general

Playing tricks in the past

2010-02-20T08:54:38Z

I told this story in the network security class I’ve been teaching this semester. They enjoyed it and figured I might as well type it up for the blog… you know, so everyone else can consume, ingest, etc. the story.

It was in 1994, about sixteen years ago, my wife and I started dating. We had met online, long before eharmony.com or other online dating services appeared on the Internet. It wasn’t via an online dating service, we had both been invited into a kind of virtual party line application on the VMS computer system at Utah State University. A program called PHONE separated the screen into regions, one for each person on the “call.” Each participating user could see what they and everyone else was typing in real time. What happened with Christine and I was that we were both involved in a call with about six people or so and then everyone left except us. The rest is, as they say, history.

But that’s not what this story is about.

Anyway, as Christine and I started hanging out, she explained that one of her best friends had accepted a scholarship to study math at a small private college in the northwest. This school had a student body of around 2,000 students. Where USU had a cluster of DEC Alpha systems running OpenVMS to serve as a central computing system for around 20,000 students, faculty, and staff, this small college had a Sun Solaris Unix system that students logged into to send and receive e-mail and perform other central computing tasks.

At the time, my future wife and her friend had figured out a way to communicate electronically with each other in a manner more interactive than electronic mail. Christine knew her friend’s password on the Solaris system. Christine would telnet into her friend’s account at a prescribed time and they would chat using a program called ‘talk,’ similar to PHONE on the VMS system.

I knew Unix pretty well then. I taught Unix system administration courses for a private training company in Salt Lake City in 1992, had worked as a systems administrator for a couple of companies, and spent a lot of time working in Unix labs on campus. When I found out Christine knew her friend’s password and had gotten to know her friend a little bit, I started forming an idea for an incredibly funny, albeit cruel, geeky prank to pull.

To understand the impact of this practical joke, you have to understand how these computer systems were used back then. The World Wide Web was only barely in use then. The venerable Netscape Navigator Web browser wasn’t to be released for several months. E-mail users at USU and at Christine’s friend’s school used text-based e-mail applications. To access and run these applications, users would use a telnet application to connect to the system and then type in the name of the e-mail application (pine, elm, VMS Mail, etc. Even Mutt — now a favorite among text-based mail applications — wouldn’t be released until the next year.

Christine’s friend, like many at Utah State as well, would go into an on-campus computer lab, boot up a computer, probably running Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Mac OS, and then run a telnet client (most at USU used MS-DOS Kermit because its principal author worked as a professor at USU) to connect to the system where the e-mail application ran.

Telnet has long since been replaced with SSH as the preferred way to log into a remote computer system. Telnet sends all data over the network unencrypted including all login credentials like username and password. Anyone who could intercept (or listen to) traffic between one computer and another could get everything, usernames, passwords, entire e-mail messages, conversations, you name it.

When you telnetted to a remote system, you would generally be prompted for your username and then your password. If you entered the right information, you’d usually then see a command prompt. That’s where you’d type in ‘pine’ or whatever program you wanted to run.

Sometimes, there would be system scripts that ran before you saw the command prompt. The most common would be one that required you to change your password at certain intervals.

Now, back to the joke. I worked for a couple of hours on a shell script that we could upload to Christine’s friend’s account that would get run automatically the next time she logged in. The script would display something like this:

Your password has expired. Please choose a new one.
New Password:

Now, this is where things started to get a little tricky. A real password changing application would not echo the characters typed back when the user typed in a password. My script had to turn off the behavior that normally echoed characters back. This wasn’t that hard. I just had to use the ‘stty’ command in the script to turn the echo mode on and off.

The script notified Christine’s friend that her password had expired and asked that she choose a new one. If I wanted to be really, really evil, I could have captured her password as she typed it and filed it away somewhere, but this was just about fun. After she typed in the password, like any good password changing program, the script asked her to type the password again.

Then, the script said her password wasn’t long enough and prompted her to enter a longer password.

Then, it said her password didn’t contain the necessary assortment of characters, numbers, and special characters.

Then, it called Christine’s friend by name and said, “Oh come on, you can do better than THAT!” and gave her another chance.

I don’t remember how many iterations it went through, but it was at least 4 or so. Then, when it was all done, it removed the directive that made it run when she logged in and deleted itself.

A few hours later, we caught up with Christine’s friend and confessed. She was still frustrated, but began to see the humor in the prank we had pulled on her. She explained that others in the computer lab were puzzled as to why she was yelling so much profanity at her computer screen.

Good times. Good times.

Home-buying travails and endurance

2009-11-13T05:13:36Z

Anyone who’s been through some sort of big deal in their life is familiar with the annoyance that comes from dozens of family, friends, and other people asking for the latest on whatever it is you’re going through. I’m sure anyone who’s been divorced, had a loved one in the hospital, going through divorce, had a family member or close friend be involved in a big court battle, etc. knows what I’m talking about.

Our family has been going through a frustrating situation, but I haven’t really talked about it much, but those who do know about it have been calling me, e-mailing me, etc. to get frequent updates on the status, so I’m blogging about it so I can just say, “Go look at the blog.”

For the last year or so, Christine and I have been thinking about buying a larger house. We bought our most recent house in 2003 when the housing market was experiencing a low period. The house was a HUD repossession and had been trashed — or never taken care of — by the previous owner. We recarpeted, repainted, and repaired damage throughout. Over the years we finished a couple of bedrooms and an office in the basement and put in a yard with a watering system.

That house has served us well, but Christine and I had been looking at some of the houses in the newer developments near our house and wondering if we should upgrade. In fact, we made an offer on a home last year which was accepted. After the offer was accepted, we got cold feet and withdrew the offer because we realized we just were not prepared to commit to short sale moving into a newer, larger house yet. We hadn’t done anything to sell our house so we’d have to pay two house payments until our prior home was sold and who knew how long that would take.

After backing out of that, we finished our family room in the basement and made other minor improvements to the house. We still weren’t complete sure we wanted to sell the house because the family room was a nice addition and gave us a lot more breathing room.

Come Summer, we started seeing a larger home as a wise investment decision. Many of the larger homes near us were being listed at steep discounts by owners that simply could not afford them anymore. We began looking around at what was available and walked through many homes. Christine saw a nice house that caught her eye listed, but when we talked to our agent about it, it had been pulled off the market. Our agent said it hadn’t been sold so it might be relisted. Christine kept an eye out.

Finally, a couple of weeks later, Christine found the house again. It had been relisted a couple of days before. We talked to our agent, got a showing, and decided to make an offer on the house. Our offer was accepted. That was in August.

During the time we were looking at homes and making the offer on the nice house, we put our house up for sale. We had an offer in about three weeks and a closing scheduled for late September.

The closing for the house we were buying was scheduled for mid-October. Christine and I had a vacation scheduled at that time and had it moved to the 22nd of October. As the date approached, the messages we were getting from the selling agent was that they weren’t ready to close.

A little background: As we dealt with the selling agent, the house really started sounding like a short sale because there was talk about them having to get banks to sign off on the sale. But, they never represented the sale as being a short sale. If it was, there would have been additional paperwork, specifically a short sale addendum, involved in the contract.

Well, as 22 October approached, the selling agent indicated they would not be able to close. He blamed it on the bank (or banks). We had arranged to rent our older home from the new owners for the month of October so that we would have a place to live until we closed on the new house. If we didn’t close on the newer home, we’d have to make new living arrangements because we had to be out of our previous home by the end of October.

Nothing happened on 22 October. We gave them a few more days to surprise us with a closing and then proceeded to move everything into storage units. One of Christine’s coworkers said his in-laws would let us live in their basement while we waited for things to come together. We were hoping it wouldn’t come to that, but in the end it did.

We’ve been living in a basement, out of suitcases, since 31 October. We extended the closing until 13 November, but as of today, the selling agent has said they will not be able to close then.

The good news, if there is any, is that the selling agent said today they have written approval on at least one of the banks involved in the selling (apparently there’s stuff between a first and second mortgage that has to be resolved).

So, we’re extending one more time, to 25 November. The selling agent expressed confidence to our agent we’ll be able to close before Thanksgiving.

Our theory is this: The sellers we’re dealing with is a third party to a short sale. They’re working directly with the bank to buy the house in a short sale at a price lower than what we’re offering. As a result, when the sale is completed, they’ll make a few thousand (or a few tens of thousands) in profit. So, technically, we’re not involved in a short sale, but the people we’re buying the house from are.

Should this be legal? Maybe, but I think they should be required to provide full disclosure. It’s a little unethical to paint the sale as not being a short sale when in fact it is. Short sales are historically difficult because the banks involved generally take a long time to move.

We’re very grateful to the Hancocks (the older couple whose basement we’re living in) for their benevolence and hospitality. We’d be in a much worse mess if we didn’t have their basement to call a temporary home.

We’ve been looking at other houses on the market, but nothing really compares to the house we’re set to buy.

We’ve considering renting an apartment in the interim so that we’re not taking too much advantage of the generosity of our hosts upstairs. If this looks like it will go beyond November, we may do exactly that.

In the meantime, we’re crossing our fingers (once again) for a closing sometime before 25 November.

Book review: Superfreakonomics

2009-11-09T19:35:30Z

Superfreakonomics is the new sequel to the best-selling book Freakonomics by Steven D. Leavitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

This book roughly follows the same formula its predescessor established, although the original book seems rough and a bit disorganized compared to Superfreakonomics, which flows smooth and is even easier to read.

The pattern, of course, is to start each chapter with a shocking or strange statement that, at first glance, appears to make no sense. The rest of the chapter leads up to a point where that statement makes perfect sense once you’ve been exposed to the underlying statistical data the authors enthusiastically present. Each chapter contains an assortment of short stories about related events or historical analysis for perspective on each of the studies discussed.

The most memorable parts of the original Freakonomics, for me, were the chapters on Chicago drug dealers and the chapter that suggested that the falling urban crime rates in urban areas like New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago during the 1990s was due less to bureaucrat policies and more to do with the fact that the landmark Roe v. Wade case had occurred roughly 20 years earlier, thereby allowing legalized abortion. This allegedly decreased the number of children born into poor, single-parent homes that would have basically been bred into a life of crime. The conclusion was that crime rates fell in these urban areas because the would-be criminals were never born.

If you read the first book, you’ll remember the stories and conclusions about inner city gangs and drug dealers. The researchers had to employ some unorthodox methods of data collection because of the closed nature of gang society. THat is, members of inner citty gangs are not going to welcome some college professor into their inner circle with open arms. Even if they did speak to a stereotypical economics researcher, it’s unlikely they would provide entirely truthful or reliable data to the researchers. As a result, these studies required much more effort on the part of the researchers to blend in and become a trusted individual. It was, essentially, an undercover operation that revealed some surprising facts about how gangs and drug dealing worked (and didn’t work).

