Good teaching is 1/4 preparation and 3/4 theater.

Although I missed the performance last year, I decided to attend the outdoor performance that American Stage puts on in St. Petersburg every year. This year it was a performance of 'Little Shop of Horrors' that most people recall from the movie with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis. The weather outside was great and getting there 90 minutes early allowed for the claim of a pretty good spot to lay out the blanket and picnic supplies.

It was a very lovely comedy and produced quite well with a limited stage. Audrey 2, as the focal point of the story, preformed quite well and stole the show. I wish I had more opportunity to visit the theater more often, but it is a pretty far drive from my home or office. Summer planning is going along well, though I still have more aspects to decide in order to make the most out of my 25 day trip.

It is a XX world.

Since this is one of the last weekends I'll be around for a while while Halcyon is playing, I headed over to Skipper's Smokehouse to listen to the music. Halcyon tends to be one of my favorite local bands and I typically enjoy going to listen to the harmonizing duo. Most of the people there tend to belesbians, so it is weird to be just about the only male there (and still not have a chance to score!), but oh well, I just go for the music anyway.

I still have a lot of little projects at the office going on and am still planning the summer travel season. Getting an itinerary together is taking quite a while as I try to plan out all the trails, the food, and driving directions, but am sure it will be worth it.

Choose fellow travellers well - you may have to eat 'em!

I have much of my trip planning done for the summer trips. Already I have more traveling planned now than last year. My flights and car rentals are book, so I will be leaving on July 4th and returning July 31 for the mid-west trip. I'll be flying into Vegas, driving up to Yellowstone, hiking and viewing the sites for 6-7 days, hiking in Grand Tetons for 3 days, Zion for 4 days, and also hitting Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and Archs National Parks. I also just got a ticket to go see Cirque du Soleil's "O" show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas the night before I return. I'll be on the road a little over 26 days, but am very excited to get the opportunity to see so much of the country. The two weekends before the trip and the two weekends after the trip will also find me traveling to other spots (Charleston, Jacksonville, Wilmington NC, and New Orleans), so it looks to be a pretty packed summer! I cannot wait!

Is it kitty litter if you toss a cat out of a car window?

For Earth Day, I joined some folks from USF's Outdoor Recreation for a kayak trip down the Alifia River for trash clean up. About 2 kind souls donated their time to help beautify the area, but also get a free canoeing trip, by picking up trash from the riverbed and sides. Some of the common items were beer bottles (no surprise), tires, old shoes, sand such. The rest of the day for me was unfortunately spent at the office (since it was on the way home anyway) finishing up on some projects while it was quiet. I pretty much went for the paddling and social aspect of meeting some new outdoor folks.

Here are some of the event pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.74mfcy3z&x=0&y=dlje57

Sure you could kick my ass...problem is gettin' me off it.

After a long season, Saturday morning was the kickball tournament. Since we didn't have a stellar record, we decided to go for the fun factor instead of the win, so we all decided to show up in Halloween costumes to keep the game interesting. Fortunately, it was a double elimination set up, so we were guaranteed to play at least 2 games. In the first game we ended up losing, so we had to be referees for the next game. There were a couple of teams, with one in particular, that were dicks the entire season. They would typically argue every call that wasn't in their favor, constantly yelling, and generally antagonizing everyone. They apparently didn't like one of the calls, so after an inning decided to make the other team forfeit for not having enough girls on the field, after which they stormed off to the Hummer stretch limo that they apparently hired. Most of us just want to have fun, so our team decided to play an exhibition game against the forfeiting team for fun. We pretty much made out own rules as we went along including ones such as 'you have to do cart-wheels into home plate' and other such silliness. Few of us cared all season whether we won or lost and just wanted to have a good time, and that we did.

We of course lost the second game as well, but in general everyone was having a good time. the other teams seemed quite amused by our antics and enjoyed joining in for a bit as well and even seemed interested in checking out our running club sometime. Though I'll be gone most of the summer, I hope to sign up and have a good time next season. This league was so much more enjoyable than the 'Tampa Club Sports' kickball league in terms of being laid back and proximity to home and work.

Since there was a lot more light than found during our normal evening games, I took a bunch of pictures of the event that can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.7s97yelr&x=0&y=-ba4er5

Avoid people that refuse to pay their debts.

