Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in shepholland's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
6:20 pm	Team Holland 2005 Race Season! Liza and I now certifiably nuts. We sat down over the last few days and put together our racing schedule for the year and I hope I get wounded early so I can get out of it! ;-) I can't even use the "I fell of my bike and broke my elblow" trick...that was last year. Any new ideas will be welcomed. So, here it is: date (swim/bike/run) April 10 Madison off-road duathlon May 8 *Trooper Biathlon (2mi/14mi/2mi) – Kingston, NY May 22 Shamrock Duathlon (5k/28k/5k) June 5 Iron Horse Half-Marathon (13.6m) June 18 Tri the Tri Sprint Triathlon (.5mi/12mi/5k) July 17 Sobe Mossman Sprint Triathlon (.5mi/12.5m/5k) August 7 Niantic Bay Sprint Triathlon (.5/12mi/5mi) August 28 Greater Hartford Olympic Triathlon (.9mi/24.8m/6.2m) Sept 11 *Westport Minuteman Sprint Triathlon (.5/5.5mi/2.2m) Sept 18 Josh Billings Run-aground (27m/5m canoe/6.2mi) October 1 *New England Colonial Olympic Triathlon (.9mi/24.8m/6.2m) October 8 Hartford Marathon (27.6mi) November 6 *Optimist Boca Bop Triathlon [Ft. Meyers, FL] (.25 mi/13mi/5k) * Considering still Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Chariots of Fire Sound Track (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 11th, 2004
9:59 pm	well...politics may suck...but at least we can retreat to fantasy! I'm not going to dwell on how depressed I am about the wreck that is our post-election USA...why? Because I can now happily retreat to one of the best fantasy worlds ever. Yes, ladies and gentlemen...out of the depths of past, my favorite fantasy series has been revived. Stephen Donaldson just released the first of four books in "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant". I know several of the Hive have read this (Anthony, Ang, BD I think...)...but this is one of the best "anti-hero" series' out there. I have to admit I was a little terrified having followed with dread the trainwreck that Brian Herbert has made of his father's Dune stories (BTW...they claimed now that the "prequels" are over, they are going to write the last Dune books from "notes" they found in Frank's desk). My horror was that Steven had decided to revive the Thomas Convenant series since his other books haven't done so well. The reviews don't seem to bear that out, and he wrote a pretty sincere note on Amazon about why it took him so long...might just be PR crap...but if so, it's pretty good crap. Bonus to the marketing assistant. I'll write in about 2 weeks with a book report! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399152326/103-4607532-1458247?v=glance&s=books&n=25 -Shep Current Mood: chipper Current Music: City of Heros soundtrack (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 27th, 2004
9:49 am	Why didn't Kodos do this! So...I was overjoyed to dream of the future thanks to our friends at Allerca, a LA based company that is now taking orders for a genetically modified cat that will actually be hypoallergenic. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/27/biotechnology.cats/index.html The company that already sells glow in the dark gold fish. Think of the future possibilities: - Dogs that don't bark - Cats who's shit doesn't stink - Birds that glow in the dark at night like night-lights - Fish that taste like chicken pot pie [vegitarian in me ;-)] gotta love this...maybe they'll even make humans that can lick their own balls! Current Mood: amused Current Music: none...too early (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 18th, 2004
3:01 pm	movies movies! For those that don't know me, I'm a total movie buff...So, after the end of the big series run (LOTR, Star Wars this year...) I was getting pretty despondant about the next few years as far as movies goes...well...after a little look at the "upcoming bin" I am now re-jazzed up! My list of favorite (or favourite for Cousin Kate) list of movies: July 2005 - Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - Whee! Johnny Depp is playing Willie, Tim Burton directing...gotta love it! - Nov 2005 - Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire - While i mock it...books get better and movies have too...and they keep adding better and better cast members. Rumors are Ralph Fienes will play Voldemort, Miranda Richardson will play Rita Skeeter...they had said Kate Winslett would play the young witch/love interest...but don't think it would work out age wise. Dec 2005 - Chronicles of Narnia - First one in Christmas 2005 (yes...they're doing them all! Glad something good came from Harry Potter) May 2006 - X-Men 3 - Looking scary...director Brian Singer is out, Buffy creator is in...and Halley Barry is rumored to be leaving...hope they don't screw it all up. 2006 - Indiana Jones 4 - Something about Atlantis - Transformers (live-action)...no...really! He-Man Live Action Movie - He he..rumor is Nick Cage may play Skeletor..chaosvizier will love this... - Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Alan Parson's Project (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 13th, 2004
