Beagle saying hello from the High Desert

Summer is approaching which should mean more walks for the meeyups. Katie took a small break from hunting wabbits to smile for this picture. If Hildi saw that smile, she would wipe it off the beagle's face with mud fist punch to the top of her dome head. Hildi is already busy scaring off all the wabbits to foil the beagle.

Bad Friend Maker

I'm really bad at making friends. There are many reasons for this, and maybe this story will help to describe why.

So I met this guy, Adam, at work about two months ago, when a big group of us (us being a bunch of fellow process engineers) went out to lunch. The guy driving was playing the Silversun Pickups and I mentioned how good I thought they were, mainly due to my love of bands with female leads. So then someone said that I am similar to Adam in that way. So I said I should talk to Adam to find some new bands. Well Adam was sitting in the backseat and I had just met him about 10 minutes before. That was really awkward.

Anyway, at lunch I pushed on and talked to Adam about girl bands and was suprised to find out that we actually had very few bands in common. It was a good thing, because it wasn't that he didn't like the bands I liked, it was just that he had never heard them and the same for me with the bands he liked. Anyway, the next weekend we made each other some MP3 CDs. Out of this, I have picked up quite a few new bands I'm into: Pretty Girls Make Graves, Tsunami Bomb, Auf der Maur, Basement Jaxx, Butterfly Boucher, Carina Round, Gertrude, The Gossip, Magneta Lane, Mary Timony, Morningwood, and Tegan and Sara. This alone makes the attempt at making a friend worth it. I think the only band he liked from my collection was the Kidney Thieves, but whatever, that band is awesome.

Another lunch the following week and I learned that he has no kids and no girlfriend (i.e. lots of free time). Also, he is into video games. He had just bought a 360, but was having a lot of trouble with it locking up. Ugh, I'm currently going through a similar issue. He had returned his twice and overall had 3 bad 360's before he gave up on it and has now bought a PS3. I can't blame him given the bad luck he had with the 360. But this was a missed opportunity for our friendship, because we could have played some 360 over Xbox Live. That would create a nice intermediate interaction before actually meeting up together.

Then there was another interaction when the lunch group decided to go to a hookah bar one Friday night. I brought some Dominoes, because that is apparently a game commonly played at hookah bars. While playing, I talked about how much I love games. Adam seemed intrigued and was also a good Dominoes player. The next Monday at work he gave me a CD of some Podcasts he downloaded and enjoyed listening to. There were three podcasts: 2 pertaining to video games, and one just about board games. This was also really cool as the board game podcast has informed me about many really cool boardgames and helped me to understand the style boardgames Christina and I play well together.

Christina does not like to play games with direct confrontation or when the goal of the game is to destroy your opponent like stratego). This can lead to some hostility and throwing of pieces. I'll write another blog entry about my love of board games some other time. Anyway, there is one game I got for Christmas called Memoirs '44. I love this game. I only played half a game with Christina and it was too confrontational for her. That leaves me with no one to play this game.

So I was or am hoping that Adam could fill this role. I felt him out about two weeks ago when we were discussing the podcast about boardgames. He said that he would like to try some of them because he listens to the podcasts, finds it interesting, but has never actually played any of the boardgames being discussed. So I told him that some weekend we should play Memoirs '44. I didn't get the reaction I was hoping for. It wasn't a no, it was just kind of flat ambigous response. I don't know. I decided I would offer a formal invite later in the week.

I sent him an email on a Friday saying I had my whole weekend open and I could bring the game over or he could come over to my place. I had the same trepidation with sending the email as asking a girl out. I decided to send by email, so if he didn't want to do it, he could say no. I hate being asked in person to do things I don't want to do, because I'll probably say yes out of politeness or pity. And I don't want to play with someone who is not interested.

The result of this email, was an immediate auto-response that he was out of the office for that Friday and until the following Tuesday. So basically he would not read that email until he came back on Tuesday. The following week I briefly spoke to him about his new HD TV and the Kidney Thieves. But there was no talk of the email I sent. I know he received it though. Christina came home for Spring Break that weekend, so I wasn't going to leave for a night a board gaming.

This weekend was the next available weekend. I gathered courage and sent him basically the same email on Friday morning. I did see him at work that day. I got no response to the email. No acknowledgement of the email at all. There is no way you can go an entire day at work and not read your email. It is a critical component to our job. And this is where things stand. I'm not going to press the issue. I feel smitten.

Also, as a side story to my inability to find a friend to play this game with, I've become desperate. I have looked into volunteering at a retirement home, but everything online makes those old people look disgusting. And I'm not sure I want to play a game about WWII with some guy that was in it. I considered becoming a big brother, but that seems like a larger commitment than just a board game, and what if the kid doesn't even like board games? Then what is looking like my best option is to play with my boss's son. Playing with a 9 year old is scary enough, but then hanging out at my boss's house with his son is very strange, right? What is really holding me back is that he lives on the other side of Boise. I think I'm going to put an entry into Craig's list.