So, what about this new book? This time they’ve brought us economic analyses of current and past practices of prostitution. How is “the worlds’ oldest profession” enduring? Well, it depends. It apparently depends on who the prostitute’s target customer base is. Prostitutes who “work the street” pretty much all make the same hourly rates and have to deal with some pretty serious side effects of their work including violence, disease, and the (relatively low) possibility of being caught and arrested by the police.

Prostitutes that work as high-class escorts, are well educated, and can carry on conversations with wealthy customers can earn hundreds of dollars per hour. In fact, it seems the more they can charge, the longer their engagements are. Their patrons are less interested in engaging in a single act and more interested in living out a fantasy of living with an “ideal” mate.

What else is in this new book? An interesting study on infant and child carseats. My state just made it a law that children under the age of eight must use car seats or booster seats in a car. The studies done by the authors of this book suggest car seats and booster seats may offer no real added protection to children over the age of two compared to plain old seat belts.

In this new book, the authors take on global warming. I found this interesting because I’m what you might call a “skeptic” or a “denier.” I don’t believe man has much at all to do with what some call “global warming” (or, more recently, “climate change,” because there hasn’t been any warming for a while.)

I was a bit disappointed that Dubner and Leavitt didn’t take on the plethora of data that suggest historic warming has actually been caused more by solar cycles rather than emissions of greenhouse gases. While acknowledging there is no real concensus (sorry Al Gore), they went with the assumption that global warming/climate change is a real problem we must solve and concentrated their investigation on the proposed strategies to solve it.

Most governments want to “solve” our climate woes by capping emissions, taxing production, and thereby stiffling economic growth across the board. This will, of course, impact humanity globally, probably much more than any changes in the climate will. The costs for these measures are estimated in the trillions of dollars, most of which will come from developed nations. Dubner and Leavitt suggest that in many, if not most, cases, the best solutions to problems are often the simple and least expensive solutions.

They outline some solutions proposed by a small group in the northwestern US called Intellectual Ventures. One of their global warming proposals, for example, involves putting supposedly harmfull emissions into a higher layer of the atmosphere. Doing this would be uber-cheap and would effectively stop warming (assuming there is warming). They know it will work because volcanoes do it when they erupt and it cools the planet for a short period of time by blocking the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface.

I applaud the authors for taking on so many issues and showing that the way we typically approach problems is often the wrong way.

Freakonomics is available now in hardcover for a suggested price of $29.99. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Your Body

2009-09-02T02:25:13Z

Your Body: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was hanging out on Facebook one day and O'Reilly Media sent out a status message saying they needed a few people to review a new book Your Body The Missing Manual (go here for O'Reilly's catalog page for the book). I responded and was contacted by an O'Reilly representative who got my shipping information.

Within a couple of days, I received a box. Inside was a stinky (stinky because of the ink and paper they used) book with a green cover.

I didn't really know what to expect. I had planned to compare this to some of the larger encyclopedia-like books that my kids had that were packed with fancy color pictures and diagrams for various aspects of the body. This book isn't like those at all. It is more exposition and less illustration, although there are some very good illustrations in the book. They're just relatively simple compared to other books.

The writing style is very interesting. It is not clinical at all and is littered with sarcastic and sardonic quips. The first chapter -- about your skin -- starts off, in the very first paragraph, talking about robbing a bank wearing a ski mask. When the author wrote about techniques for removing fingerprints to avoid leaving evidence of your involvement at a crime scene, I was beginning to wonder if there was an underlying, hidden agenda in the book.

The text is packed with fascinating callouts that fit in contextually throughout the book. This lets the author pack each chapter with numerous bits of tangential information.

All in all, however, the book is somewhat light on the coverage. This isn't a tell-all, but it is a tell-a-lot. And what it does tell, it tells well. There is a lot of information about latest research and findings. For example, I learned that stretching (in the chapter on muscles) isn't the recommended activity before an aerobic/cardiovascular workout, but that 5-10 minutes of light warm up activity is better.

I learned a lot from this book I didn't know before so I definitely feel more knowledgeable as a result of reading it.

While the other body atlas-type books I've seen seem to be targeted at pretty much all ages, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under the age of 16. The reason I would not recommend this book to younger readers is because Chapter 10, the chapter on sex and reproduction, ventured a bit too far out of my comfort zone into sociological and cultural aspects of sexuality than I would ever feel comfortable letting younger kids read. I'm pretty sure my 10-year old does not needs to learn about "Arousal and the Art of Foreplay," "Reaching The Big O," or how to "Engage in mutual exploration."

So, all in all, a good book. It's light, not-very-clinical reading that's bound to teach you several things you didn't already know. You can buy it direct from O'Reilly or from everyone's favorite online bookseller: Amazon.com for $25 or less.

View all my reviews >>

Book Review: Lone Survivor

2009-05-10T01:13:43Z

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'd heard Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's story in bits and pieces on the radio and on Glenn Beck's TV shows, but I still had no idea how good it would be. This is yet-another book penned with the help of a professional author, but they really managed to leave the book feeling like it was straight out of Marcus's mouth.

The basic premise of this book is that Marcus Luttrell was a member of a Navy SEAL team -- an elite military force -- stationed in Afghanistan in 2005 and sent on a mission to spy on a remote village looking for a high-value military target and, if seen, take him out. The mission was compromised and, after a prolonged firefight with Taliban fighters, Marcus was the only one of his small 4-man team left alive. A helicopter full of SEALs sent to rescue Marcus and his fellow SEALs was attacked by the Taliban as well making this battle the single most-deadly fight in Navy SEAL history.

Marcus was listed as Missing In Action for several days as his family in Texas impatiently waited for news from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Marcus ran, fell, and crawled seven miles while being tracked by Taliban fighters and made his way to a small village where, surprisingly, he was cared for.

There's an immense amount of backstory about the preparation the typical Navy SEAL has to go through to get to be a SEAL. At first, I wasn't sure why this was necessary, but it makes sense later in the story when you consider what kind of people these soldiers were, what they had to endure in their training, and what their experiences had been prior to fighting America's enemies.

Not only did I learn a heck of a lot about Navy SEALs, I also learned a lot about the terrain, culture, and politics in rural Afghanistan. Marcus spends a good amount of time writing about ROE (Rules Of Engagement), the news media, and other issues soldiers have to take into consideration when dealing with enemies (and potential enemies) in battle. It was very eye-opening.

View all my reviews.

Back in time via audio cassettes - Digital Village

2009-03-22T07:24:42Z

I recently decided to embark on a journey of digitizing a box full of audio cassettes. Those who knew me growing up—especially when I was in junior high and earlier—know I was always goofing off with a microphone and a tape recorder. I operated a pirate radio station at AM 1630 for a while too. It’s broadcast radius covered most of the town of Granger, UT, where I lived.

One of the nuggets I found was actually much later than that. In 1995, I had just published (self-published) a book about the World Wide Web titled Fozziliny George Moo’s Guide To The World Wide Web and was asked by a friend to appear on his radio program.

Now, about this friend: His name is Doran Barons. Freaky, right?! My name is Doran Barton! His name is Doran Barons!

He saw a letter I had written to the editors of Wired magazine a few months before (which was subsequently published in Wired) and sent me e-mail to introduce himself. This triggered a series of e-mail exchanged between us which led to him inviting me on his radio program, Digital Village a weekly radio program on KFPK, 90.7FM in Los Angeles, CA.

Digital Village has an online MP3 archive of their radio program going back to 2000 and they’ve hosted some impressive guests on their radio program like Neal Stephenson (one of my favorite authors), Bruce Sterling (another of my favorite authors), Steve Wozniak (who started Apple with Steve Jobs), Bruce Schneier, and Lawrence “Larry” Lessig. It’s cool that I preceded such giants. :-)

After I did the telephone interview with the radio program, Doran sent me a cassette tape of the program and I’ve digitized it (with Doran’s permission). So, if anyone’s interested in taking a peek back in time to 1995 to hear about the World Wide Web in its relative infancy, here it is:

http://www.xmission.com/~fozz/podcast/19950917-digital_village.mp3

It’s clear I was fresh from doing lots of research for my book. It’s fun listening to me advise one of the show’s callers to contact the “site” he was getting his dialup access through to see if they offered anything like PPP, SLIP, or TIA so he could “extend the Internet to his home computer over his dialup line” or he could use lynx at the shell prompt on the Unix system he was dialing into.

Book Review: The Survivors Club

2009-03-12T06:57:57Z

The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life by Ben Sherwood

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book at the John Wayne Airport after hearing Ben Sherwood on Glenn Beck's radio show and seeing him on Glenn's TV show.

Sherwood's book approaches survival from multiple angles and I appreciated that. Whatever you might think this book is, it probably is just a bit and a whole lot of what you didn't expect. I found most of it to be anecdotal and a bit fluffy, which made it a very easy read, but Sherwood does shower some dense statistics throughout the book for you to dig through that make the subject matter more appealing to the left brain.

Much of the book is the result of interviews with and stories about people who have encounter dramatic and traumatic events in their lives whether it be an airplane crash, a lion attack, captivity inside a Nazi concentration camp, or miraculously escaping one of the NY World Trade Center towers after the airplane has hit the building.

Combining advice from survival experts, doctors, the survivors themselves, and others, Sherwood comes up with a variety of intriguing possibilities for why certain people survive. In addition, he includes recommendations for people wanting to boost their potential survivability. He addresses the issues of good luck vs. bad luck and how strategic thinking and doing some simple preparatory planning for the worst can save you from freezing or "becoming a statue" when the unexpected happens.

So, in conclusion, a very easy read partly because it's well written and partly because the subject matter is a little superfluous and fluffy. It's less dense than Freakonomics, but just as interesting to read.

View all my reviews.

Thoughts on diabetes in a disaster

2009-02-23T10:03:24Z

This last Friday, Glenn Beck’s TV show on FOX News involved wargaming worst-case scenarios five years into the future. There was a lot of talk about hyperinflation, world-wide jumps in unemployment, and increasing disenfranchisement and distrust of the government.

Being a Mormon, I’ve heard all my life about how we should prepare for tough times by building up food storage for your family and having tools and supplies that can help you weather tough times.

But what about diabetics like myself or other people whose lives depend on regular doses of medication? In a major disaster, it’s possible your neighborhood pharmacy is not going to be able to get resupplied and it might not even be open or accessible.

I’m fairly certain my health insurance plan won’t cover my purchasing extra insulin and other supplies to stock-up in case of a disaster. I’d probably have to pay out-of-pocket to stockpile these items and then rotate through them with supplies my insurance company will cover so I always have a couple weeks or a couple months extra.

Another problem diabetics and others may have to consider is how to keep medicines like insulin stored at recommended temperatures. If a disaster results in loss of power and/or heating fuel, keeping stored insulin cold (and not frozen) can be a challenge.

I also should make sure I have a good supply of hearing aid batteries so people can talk to me when we’re all living off wheat stores and stale water. :-)

Change affects everyone

2009-02-21T11:11:13Z

I just noticed that a couple sites that aggregate from my blog feeds got dumped on, big-time because my moving blogs modified the "updated" field for all blog entries. As a result, it would appear to the aggregators that while my blog entries have been posted over the last eight years or so, I just updated them in the last week... so you should take notice.

