Ryan Is Rambling On Again

This commercial cracks me up!

My name is Ryan and I am a do-it-yourself addict. From little things like fixing a leaky faucet to the big scary stuff like replacing the water pump on a front wheel drive car, I try to do these things myself.

For instance, this weekend I’m planning to replace a blown exhaust gasket and do an oil change on my car. The cost savings is maybe $50, but I’m going to do it myself anyway. It will take me three to four times as long as taking it to a shop so the money savings is pretty much a trade off for the time I invest in the job. This is how insidious my disease is.

I have a more advanced form of the disease than most however. I actually VOLUNTEER to help other peoples with their do-it-yourself projects. I’ve built swing sets, done brake jobs, painted houses and many more things along those lines. I guess that makes me an enabler. It gets worse. I’m also a pusher. I convince people that many of the things they were going to pay someone to do they can do themselves. I even volunteer to help them. What kind of sicko am I?!

Once, when I was younger and mildly dumber, I convinced a friend’s mother that I could take down a tree in her back yard that was threatening to ruin her pool. So there I was on an extension ladder, dangling off the side with a chainsaw in my hand trying to cut some of the larger branches off. As I looked down at my friends (they were pulling on a rope tied to the branch in an effort to keep it from falling on the roof) it dawned on me that I might actually not survive this. Did I stop…not a chance! That is the depth of my sickness.

There are many other examples I could give but I’m already breaking out in a cold sweat thinking about that one. So I’ll just end here with a tip for all you do-it-yourselfers. DON’T DO IT, WHATEVER YOU’RE PLANNING!! Go to the movies instead. Its safer and will probably cost less.

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  The weather begins to cool off and the humidity (for those of us on the east coast) becomes a non-factor.  You wake up to the crisp air in the morning and see nature’s amazing display of color as the trees begin to drop their leaves.  Halloween decorations slowly start to appear and bright orange pumpkins are showing up everywhere.  Kids are getting excited about what costume they are going to wear.  Their parents are groaning and rolling their eyes because of the elaborate and EXPENSIVE costumes their kids finally decide on.  The days are getting progressively shorter and the nights are getting gradually colder.  Soon, Thanksgiving will be here and all of the yummy but not-so-healthy foods will be tempting you again.  Maybe you’ll be fortunate (or maybe not so fortunate) and have plans with family for Thanksgiving.   Whatever your traditions or plans are, I hope you enjoy this time of year as much as I do.

Yeah…I love the Fall!

So…I downloaded the BlackBerry WordPress app. COOL!! is all I have to say about it. This post you are reading was composed and uploaded from my BlackBerry. The application allows me to do most of the housekeeping things done from the WordPress admin area. Things like approve comments, add pages, create new posts and upload photos. I can even monitor multiple blog sites. The only thing I wish it could do is manage users.

I know that WordPress released an app for the iPhone as well but I don’t know anyone that has tried it.   I would love to hear from any other BlackBerry or iPhone users that have tried out this seriously cool application.

Ryan

Welcome to my new WordPress blog!  This is my first time creating a real blog site.  I used what I learned in Mr. Peter’s Linux classes to build this.  Using Fedora 11, I downloaded XAMPP and WordPress and configured them.  I then downloaded FileZilla and learned how to use it to FTP my data to the web host.  I bought my domain name from 1&1 Internet and, after about an hour of tweaking, had my brand new blog site up and running!

Please let me know what you think about it.  Any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Thanks.