Keckley . Org

Phillip K. Dick, et al.

willk (mailto:w@k.org) — 2011-07-28T18:47:35

"Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless himâ€”one of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don't agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn't raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to them in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine-looking man, very impressive and very military in stance; you can tell he has a military background, even to the haircut. He knows I'm a flipped-out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love."

a fool and his money

willk (mailto:w@k.org) — 2010-10-23T13:45:36

Ok so maybe today isn't all about vainglorious posting about how neato cool/old i am. It is actually about how for over a decade i have enjoyed the Team Fortress franchise. The primary reason i enjoy the game is the price point. For close to a decade TF was free, it was a free addon to a game i already owned. Then when they "sold out" in '99 they started working on a free addon to the new Half-life engine. I bought quake, sorta. I bought half-life soley so i could play the new tf. Five years later there was no new TF, they did however apologize by remaking TF Classic available for free, and that took away a bit of the sting. TF classic was a remake of TF1 on the Half-Life engine, and while it didn't capture the essence it was a passable experience. Passable enough i am sure it only managed to steal a hundred hours of my life. Today it seems silly to talk about that pale mockery of greatness, because TF2 has been out for three years. In those three years i have spent more than 260 hours basking in its splendor. Why am i talking about hours? I judge quality and enjoyment based on the time i am entertained versus the amount of money spent.

A younger me, received TF1 and TFC for free, and had hundreds, if not thousands of gaming hours with those games, all for free.
I bought tf2 for 20 bucks or a comparable pittance, and have had a blast playing the game for countless (ok so i really do count, 260+) hours.

Today that all changed. Today i figured, i am a working man and don't have the time to spend playing these games, lets go ahead and buy some toys from the new in game store. Easy enough, i bought the Poly count pack. It was nearly fifty bucks. Off i went to play with my new toys, i love the new tank buster, make the soldier so much more survivable. Glory.

Soon enough i was awarded a new in game item, a mystery box. All i had to do was go buy a key from the ingame store. using real money, just like before. The process was simple, i had just done it, so i did it again!

I paid a real $2.50 for a virtual key, that opened a virtual chest.

With that purchase i had now spent more on TF2 virtual goods than on all the previous incarnations of TF, ever.

My smile per dollar ratio is plummeting fast.
I feel dirty.

Primeval Warrior 9/18/2007 19:07

willk (mailto:w@k.org) — 2010-10-23T13:09:55

Team Fortress is a splendorous game, i have been playing it since the first quakeworld edition back in 96.
I basically made this post to say that. That is all!

A day in the life

willk (mailto:w@k.org) — 2010-05-25T15:03:07

Today was a day. Just your ordinary. In an effort to take a snap shot of my life i present the first post of 2010.

I dragged some lumber around home depot, then to a truck, then stored said lumber. It makes me wonder why everything cant be ordered on the internet yet.

I produced "art files" for some promotional note pads. I call them art files, since that what the printer calls a .png. .art files are too AOL.

Reviewed some call notes, to get a pulse on the street of the sales team. We have lots of competition out there theses days. Set up a date for a ride along tomorrow.

Ordered some contacts, i had been using 1800contacts, but i was through with self loathing, i mean they use a phone number as a website address, how barbaric.
I used some other generic vendor who happens to accept Google checkout.

Reviewed collections status on a few accounts.

Had lunch with Adam at Yia Yia Mary's, we talked about work stuff, performance reviews etcetera.

Went over to the mechanics to get my climbing harness i had left behind earlier. Climbing yesterday in Ben's old shoes was great, but the exposed toe was a no no. Tonight will be much better.

Drove out the Houston plant, installed a new monitor went over some TeleTrac procedures. Did a quick site inspection.
MSHA, mine safety and health administration was out at Eaglelake. The inspector came up with a guard or two that needed fixing but over all ok. They guys out there have done a great job with the recent changes. They bragged a little bit that the hoppers were all full.

The insurance lady called to let us know one of CDL holders could not be insured, since he had gone the wrong way on a one way street. Sad times. He was a good driver, but we must follow the golden rule. Protect the company protect, our pocket books, and protect a hundred jobs. We cant take any risks on safety.
Waiting on sample particle size distribution results to send to a client in Tennessee.

I am looking for a new piece of land to house me, and more importantly my toys, i want less sqft for me but more garage space. And it must be in a HOA free area, since i myself am blight.
The thought of living in a church seems fun.

Anyhow back to work, the end of the month is coming up.

earthquakes and rattlesnakes.

Will K (mailto:will@keckley.org) — 2009-09-21T01:47:22

Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right. You can't win an argument. You can't because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.

Why? Well, suppose you triumph over the other man and shoot his argument full of holes and prove that he is non compos mentis. Then what? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior. You have hurt his pride. He will resent your triumph.

A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

Mr. O'Haire became one of the star salesmen for the White Motor Company in New York. How did he do it? Here is his story in his own words:

"If I walk into a buyer's office now and he says: 'What? A White truck?
They're no good! I wouldn't take one if you gave it to me. I'm going to buy the Whose-It truck,' I say, 'The Whose-It is a good truck. If you buy the Whose-It, you'll never make a mistake. The Whose-Its are made by a fine company and sold by good people. He is speechless then. There is no room for an argument. If he says the Whose-It is best and I say sure it is, he has to stop. He can't keep on all afternoon saying, 'It's the best' when I'm agreeing with him. We then get off the subject of Whose-It and I begin to talk about the good points of the White truck.

There was a time when a remark like his first one would have made me see scarlet and red and orange. I would start arguing against the Whose-It; and the more I argued against it, the more my prospect argued in favor of it; and the more he argued, the more he sold himself on my competitor's product."