Sorry!

Mourning a tragic passing

2009-02-21T09:55:06Z

This is a little late coming, but now that I have my blogs all split out, I'm getting caught up on things.

Nearly two weeks ago, on Sunday, 8 February, I found out a good friend had died in an automobile accident in Orem, UT. Friends and family rallied online, sharing consolation, stories, and memories on Facebook, and on a blog set up in her honor. Even she and I had only really been friends for four and a half months, we had spent a lot of time online chatting with each other about this, that, the other, and that other thing and since I save transcript logs of every chat I engage in, those conversations were, in a sense, immortalized.

While others she knew had memories of her smiles, her beautiful blue eyes, her fashion sense, and other attributes you would notice by being around her, I mostly had text conversations.

So, I went through my chat logs and pulled out a few excerpts that I felt really demonstrated her personality and I sent that to the person who was maintaining the blog set up for her remembrance. I have include that below, titled "Four and a half months."

Four and a half months

Adrianne McBride died in a tragic automobile accident on the morning of Sunday, 8 February 2009 at the age of 23. At the funeral services held in her honor today, family members recalled her sweet spirit, off-the-charts passion and zeal, her clever wit, her love for shoes and shopping with her mother, and her insatiable love of writing, socializing, romanticizing, and pondering the mysteries of life.

I almost never knew this young woman. It was only through my friend Chadd that we knew each other. She worked with Chadd at BIO-West in Logan as an assistant to the editorial department. I don't know exactly what it was she did there, but I know one of her responsibilities was helping with desktop IT support. She was responsible for maintaining the BIO-West website content using applications I had developed years before for BIO-West. Chadd had told me a few things about Adrianne, but it wasn't until I helped her navigate the ropes of the content management system for the BIO-West website that our friendship began.

Chadd had sent me to her blog months before, so I knew she was somewhat of an "English geek" and I can definitely relate to a person who blogs, so I already knew we'd probably get along. Chadd also warned me about her opinions... perhaps that should be "OPINIONS."

As time went on, I coined a nickname for Adrianne: Violet. I called her Violet because she was spending a lot of time online in "invisible mode," meaning she was online, but unless she was chatting with you, you wouldn't know she was online. I think she went invisible because she needed to get stuff done and didn't want to all her friends chatting with her. Sometimes, however, it was specifically because of some guy she liked.

Anyway, I called her Violet because tha's the name of the daughter from the animation film "The Incredibles." One of Violet's powers is invisibility. Adrianne seemed flattered that I coined a nickname for her and shared nicknames with me others had given her.

It's funny that, when I think back, Violet/Adrianne and I were only physically in the same room with each other a handful of times - maybe three or four times. Those were when I travelled to Logan to do work onsite at BIO-West. On one occasion, Chadd, Adrianne, Chadd's oldest daughter, and I went to lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Logan. I think it was Adrianne's first time eating sushi. She was cautious but determined to do it.

As I search back through the history of my friendship with Adrianne, I'm shocked at how short the friendship actually was: four and a half months! Adrianne made me her friend on Facebook on Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 12:58 p.m. We had exchanged e-mail messages for about a month prior to that about the BIO-West website, but once we became "friends," the topics of our e-mail and online conversations became, well, less professional.

As I sift through my chat logs and watch how our friendship unfolded, I'm embarrassed, to say the least. Some of our early conversations consisted of me going on and on about myself and her issuing one word responses here and there. Others bordered on inappropriate (my fault). Yet, in spite of all that, she stuck with it and, eventually, she began sharing all kinds of personal things with me and, I think, began looking forward to our chats rather than tolerating them. Having heard or read what others have said about her, I think this just goes to reinforce that she was very accepting and forgiving person.

Reading back through these, I can now see wonderful characteristics in her that I never fully acknowledged before. It's a pity we seem to gloss over or fail to notice these things in people until it's too late. In some ways, we barely knew each other, yet she was very concerned about my feelings. She would apologize for bothering, irritating, or annoying me and usually I hadn't even realized a situation had transpired in which I might have had that reaction. She was so sincere and empathetic!

Like I said, she and I spent a generous amount of time talking about her dating life (or lack thereof), relationships, relationship strategies, etc. I'm not going to include much of that here, but Adrianne seemed to just need someone to bounce things off of, it seems.

Our first Google Talk chat lasted about 20 minutes. Here's an excerpt toward the end of it:

(05:29:01 PM) Fozz: Did you ever use the VMS system at USU?
(05:29:18 PM) Fozz: That was "the" e-mail system when I was in school there.
(05:29:29 PM) Andrianne: No, I never used it.
(05:29:44 PM) Fozz: My wife and I met chatting on that system back in 1993.
(05:30:02 PM) Andrianne: Chadd and I use IM quite frequently regarding work stuffs. And it's nice because then we don't have to talk out loud and bother people.
(05:30:30 PM) Fozz: Yeah- when Chadd talks outloud, it tends to bother a lot of people. ;-)
(05:30:31 PM) Andrianne: They had chat in 1993?
(05:30:35 PM) Fozz: It wasn't like this.
(05:30:40 PM) Fozz: it wasn't graphical.
(05:30:44 PM) Fozz: It was all text-based.
(05:30:46 PM) Andrianne: Actually, when I talk out loud it tends to bother people. :)
(05:30:57 PM) Fozz: And it was only with other people who were using the same system.
(05:31:07 PM) Fozz: I've got to run. I'll be back in 15-20 min
(05:31:18 PM) Andrianne: Alright

Already, we can see Adrianne was armed and ready with her wit and sense of humor.

About 90 minutes later, we chatted again. This time, about television shows. A barrage of opinions flew across at me. Anyone who knew Adrianne knows her opinions on television, movies, etc. and has probably been exposed to this barrage on multiple occasions because she never seemed to tire of espousing her opinions.

(07:12:09 PM) Fozz: I was watching Sarah Connor do her wild thang.
(07:12:19 PM) Andrianne: I hear that show might get canceled.
(07:12:27 PM) Fozz: Ah well.
(07:12:41 PM) Fozz: That would suck.
(07:12:52 PM) Fozz: but it seems like all the shows I get into get canceled
(07:13:00 PM) Andrianne: Were you into Firefly?
(07:13:04 PM) Andrianne: Arrested Development?
(07:13:09 PM) Andrianne: Veronica Mars?
(07:13:13 PM) Fozz: I was into Firefly, VM
(07:13:15 PM) Fozz: Buffy, Angel.
(07:13:32 PM) Fozz: Star Trek: Enterprise.
(07:13:46 PM) Fozz: Not so much Arrested Development... but I've had people tell me I'd really dig it.
(07:13:54 PM) Andrianne: It's quite great.
(07:13:54 PM) Fozz: But yeah- I've got box sets of them all.
(07:14:50 PM) Fozz: Are you into Heroes?
(07:15:31 PM) Andrianne: Nope
(07:15:44 PM) Fozz: Good show.
(07:15:53 PM) Andrianne: I hear it took a pretty steep turn down, though
(07:16:01 PM) Fozz: But I'm not impressed with this season.
(07:16:59 PM) Andrianne: Last season, the only shows I watched devotedly were The Office and 30 Rock.
(07:17:00 PM) Fozz: I would hate to be a writer for television.
(07:17:18 PM) Andrianne: My girl crush on Kate Walsh led me to watch Private Practice every now and again
(07:17:30 PM) Fozz: I'm not at all familiar with that.
(07:17:42 PM) Andrianne: This season I'm going to continue the ritual from last season, and now I'm hooked on Pushing Daisies
(07:17:45 PM) Fozz: My brother-in-law, whom I work with, is a big fan of 30 Rock.
(07:17:46 PM) Andrianne: So, 3 shows. Not bad.
(07:17:56 PM) Andrianne: The Office is my favorite show, um, ever.
(07:17:59 PM) Fozz: I've been told I'd like The Office.
(07:18:03 PM) Fozz: I like Steve Carrel.
(07:18:04 PM) Andrianne: But 30 Rock has more laughs per episode
(07:18:39 PM) Andrianne: Do you like Alec Baldwin?
(07:18:44 PM) Fozz: I watch Smallville... and I don't know why anymore.
(07:18:46 PM) Fozz: No, not really.
(07:18:53 PM) Fozz: I don't care for him very much as a person.
(07:18:57 PM) Fozz: He's a half-decent actor.
(07:19:07 PM) Fozz: I liked him in Hunt For Red October.
(07:19:19 PM) Fozz: Can't think of any other films I saw hiim in that I liked.
(07:19:33 PM) Fozz: I thought Harrison Ford was a better Jack Ryan anyway.
(07:19:53 PM) Fozz: A friend of mine got me into SportsNight.
(07:20:08 PM) Fozz: Another show that got an early cancellation.
(07:20:12 PM) Fozz: Same with Studio 60.
(07:20:21 PM) Fozz: Same writer/producer.
(07:20:40 PM) Andrianne: Have you seen Glengarry Glen Ross?
(07:20:41 PM) Fozz: Sorkin did The West Wing, which I never watched.
(07:20:47 PM) Fozz: Yes. A couple times. Good show.
(07:20:49 PM) Fozz: Dammit.
(07:20:58 PM) Andrianne: That's one of Alec's best.
(07:21:04 PM) Fozz: Oh yeah- I guess it was.
(07:21:07 PM) Andrianne: He's seriously one of the funniest men EVER.
(07:21:11 PM) Andrianne: And 30 Rock makes use of that.
(07:21:12 PM) Fozz: I liked Spacey better in that show.
(07:21:18 PM) Andrianne: Mmm, Spacey.
(07:21:23 PM) Andrianne: He's my old man crush
(07:21:25 PM) Fozz: Heh.
(07:21:29 PM) Fozz: American Beauty?
(07:21:30 PM) Andrianne: I saw him on Broadway last year
(07:21:46 PM) Fozz: I think I saw American Beauty in the theater (in Logan) like... 5 times.
(07:21:46 PM) Andrianne: American Beauty is amazing.
(07:21:59 PM) Fozz: I don't think I've seen anything in the theater that many times.
(07:22:00 PM) Andrianne: I wish I could've seen it in theatres
(07:22:07 PM) Fozz: Yeah- you were like 12. :)
(07:22:16 PM) Andrianne: 1999?
(07:22:18 PM) Andrianne: I was 14.
(07:22:20 PM) Fozz: Uhm... Close.
(07:22:23 PM) Andrianne: lol
(07:23:19 PM) Fozz: Yeah- great movie. Great writing. Great direction and just plain awesome cinematography.
(07:23:30 PM) Andrianne: Yes.
(07:23:47 PM) Andrianne: Pretty damn close to flawless
(07:23:55 PM) Fozz: I think a lot of that comes from the fact the director was a Broadway director who was doing his first film.
(07:24:04 PM) Fozz: Sam Mendes.
(07:24:12 PM) Andrianne: He's a lucky man.
(07:24:35 PM) Andrianne: I liked Road to Perdition, too, but not Jarhead.
(07:24:56 PM) Andrianne: (He's married to Kate Winslet, so Sam Mendes = lucky.)
(07:25:05 PM) Fozz: When it came out, it was controversial because of drugs, sex, incest, all that crap.
(07:25:15 PM) Fozz: Yes. Lucky.
(07:25:19 PM) Fozz: Wow. I just saw her in...
(07:25:21 PM) Fozz: What was it...
(07:25:25 PM) Andrianne: Eternal Sunshine?
(07:25:30 PM) Fozz: Yeah.
(07:25:34 PM) Andrianne: Amazing.
(07:25:38 PM) Fozz: And she had not a single hint of an accent.
(07:25:46 PM) Fozz: That was a decent show.
(07:25:53 PM) Andrianne: She made me think about coloring my hair that Raggedy Ann red.
(07:26:00 PM) Andrianne: And then I realized, um, bad idea for me.
(07:26:01 PM) Fozz: Probably the first decent show from Netflix in probably 4-5.
(07:26:12 PM) Andrianne: Ahh, netflix.
(07:26:18 PM) Andrianne: I'm addicted, and I blame Chadd.
(07:26:21 PM) Fozz: heh heh.
(07:26:28 PM) Fozz: I blame Chadd for a lot of my personal problems.
(07:26:32 PM) Andrianne: lol!