Working 8-5

Texas Instruments and Cypress Semiconductor have both recently decided to shut down their process R&D. This has resulted in a flood of R&D process engineers to the job market.

Is it right for a company with a process R&D group to make their employees aware of this fact? And let them know that they could be easily replaced? Not just easily replaced, but also remind the employees that it is not a good time to be unemployed with the competition to find another job being very high.

I don't think there is any problem with a company doing it. And sadly, it is the kind of motivation that I respond best to. A manager gets more out of me by threatening me. I don't think it is a fear of losing my job that drives me, but more about me proving my value.

Tax Time

Response to IRS concerning discrepancies in Keith Hampton’s 2005 Tax Return

On the response form, I chose option 2. I do not agree with some of the information shown. There appear to be three issues with the return which I will try to address.

1. Student Loan Interest: The form states that I did not include $196 of student loan interest on my return. According to my records, I did include this. I included a copy of my 2005 tax return with the $196 circled. I also attached a copy of the 1098-E that I used when filing.
2. State Income Tax Refund: I filed electronically with Turbo Tax. I included the state return as shown in the screen shot print I attached, but it does not appear to be included in the 1040 short form. I’m not sure if it is a part of one of the other numbers listed. In any case, I included a copy of the 1099-G I received. I don’t know what happened if this number was not reported. I tried to put it in correctly.
3. Sale of many stocks: I liquidated a Smith Barney account I had. In the past, Smith Barney pretty much took care of the taxes and I was under the impression that it was done by them again. It appears I was wrong. I therefore included a schedule D. I did make interest from the sale of these stocks and will need to pay the taxes on those gains.

Hopefully this sets everything straight. Please contact me with any further questions.

Thank you,

Keith Hampton

Ugggg... Instead of doing my 2006 taxes, I had to respond to problems with my 2005 taxes. That schedule D was 8 pages of handwritten stocks. Thank god I'm done with Smith Barney. I fear the worst is still yet to come.

State - Carolina

Here we go again. Reference my blog entry about the Women making it to the ACC final against Carolina last weekend. Well just multiply those emotions by 100 with the men. I'm so proud of this team. Everything is against them in this final though.

UNC has better players, more players, better coach, more fans, more money, fresher legs, no injuries, a top 10 ranking, more ESPN coverage, more successful history, the benefit of getting every call, more experience and 8 McDonald all-americans. NC State has a lucky red jacket and a chip on their shoulder.

Go Pack! Go to hell Carolina!

NC State Defeats Duke

Oh my. I'm busting with joy. Sidney worked some magic tonight. NC State takes out Duke 85-80 in OT.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=270670150

We only have 6 scholarship players. Only two returning players that saw significant minutes from last year. I went into the season thinking 3 wins in the ACC and maybe ten wins overall. Below that would be a bad year and above that would be a good year. Then one of our returning players, best player, and point guard Engin Atsur got hurt in December that kept him out for about two months. That of course lowered my expectations. Amazingly this team has won 6 games in conference, 16 games overall (winning record), and beat 4 top 25 teams.

At the end of last season, Herb Sendek left for more money and a fan base that would support him at ASU. I think the more money was like $800k/year. I've heard mixed feelings toward Sendek from NC State supporters. I never really liked the guy and I think it was good he left.

My biggest problem with him was his inability to get guys ready to play in the big games. They never played with any emotion. He had success. He was able to take us to 5 straight tourney appearances after being absent for a decade. When the team played well, it was so pretty to watch. Lots of backdoor cuts and methodical calculated passing. But if the team needed a spark, it wasn't going to come from the coach. Typically it would come from super spazz Julius Hodge who would usually cause more harm than good. And this lack of a enthusiasm was always my problem with him.

It was always most apparent in the games against UNC and Duke. NC State is the long forgotten team in this triad. NC State brought big time basketball to NC, but for various reasons fell over a 15 year period. I've mentioned my hatred for UNC. I don't really care about Duke all that much, but I know many people do. Anyway, despite Sendek having success over the last couple of years, one thing remained the same. We would always lose to Duke and Carolina. And it wasn't just that we would lose, we would get killed. It wouldn't even be competitive. Many of the games, State would be the higher ranked team and would be favored, but would come away losing by like 25. This is why so many people wanted Sendek out. 12-4 in the ACC is good, but not when your four losses are to the teams that are only 50 miles from your campus.

So I was relatively happy when Sendek decided to leave. Then I was glad to hear that the AD, Lee Fowler, was laying down the gauntlet in interviewing new candidates that he expected wins over UNC and Duke. But even I thought he went too far when he said we needed to start beating them this year. As I've stated, the team was in disarray with few returning players and the recruiting season already over. He went after big name John Calipari, which was awesome. I think he offered him around 2 million dollars/year. But I also heard that Calipari turned it down because the expectations to beat UNC and Duke in his first year were just ridiculous.

Sidney Lowe in his first year now has a 1-1 record against both UNC and Duke. Unbeleivable.

