1 Foot in the Grave

…My other foot should get. No doubt you’ve heard of “The Bucket List.” I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I understand the premise. Well, I don’t want to copy the title, but it is, in fact, a bucket list. But because my website’s name is “1 Foot in the Grave,” I figured a good and proper name for my bucket list would be “My Other Foot List.” Although I do have one foot in the grave because of this damned lung disease, my other foot is not ready yet. This is sorta what my other foot would like to do before I die.

This is born from a homework assignment my shrink gave me to do this week. I gotta mention now that during our first meeting, she said she didn’t give out homework assignments. I wonder if I should be concerned that she lied to me and saddled me with this project on only our 3rd meeting? Naw. My feeling is she knew it’s what I needed to do. I was doing nothing but complaining, rambling and being entirely discombobulated. There was no (more…)

Not a whole lotta real pleasures in my life these days. I really love spending most of my time on this computer, building websites, working with graphics. I also enjoy a few television programs and occasionally I will watch Late Night with David Letterman. He has an irreverent sense of humor and usually gives me a good laugh or three. But the music has never been all that great for me. I don’t know who picks these groups, but some of them are down right repulsive. Whata ya gonna do but change the channel.

Tonight was QUITE different. Maroon5 and It Won’t Be Soon Before Long made the difference. I’ll admit that what initially prompted me to give a listen - or at least wait to see them walk on stage - was the very stylish album cover (us old folks still call ‘em albums - they’re CDs and even smaller an’ shinier than my old 45’s) - go ‘head, give it a click to see the larger version. I know, that’s a pretty weird reason to decide to listen to a group, but I’ve made flimsier decisions than that, ya know. So, the end of the show comes around (by the way, pretty stiff and boring Katie Holmes was and that was a lousy impersonation of Letterman that Frank Caliendo did) and the Maroon 5 were introduced. Right away I noticed it: no screaming. Really, you know what I’m talkin’ about. These guys were smooth. I was tappin’ away on my computer, ferget doin’ what, and I just had to stop. It was a very fresh and (more…)

“The Mad Modder” was a tag I picked up sometime in 2003. I was known as “Grump” for a long time - not an undeserved nick-name - and in ‘03, I was hanging out a lot in case modding forums. I built the computer you see in the picture (click it to see a larger version) and it impressed someone at CPU Magazine and it was featured in the October 2003 issue and I became the first “Mad Reader Mod.” Of course, the title was derived from my nick-name and a few people in the modding circles began calling me “the mad modder.” I even got the domain name, TheMadModder.com, which at one time had a pretty nice forum - another one of those things I had to give up when I got sick.

But that isn’t what this entry is about. I only mention my case modding because it has been the kind of thing I have enjoyed doing for many years. Oh, not just computer case modding, but modding just about everything. I used to build model cars when I was a kid - customized them and even got published in a model car mag back then. I’ve tried to modify cars, my homes, hell, I even modified the way I pack this damn oxygen tank around - but more on that later. What I am taking the long way around getting to is that I spent the biggest part of this day modifying this website. I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. (more…)