Adrianne then shared with me her growing frustration with living in Logan. All her friends had gotten married and were starting families, she said. Nonetheless, she said she liked Logan "even if dating is a suckhole here."

"Men, for a multitude of reasons, are emasculated and wimpy," she said. "They aren't aggressive. If people even make friends with the opposite gender, they `hang out.´

The next time we chatted was 5 days later on Monday, 6 October 2008. I had just returned from taking a certification exam in Phoenix (which I passed) and was concerned about the future of my job. I had purchased some books on leadership and organizational skills to prepare for the forthcoming changes in my life I saw written on the proverbial wall.

(12:01:29 PM) Adrianne: Isn't it a shaky time to think about getting a new job?
(12:01:38 PM) Fozz:I'm contractually obligated to stay at KnowledgeBlue until Jan 1.
(12:01:48 PM) Adrianne: I know very little about the IT job market, so I could be way off.
(12:01:50 PM) Fozz: You're right. It's not a great time to be doing that.
(12:02:00 PM) Fozz: Utah, of course, fares better than the rest of the nation.
(12:02:49 PM) Adrianne: In general, or with IT?
(12:02:55 PM) Fozz: in general.
(12:03:09 PM) Fozz: because our economy is in much better shape than the rest of the country.
(12:06:17 PM) Adrianne: If only our average income was higher...
(12:06:43 PM) Fozz: Sure.
(12:07:44 PM) Adrianne: See, I have this theory.
(12:07:57 PM) Fozz: oh?
(12:12:15 PM) Adrianne: Sorry -- I had to get the phone for a second
(12:12:55 PM) Adrianne: I think that, in order to make things fair, designer clothing should have pricing akin to that of housing.
(12:14:01 PM) Adrianne: See, a pair of Christian Louboutins (running from $600-$3000) are much less expensive to a New Yorker who makes more on average. Sure, they spend more on living and other expenses in general, but a pair of $700 shoes to them is more like a pair of $1500 shoes to me.
(12:14:04 PM) Adrianne: If that makes sense...
(12:15:36 PM) Fozz: $700 shoes? What? Do they make you fly or something?
(12:16:23 PM) Adrianne: No.
(12:16:38 PM) Adrianne: They're just gorgeous, handmade Italian shoes. Mmmmm.
(12:22:28 PM) Adrianne: They used to be in the $300-$1500 range, but the prices have been steadily rising for the last 5 years or so
(12:38:52 PM) Adrianne: Everyone has their "thing" that they like to dream about and sometimes splurge on, right?
(12:39:09 PM) Adrianne: My friends of the male persuasion love spending boatloads on home theatre setups.
(12:39:58 PM) Adrianne: My "thing" is designer shoes (generally Christian Louboutins) and Diane von Furstenberg dresses. Le sigh.
(12:43:08 PM) Adrianne: I have a feeling you probably like to splurge on fancy-shmancy computer toys
(12:59:22 PM) Fozz: I guess so.
(12:59:46 PM) Fozz: Except I'm married... so splurge isn't really allowed to be part of my vocabulary.
(01:12:18 PM) Adrianne: It isn't?
(01:12:30 PM) Fozz: Not really.
(01:12:39 PM) Adrianne: Never ever?
(01:12:40 PM) Fozz: Plus, my wife is all sensible and stuff.
(01:12:51 PM) Adrianne: I think people can still be sensible and splurge.
(01:12:55 PM) Adrianne: It's all about balance.
(01:12:55 PM) Fozz: She buys shoes a lot more than I do, tho.

Ahh, the next of Adrianne's passions is unveiled: Shoes. And not just any shoes... tall, expensive shoes.

(01:16:55 PM) Adrianne: I'm all about the towers.
(01:17:22 PM) Fozz: good. Makes your butt look good too. :)
(01:17:52 PM) Adrianne: That's what they say.
(01:18:32 PM) Adrianne: http://i24.ebayimg.com/05/i/001/08/b8/e16c_1.JPG
(01:18:52 PM) Adrianne: This was my first pair of Christian Louboutins. If high heels make your butt look good, then I'm set for life with those babies.
(01:19:40 PM) Fozz: Oh boy. Those look like they disfigure your feet.
(01:22:20 PM) Adrianne: No way.
(01:23:45 PM) Adrianne: They're spectacular.
(01:23:58 PM) Fozz: Cool.

I still chuckle when I read what happened next in the exchange. I was working on some programming in another window but accidentally typed ":q!" into the conversation window instead.

(01:24:19 PM) Fozz: :q!
(01:24:23 PM) Fozz: woops. wrong window.
(01:25:32 PM) Adrianne: What in the world is :q!
(01:25:33 PM) Adrianne: ?
(01:25:43 PM) Fozz: Heh heh.
(01:25:52 PM) Fozz: That's the command to forcefully exit the vim text editor.
(01:26:10 PM) Adrianne: It looks like a weird emoticon.
(01:26:15 PM) Fozz: Yeah. It does.
(01:26:42 PM) Fozz: Like someone smoking from a bong or something. :)
(01:27:00 PM) Adrianne: You said it. :)

The next time Adrianne and I chatted, she decided to let me me in on a secret.

(05:18:38 PM) Adrianne: Can you keep a secret?
(05:18:43 PM) Adrianne: As in, tell NO ONE.
(05:18:48 PM) Fozz: Not even Chadd?!
(05:18:52 PM) Adrianne: Not even Chadd.
(05:18:57 PM) Fozz: Okay. I'll do it.
(05:18:59 PM) Fozz: (not tell Chadd)
(05:19:02 PM) Adrianne: Lol
(05:19:18 PM) Fozz: You're pregnant?
(05:19:22 PM) Fozz: I just saw Juno on Friday
(05:19:27 PM) Fozz: It was better than I thought it would be.
(05:19:40 PM) Adrianne: Um, that would require having sex or using in-vitro.
(05:19:50 PM) Adrianne: I have never engaged in neither of those things.
(05:19:55 PM) Fozz: Both have been known to happen from time to time.
(05:20:03 PM) Fozz: So, it's not within the realm of impossible.
(05:20:11 PM) Adrianne: So, safe to say my eggo is not preggo.
(05:20:15 PM) Fozz: hee hee.
(05:20:17 PM) Adrianne: :)
(05:20:23 PM) Fozz: What a plethora of quotables.
(05:20:31 PM) Adrianne: I know, and I love every minute of it.
(05:20:49 PM) Adrianne: My tastes lean toward hipster-y cutesy. What can I say?
(05:21:18 PM) Adrianne: And I have a, um, possibly illegal crush on Michael Cera.
(05:21:28 PM) Fozz: heh. it had a Napoleon Dynamite vibe to it too, with the music, the "I'm not popular" characters, and the ruralness of it.
(05:22:36 PM) Adrianne: Except that it was approximately 5,208,639 times better. In my opinion, anyway.
(05:22:54 PM) Fozz: I think it was better, yeah.
(05:23:16 PM) Fozz: Well, except I think the cinematography was more beautiful in ND.
(05:23:22 PM) Fozz: Some of those shots are to die for.
(05:23:42 PM) Fozz: The story of Juno is certainly better. :)
(05:24:01 PM) Fozz: They both have a nice supply of quotables... but Juno's quotables are more sophisticated.
(05:24:41 PM) Adrianne: Agreed.
(05:24:51 PM) Adrianne: Secret:
(05:24:54 PM) Fozz: oh yeah.
(05:24:57 PM) Fozz: Your secret.
(05:25:06 PM) Adrianne: So, one of the veg techs told me that BIO-WEST is going to open an office in SLC. I want to relocate.

That was the first time I knew she was thinking of leaving Logan.

On Tuesday, 7 October, she told me she'd been on the phone with a boy for a couple of hours.

(10:40:57 PM) Fozz: So, what have you been yakkin about this evening? Anything interesting?
(10:41:47 PM) Adrianne: Yeah. It was almost like a first date over the phone.
(10:42:26 PM) Fozz: Who was the other participant?
(10:42:42 PM) Adrianne: He's a friend of a friend
(10:42:55 PM) Fozz: Is he...
(10:43:06 PM) Fozz: Does he have those qualities that are important to you?
(10:43:12 PM) Fozz: Is he aggressive?
(10:43:29 PM) Fozz: Smart?
(10:43:40 PM) Fozz: Complimentary? ;-)
(10:44:03 PM) Adrianne: Well, he added me as a friend on facebook shortly after our mutual friend got a facebook account
(10:44:11 PM) Adrianne: And then he started chatting with me today
(10:44:17 PM) ***Fozz signs onto fb
(10:44:30 PM) Adrianne: And he gave me his number and told me to text him since he had to go to class
(10:44:40 PM) Adrianne: flirty text messages ensued
(10:44:46 PM) Adrianne: And after class, he called and we talked for two hours.
(10:45:12 PM) Adrianne: And I'm supposed to text him now that I'm home, but I don't know what to say
(10:46:06 PM) Fozz: You know what I always say in those cases?
(10:46:10 PM) Fozz: "Meow."
(10:46:14 PM) Fozz: I don't know why.
(10:46:19 PM) Adrianne: Lol
(10:46:28 PM) Adrianne: I don't know...I don't want to freak him out.
(10:46:45 PM) Adrianne: Maybe I'm overthinking it. Perhaps a simple "Hey :)" would do
(10:46:47 PM) Fozz: You could pretend you "accidentally" text'd him.
(10:47:01 PM) Adrianne: Bwahaha. I totally used to do that when I was, oh, 19

We ended up spent a lot of time over the next three months analyzing (and re-analyzing) the interactions between Adrianne and this boy.

