BillieLOG

So hot it melts your popsicle.

billieh — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:46:50 +0000

Holy crap it’sbeen a long time since I’ve blogged! Sorry about that, my faithful readers!

Topics today:

- House
– New Desk
– Decorating
– Tax return
– 37″ LCD TV
– pics http://house.soniq.org

-Family Reunion
–Sister Deb and Niece Michelle showed up
–Combo birthday party.
–Pool party

-Flying
–No more delays I hope!

-New Orleans

-Visit to Milwaukee

- Housewarming gift form my sisters.

***Sorry for the sound quality…***

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Yep, our Will’s a trophy boy. Meanwhile, all I got was this bus schedule and you do not want to know what I had to do to get this.

billieh — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:35:29 +0000

Hey everyone!

Schedule first, blog second:

I’ll be coming into Milwaukee this week, and my anal retentive-ness is already building a schedule.

So far, this is what we are looking at:

Thurs 6PM: Arrival at Airport, Bill Gray picking me up

Thurs 7PM: Dinner/ Jazz in the Park

Thurs 8PM: Fluid for Cosmo night

Fri 830AM: Breakfast with Karee

Fri 10AM: Work until 6

Fri 6PM: Sherri pick up

Fri 630PM: Dinner at Mongolian (anyone wanna join us? )

Fri 830PM: Drinks at Fluid with Lisa, Sherri, Celebrate Don Johnson’s birthday

Sat 10AM: Brunch with Steve and Bill? (*)

Sat 12PM: Garden party at Sharkey’s? (*)

Sat 2PM: Family reunion with Hawkins’ side! (*)

Sat 6PM: Dinner with ? (*)

Sat 10PM: LaCage/Kruz

(*) = Will need a rental car for these events

Sun 10am: Brunch with Don Johnson

Sun 2PM: Fly back home

—————————————-

Long time no blog, hey? Well, it’s just been a very busy month! Tony and I have been working a lot of hours at our jobs – he has been getting mandatory overtime a lot (Southwest was on a hiring hiatus, and since they are still training new people, they need everyone to pick up the slack.) and I have been doing a lot of 10 hour shift trying to research some work concerns.

As for the house, that’s taking up most of our time on the other end. We are quickly realizing that we can’t get everything we want anytime we want it; that’s a little frustrating when we look at our back yard that isn’t yet landscaped and our dining room that doesn’t have a table yet and the spare room with no night stand and the bonus room with no tv.. you get the picture. I know it will all happen in time, but it’s a little depressing to look at it and want to do things we just can’t afford all at once.

Oh, so the whole reason i am going to Milwaukee this week instead of the last weekend of the month is because of this family reunion. There is a bit of a back story on this, so bear with me.

I recently re-established contact with my brother Ron (on my father’s side) and his family. After several visits, it was discussed that every year his family does a ‘mass’ family reunion. They have a large number of summer birthdays, and so it just works out that they pick a day and a place to get as many people as possible together in order to celebrate. We thought it would be a great iea to try and get the sisters on my mom’s side of the family involved, maybe to re-establish a 25 year separation of the family.

Ron’s wife, Becki, worked with me to try and set up something that would work for everyone. We got dates set, locations, food, everything. It seems that there was always a conflict.

After trying to arrange multiple dates, locations and times to accommodate everyone, it was determined that some people just weren’t able/willing to be on board with the idea. As it stands, most of my mom’s side of the family seem to use every weekend in August for events before school and work start up again. Ironically, the ones who are the farthest away and the least available normally are able to make it.

That being said, I am flying back for this event, Michelle and Debbie are getting a ride in from Fon Du Lac, and the Hawkins/Weare side should all be there.

I do have to say that I was more than a little bit disappointed how this turned out. I mean, obviously there are valid reasons as to why people can’t show up; there is no denying that plans overlap, and there is no crying over that. I guess I am just disheartened that I sent out emails MONTHS beforehand; I asked for opinions on location and availability; nothing seemed to follow through. When I finally did directly ask people what I could do, I was presented with a laundry list of things they had already planned or reasons they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) come. It was then that I made the decision to just accept the answers they gave, and let anyone off the hook. There was no reason to argue that it was ONE saturday, and that ONE hour to make a round and say hi, maybe introduce your kids, whatever. It wasn’t worth it.

