Where do I start? I guess we’ll start with our jobs. Aside from the added craziness at my work, things have gone well. During the big push for inventory readiness, I received a good annual review and a raise for my efforts. Actually, it was great with all high marks and maximum raise, which I’m used to getting. Still, I can’t shake the feeling sometimes that I’m not always taken seriously. One of my co-workers made a good point, though; we’re all not taken seriously, even when some of us have tons of experience. It’s just management mentality. That’s probably why I’m only comfortable being a supervisor at most. I can be an effective manager for a project, just don’t ask me to be one for a long-term basis! Still, I always have room to grow. Otherwise, like I said, things are going pretty smooth. On my wife’s side of things, she’s gotten some big-time recognition for her efforts at her job. In fact, she recently got a level promotion with a sizable raise. All in all, things are looking up for us on that subject and also financially as well.

Home life is not so exciting. The only thing that’s really kept us going here are our individual interests… and the birds, of course. Lately, things went into a decline with the health, and subsequent death, of our budgerigar Kiwi (see last post). However, a couple of friends came over last evening for a Doctor Who marathon and pizza night, and that did very well in dulling the pain from our loss. My camera is STILL in the shop! I brought it back in to Best Buy a day after pickup because it was exhibiting the same problems. They did call me today to let me know that it’s ready; I’m bringing batteries and a memory card so I can test it out right there in front of them. If it still doesn’t work, I’m demanding a refund and/or replacement. I’m getting short on patience for ineptitude. Other than those things, at least our health overall is doing fine, so we really can’t complain.

On the hobby front, I’ve been waiting on two puzzles that I ordered from different companies. One is the V-Cube 7 from Verdes Innovations. That one actually came for me on July 3rd, and I made an unboxing and demonstration video of it that day. Here’s the video:

I’ve done about ten or so solves with it and I’m very impressed and satisfied. It’s a little more challenging that a Rubik’s Professor cube, but that’s mainly talking about time consumption. The real challenge for me is to bring my time down to 20 minutes, then 15 and then eventually to ten minutes. I’ll be happy with 15 minutes, really, since I’m not much of a “speedcuber”. I really should try, though! Oh, and the other puzzle that I’m waiting on is the Pyraminx Crystal from Mefferts.com. It should be arriving later this month. I can’t wait; it should present a bigger challenge than the V-Cube, due to the design and function. I’m already planning the next puzzles for my collection later this year. I’d like to get the V-Cube 6; even though it’s a lower order than the 7×7 cube, even-number cubes are inherently harder to solve due to mathematical parity issues. Also, I wouldn’t mind an Eastsheen 2×2 cube, to replace the Rubik’s Ice Cube that’s in a state of shaky repair.

Well, I’ve just expended a lot of thought into this entry. Thanks for reading and being patient with my absence. Cheers!

ABC News: Bionic Cat Falls 3 Stories and Lives — Twice

(Sorry I can’t write anything more… Long day!)

Please post a comment with your favorite quote or memory, without giving away the answer. Don’t go running to the Birdchick to find the answer. (Unless you’re really stumped!)

Just a recap of things for the week. I also wanted to do a different video editing style and make it more interesting. Unfortunately I fubar-ed the sound on a couple of segments. I’m not the most engaging speaker in the world, so I guess I’ll do almost anything for a chuckle! I’m putting this on my YouTube outgrowth of the blog, but there’s no reason not to put it on here as well.

Enjoy!

Disapproving Rabbits: Petunia

I have two cousins out in Ohio that have Petunia as a disapproving, yet faithful, companion. Click the link to check out their entry to Sharon Stiteler’s (aka Birdchick) Disapproving Rabbits Blog.

He almost looks like he really is exhibiting extreme disapproval about the piano. Either that, or someone’s played “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” a bit too much. (My wife’s favorite song, especially when I sing it; it’s an in-joke thing!)

Enjoy!

Whew! That took a lot of code, even with WordPress’ automatic code editing! Click on each picture to see the original version, along with captions.

The first picture is a view from my car driving south down Avondale Avenue. I loved the view of the mountains. It just looks so tranquil! The next two pics came from me playing around with the 3×3x3 cube and stumbling upon the best scramble you could possibly get. No single color is paired up with the same on another cubie next to it. This is actually a hard permutation to get to; just try it sometime. The last one is me sharing a cute moment with Thommen, our Eclectus parrot, while getting ready to give him a shower.

Everyone enjoy!

Anyways, as I’m wrapping things up for the night, Christine is reading her email and gasps at an infoletter from the Arizona Humane Society. I just had to read it. Click the link below to see what I saw.

Arizona Humane Society: Cat Suffers Depraved, Cruel Act; Dies As Result

All of you can probably imagine the payback I’d give to the one who tortured that cat. Hint: It would be a little hard to do if the perpetrator is female!

Say hello to Bailey!

He is just the sweetest, friendliest bird you’ll meet! After a couple of times hanging with him, I told Christine that we should just have budgies from now on. The cockatiels are ok, but they can be problematic sometimes. Same goes for the eclectus parrot, Thommen, though he’s more of a sweetheart than the ‘tiels.

Anyways, back to what I was doing. Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, Parakeets, Budgerigars, Bird Photos

Made and edited with iMovie HD 5.0.2, shot with a Fuji Finepix A350 camera. Boom!

Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, Bird, Videos, Home Movies, iMovie, Fuji, Eclectus, Cockatiel

Christine and I have gotten to know the owners well, hence the shameless plug for their business here.

Anyways, whenever we go there, I always find some excuse to snap a picture or two of their well-cared-for birds. Now I found that I’ve been amassing quite a collection of pics taken at JD Birds. The next logical step in anyone’s photo collection: make an album!

So, check out the Photo Gallery (see random photo in blog sidebar) and look at some of the JD Birds photos. Most of them were taken with my cellphone’s camera, but I’ll have a couple of hi-res (megapixels) photos in there soon. Also, check out the other albums as well, and feel free to make some comments!

Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, Bird Photos, JD Birds