The rest of the chat excerpts that follow are roughly chronological from early October until the end of January.

Here's a random amusing excerpt from a conversation on Wednesday, 8 October:

(11:44:13 AM) Adrianne: I feel weird.
(11:49:04 AM) Fozz: I can't confirm that.
(11:49:25 AM) Adrianne: :) It's okay. I don't need any confirmation.

In our discussions about dating and relationships, I shared some bits of a book I had read called "The Two-Step." Here's the first time I told her about it.

(10:11:37 AM) Adrianne: You know, I've gone so long without dating that I'm not sure I really know how to start something anymore. I am definitely good at getting back into the losing sleep to converse part of it.
(10:11:57 AM) Fozz: okay.
(10:13:48 AM) Adrianne: At what point does all the flirting become...reality?
(10:13:49 AM) Adrianne: okay what?
(10:14:11 AM) Fozz: I dunno. Didn't know what else to say.
(10:14:43 AM) Adrianne: you're married
(10:14:44 AM) Fozz: Flirting ?= reality... I dunno... when you're face-to-face.
(10:14:45 AM) Adrianne: You've done that dance
(10:14:55 AM) Fozz: I still do the dance. It's called the 2-step.
(10:15:01 AM) Fozz: it's the only way to stay married.
(10:15:29 AM) Adrianne: This is probably some really great metaphor that I don't get because I'm not a dancer. At all.

Adrianne was, of course, anxious to know what I thought of one of her favorite films and what I thought of the green dress!

(09:51:05 PM) Adrianne: Did you like Atonement?
(09:51:13 PM) Fozz: Not as much as I hoped I would.
(09:51:13 PM) Adrianne: And is that green dress not the most amazing thing EVER?
(09:51:49 PM) Fozz: It is a nice period costume.
(09:52:05 PM) Fozz: Unfortunately, I'm not a big Kiera fan
(09:52:18 PM) Adrianne: lol
(09:52:20 PM) Fozz: If it was worn by someone slightly more... meaty.
(09:52:25 PM) Adrianne: I don't know...
(09:52:30 PM) Adrianne: It makes me wish I was all bony
(09:52:41 PM) Adrianne: stuff that low cut looks sexy on flat girls and tranny on busty ones
(09:52:43 PM) Fozz: Yeah- I don't like that anorexic look.
(09:53:09 PM) Fozz: I thought she looked better in Atonement than any other film I've seen her in.
(09:53:31 PM) Fozz: But I'm a sucker for that period look. Almost a 50s pin-up look.
(09:53:48 PM) Adrianne: I freaking love the pin-up look.
(09:53:53 PM) Fozz: :)
(09:54:00 PM) Adrianne: I love high waisted pencil skirts
(09:54:34 PM) Adrianne: I love all the swing dresses and garden party gowns

I just have to say, the non sequitur nature of so many of our conversations is fun to read now.

(10:51:06 PM) Adrianne: Dag, yo.
(10:51:10 PM) Fozz: Dag?
(10:51:42 PM) Adrianne: I think "Dag, yo" is from Teen Girl Squad
(10:51:50 PM) Fozz: which is what?
(10:52:42 PM) Adrianne: a segment on www.homestarrunner.com
(10:52:48 PM) Fozz: Oh.
(10:52:54 PM) Fozz: I've only watched SB
(10:52:56 PM) Adrianne: I watched it in high school
(10:55:57 PM) Fozz: What's your favorite strongbad?
(10:56:58 PM) Adrianne: Hmmm...
(10:57:03 PM) Adrianne: Children's Book
(10:57:18 PM) Fozz: I'll have to watch that one again.
(11:02:40 PM) Adrianne: Sorry, I had to reset my router
(11:02:48 PM) Fozz: I love it when you talk dirty like that.
(11:03:01 PM) Adrianne: wtf?
(11:03:05 PM) Fozz: hee hee.
(11:03:20 PM) Fozz: Not many girls know how to talk about resetting their routers.
(11:03:36 PM) Adrianne: True
(11:04:15 PM) Fozz: "I had to like push this blue thing on this gray thing and wait for the red thing to do its.... thing."
(11:04:21 PM) Adrianne: Heh

This immediately transitioned into a conversation about boots. She definitely loved to talk about her footwear.

(11:06:41 PM) Adrianne: I wish I was rich: http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/42455175/c/38010.html
(11:07:35 PM) Fozz: Hmmm. What would I wish for richness for...
(11:08:28 PM) Adrianne: I could find several more things to wish for richness for,
(11:08:38 PM) Adrianne: but right now I'm thinking about buying some sexy boots.
(11:08:58 PM) Adrianne: The only boots I have are Wellies and (ugh) Uggs.
(11:09:11 PM) Fozz: I'm happy with my Docs.
(11:09:28 PM) Adrianne: I want heeled boots
(11:09:44 PM) Adrianne: And not those cheesy chunky-heeled ones that most girls my age have had since they were 16.
(11:10:28 PM) Fozz: Oh, you want some boots you can gouge someone's cheek with.
(11:10:42 PM) Fozz: Got it.
(11:10:56 PM) Adrianne: Yeah, essentially
(11:11:50 PM) Adrianne: On the non-boot side of things, I'd also like these: http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3008482/0~2376778~6017238?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6017238&P=1
(11:12:07 PM) Adrianne: Whoops: http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2994292?refsid=236954_1&refcat=0~2376778~2372808~2372949~2372953&SourceID=1&SlotID=1&origin=related
(11:12:38 PM) Fozz: ok
(11:12:49 PM) Fozz: Not too expensive.
(11:13:12 PM) Adrianne: Nah, but I have a $25 gift card to Nordstrom's

Many times, Adrianne would post the strangest Facebook statuses.

(04:23:16 PM) Fozz: Diabetes is for lovers?
(04:23:22 PM) Adrianne: lol
(04:23:22 PM) Fozz: What's that crap?!
(04:23:30 PM) Adrianne: That's what David Sedaris wrote in my book last night.
(04:23:36 PM) Fozz: Who the crap is that?\
(04:23:47 PM) Adrianne: One of my favorite writers EVER.
(04:24:13 PM) Fozz: EVER?
(04:24:14 PM) Fozz: Wow.
(04:24:17 PM) Fozz: I mean, WOW.
(04:25:00 PM) Adrianne: Yeah.

Adrianne's decision to leave a job she loved and move back to the Salt Lake area was something she really struggled with. It's interesting to me that she never really struggled what decision she felt was the right one to make, but more how to live with that decision.

(12:36:15 AM) Adrianne: I feel wretched.
(12:36:46 AM) Fozz: I felt wretched about 2.5 hours ago.
(12:36:52 AM) Fozz: I still feel semi-wretched.
(12:37:12 AM) Adrianne: I feel like I've been smacked upside the face with a pillowcase full of bricks.
(12:37:16 AM) Fozz: Why?
(12:38:46 AM) Fozz: Or do you know why?
(12:39:31 AM) Adrianne: Because I don't want to quit BIO-WEST.
(12:39:38 AM) Fozz: Okay.
(12:39:43 AM) Adrianne: But it's the only thing keeping me in Logan
(12:39:57 AM) Fozz: You know...
(12:40:04 AM) Fozz: I know they have people who work remote...
(12:40:09 AM) Adrianne: Just one.
(12:40:13 AM) Fozz: Does Melissa Stamp still work in SLC?
(12:40:18 AM) Adrianne: Yeah
(12:40:24 AM) Adrianne: But she's not a lowly editorial/IT person
(12:40:45 AM) Fozz: So, what's got you down on Cache Valley?
(12:40:46 AM) Adrianne: I mean, I'll talk to Sandra about the possibility of helming the SLC office if there's a need for that
(12:40:52 AM) Adrianne: I hate the winter here
(12:40:57 AM) Fozz: Oh. me too.
(12:41:01 AM) Fozz: I mean, the winter'
(12:41:06 AM) Adrianne: All my friends are graduating, getting married, having babies, leaving.
(12:41:07 AM) Fozz: I mean, the winter's aren't that great in SL, either.
(12:41:13 AM) Adrianne: But at least I'd be near things
(12:41:16 AM) Fozz: Yeah.
(12:41:31 AM) Adrianne: I miss out on a lot of things in SLC that I regret
(12:41:47 AM) Adrianne: And I know this is a lame thing to say
(12:41:52 AM) Fozz: Would you move back in with your parents?
(12:41:55 AM) Adrianne: But really? I hate that I don't have a dating life.
(12:42:07 AM) Adrianne: Oh, heavens no. No no no. I'm also looking at apartments down there
(12:42:33 AM) Adrianne: I wish I could live in someone's basement or something
(12:42:40 AM) Adrianne: But stuff like that is hard to come by
(12:42:41 AM) Fozz: :)
(12:42:47 AM) Adrianne: I have friends who do that
(12:42:49 AM) Fozz: OTOH, in Logan, everyone's got a basement.
(12:42:54 AM) Fozz: (for rent)
(12:43:00 AM) Adrianne: They prefer it because they don't have to have roommates.
(12:43:08 AM) Adrianne: Yeah, but I need to get out of here.
(12:43:09 AM) Adrianne: BAD.
(12:44:30 AM) Fozz: It was really hard for me to leave Logan.
(12:45:51 AM) Adrianne: It's going to be hard for me, too
(12:46:02 AM) Adrianne: But for the last few weeks, I've felt like I need to
(12:46:31 AM) Adrianne: I'm going to pray and fast about it tomorrow.
(12:46:40 AM) Fozz: that's a good idea.
(12:46:45 AM) Adrianne: And it's weird, because I feel like I already know the answer.
(12:46:46 AM) Fozz: My wife would say to do that.
(12:46:52 AM) Fozz: I never think about doing that.
(12:47:20 AM) Fozz: I think you're supposed to make your decision (which you sound pretty solid on) and then get reassurance through prayer.
(12:48:19 AM) Fozz: I'll ask around to see if anyone has a room or a basement available.
(12:48:20 AM) Adrianne: And I reeeeeally hope I don't cry when I talk to Sandra.
(12:48:44 AM) Adrianne: I've been so torn up over the whole situation that I feel like my tear ducts are in a constant state of vomit.
(12:48:52 AM) Fozz: Not pleasant.
(12:49:25 AM) Adrianne: No.
(12:49:35 AM) Adrianne: My mom called me today and I just couldn't stop crying.
(12:49:37 AM) Adrianne: It was horrible.
(12:50:02 AM) Fozz: but, yeah, if you're not in school and not "hitched," it can be tough to exist in Logan. The place can be sorely depressing.
(12:50:15 AM) Fozz: I went through a few periods like that.
(12:50:26 AM) Fozz: That was when i was in school...
(12:50:54 AM) Fozz: so I'd take off for a couple quarters (we were on quarters back then, not semesters), work in SL for a while or just be depressed in SL for a while.
(12:51:06 AM) Adrianne: I just never imagined that I would come to hate this place so much
(12:51:07 AM) Fozz: What did your mom say? Good relationship with your mom?
(12:51:16 AM) Adrianne: Very
(12:51:26 AM) Adrianne: She thinks I need to pray about it
(12:51:31 AM) Adrianne: But she also thinks I need to get out of Logan
(12:51:56 AM) Fozz: I wish my sister had never moved to Cache Valley.
(12:52:10 AM) Fozz: But, I can't really say that...
(12:52:22 AM) Fozz: because if she hadn't moved to Cache Valley, I wouldn't be where I am.
(12:52:30 AM) Fozz: I wouldn't have gone to USU.
(12:52:34 AM) Fozz: May not have gone to college.
(12:52:42 AM) Fozz: I wouldn't have met my wife.
...
(12:54:16 AM) Adrianne: Yeah, I stayed because I had good work
(12:54:34 AM) Fozz: And the more I laught at those who look down their nose at me because I choose to live "in the city." heh heh.
(12:55:22 AM) Fozz: Well, I'll help any way I can/
(12:55:39 AM) Fozz: I'm sure Sandra and Chadd will try to work something out with you if you need it.
(12:55:49 AM) Adrianne: I'm still scared to bring it up at all
(12:55:57 AM) Adrianne: Because I'm perfectly happy with my job
(12:56:09 AM) Adrianne: But not the place I live
(12:56:32 AM) Fozz: Would you be willing to drive up to Logan a couple days a week?
(12:57:38 AM) Adrianne: The thought isn't ideal.
(12:57:45 AM) Adrianne: But with gas reimbursement, I'd live with it.
(12:58:48 AM) Adrianne: I do have places I can stay up here.
(01:01:00 AM) Fozz: I should try to go to bed.
(01:01:11 AM) Fozz: Let me know what happens if we don't chat again before then.
(01:01:22 AM) Adrianne: Alrighty
(01:01:27 AM) Fozz: Chin... UP!
(01:01:33 AM) Adrianne: :) Okay.