April 4, 2009

One unfortunate aspect of property management is dealing with people that fail to meet their obligations. One such person is William/Bill Glidden that lived in Valrico, Fl. He rented office space at my business complex, failed to pay rent, left with significant debt, and refuses to return company property (mailbox keys, office door keys, etc). He has continued to flat out lie on multiple occasions and claim bankruptcy was being filed (which didn't happen). He even made a repayment plan/contract to repay some of the debt with a payment plan of his own making and even missed all of those payments. When asked about it several times he lied and said a check was sent when there is no evidence there ever was an attempt to send a check.
This person has made multiple threats and in my personal opinion should not be trust with any business transaction or business account. In no way would I ever suggest using his services and would actively recommend completely avoiding him on a personal or business level. This entry is made in hopes that future potential landlords, clients, or employeers doing an search may be better informed about the potential risks of working with this individual.

William Glidden
Previously operated under DINETECH, LLC. in Florida (since dissolved).
bglidden1962@gmail.com
3726 COLD CREEK DR
VALRICO, FL 33596-6349

Disney didn't die. He's in suspended animation.

On Monday I took the day and went to Epcot At Disney World with a friend. It has been years since I went and I figured it would be a nice way to spend the day. We fixed up plenty of sandwiches, veggies, and rum in the water bottles (for mixing drinks) to tide us over for the day and headed off relatively early (at least for me) in the morning. To save money (especially since they would charge more for the teardrop I had with me) and even check out the resorts, we usually park at one of the Disney All-Star resorts and take a bus to the theme park. Technically I'm sure Disney would frown upon this, but I don't think it is a huge issue. The park crowds were relatively light with the only decent wait (of about 25-30 minutes) being at the Mars experience ride. With the Fast Pass, we were able to enjoy the other rides without too much of a wait. We even got to do the Test Track twice in a row since the cameras didn't capture us on the first ride so they immediately set us on another loop. I was disappointed to find the Mexico boat ride temporarily closed, but am sure I'll have more opportunity in the future. After we were done for the day, we headed back to the Gaylord Palms to attend a couple of talks and even crash a few receptions for free food and even beer! I love conventions.

Favorite numbers?

I've been seeing this string '09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0' posted around a lot. Rumor is that is has magical 'anti-sony' properties, yet I have no idea what it means. Ideas?

C:\WINDOWS C:\WINDOWS\RUN C:\WINDOWS\RUN\AMUCK

This was the weekend of the Run-A-Muck campout in Orlando. Except for the Tampa Campout in December, this is the largest hash camping event in Florida. We had probably 130-140 hanging out throughout the weekend. For the first time, I decided not to take the big camper and to just use the teardrop and I found it is much easier now. There is very little set-up time where as it would previously take more than an hour to put up or take down the hybrid camper sides, awning, stabilizers, outdoor carpet, tables, etc. The weekend was a typical campout with lits of great stories, little adventures, and a good trail. Friday evening was spent hanging out with fun folks playing tippy cup, 3-man, or just generally chatting. Saturday had a great trail with almost no roadway or flat running, though I misjudged where I thought the trail might go and added another mile when I had to backtrack and find the group. The second portion was the best with the trail following several nature boardwalks, fields, and wooded areas. Saturday night we had a band play with some people dancing, however most of us decided to play games or go sit by the fire and sing our own songs with Limp D playing the guitar, and myself providing some backup vocals. Someone brought an electric car that was used for constant joy riding throughout the weekend with only a single tent fatality. On Sunday Wayyy brought over his firetruck, so we piled on and were riding around the back streets and had a great time enjoying the bright, but cool weather.

Though some people went on a pub crawl after the campout, I headed off to Orlando to meet a friend at the Gaylord Palms Resort. They were attending a national conference for the week and the main guest speaker was Vice President Al Gore, so I thought it would be neat to attend. I got there just before the speech started and though it was quite long, I thought it was interesting and informative enough. There was mostly rhetoric about global warming and environmental concerns (glacier melting, green house emissions, auto fuel efficiency, etc). Surprisingly there were only a few joking jabs at the current administration, but I did find myself comparing speaking styles comparative to the current President (who used to be quite eloquent in the old days yet very different now).

Pictures of the weekend campout can be found here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.37jeont3&x=0&y=w7ikq2