3:43 pm	Unbelievable in Iraq... So, after watching the second presidential debate I was like...well at least they both believe in non-proliferation. I think Bush's method of attacking Iraq was overkill based on the recent CIA report...but let's leave that one. So today we get even better news: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/12/iraq.nuclear/index.html Basically...the IAEA (The group that had the WMD inspectors we kicked out) mentioned that all the equipment they were tracking before the war via satelites is now "unaccounted for" since the US invasion. Yes ladies and gentlemen...we invaded the country "to find the WMDs"...didn't find any...and the few pieces of equipment that could be used to make them we managed to let walk away. Even worse, there are some indications that people on the ground (even US personnel) sold the stuff. Now, it's not like we lost any real WMDs...just equipment that could be used to create, oh...chemical weapons, biological weapons, etc...and we lost it at a point when every terrorist in town was headed INTO Iraq after we attacked them. Isn't this like a bank annoucing they're going to stop bank robbery by going out and beating up a pickpocket while they leave the bank vault open? I think I'm going to go cry...or drink...or both... -shep PS: $10 this news story never get's aired on Fox Current Mood: aggravated (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 13th, 2004
10:20 pm	darn marriage thing again... I know a while ago I put this up...maybe on my old blog...but here was the rant I did that almost made it into the Norwalk paper editorial: Like Liza...I encourage everyone to go to MoveOn and have your voice be heard: http://www.moveon.org/unitednotdivided/ Feb 27, 2004 I was reading the news on Monday: Bin Laden saying he was still going to come and get us, the head of the CIA saying that Bin Laden & Co could repeat 9/11, and the National Conference of Governors saying that they didn’t have funds to keep all children from being left behind. But, the big news was that we as a country were going to embark on a mission to revise the constitution to save, not our country, or our children, but “the most enduring human institution”. In other words, we were going to create a constitutional amendment to prevent gay couples from getting married in the US. The real issue is that the United States was founded to give people equality and freedom from religious persecution. We celebrate the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and the Quakers in Pennsylvania for that reason. Our founding fathers specifically separated church and state to ensure this freedom. This doesn’t mean government is opposed to religion, it means their primary job is to protect citizen’s freedom to have any faith they want, and protect them from any one religion’s rule or persecution. Our Declaration of Independence guarantees that we are created equal in the eyes of the law and are guaranteed with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How we can say that with one hand, and then deny gay citizens the right to the happiness of marriage with the other. The problem is obvious, but hard to say openly. The issue with gay marriage is a religious one. People of certain faiths believe that marriage between people of the same gender is a sin. But, the real issue is that the observers believe it’s a sin. The precedent we are setting here is that one group of people can tell others what rights they should and shouldn’t have because of how they FEEL about an action. In cases like this it is particularly challenging because one person’s freedom of action or speech stands directly against what you may believe…but that’s the toughest part of democracy, and the best part of democracy. In some areas there are exceptions to this if someone is emotionally or physically hurt. We don’t have the right to punch someone in the face, or force people to read hate-filled words. But we do have, and we should encourage, people to have differing opinions and beliefs. Gay marriages don’t HURT heterosexual couples. Seeing a gay couple walk down the street holding hands, I can’t tell if they