Here's another fun, amusing gem to read.

(06:13:39 PM) Fozz: I need to move all my personal stuff off the Iodynamics servers... just in case.
(06:13:53 PM) Fozz: http://www.sonsofnothing.com/ is huge.
(06:14:27 PM) Fozz: Looks like 2.6GB
(06:15:12 PM) Adrianne: Psh, that's chump space.
(06:15:19 PM) Fozz: For a website?
(06:16:39 PM) Adrianne: Well, you'd know that better than me.
(06:17:07 PM) Adrianne: But we have employees here at BIO-WEST who move more than that regularly for GIS use.
(06:17:16 PM) Fozz: Sure.
(06:17:59 PM) Adrianne: So I was just being a smartass. I do that from time to time. :)
(06:18:05 PM) Fozz: NO!
(06:18:11 PM) Fozz: That's not true!
(06:18:16 PM) Fozz: NOoooOOoooOOOOoooo!
(06:18:19 PM) Fozz: That's IMPOSSIBLE!
(06:18:20 PM) Adrianne: Heh
(06:18:25 PM) Adrianne: I know. It's a shocker.

This snippet is a perfect example of Adrianne's occasional self-deprecation, but she handles it with such style!

(02:30:51 PM) Adrianne: Well, I am REALLY pathetic.
(02:30:56 PM) Adrianne: So I'm just one step away from that.
(02:31:04 PM) Adrianne: Which still puts me in the pathetic area.
(02:31:08 PM) Fozz: pfft.
(02:35:37 PM) Adrianne: What?
(02:36:53 PM) Fozz: Well, telling people you're pathetic. That doesn't help!
(02:37:18 PM) Adrianne: I'm only admitting it to you. :)

Would you find it amazing that Adrianne had things to say about musical artists?

(04:27:41 PM) Adrianne: LOL
(04:27:50 PM) Adrianne: Every boy I know likes Smashing Pumpkins.
(04:27:56 PM) Adrianne: Well, that's an exaggerations
(04:27:59 PM) Adrianne: *exaggeration
(04:28:03 PM) Adrianne: But most of my BFs have.
(04:28:10 PM) Adrianne: Which is fine; I love 'em.
(04:28:52 PM) Fozz: Isn't the band like... disbanded
(04:29:17 PM) Adrianne: They reformed a couple of years ago, minus James Iha.
(04:29:34 PM) Adrianne: Which, on one hand, is a terrible shame. I'm not sure they'll ever generate new material as well without him.
(04:30:03 PM) Adrianne: On the other hand, Billy Corgan is a lyrical genius, so I'm all for his reappearance in the musical arena.

Usually, Adrianne didn't really express much of an interest in discussing politics even though it was a hot topic in October-November 2008. In this chat before the 2008 election, Adrianne told me she was just not going to vote.

(12:14:39 AM) Adrianne: I'm not going to complain about what happens
(12:14:46 AM) Adrianne: That's not how I am
(12:15:02 AM) Fozz: Do you know who John Stossel is?
(12:15:03 AM) Adrianne: So when people tell me I won't be able to complain, I just say, "okay."
(12:15:05 AM) Adrianne: no
(12:15:19 AM) Fozz: He's a reporter for ABC's 20/20 program.
(12:15:28 AM) Fozz: He did this report about a month ago...
(12:15:52 AM) Fozz: where he went to one of these "rock the vote" type concerts... where they were encouraging all these young people to be politically active, campaign, and vote.
(12:16:18 AM) Fozz: and he asked a bunch of these kids who were there- simple questions about our government.
(12:16:34 AM) Fozz: A handful could answer the questions, but the majority could not.
(12:16:46 AM) Fozz: It was funny and sad at the same time.
(12:17:01 AM) Fozz: "What is Roe v. Wade?" "That's like a black person... and a white person?"
(12:17:15 AM) Fozz: Stuff like that.
(12:17:17 AM) Adrianne: sad.
(12:17:33 AM) Fozz: Stossel suggested that maybe we should NOT be encouraging these people to vote.
(12:17:43 AM) Fozz: that their vote would, in fact, be bad for our country.
(12:17:57 AM) Adrianne: lol
(12:17:59 AM) Adrianne: Yeah
(12:18:45 AM) Fozz: I swear, the stupid vote is huge this year.
(12:19:02 AM) Adrianne: Yep
(12:19:03 AM) Fozz: Ah well.
(12:19:13 AM) Adrianne: Aren't you glad I'm not contributing?!
(12:19:19 AM) Fozz: Heh heh. no!
(12:19:19 AM) Adrianne: :)

Here's a random little nugget that makes me smile.

(02:19:40 PM) Adrianne: If I'm Violet, who are you?
(02:19:52 PM) Fozz: Not sure.
(02:20:18 PM) Fozz: Sully? :)
(02:20:35 PM) Adrianne: That's a different movie!

Did you know Adrianne loved to talk about movies? Yeah! Really!

(12:16:55 AM) ***Fozz hums rocky music.
(12:18:15 AM) Adrianne: Turns out, I've never seen Rocky.
(12:18:29 AM) Fozz: Oh dear.
(12:18:38 AM) Adrianne: I've avoided it my whole life due to people making stupid, "yo, Adrian!" comments to me since I was approximately 12.
(12:18:47 AM) Fozz: That's worth a Saturday afternoon alone.
(12:19:10 AM) Fozz: Talia Shire is adorable in that movie.
(12:20:50 AM) Adrianne: Huh. Well, maybe some day.
(12:21:01 AM) Fozz: It won an oscar.
(12:21:08 AM) Adrianne: so?
(12:21:11 AM) Adrianne: lo
(12:21:12 AM) Adrianne: *lol
(12:21:24 AM) Fozz: Yeah- that doesn't mean squat anymore, does it?
(12:21:49 AM) Fozz: academy went downhill in the late 90s.
(12:21:51 AM) Adrianne: not really, no.
(12:22:15 AM) Adrianne: The day that Good Will Hunting lost Best Picture to Titanic...that was when it officially jumped out the window.
(12:22:21 AM) Fozz: heh heh.
(12:22:34 AM) Fozz: I was just thinking that Titanic won- that wasn't so bad.
(12:22:41 AM) Adrianne: It was a fine film.
(12:22:47 AM) Adrianne: But not better than GWH.
(12:22:51 AM) Fozz: I saw GWH with my mom.
(12:22:55 AM) Adrianne: awkward.
(12:22:56 AM) Fozz: that was tough.
(12:22:58 AM) Fozz: yeah.
(12:23:02 AM) Fozz: That was f-in hard!
(12:23:05 AM) Adrianne: My brother had to watch it for a class
(12:23:08 AM) Adrianne: he's 17
(12:23:15 AM) Adrianne: I volunteered to watch it with him
(12:23:21 AM) Adrianne: I think my mom was relieved
(12:23:32 AM) Adrianne: though she'd never admit it because she always lectures me about rated R movies
(12:24:09 AM) Fozz: And then there was the LOTR fiasco.
(12:25:01 AM) Fozz: You should come over when I get the theater finished!
(12:26:20 AM) Adrianne: Can I bring my boyfriend?
(12:26:24 AM) Fozz: Sure.
(12:26:30 AM) Adrianne: lol
(12:26:32 AM) Fozz: (you have one?)
(12:26:36 AM) Adrianne: Nope.
(12:26:39 AM) Adrianne: working on it, though.
(12:26:44 AM) Fozz: (If not, I've got a blow-up one you can use.)
(12:27:11 AM) Adrianne: Eek.
(12:28:00 AM) Fozz: You eeker.

If there's one thing Adrianne could not understand was why people liked the Twilight series of books or the Twilight film that came out in November 2008. I had so much fun giving her crap about that and observing the results.

(10:10:59 AM) Fozz: heh heh. you should read CVZ's daughter's status updates today on FB
(10:11:21 AM) Fozz: Gretchen VanZanten can die happy because Twilight is everything she wanted and more!!!
(10:11:26 AM) Adrianne: Barfy barf.
(10:11:48 AM) Fozz: Gretchen VanZanten at 2:44am November 21Yeah I know what I want for christmas! Somma those cullen boys! Holy crows they were so so so hot! Meeting the Cullens was the best scene ever!!
(10:15:47 AM) Adrianne: Was she joking?
(10:15:54 AM) Fozz: Hell no.
(10:16:15 AM) Adrianne: Yikes.

Random nugget:

(07:13:47 PM) Adrianne: Yo.
(07:13:57 PM) Adrianne: Sorry about earlier...I hope I didn't seem insensitive.
(07:31:41 PM) Fozz: You suck!
(07:31:43 PM) Fozz: ;-)
(07:31:50 PM) Fozz: What happened earlier?

This random nugget was as Adrianne was getting ready to leave Logan for Salt Lake. She had a date planned.