All in all, i can say that i really tried to create a moment where my family could come together and make a face to face reunion. optimistically, I would like to try this again sometime; realistically, I think that the families have just been in their own bubble for so long that they don’t want or need to connect any of it. Of course, as always, I get stuck being pulled in all the directions. And no, that’s not a guilt statement, it’s just a fact. I wish people could take a look at my family history from my point of view, just to see what transitions they took.

Let’s see:

There was birth to age 6: Mom and Dad, with a varied amount of Hawkins brothers and Brandt sisters living at the house, until Dad went to jail, splitting the household.

Age 6-8: Living with Mom and my aunt (Brandt), little contact with any siblings

Age 8-10: Moved several states away from all family except mom; attempted to bond with step-family (Yahnkee)

Age 11-12: Back to Wisconsin, living close to Debbie and trying to be a part of the Ford family (Ford)

Age 12-14: Living in FDL with Mom again, no family close by

Age 14-15: Living with sister Donna, trying to find a place back in the Brandt side, also working to fit into the Kissler family, as least in part.

Age 16- : Kind of giving up on family all together for a while, as I never really fit anywhere, did I?

Age 20+: After a couple years dating Donn and seeing the Moczynski family work, I realized it might be worth being a part of a family unit again. I began to make strides in that effort.

Because of that, I have tried to keep in regular contact with my siblings; i send cards and things to people on their birthday; I try to email and call regularly. I attempt to attend family events, even if it’s a five state journey and I have to rent a car and secure a flight and lodging…

The reunion was the next step in this effort. My father had created a rift in the family when he went to jail, splitting us all apart back in 1986; I wanted something to try and get the lines of communication open again.

So that’s been heavy on my mind. Short of that, you all are pretty much up to date.

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BillieLog – One blurb about me, the rest is Mac OS tips and tricks. (I was asked to provide some config tips.)

billieh — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:02:17 +0000

Mac tips for the Daily User

Today’s blog is only going to be briefly about me; I thought today I would share some of my insight on a few geeky things that I do to make life a bit easier for me; you may find some of it useful.

About me:

Well, just made my first house payment (ouch!). Got a great care package from my sister Dianne and Donna; Thanks sisters!! Tony has been working a lot of overtime, so our schedules have conflicted lately; not so bad, but inconvenient. Next week we start the INSANITY workout.. we’ll see how that goes.

That’s pretty much it for now.

OK, so here’s a few things that I have learned and use that will help any mac user make the most of their system:

General Hints:

1. Get as much RAM as you can. When I updated my machine from 1GB to 2, I immediately saw a boost in speed and usability.

2. Get Spark. Spark is an app that allows you to assign apps, commands, and folders to key combinations. Most people never use the F-keys for much, so I have them mapped to the most common functions I use:

Play/Pause iTunes, Prev Track, Next Track, Open Firefox, Open Chrome, Open TextEdit, Find File

There are hundreds of commands and options available, and it’s a great free program.

3. Turn off Dashboard Widgets. If you don’t use them at least once a day, they are not doing anything but eating memory. It’s an easy process:

– To turn off:

— Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)

— Paste this, then hit enter: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

— Paste this, then hit enter: killall Dock

Viola! No more dashboard.

– To turn back on:

— Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)

— Paste this, then hit enter: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

— Paste this, then hit enter: killall Dock

4. Tweak iTunes. (See below)

5. Clean out the crap once in a while. There is an app called ONYX, that has automated cleanup features. It will give some life back to your computer, and clean out all the logs and junk you will never need as a normal user.

iTunes Specific:

Do you have a large library? I do. Almost 55,400 songs now. Because it’s so large, I’ve found that the following tips really helped me keep everything in check.

1. Keep your library on an external hard drive. It’s a couple easy steps to get this working:

– Have an external drive online and ready.

– Quit iTunes

– Find your original iTunes folder (usually in [your account]/Music/iTunes/ folder)

– Go into iTunes> Preferences > Advanced, click on the General tab. Click ‘Change…’ and list your new folder location.

If you ever open iTunes while the drive is not connected, it may indicate that it has reverted back to a temporary directory. No fear; if you quit iTunes, connect the drive, and re-open, all is fine.

