by these results, and very impressed with the fact that my small, rural county in PA (Carbon County) also came out in favor of Obama.  While the results of the national race were not surprising to me, those results were.  I had honestly expected our county to go to McCain.  That result was a pleasant surprise.

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QotD: My Email Address(es)

How many email addresses do you have?  What are they for? 
Submitted by clippedwings.

Available? Infinite.  I have my own domain and it is set up to use wildcards for several addresses meaning I can use unlimited variations of a few email addresses.  I use it as a way to control spam.  I can give unique addresses at each website I sign up for.  If I start to get spam from one of the addresses, I know where it came from and I can stop it by blocking that address.

Beyond the addresses at my domain I also have three email accounts via the ISP I work for (not including my corporate account), as well as a yahoo and gmail account. 

The only accounts I really use at this point are those at my own domain.  I guess I just hold onto the others for nostalgia. 

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QotD: How I Ended Up Here

Why do you live where you live?
Submitted by memtony.

I like comfort, shun change.  Yeah, I know.  Boring.  Eat me.  I live less than 10 miles from where I was born.  The only time I lived farther from home than that was during college and that was all of 45 miles or so away.  Yeah, I've got wanderlust deep in my bones.

So why am I where I am?  I love the area.  Mountains (albeit small ones), forests, streams, a reservoir.... this is what I love.  I live in the Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania and have never wanted to leave.  Life is a bit slow paced, but I can visit NYC or Philadelphia (each about a two hour drive) any time I want something different.  Maybe someday I'll leave and set down some roots somewhere else, but I doubt it, at least until after retirement.  For now, my exposure to the world will be limited to vacations.  I'm fine with that!

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QotD: Bail Me Out

Who would you call with your one phone call if arrested? (No lawyers!)

My wife, no hesitation in this answer.  She is the one of the most intelligent people I know and obviously I would trust her with my life.  It's true! 

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QotD: Take Me Away...

Where do you go to get away from it all? 
Submitted by Hops.  

This is why I love living where I now do.  Less than a mile away is the Christman trails section of Beltzville State Park.  When I need to relax this is my ultimate getaway spot.  All I need is a book and a spot to relax in and I can waste an afternoon relaxing in a secluded spot by the lake.  Just down the trail are a group of small but picturesque waterfalls (this is where Michelle and I had our engagement photo taken).  It's been a while, I think I should take a day for myself again soon.

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QotD: My Favorite Greasy Spoon

What is your favorite greasy spoon?
Submitted by S@ngarang.

This is an easy one.  The Bowmanstown Diner in Bowmanstown, PA wins hands down.  This place has never grown beyond the traditional greasy spoon offerings, and I'm fine with that.  The only exceptions to that rule are some locally loved Pennsylvania Dutch recipes like potato filling (mmmm), pork and sauerkraut, and french fries smothered in gravy. Being the only 24 hour place in the area, I ate way too many post midnight meals here when I was in my late teens and early twenties.  Hot roast beef sandwich and fries (or filling) with gravy.  Stick to the ribs food that always hit the spot.  I don't get there nearly as often as I'd like now that I'm married.... my wife isn't a fan of such places.  But I'll take nearly any excuse I can to get back.  It may not be fancy, but it's great, traditional, meat and potatoes style food.

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QotD: Musical Horoscope

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)
Inspired by Stephanie.  

Robert Plant – Ship of Fools
Better Than Ezra – Good
Def Leppard – Rocket
Aerosmith – Rag Doll
Van Halen – Best of Both Worlds
Queen – Seven Seas Of Rhye
Boston – Amanda
Queensrÿche – Sacred Ground
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
The Presidents of the United States of America – Lump

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QotD: Apple For The Teacher

Who was your best (or worst) elementary school teacher?
Submitted by Minnow. 

I'll give you one of each.

My best elementary school teacher was Mary Mulligan in 3rd grade (Franklin Elementary School, Lehighton, PA).  She stood out far ahead of the other teachers I had in elementary school (possibly all of my education) because she truly cared, set her expectations high, and provided you with the means and support to reach those expectations.  If anyone here sees Mary, let her know that Shawn O'Brian wishes her the most heartfelt thanks possible.  I don't believe I would be where I am today if it weren't for her.