(05:45:13 PM) Adrianne: Wahoo!
(05:50:17 PM) Adrianne: Man, I'm actually going to be able to leave by 6:00 tonight. That makes me so happy
(05:50:30 PM) Fozz: Wheeee
(05:51:08 PM) Adrianne: I'm so giddy right now. What's wrong with me?
(05:55:44 PM) Adrianne: Welp, I'm leaving.
(05:55:54 PM) Fozz: Welp!
(05:56:14 PM) Adrianne: Welp indeed.
(05:57:23 PM) Adrianne: Bye!
(05:57:33 PM) Fozz: Have fun storming the castle!

We worked together on an e-mail migration project for BIO-West and occasionally Adrianne would need my help resolving some issues. We had fun even when we were chatting about geeky tech stuff.

(01:52:44 PM) Adrianne: Um...can I bug you?
(01:52:51 PM) Adrianne: I mean, I'm sure I'm more than capable.
(01:53:00 PM) Fozz: yeah- you do it all the time. What's stopping you now?
(01:53:29 PM) Adrianne: This time I'm being polite. :)
(01:53:40 PM) Fozz: Sup?
(01:53:47 PM) Adrianne: mcheney
(01:53:57 PM) Adrianne: gets this error upon webmail login
(01:54:00 PM) Adrianne: OpenWebMail ERROR
Couldn't create /home/mcheney/.openwebmail/db (Permission denied)
(01:56:04 PM) Fozz: Corrected.
(01:58:40 PM) Adrianne: Thank you muchly!
(01:59:01 PM) Fozz: And I made sure that problem doesn't exist on any other accounts (it doesn't)
(01:59:53 PM) Adrianne: My hero.
(02:00:26 PM) ***Fozz puts his hands on his hips and looks off to his right as his cape flaps behind him.
(02:00:41 PM) Adrianne: Heh.

Adrianne finally had plans in place for her move back to Salt Lake and she was excited about it.

(01:21:24 PM) Fozz: So, what is up?
(01:21:30 PM) Fozz: Did you find a place to plunk?
(01:21:34 PM) Fozz: Did you find a place to labor?
(01:21:45 PM) Fozz: Did you find someone to plunk with?
(01:24:20 PM) Adrianne: plunk?
(01:24:34 PM) Fozz: plunk.
(01:25:04 PM) Adrianne: Um, live?
(01:25:11 PM) Fozz: live. yeah.
(01:25:33 PM) Adrianne: I'll be crashing with the parentals until I find something
(02:07:39 PM) Adrianne: and I did find a place to labor
(02:07:50 PM) Fozz: Where?!
(02:08:23 PM) Adrianne: You can't repeat any of this, by the way
(02:08:28 PM) Adrianne: I haven't told anyone at BIO-WEST yet.
(02:08:31 PM) Fozz: heh. okay.
(02:08:34 PM) Fozz: Promise.
(02:08:37 PM) Adrianne: Swear on your life.
(02:08:37 PM) Adrianne: Swear on Linux!
(02:08:43 PM) Fozz: I SWEAR ON TUX!
(02:08:48 PM) Adrianne: tux?
(02:08:50 PM) Fozz: Tux!
(02:09:05 PM) Fozz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tux
(02:09:32 PM) Adrianne: Aw, he's so cute.
(02:10:24 PM) Adrianne: I got a job at my dad's office
(02:10:31 PM) ***Fozz gasps
(02:10:34 PM) Fozz: WHat does your dad do?
(02:12:49 PM) Adrianne: Well, he's the general agent for National Life of Vermont
(02:12:53 PM) Adrianne: but he has his own company in the same suite
(02:12:59 PM) Adrianne: and that would be Sovereign Financial
(02:13:06 PM) Fozz: Investments?
(02:13:12 PM) Adrianne: yeah
(02:13:13 PM) Fozz: Where is his office?
(02:13:19 PM) Adrianne: downtown SLC
(02:13:24 PM) Fozz: And what will you be doing?
(02:13:33 PM) Adrianne: Tech writing, marketing
(02:13:38 PM) Adrianne: updating website stuff
(02:13:41 PM) Fozz: cool.
(02:13:44 PM) Adrianne: There's so much to do up there
(02:13:54 PM) Fozz: Well, let me know if you need some outside IT consulting. :)
(02:14:00 PM) Adrianne: You know I will!
(02:14:04 PM) Fozz: Linux file server, etc. :)
(02:14:05 PM) Adrianne: I won't be working with him, really.
(02:14:12 PM) Adrianne: I'll be working with the office manager
(02:14:16 PM) Adrianne: she loves me, though. :)
(02:14:34 PM) Adrianne: when she found out I was moving here, she asked him to find out if I was interested in working with her
(02:14:42 PM) Fozz: nice.
(02:14:46 PM) Adrianne: and he was a little concerned with the whole nepotism thing
(02:14:51 PM) Adrianne: and she said she didn't care one bit.
(02:14:52 PM) Adrianne: lol
(02:26:12 PM) Adrianne: So, yeah.
(02:26:23 PM) Adrianne: I'm not saying anything here until after I get my Christmas bonus.
(02:37:47 PM) Fozz: :)
(02:38:08 PM) Adrianne: What?
(02:38:11 PM) Adrianne: Can you blame me?
(02:38:14 PM) Fozz: nope.

It was time to tease Adrianne about Twilight again.

(12:53:47 AM) Fozz: I went to Twilight last night.
(12:53:49 AM) Fozz: :)
(12:53:51 AM) Adrianne: BARF.
(12:53:52 AM) Fozz: (finally)
(12:54:02 AM) Adrianne: seriously, I don't want to talk about that.
(12:54:09 AM) Fozz: Well made show, but definitely made for those who read and enjoyed the books.
(12:54:24 AM) Adrianne: BARF.
(12:54:25 AM) Fozz: (Unlike Harry Potter - I couldn't stand the book(s), but enjoyed the films)
(12:54:47 AM) Adrianne: I'm this close to logging off...
(12:55:07 AM) Fozz: But anyway- I saw a trailer for Confessions Of A Shopaholic
(12:55:12 AM) Fozz: Thought of you and your shoe thing.
(12:55:35 AM) Adrianne: turns out you're not the first person to tell me that...
(12:55:35 AM) Adrianne: lol

The following is part of a conversation where she was analyzing a dating "conundrum" with me.

(04:59:29 PM) Fozz: heh heh.
(05:01:07 PM) Adrianne: what?
(05:01:22 PM) Fozz: Let me see.
(05:01:27 PM) Fozz: "heh heh."
(05:02:07 PM) Adrianne: what are you "heh heh"ing?
(05:03:05 PM) Fozz: you being all...
(05:03:11 PM) Fozz: waity.
(05:03:12 PM) Adrianne: prudish?
(05:03:19 PM) Fozz: Oooh. You're a walking thesaurus!
(05:03:48 PM) Adrianne: you're a walking smartass.
(05:03:48 PM) Adrianne: lol
(05:03:52 PM) Fozz: heh heh.
(05:07:50 PM) Adrianne: admit it -- that was good

This one still cracks me up.

(09:26:01 AM) Adrianne: can you do me a humongous favor?
(09:26:14 AM) Fozz: I dunno. '
(09:26:17 AM) Fozz: Maybe
(09:26:24 AM) Adrianne: can you call my cell phone?
(09:26:30 AM) Adrianne: I can't find it
(09:26:32 AM) Fozz: Heh.
(09:26:34 AM) Fozz: Sure.
(09:27:28 AM) Adrianne: crap
(09:27:33 AM) Adrianne: I can hear it somewhere.
(09:28:06 AM) Adrianne: got it
(09:28:08 AM) Adrianne: Thanks!
(09:28:11 AM) Fozz: K.
(09:28:13 AM) Fozz: np

Random nugget!

(04:08:06 PM) Fozz: Sup wit yew?
(04:16:44 PM) Adrianne: just wrapping up as much as I can at BeeDub
(04:20:35 PM) Fozz: k.
(04:23:29 PM) Adrianne: crazy, isn't it?
(04:23:37 PM) Fozz: yes. crazy.
(04:35:14 PM) Adrianne: I feel weird!
(04:35:25 PM) Fozz: Well, you look funny too.
(04:35:33 PM) Fozz: ;-)
(04:45:31 PM) Adrianne: thank you.
(04:45:52 PM) Fozz: ;-) ;-) ;-)
(04:46:07 PM) Adrianne: what's with your winkiness?
(04:47:01 PM) Fozz: something in my eye.
(04:54:57 PM) Adrianne: ...okay...

Maybe it was because she was an English snob, but Adrianne didn't like me going into phonetic-spelling mode this time. Then we talked about her moving to Salt Lake.

(12:40:44 AM) Fozz: So... Chuptoo?
(12:40:45 AM) Fozz: Yat?
(12:41:10 AM) Adrianne: yat?
(12:41:23 AM) Fozz: Yat?!
(12:41:25 AM) Fozz: Say it.
(12:41:29 AM) Fozz: hey you. Yat?
(12:41:49 AM) Fozz: "Where are you at?"
(12:41:58 AM) Fozz: Chadoon?
(12:42:06 AM) Adrianne: oh boy
(12:42:18 AM) Adrianne: I'm sitting in bed with my laptop
(12:42:27 AM) Fozz: In SLC or Loogun?
(12:42:34 AM) Adrianne: Logan
(12:42:42 AM) Fozz: When you moovun?
(12:42:55 AM) Adrianne: pleeeeease stop.
(12:43:04 AM) Fozz: wha?
(12:43:12 AM) Adrianne: and to answer your question, tomorrow and friday
(12:43:34 AM) Fozz: Got everything all taken care of?
(12:43:40 AM) Adrianne: with what?
(12:43:43 AM) Fozz: the move.
(12:44:42 AM) Adrianne: heavens no
(12:44:48 AM) Adrianne: haven't done hardly anyting
(12:44:50 AM) Adrianne: *anything
(12:45:36 AM) Adrianne: I tried to motivate myself to pack when I got home
(12:45:42 AM) Adrianne: but one of my friends came over and we watched a movie.
(12:45:52 AM) Fozz: What movie?
(12:45:59 AM) Adrianne: that I won't say
(12:46:05 AM) Adrianne: because it's embarrassing
(12:46:08 AM) Fozz: Wyzat?
(12:46:13 AM) Adrianne: because it's a stupid movie
(12:46:16 AM) Fozz: heh heh.
(12:46:19 AM) Adrianne: and yet, I laughed a lot
(12:46:23 AM) Adrianne: I'd even seen it before...

I learned early on that Adrianne LOVED "30 Rock" and LOVED Tina Fey. What cracks me up about this, however, is her reaction when I said I didn't have an opinion about Will Ferrell. Chadd shared a story with me where she did almost the exact same thing to him when he didn't care for a band she asked him about.