(for more on this, http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-keep-your-itunes-library-on-an-external-hard-drive/)

2. Applescripts. http://dougscripts.com/ has a great repository of scripts that you can install and run that will help you automate a lot of things. Some examples:

- Artist – Name Corrector: this script will take song titles like “Cher – Turn Back Time” and move the “Cher” part into the artist field. Cleans them up very nice.

- Artist & Track -> Filename: This script will take the Artist and Track name, and add it to the physical filename. It’s useful when sorting items in the finder.

- Feel free to look through the website to find more. All of them are free!

3. BPMer: This application is actually great if you are a DJ, or just want to keep a beat. It takes each song, and finds the beats per minute, and adds that to iTunes. This has always been a hard thing to do on the Mac, and now, it’s easy-peasy.

4. TuneUP: TuneUp is an application worth the 15$. This application will find and label all of those missing little bits of information about your collection. So far, it has successfully found and added over 3000 artist, release year, genre, and cover art for my music library.

Finally, now that I’ve geeked out like mad, I wanted to give you a quick list of some of my favorite apps. Some of them are shareware, most are free.

A quick google search will take you to the download locations of these fine applications:

- A to G: Creates a file that you can import your address book to gmail

- Address Book Scrubber: Cleans out a few of the annoying things in your address book (like setting all your formats to 414-555-1212 instead of (414) 555-1212

- AppZapper: Cleans out prefs and old files of applications you no longer have.

- Dupin: Cleans out iTunes Duplicates based on criteria you select

- Facebook PhotoGrabber: Grabs all photos that are tagged with any specific friend you choose.

- HandBrake: A multi-format video converter

- MacTheRipper: A great and quick DVD ripper

- MakeiPhoneRingtone: Makes iphone ringtones from AAC files

- Senuti: make a backup of your ipod (good for rebuilding a lost library)

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To all the Blogs I’ve loved.. before…

billieh — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:19:52 +0000

BillieLog

Topics: House almost a month now Tony is on Training in Texas; I’m bored here alone; on call week; new iphone4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuaDiMXTyc4

Sidenote:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jN_qbd1-U

(How homos are made)

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YouTube – BillieLOG house walkthru

billieh — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:59:52 +0000

YouTube -- BillieLOG house walkthru.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HubrDfDogek

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For the sake of posting, Here it is.

billieh — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:47:32 +0000

Hey there,

making this one quick, becasue I really dont feel like posting:

1. First couple of weeks at the house are going well. Got 85% of everything unpacked.

2. Bought a garage door, got ADT security, the Washer and Dryer come Thursday.

3. I will probably be in Wisconsin this Friday, the 9th, if anyone would like to hang out.

4. At the closing of our house, we didn’t get a mail key (group mailboxes). The post office, the closer, the home builder and the sales people can’t seem to find it. So, we have to have our mail HELD at the post office. Which means we have to drive 14 miles and wait in line up to 45 minutes every time we need to get mail. Plus, since we didn’t know who had the key, we didn’t put the mail on hold for a week. Because of that, we have no idea how much mail is waiting for us in the box that we can’t unlock.

5. Back to work tomorrow.

6. Bought 100$ worth of fireworks, but there were storms last night, so we couldn’t set them off. I was the only one who could buy the ‘fun ones’ because they are illegal to be sold to Colorado residents, and I have a WI ID.

7. Another brother got in touch with me yesterday, and it wasn’t fun. What I thought was starting as a very casual conversation turned accusatory and instigative. I am not going to go into details on this one, but I will say this: The original contact from him was a single, broken sentence. I responded in kind, with a complete, yet equally simple statement. From that spawned comments in reply that were not appropriate. I am hoping that his most recent reply from my lengthy retort will clear the air, but I do not have high expectations. I have a sour taste from the whole thing, and I will have to work on changing that mind set.

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Flash Mob and the Move

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:36:02 +0000

If you look close, you can see Tony and I -

At time index 0:47, we are in the second row to the right of the Tree in the middle. . .

YouTube -- Official Denver 16th Street Flash Mob June 26th, 2010.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNrntSkMsGI

http://soniq.org/blogs/k8t

Updates on the Move:

The move was long and exhausting. We’ve spent over 600$ in ‘stuff’ for the house, like window blinds and curtains and stuff. So far, we’ve had the cable guy, the ADT guy, the electronics guy, and the warranty people out. Tomorrow we have a guy coming to replace our stove door (it’s damaged) and the Home depot guys are coming out to install the garage door opener this week. It’s great being a homeowner, but holy work, batman!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRoEx4wJpQQ

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Don’t blame me when Grace is grand marshal at the Gay Pride Parade and you’re stuck in Fort Lee doing The ‘Gina Monologues.