My worst elementary teacher (and again, worst overall) was Mr. Peiffer in 4th grade.  In his class I quickly learned (since he pulled me aside and explained this) that I would receive good grades simply because it was expected of me from my performance in earlier years.  Knowing this I hardly tried to learn anything.  This is the year I fell behind in math and never completely recovered.  I tried and did reasonably well in successive years, but was never again outstanding when it came to my math courses.  Another reason he was my worst teacher was the fact that he had taken swings at several students.  Granted they were provoking him by taunting him, but talk about an overreaction!  Now when I say swings, I'm not saying he tried to slap them with a ruler, I mean he tried to punch them and do serious harm.  Thankfully they were quick enough to dodge.  In one case his missed throw hit the bulletin board on the wall behind the student.  It left a nice sized dent in the bulletin board.  It was a bad year for me and other students, thankfully he was transferred away after that one year.  I pity the students that may have had to deal with him since.

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QotD: Think Global, Buy Local

Do you buy products made locally?  Is there anything made in your area that you love?

There are a few things that are locally made that I will buy:

Iced Teas: Zimmerman's Dairy here in Lehighton, PA or Turkey Hill from Lancaster PA.
Sodas: A-Treat beverages headquartered in Allentown, PA.
Ice Cream: Turkey Hill from Lancaster, PA.

There are others, these are just a few off the top of my head.  There is one brand that no longer is produced that I miss, although my heart is praising every supernatural being in non-existence for the fact.  Golden Sun Potato Chips.  These were the most incredible potato chips that were made in small batches by a family in Slatington, PA.  While I say small batches, I mean compared to Lays, Herrs, etc.  They were available in stores throughout the Lehigh Vally, at least.  I've never found a replacement for these.  When I heard the families children were not going to continue the business when their parents retired I was shocked.  I bought every box and bag I could get my hands on, but that wasn't much because many other people were doing the same. 

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QotD: Books From My Childhood

What books did you love as a child? 
Submitted by hearts. 

I had a few favorites that I would read over and over when I was young.  Sadly I cannot remember the titles.  One was about a steam shove that did it's last job too well and it got itself stuck in the hole it dug.  All ended well for the big guy, he got a nice cushy job as the heating system in the building that was being built there.  Beyond that, just about anything by Doctor Seuss or featuring Curious George held my attention early on in my life.  Even now I enjoy sitting down with my nephew and reading Doctor Seuss books.  I hope to pass the love of reading onto my own children one day as well.

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QotD: Tasty Thanksgiving Treat

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Submitted by Brennan.

Definitely not Jones Soda's Holiday Pack.  Tried that last year, out of misguided curiosity.  Never again.  Well, unless I get curious.  Maybe I should?  It could be that THIS year, one of the flavors will be like dying and going to heaven, right?

Anyway, my favorite turkey day dish actually comes down to a close run off between filling/stuffing and pumpkin pie.  I love stuffing.  I'm from a region of Pennsylvania where Pennsylvania Dutch foods are still popular.  I love dutch potato filling.  Even among dutch potato filling there are some drastic differences and I love them all.  Don't think I don't also like traditional bread stuffing, I do.  I could make a meal of just the various kinds of stuffing people make!

Even so, I think the winner is Pumpkin Pie.  My wife has spoiled me on this.  Fresh made crust, made with fresh pumpkin.  Can't be beat.  Don't settle for store bough crusts or canned filling, it isn't the same.  I can't reveal the secret mix of herbs and spices.... no wait, I'm thinking of KFC.  But the spices definitely make the pie.  If you're going to be in my neck of the woods, let me know.  I'll let you watch me eat a slice.

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QotD: A Tip About Tipping

What's your method for calculating a tip?

Start with your waiter's height, divide by weight.  Multiply by the cost of the meal, divide by the number of minutes from when your order was taken til when it arrived.  Add in the number of calories consumed and divide by the number of mistakes made in your order, multiply by the number of trips the waiter has made to your table.  That is all meaningless, forget the result.

Take the total for the meal, drop off the last digit.  That's the low end, bad service (unless it is exceptionally poor).  Multiply that by two, that is exceptional service.  Actual tip is somewhere in between, usually the upper end of the scale.

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QotD: Pizza Preference

How do you eat your pizza:  folded, flat or with a fork and knife?
Submitted by danimass.

Yes.

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QotD: OS Preference

Windows, Mac, Linux - What's your preference and why?
Submitted by ramblingsbymark.

Windows.  I know it is the least stable of the three.  I know it is a resource hog.  Whatever.  I spent the 80's working on a TRS80 Color Computer II  and III.  I loved the computer.  I think the CoCo III was superior to anything else in its price range (basically Commordore 128 and one of the Atari ST models).  Problem was, there was little software available.  What was there was good, but there was little choice.  It was frustrating.  That is why I am a Windows user.