And the recruits are coming...

Mid South Eastern Conference Player of the Year

State has a tough challenge against Duke in the first round of the ACC tourney tomorrow night. They are sitting at 15-14. I don't know if the NIT takes teams that are 15-15, so it might be a must win for the NIT invite.

Things are looking up for this program. I thought Sidney Lowe was a bad choice when they hired him, but I have been impressed. He has won more games this year than I thought he would and much of the year was without best returning player and point guard Engin Atsur.

He has a top 20 recruiting class coming in next year and then it looks they will get the Mid South Eastern conference player of the year in 2008. Does UNC have the Mid South Eastern conference player of the year? Nope.

http://northcarolinastate.scout.com/2/620762.html

Kendall's Birthday!

Today is Kendall's birthday. Happy Birthday Kendall! This is my little sister. I was so impressed with her when I saw her at Christmas. She is way more of a grown-up than me or my bruther. I think she is holding two jobs and going to school full time. And not school for some lame degree in advertising, but in interior design at a big time art institute in Atlanta. I wish I had a picture of the last project I saw her complete. It was a model of this really cool home that she had to design and fabricate herself. I was super impressed. On top of all that, I think she cooks and cleans and generally maintains a home like you would expect from a Southern girl.

This is a picture she gave me at Christmas. It is her with her lover Brayden. And also the newest addition to the family, Murphy. Unfortunately, Murphy has some kind of strange skin disease.



The better gift she gave me at Christmas was a Bloc Party CD. They have a really kick ass drummer. Now she just needs to send me a copy of their new CD.

State - Carolina

I have been an NC State fan my entire life. My dad went to school there and instilled the love from the beginning. I was lucky enough to go to school there as well. It is difficult to describe the emotional investment I have made to the athletic programs. Nick Hornby wrote a great book called Fever Pitch where he discusses his love of Arsenal and I think that he sums up how I feel for for NC State.

Anyway, today the NC State women's basketball team will be playing UNC for the ACC championship. I really don't care for women's athletics. It is like watching sports in slow motion. So why would I care about the game today? Well it is NC State against UNC for the ACC championship. And as much love as I have for NC State is about how much hatred I have for UNC. They're the priveleged class who deserve nothing, but get everything. It is so satisfying to watch them lose. But it hurts so bad to watch them beat my Wolfpack. In fact, yesterday the NC State women pulled off a huge upset in beating the undefeafeted Duke women, but all I could think about was how sad I was because now they have to play UNC. A loss to UNC would completely wipe out the tremendous accomplishment made yesterday.

The game is going to be televised here in Boise, and I'm going to attempt to watch it. The Greensboro Colisseum should be packed and if State pulls another upset by beating UNC, then there will be plenty of disappointed Carolina fans. The look of dejected UNC people gives me such pleasure.

Look at Hansboro after State made him look stupid. Crying fits so well with that baby blue.

Bobo Bildy

The best dog I have ever known is our Doberman, Hildi or Bobo Bildy. She has nothing but love to give everyone. And the love is unlimited. In this picture, Hildi is making herself at home at my Meemaw's house by claiming the kitchen table.

As long as I keep posting, there will be more images of the Bildster. This post though is more about my beautiful wife becoming a Veterinarian. She's in Vet school at WSU (sidenote: WSU just got finished beating #23 USC. woohoo, go Cougs!). Anyway, this is the email she sent me today:

these are some of the internal parasites that Hildi can get:

Toxocara canis- round worm that lives in the small intestine, transmitted via fecal-oral route, but the eggs must sit in the environment for 30 days before they become infected. Once ingested the larva travels to the stomach, migrates to the liver, migrates to the lungs, gets coughed up and swallowed back down to the small intestine where it lives the rest of it's life. This worm causes Visceral Larval Migrans in humans, mostly little kids that eat old poo.

Ancilostoma- hook worm that lives in the small intestine, transmitted via fecal oral route or it can penetrate the skin and migrate to the guts. It causes diarrhea and can kill young puppies. This worm causes Cutaneous Larval Migrans and is the reason why dogs aren't allowed on beaches (dog poos on beach, 2-8 days later the eggs hatch and latch onto people walking around with bare feet, they penetrate the skin and migrate around looking for a home)

Dirofilaria- Heartworm, lives in the heart, transmitted by mosquitoes, difficult to treat

Little kids eat old poo?

First Blog Entry

So this is my first entry. I'll start with what is going on today.

I have spent the morning going through Amazon recommendations for music. I found a band called the eyeliners that sounded pretty good. I really need to update my MP3 player with music my brother has given me and music a friend of mine from work has given me. But I'm avoiding that task, because there is usually some problem with a couple of songs that won't transfer right and then I get frustrated. And frustration is not a good thing for a Saturday. But then I know I'll go to work with my MP3 player and be upset that I didn't update it and then tell myself to do it this weekend. This battle between my weekday self and my weekend self has been going on for quite some time. But check this out, I now decided to create a blog.