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:12:49 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbEqOs6zy8

Today’s topics:

- Wisconsin Trip
So I went to Milwaukee for about 65 hours this weekend. Got there Thurs, left Sat afternoon. I couldn’t stay longer, so I was only able to do the basics. Visited Fluid, worked a full shift in New Berlin, and had a dinner with friends who were gracious enough to pick me up from work.

- Milwaukee Pride
Didn’t do much with Pride this year; had too many friends to visit local, so I just hung out at the bars within walking distance.

- Kathy Griffen
Saw her last year, and was told she wasn’t that great this year.

- Video and Pictures
Didn’t stay for the parade, so couldn’t take video; but several people sent me links to photos, so those are all available on http://gallery.soniq.org/

- Rules of Travel for Billie Hawkins
I mentioned this before to a few people, but I wanted to make a few points clear:
1. I CANNOT visit everyone each time I go to Milwaukee
2. I CANNOT individually contact every friend and family member each time I visit Milwaukee. (that’s over 800 people.)
3. I make the BEST EFFORT to fit as many people into the schedule as possible
4. I post my schedule online, on Facebook, on Twitter, and my blog each time!

5. If I can’t secure a ride to work and every place I need to visit, I have to pay for rental cars out of my own pocket
6. If I can’t secure a place to crash with friends, I have to pay for a hotel out of pocket
7. If I can’t get on a flight via my standby ticket, I have to pay out of pocket.

Please keep that in mind when you ask me to do something; I don’t want to have to say no to anyone, but if I do, you should know the reasons. Making me feel guilty about it will not help anything.

On that note, I do wish to shout out a thanks to Joe Juneau for the ride to work, Joe C for the place to crash, and Jess/Bob for the great dinner and conversation. I also want to thank Christian and Bill Janney for the drinks, and the fun conversations! Bill and Bill were really cool as always, and thank you for the fun Thursday.

- Bonus: Virtual Walk-through of our house

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsp_t4I1FOQ

UPDATE:

Did I tell you the issue I had with AT&T about adding Tony to my family plan?

My goal: Keep my number, keep my sister’s number, add Tony to my plan, keep his number.

10/10/09: AT&T in WI told me it can’t be done, because we were in different billing ‘lattas’

12/2009: AT&T in Denver told me it can’t be done unless I change my number to a Denver area code. That would also change my sister’s number in WI.

2/2010: I talked to HR about the company discount with AT&T and she mentioned that we have one bill for all of the company cell phones in all 5 states.

6/04/10: I was determined to get this.

Here is how it went. (I typed it out beforehand so i would get the wording right, and i kept a log so I could document if it got to that point…)

Her: Thank you for calling AT&T, how can I help you Mr. Hawkins?

Me: I would like to add my boyfriend’s AT&T phone number to my family plan.

Her: I can help you with that.

Me: I do not want to change phone numbers.

Her: Certainly, that shouldn’t be necessary.

Me: Ahh, but I have a 414, Wisconsin area code, and he has a 303, Denver area code.

Her: I see, well, then in order to have him on your plan, we could just change his…

Me: I do not wish to change numbers.

Her: Well, that could be a problem. Let me see what can be done.

-- 5 minutes --

Her: Mr. Hawkins, it doesn’t appear that the system will allow it.

Me: I work for a company that has 30 cell phones in 5 states. They all have local area codes, and my HR rep in WI pays One bill.

Her: I see what you mean. Let me check one more thing.

--2 minutes --

Her: Here’s what we do. Get your mate to call in, and transfer financial responsibility to you. Then Call the business office, where they can merge both of ‘your’ accounts into one.

Her: The business office will create a new account for you with all three numbers on it, no problem.

Me: Awesome. Thanks.

So I called the Biz office, they combined the accounts into a ‘small business account’ and we are all set. The worry was this; I could no longer bundle Uverse or anything, they wouldn’t be able to save Tony’s rollover because the account was gone, and they could only save 4000 of my rollover, because that’s all the ‘system’ authorizes.