(01:10:32 AM) Adrianne: reason number eleventy billion why I love Tina Fey: http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/01/12/so-about-those-internet-commenters-tina-fey-mentioned-video/
(01:12:19 AM) Fozz: That dress is a little... extreme.
(01:13:03 AM) Adrianne: you don't like it?
(01:13:26 AM) Fozz: It's a little extreme.
(01:14:07 AM) Adrianne: did you watch the video?
(01:14:14 AM) Fozz: yes
(01:15:23 AM) Adrianne: I love her.
(01:15:35 AM) Fozz: Yeah.
(01:17:11 AM) Adrianne: How do you feel about Will Ferrell?
(01:17:35 AM) Fozz: I'm ambivalent.
(01:17:45 AM) Adrianne: nevermind then

I think this is the only time Adrianne asked my opinion about politics and not the other way around. And then... she zinged me.

(09:44:25 PM) Adrianne: your thoughts on the newest bailout?
(09:44:33 PM) Fozz: Pfft.
(09:44:52 PM) Fozz: Only 3% is meant to be spent this year.
(09:44:59 PM) Fozz: I'm not sure how that's supposed to help the economy.
(09:45:14 PM) Fozz: In fact, hardly any of it seems like economic stimulus at all.
(09:45:23 PM) Fozz: It's just a bunch of huge pork.
(09:47:25 PM) Adrianne: that's what she said.

I only knew Adrianne as a friend for about four and a half months before her death. That's about as long as I spent doing a college internship back in 1997 and I can't remember most of the names of the people I worked then, but I highly doubt I'll ever forget or stop missing the chats with Ms. Adrianne McBride.

Schizoblog!

2009-02-21T09:41:59Z

I have been blogging off and on since 2001. You might even say I was blogging before that because I was posting stuff to my personal website before the word “blog” meant anything, starting probably in 1994.

I suppose it’s a significant milestone when you realize one blog isn’t enough.

Now I have three.

I have split the entries in my archive (whew) into three separate MoveableType blogs pertaining to politics, tech, and general (everything else). But, to accomodate people who are used to coming to the Fozzolog to see everything, I’ve set up a Planet aggregator that parses the syndication feeds from the three blogs and displays a summary of sorts of everything that’s on those individual blogs.

The Planet page is at the same URL the Fozzolog has been at for years: http://www.fozzilinymoo.org/Fozzolog/.

The new blogs are at the following URLs:

Tech Fozzolog: http://fozzolog.fozzilinymoo.org/tech/
Politics Fozzolog: http://fozzolog.fozzilinymoo.org/politics/
General Fozzolog: http://fozzolog.fozzilinymoo.org/general/

Book review: Leadership and Self Deception

2008-10-12T16:47:46Z

Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box by Arbinger Institute

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. What an amazing, enlightening, inspiring book.

I've never read a book that seems targeted at business management technique or strategy that read like a novel. While the plot of this novel is a bit shallow, it makes the material so much easier to read and absorb.

As I read this book, it occurred to me the authors are really saying the key to all productive relationships is humility. But, that's just too vague of a concept (and would make for a much shorter book), so they broke it down into cause and effect discussions from multiple angles to demonstrate evidence of its truthfulness.

I can't help feeling the urge to purchase a copy of this book for every one in my family and those I work with. It's that profound.

View all my reviews on GoodReads.com.

Book review: "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-15T08:25:40Z

Unlike many people I know, mostly women for some reason, I didn't go to a August 2nd midnight release party for Stephenie Meyer's latest book, "Breaking Dawn". No, I just pre-ordered it on Amazon and checked for its arrival every day starting on August 2nd. It didn't arrive until the 6th or 7th, those jerks!

This is the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and it apparently ends the series as we know it. Meyer has hinted we may see some followup books that may repeat the stories in the previous books, but from a different character's perspective. I think the soil is fertile also for future books about other characters from the stories.

So, I liked this book. I think I could have liked it a lot more, but after three amazing, best-selling novels, my theory is Stephenie Meyer knew she didn't have to work that hard. As a result of her laziness, the story isn't as imaginative as the first three and the writing isn't as rich.

That being said, I have to admit Stephenie Meyer could write 750 pages of Bella Swan walking alone on a dirt road thinking to herself and I'd just lap it all up with glee. For the most part, I love the characters in the Twilight series, especially Bella, and could tolerate a lot of stuff as long as Stephenie Meyer writes about Bella.

A couple days after the book was released, my wife told me that one of her coworkers told her they'd seen where someone had fashioned a message using plastic cups in the chain link fencing on a highway overpass that read "Bella dies!"

Well, that kind of spoiled it for me!

This being a vampire story, however, death isn't necessarily the end of a character's story. While I'm sure the sight of that plastic cup message caused a lot of people's hearts to skip a beat, I don't think it's really that big of a spoiler.

The Twilight series is aimed at young adults, but "Breaking Dawn" is definitely more of an adult book. than your standard young adult novel. While the adult themes are vague and lacking in the details you might find in a trashy paperback romance novel, this probably isn't a book I'd recommend to anyone under 15.

That being said, I think Stephenie did a marvelous job of writing more mature material without necessarily offending too many of her virtue-obsessed readers (Meyer is Mormon and has a significant Mormon readership).

There were a few points in the book where I found myself closing the book and mouthing "Holy ****!" because I couldn't believe what I had just read. While some of the other reviews I've read indicated they thought the story was very predictable, I guess I fell right into it and lapped it up so much I didn't see what others plainly saw coming.

I didn't like what happens to Jacob in this book, but I'm not sure what Meyer could have done differently. Maybe she could have let him have what he wanted (Bella) and then kill him. Yeah! No, I can't see her doing that.

I also didn't like the way Charlie was handled. It seemed... too easy.

The "monsters" in "Breaking Dawn" seemed a lot less frightning, with a couple exceptions, than in the previous books and my theory on that goes back to Meyer's unfortunate laziness. Just about every monster-character seems to embody civility and control, unlike in previous stories. That is a bit of a let-down because I found the contrast of behavior between the monsters, the humans, and the exceptional monsters to be a major component of the stories. In Breaking Dawn, not so much. Even the amazing, spectacular, "monstrous" things that happen to Bella are conveniently downplayed and controlled like they're no big deal.

Buy your copy today at Amazon!

Making a difference in people's lives

2008-08-06T08:05:47Z

How often do you make a difference in other people's lives? I often feel I don't make much of a difference in anyone's lives, mostly because I often seem to be on auto-pilot, tending to my own affairs and minding my own business. Some people, on the other hand, make it their life's work to help others in need.

I'm not suggesting that we should all beat ourselves up for not being more charitable or supportive, but I would like to share something I did that I know will help someone out who is a tough spot. The good news is that you can do the same exact thing!

Monica Ramos and Patty Compean

I don't think many people have heard the story of Monica Ramos and Patty Compean. Their husbands are serving time in prison, currently in solitary confinement. I believe they were unfairly convicted and sentenced for crimes they did not commit.

I first heard about this story on the radio and Glenn Beck has talked a lot about it. However, don't be misled into believing this is a conservative or Republican issue. No, this is an American issue and a case where the government has conspired against its own people.

You can read the story that landed Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in jail on Wikipedia or a number of other sites. The short version of the story is this: Ramos and Compean were border guards working the US-Mexico border in Texas. In 2005, they were in pursuit of a drug smuggler who fled after they stopped his van (which was full of drugs). There was a shot fired, and the smuggler ran away. While it appeared no one got hurt, the smuggler was apparently struck in the buttock with the bullet. Later, the US government granted the smuggler immunity for his testimony against Compean and Ramos on charges they covered up the shooting and acted out of order. The immunity included a border crossing pass and while the trial was underway, the smuggler was apprehended again with a another load of drugs, but let go because he had immunity. In addition, it appears the US government paid for medical treatment for his gunshot wound.

After Ramos and Compean were sentenced to prison, their attorneys, of course, filed appeals. Meanwhile, members of congress, talk radio personalities, and concerned individuals in Texas and around the country, started digging up as much information as they could about the case. It was revealed the US district attorney that prosecuted the case lied repeatedly about the evidence and the circumstances surrounding the case. During the trial, he requested and was granted that information about the drug smuggler would be sealed so that the jury would not discover he had been caught smuggling a second load of drugs since the original incident.

The appeal was finally read by a panel of the 5th circuit court of appeals about five months ago. Those in attendance of the hearings said the judges were very concerned that the case was mishandled and chastised the prosecuting attorneys for prosecuting on ridiculous charges, and generally bungling the case so badly. However, five months later, just a week or two ago, the court upheld the sentences and only dropped minor charges against the men.

Many believe these men are political prisoners and that the fault goes clear to the White House. The US attorney general has longtime ties with Alberto Gonzales and President George W. Bush. Congress and others have asked President Bush to commute or pardon these men who were just trying to do their jobs as border guards, but he has done nothing and has said nothing.

Others believe the Mexican government is involved as well. Why? I don't know.

It is terrible that these men are in prison, but many don't realize the suffering their families have been going through. Both men are married and have children. These families no longer have a primary breadwinner and must deal with the stress and emotional trauma of having a loved unjustly imprisoned.

It probably goes without saying, Monica Ramos and Patty Compean are hurting-- financially, mentally, emotionally, and otherwise.

A local talk radio host in Houston set up a fundraiser to help these families and word got to Glenn Beck. He had both women on his radio show last week and asked one how much her rent was that she was struggling to pay. She told him it was $11,000 or so for the year. Glenn told her he would be writing her a personal check for $11,000 and would write one in the same amount for the other family.

I've followed this story for months and was heartbroken to hear that the families were struggling. One of the women said her son had been persecuted at school and that is one of the reasons they had moved. I was ready to donate some money myself even before Glenn announced his donation.

So, today, I wrote two checks. One to Patty Compean and one to Monica Ramos. I don't have the kind of money Glenn Beck does, but I sent fifty dollars and I'm sure it will help with something. Hopefully, I can make this a regular thing, sending a little money every month. I hope many others are doing the same thing. These families will suffer regardless of how much money people send because they can't be with the husbands/fathers they love, but the money will help make it just a little easier.

If you are touched as I have been, you can send a donation as well. Edd Henndee, one of the talk radio hosts in Houston, is collecting the donations and delivering them to the families. He asks that people make out two separate checks, one to Monica Ramos, one to Patty Compean, and mail them to:

Edd Henndee
Taste of Texas
10505 Katy Freeway
Houston, Texas 77024

Maya and Lucy start school

2008-07-28T22:07:19Z

Maya and Lucy started school today. Our neighborhood elementary school, Foothills Elementary, is on a year-round schedule, so that is why they're starting so early compared to traditional schools. Maya started fifth grade and Lucy started second grade. Eli will be starting kindergarten, but he'll be on a traditional schedule as he is attending an all-day kindergarten program provided by our day care provider.

Christine went with the girls to school this morning and took a camera, but it had dead batteries, so I went this afternoon and got some pictures after school. You can see those at <http://picasaweb.google.com/fozzmoo/MayaAndLucyStartSchool2008/> or enjoy the embedded slideshow below.