are married or not, that’s between them and their beliefs. As a straight married man I am not “repressed”, “injured” or “wounded” by gay couples being married. I may view that as a sin personally, but that is MY faith…not theirs, and not our country’s. Both of our beliefs are protected by the constitution. The issue of gay rights and gay marriage is NOT about what you believe personally, it’s about what beliefs should be personal made. We have real challenges as a nation: ensuring equal rights, educating of all our children, reducing poverty and want, balancing our budget, creating jobs, and making the world a more peaceful place. This push to remove rights from a group of citizens is meant to rouse emotions, de-humanize outsiders and pull us away from America’s real strength: its diversity and freedom. This is a distraction from the real issues we need to face. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 29th, 2004
10:54 am	Skype rules... I just started using Skype for conferencing on a project that I'm working on. It's very cool software. It lets you do both instant messaging as well as voice calls over the internet (computer to computer). You need a pretty fast connection as well as a decent microphone/speaker (or headset) on your computer but it's way cool. You can also do conference calls between up to 5 people and the quality was pretty amazing. The part I really liked (insert major geek factor) is that you can use a WiFi enabled PocketPC (like my new one!) and run the client on that. Then, if someone calls, you can answer on your handheld. I also read (but didn't try) that you can use it to call internationally for like .012 euros per minute. That's pretty damn cheap. anyways...more toys :-) http://www.skype.com -Shep (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 26th, 2004
1:03 pm	Graduation pictures... Went out to dinner last night with some friends from my MBA program and got a decent photo from the graduation weekend....in my robes to. That will now be Master Holland to you :-). (Comment on this)
Friday, June 25th, 2004
8:13 am	I know, I know... Sorry, haven't had a lot of time lately to write, but I'm working on a comeback :-). Been busy, I have been working for Mellon Financial's Web Services team for about 6 months, the tail end of a long saga after Mellon bought the startup I was working for called DirectAdvice. Well, in an amazingly odd move, Mellon decided it had changed it's strategy and now is selling DirectAdvice back out. I thought this wouldn't affect me, but they've now given me a job offer to be VP of Product & Marketing for them. Very exciting stuff, though I am still working with one of my friends on another new startup idea. Not much else going on other than Eliza and my recent trip to Bahammas to see little Nancy...and my attempts to keep up with Liza in our triathalon-ing :-) Now...for my funny bit...saw this today and laughed my butt off: -Mike (Comment on this)
Monday, May 3rd, 2004
3:49 pm	I'm alive :-) So, I've finally been forced off Blogger to join the rest of the civilized world. Feels like when I had to leave my Mac for the evil Windows world...well...maybe not that bad. Not much going on today, I finished Angels and Demons in one marathon session over the weekend, nothing like reading 500 pages in 2 days. Needless to say, it's nice to have a rainy weekend and be done with my MBA :-) Really liked the book though. If you've read DaVinci Code, this was better on a few levels I thought. It was pretty repetitive plot devices, but there is a terrific debate between religion and science. Being the happy agnostic it was fun to have the author jerk me from "you know, maybe this god-stuff isn't that crazy after all" to "god sucks...yeah" back to "I'm so confused!". Anywho... My arm is healing up OK, For those outside the know, I managed to dislocate my elbow in a bike crash the first nice weekend in spring. What an idiot :-P. But, it was neat because they gave me a neat kind of drug. They called it conscious sedation...but it's basically a memory erasing drug. Ask Liza if you want to know the real name...but it's really nifty. Doc was like "I'm going to re-set your arm, but I want you to count up from 1"...I was thinking, "hmm...doesn't sound hard except for the little shem's screaming in pain in my ear..." 1...2...3... (more meaningless numbers...33...34 I see some hazyness like in Wayne's World...then I feel them putting the cast on me and I'm like "What's up?" and the doc said "You're done!". Neat trick! It's like my whole time in class during high school... well...off to telecomute! Current Mood: apathetic (4 Comments |Comment on this)