Today, I looked at my account….

Rollover minutes: 0 of 9903 used.

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Billie and Tony trying to get this safety dance flash mob dance.

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 05:40:49 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G2s_mVfuZM

**Please be kind**

Billie and Tony trying to get this safety dance flash mob dance.

So that they don’t mute me, the following applies:

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

Billie and Tony trying to get this safety dance flash mob dance.

So that they don’t mute me, the following applies:
Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

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Friendships and the Hawkins clan… (no Will and Grace quote this time.)

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:26:52 +0000

Today’s Blog is about Friendships, and how they change. Also, Facebook has allowed me to make a startling discovery…

I observed the following:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzCQxHnF2TM

- Friendships always evolve, no surprise there.

- Friends that have been there in the past may not be there in the future.

- Friends that you may have took as casual cohorts become the ones you talk to the most.

- Some friends start out as transient. They are there for a while, then you don’t hear from them for weeks/months; You build that expectation. Others turn into that, and it creates mixed signals.

- Friends who you thought would always be there, seem to write you off after a life change.

- Friendship communication is a two way street.

Some advice:

- Never expect the other person to call. They may be waiting for your call.

- If you ever utter the phrase, ‘why am i always the one who…’, the issue is that you have set a precedent. Change it.

- No matter what people say, they *always* appreciate a ‘happy birthday’ message, card or text.

- Anytime you think that you haven’t talked to someone in while, then it’s been way too long.

Part 2. An interesting fact I have discovered on via Facebook:

About 8 months ago, I went on a quest to see how many other “Hawkins’” there were in the US. Obviously a more common name than I thought, because Facebook alone reports over 500 results.

One website on the internet reports:

The HAWKINS surname per the 1990 census comprised .059 per cent of the total population, ranking 159th of more than 87,000 names.

( http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hawkinsdnaproject/ )

Well, then I decided I would do some stats of my own. The following comes only from Facebook, and only from those who had friended me -- but it was still shocking.

I decided to find how many fit into this mold:

Age 25-35

Sex: Male

Race: White/Caucasian

Location: USA

Sexuality: Gay

Facebook was a great forum for this search, because the built in ‘sensors’ when you search for people already help you out. FOr example, the search will automatically prioritize the demographics that fit closest to your own. Since I fit in all of the categories listed, it was really just a matter of seeing who would be my ‘friend’ online. I sent out the following message to every potential ‘Hawkins candidate’:

“Hi, I am sure we don’t know each other directly, but I found it incredible that there are other Hawkins’ out there and I was wondering if you would add me as a friend. My father died recently, and I was never able to get a full family history. I grew up in the Milwaukee area, with a short time spent in Seattle; just recently moved to Denver. My profile is pretty open, so feel free to check it out. I thought that connecting here on FaceBook would be a great start - plus it’s kinda cool to know another Hawkins in the world. Would you consider adding me? Thanks, Billie.”

I ended up sending this to about 84 people. Of those 84, I got 22 responses. Of those 22 responses, 15 are gay. 15! 68% is a high average, wouldn’t you say?

Other Facts:

Hawkins is a television series which aired for one season on CBS between 1973 and 1974. The mystery, created by Robert Hamner and David Karp, starred James Stewart as rural-bred lawyer Billy Jim Hawkins, who investigated the cases he was involved in. Despite being critically well received and winning a Golden Globe Award(Best Actor in Television Drama Series, Stewart), the series was cancelled after one season.

Seen as part of The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies, it alternated with the TV movie adaptations of Shaft.

Places in the United States

Fictional characters Hawkins (TV series), American television series starring James Stewart D.L. Hawkins, a character on the 2006 American NBC TV Series Heroes Jim Hawkins, a character in the book Treasure Island Robert Hawkins, a character on the 2006 American CBS TV Series Jericho Sadie Hawkins, an Al Capp character responsible for Sadie Hawkins Day

The English language surname Hawkins originated in the 11th century in Kent, England. Its meaning comes from the word “hawking“, meaning “falconry”. Hawkins may have evolved to the variant “Haughan” or “O’haughan” due to migration of peoples to Ireland during the Civil War in the 16th century. It is rare as a given name.

Kyle Hawkins (born 1970), American lacrosse coach, gay rights activist

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