I know that Mac and Linux are technically better OSes, but I find my windows machine to be stable.  I rarely need to reboot and might have a few crashes a year.  I've never had a serious virus infection (knock on plastic).  If that were not the case I'd be more tempted to switch.  I also know that both MAC and Linux have many apps available.  Windows still has many times more.  I like having the options there.  End of story.

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QotD: My Vox Name

How did you pick your Vox name? Does it mean something? 
Submitted by LeendaDLL.  

Here we go again.  There actually is a bit of a story here, let me start at the beginning.....

When I was in junior high school (mid 80s), I started using BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) using just my first name + last initial.  Boring.  Didn't like that.  Started trying to come up with a cool sounding name and decided to go with the name of a character on a cartoon I was watching.  The show was Robotix, the character: Nemesis Enforcer.  I just used Nemesis as my name.

I continued using that for many years, until I started having trouble using the name at most sites.... too many other Nemesi (Nemesises?)  So I started to think of a new name.  I wanted something unique, so that I wouldn't find myself using different names at various sites (as I had to do with Nemesis).  At the time I had also been reading up on my Celtic heritage, so I decided to look for a Celtic name.  I figured I would look for something Celtic that related to the name Nemesis.  Well, Nemesis is the Greek goddess of justice, so I started looking for Celtic words with similar meanings.  I came across Ceart which is Celtic for correct or right, which was close.  I also liked the look and sound of the word, so I decided to choose Ceart.  One concern I had was that the username would be too short for many sites, so I decided to add some digits to the end.  The year I chose the name was 1999, so I became Ceart99.

Remember, you asked.

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QotD: Well, I'd Never!

What did you think you would never ever do... but did? 
Submitted by Murky.  

I never thought I would give blood, but I did.  I know that there is little pain involved.  I know that it benefits lots of people.  But, as with many people, I dislike needles and the people who want to place them into my body.  When I was young I was very thin and didn't meet the weight requirements so I used that as an excuse (good one, but still).  As I got older I lost that as an excuse but still stayed away.  It wasn't until my wife, who is a nurse, asked me to go with her to a blood drive that I finally gave in and donated.  I have even gone back on my own since then and survived!  I'm still uncomfortable during the whole process, but will continue donating.  If you haven't done so yourself, you should.

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QotD: Home Sweet Home

What is your browser's default home page set to?
Submitted by Kelev T. Cat.

Years ago I grew tired of trying to keep bookmarks updated on various machines I worked from so I decided to make a links page where I could store and organize my links precisely how i wanted them.  That has been my home page for about 7 or 8 years now.  It's been purposely kept simple, no graphics, text organized by table only, so that it would load quickly when I start the browser.  The most drastic change to the page occurred on election night when President Bush II won his second term.  The next day I dropped all colors from the page.  It has been done in shades of grey ever since and will remain so until his term is over.  My little way of mourning our nation's loss.

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QotD: I'm reading (or about to read)...

What books are on your nightstand?

Jon Stewart's America.   Bought it when it first came out but am just getting around to reading it now.  Not the best of reads but good for a light humourous read.  I'm also studying for my CCNA right now so Cisco's self study books are never far away.  I plan on schedulin the test for two weeks from now.  Wish me luck.

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QotD: Bring Back the Snack

Are there any snacks, food or candy that are no longer made that you desperately miss?

God yes.  A locally made brand of potato chips that was called Golden Sun.  They were unlike any other chips I have ever had.  They stopped making them a few years ago.  I was also upset when Peanut Butter Twix disappeared a few years ago.  Thankfully, they are back in production.  

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QotD: My Intro to the Big Screen

What was the first movie you remember seeing in a movie theater? 
Question submitted by mainmor.

I only remember bits and pieces of the experience.  I was six or seven and I went with my sister, her now ex-husband (boyfriend at the time), and several of his brothers and sisters.  I remember going to the theater in the Whitehall Mall in Allentown, PA to see the original Superman.  Beyond that my memories of the experience are very blurry.  I know I had a good time, I was looking forward to going again, but I don't remember much of what happened inside the theater itself.  I've seen the movie several times since then though, so I do remember the plot and many scenes now.  Since then I've probably seen hundreds of movies, some memorable. so I wish I could forget.  I just wish I could hold onto memories of that first time in more detail.

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