Buddha said: "Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love," a misunderstanding is never ended by an argument but by tact, diplomacy, conciliation and a sympathetic desire to see the other person's viewpoint

Windward

2009-04-27T20:37:55

9 hours en route.
13.96 mph was our average speed.
A sustained SE wind of 15-20 mph.
First half our average was 15.169 mph
Second half it dropped to 12.61 mph

Google maps for some reason it will only display 2 miles at a time. just click next a lot, its easier than pedaling.
If you have google earth installed you can just load the attached kmz file and see it in its entirity, google you need to fix this.

Click for wall of text.

Rockwall

Will K (mailto:will@keckley.org) — 2007-12-30T15:56:32

There is now a rockwall on the side of my house. Go check it out.

Update 6/19/08: Insurance carrier dropped me. Please don't set my house alight.

Death in the family

willk (mailto:w@k.org) — 2007-05-26T15:38:25

I picked the spot on the map due to the curvaceous nature of the roads, and the abundance of water and trees in the area, on Google maps. I picked the restaurant by entering "breakfast" and "San Augustine" into Google local. But when i showed up at the intersection called San Augustine it was more magical than any product of Google could ever be, with the possible exception of Google spreadsheets.

I was met by a man John Doe, no really, that was his name. He saw my bike and took it upon himself to show me all the best trails to get it dirty on. what a magical town, you show up and they provide the fun. I went across the street to the "breakfast" spot in San Augustine, Happy Donuts, and ordered a croissant a Blueberry Donut, Bear Claw and a Gatorade. I was amazed when the lady told me i owed her $3.50, since thats practically what a single Gatorade would cost in Houston.

Ben showed up three decades later, and was struck by the same phenomenon. However more welcome than the low prices was John Does return, this time he got a Blueberry donut (good taste!) and wanted to offer us a place to stay. However all he had to offer was a lake front paradise complete with hand made dock. Only catch was we had to go NOW. Donuts digesting, we hit the road. John made his 3/4 ton pickup scream down the road giving us plenty of room to wind out the twisties. We lost sight of him when we started into the forest, but he would always appear on the other side of a corner for just long enough to make sure we were still in tow. He stopped the truck and grabbed a Motorcycle out of a shed on the road, and the chase continued.

After showing us to his little slice of heaven tucked away in the heart of the national forest, John decided a little Dirt was in order. So we cruised the "infamous" 9-mile road through the Mud and trees. the mud puddles required certain tiptoeing to insure you stayed clean, but after awhile i had had enough of that and flew headlong into them. It was going alright, dirty, but alright. We didn't stop rolling till dusk when we set up camp on the shores of the lake/river/Resevoir/creek whatever they want to call it, i'll call it fun.

The next day we set our own pace and had a blast, did some real fun paved rollers. we spent the day exploring the area and found some great gems, we woke at 8am and didnt get out of the saddle till that night. Biiig day. If you want to see what ground we covered i created a little Google Homage to our trip there.

As i was riding home i thought to myself what a wonderful trip, it had its scary moments but all in all we came out bruised and battered, but with a feeling of real accomplishment. For all the bent brake levers and bruises the bikes held up magnificen...t...Oh crap. My bike started chugging down as i crossed into he city of Houston's Limits. Flogging the go-juice i attempted to breathe life into my failing stallion. But despite my best efforts it died, at 60 mph on US 59. Hoping for the best i instinctilvy hit the starter switch, and was greeting with the purr of the engine, that quickly turned into a chortle as it struggled, coughing and sputtering to get me off the Freeway. Ont he feeder road, i was thinking, i am close enough, i can ride this beast through town flogging it and sputtering all the way home. The bike disagreed as it sputtered one last time dying here
. Long after dismantling my bike and trying to figure out the mysteries of its illness I made my one phone call, the call i had been saving since my phone threatened to shut off a day ago. Dad Help! Within a few hours i was back at home sobbing, i had a fallen soldier in the back of the pickup truck, so undignified.

On a side note, while iw as waiting by the side of the road for those few hours, not a single sole stopped out of the thousands that passed by in cars or even bikes, but a lone bicycler peddled up and let me make a follow up call on his phone. When we were by the roadside in the Piney Woods, the first car that passed us would stop, so would the second and third. It truly is a different world out there.

Moosex26

Will K (mailto:will@keckley.org) — 2007-01-21T22:20:08

There are 26 separate items of moose in this condo. From a set of coasters, (one moose count for the set) to light fixtures, on to curtains and pictures. There is a lot of moose up in here. We didnt even notice it ourselves, Jesse's girl pointed out( and counted) the sheer abundance of moose in here.

Itemized Update:
Moose Curtains
Moose Coasters x2(two sets)
Moose Pictures x6
Moose Signs x4
Moose Light fixtures x 4 (1 lamp, 3 wrought iron fixtures)
Moose 2 foot tall Dolls x2
Moose Curtain Rod
Moose Bed Spread x 2
Moose Coat Rack
Moose Throw Rug
Moose Soap Dish

Eco Terrorism

Will K (mailto:will@keckley.org) — 2007-01-16T10:37:46

Our mission to exchange the projector went alright. They accepted it, but they didn't have any good projectors so we were stuck with the biggest crappiest most expensive piece of junk, the Epson Movie Mate. In town we also picked up a Speakman Anystream Showerhead. When we walked into the best buy Tyler asked for it by name and model number. Can you imagine a shower head so impressive you knew its name and model number? With the product in hand tyler explains its greatest feature, its hackable. You can hack the shower head by removing its water restrictor and getting the full force out of your shower turned Niagra Falls. Fabulous.