Approximately Equal To

last post, new blog

2009-10-23T09:48:00.002-04:00

I haven't blogged in a bit - but this time I actually have a reason other than "nothing going on" or "lazy".

I got "called onto the carpet" about some of my recent posts. It was suggested that I wasn't presenting people in a good light.

My first thought was... well... duh. If you do something stupid or annoying (frequently the same thing) either to me or in my presence, you're going in the blog. In a way, I was also using the blog as a bit of therapy - working through some issues and getting things off my chest. And thereby calming down a bit.

And though I stand by everything I've said in this blog over the years - maybe ranting and writing therapy isn't really doing me any good. There's been a lot of humor here as well, but the perhaps a fresh start is the way to go. A new blog, maybe more focused on the projects I do and the positive things in going on, is the better way to go. I may even try to use this for my website and will eventually move the content over from there.

I recently saw a post on another blog that talked about some WWII posters that said, "Keep Calm and Carry On" and compared it to some newer sayings of "Breathe Deep and Let Go of Things" and "Get Excited and Make Things".

I like all of those sayings - I've even printed them out and stuck them up in my cubicle - and I think that's the collective philosophy of where I want to go.

So.

Approximately Equal To is closing up shop. Join me over on my new blog: Thunder of Wade

http://thunderofwade.blogspot.com/

later...

calmed, costume, car, clear

2009-10-12T10:10:00.004-04:00

Well, my inability to sustain a particular mood for any significant length of time seems to be serving me well - I'm already in a slightly better mood.

I've helped a few people, got out on campus for a short walk, and hey! I'm getting a free lunch today. So, not all bad.

I've still got some underlying cranky to deal with - but I'm used to that.

So.

The costume construction went very well over the weekend. I applied a new skill set and some new tools - and even the prototyping went well the first time around. I'll work on it more tonight - and I'm even documenting it as I go along. Not obsessively, but since this is new stuff for me I'll want to show off a bit.

I also got to go for another ride in my room-mate's 1970 Caddy. It's... interesting. For one thing, it's freaking huge. There's no comparing it to modern cars - the scale it entirely different. The seat belts are a little strange - they have two separate buckles that make you feel like you're getting ready to blasted into orbit. The ride... my room-mate says it's like riding on a cloud, but I would describe it more like a mostly calm lake. There is a slight bouncing motion that is akin to gentle waves. Not unpleasant, but different.

Finally, I've got a piece of transparent plastic with me today - prefolded into a traditional crane and then unfolded. I'm going to take this with me when I swim today and refold it underwater. Not for any particular reason other than that I'm pretty sure I can. The prefolding is necessary because of the material. I could easy fold a crane from paper while holding my breath - but the plastic is too difficult to crease and will need a head-start.

Okay... back to work...

awake

2009-10-12T07:48:00.002-04:00

I had a pretty good weekend - read some books, worked on my costume, played some games, watched a movie. Last night I decided to end on a good note and put myself to bed early (8:45) so I'd be rested and ready for the week.

HA!

At midnight, my room-mate woke me up - needing to talk. A few months ago, a friend of his was on trial for the murder of his own uncle and ending up hanging himself in his jail cell before the trial ended. We've talked about this before and I've suggested a variety of ways of dealing with how this is affecting him. Apparently, it's still bothering him and he decided that it couldn't wait until this afternoon to discuss - he needed to discuss it right then.

Now, if you were to approach someone that knows me and ask - "is it a good idea to try and engage Anthony in a deep conversation at midnight - on a freaking school night after he's already been asleep for 3 hours?!" Their answer should be "no"

And my room-mate knows this - but we still had a discussion for an hour.

Finally, exhausted from covering the same ground and from generally still being tired, I tell him that I've got nothing left. No insights or deeper truths.

And then he's cranky and dismissive at me! Because I wasn't willing to help. (grrrrrr)

Strangely enough, I'm wide awake. So, I go downstairs, check my email and do a little work - then use the bath room and do a little reading. I also find out what I'm pretty sure prompted the discussion and you can bet I'll be bringing that shit up with him. It's now almost 2 am when I head back upstairs. I can hear him snoring and I resist the urge to wake him up and make him do algebra problems.

It takes me a while to fall asleep and when I do, I have a horrific nightmare. Think "The Shining" + "The Grudge" + "The Ring" + "Poltergeist".... staring Dakota Fanning.

So, this morning - surprisingly enough - I'm seriously cranky. Woe be it to anyone that pesters me today. The vampire stake is at hand and I've got a list of cleverly written insults that I'm itching to try out. I promise to try and not be mean to people today - but I make no guarantees.

For the record - the only time it's appropriate to ever wake me up in the middle of the night is if something or someone is currently on fire. And only if I'm in a position to do something about it.

Otherwise, please, just let me sleep.

Wish the people that I work with today good luck - they'll need it to deal with me.

later...

law

2009-10-09T12:44:00.002-04:00

On my way past the student union today I saw 4 police cars parked near the building and several officers standing around. In a few moments, 2 more officers came out escorting a guy carrying a skateboard. The officers opened the back door of one of the cars and the guy got in. No cuffs, no fuss, no resistance, no commentary. Seemed a little over-kill given that it was just one very calm guy. Not sure if it was even an arrest. Weird.

We had a slightly closer encounter with the UAPD yesterday. One of the officers escorted one of my colleagues in to clean out his desk before escorting him back out. A little while later our boss called us into his office for an update. Pretty much all we know is that he won't be back and that we are not allowed to let him in the building. Everything else is pure speculation. Dunno if we'll ever get the real story on this one.

Hmmm... think I should change this to a "not-quite-a-crime" blotter?

Three more hours to go today - really really looking forward to getting out of here today. Not that I have a big weekend planned, but still...

later...

chase, lunch

2009-10-08T13:56:00.003-04:00

On the ride back from the awesome lunch burritos - we saw a high speed car chase on Market street. A police car was following a clearly out-matched van - and was in turn followed by a number of other verticals. No idea what was going on with that, but we kept an ear out in case they looped around. Also, not sure if I've mentioned this, but I no longer have to place my order at Chipotle. As I walk up to the counter, the highly efficient and friendly staff begins to prepare my order. Without any prompting from me, they complete the burrito and I only need to give a heartfelt thank-you before paying for my food. Yeah, if someone wanted to poison me it would be pretty easy to figure out what I'm eating in advance, but there are benefits to being predictable.

Also in the news... lunch is on again, this time for Monday. We'll see how this goes - I'm hoping it doesn't get canceled again. Though I personally think that would be pretty funny and wildly ironic.

Got a meeting in a few... later...

lunch, lane

2009-10-07T12:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, I got an invite for lunch today as a thank-you for helping on a project. It was going to be at the student center where I usually have lunch anyway - but at least someone else was buying. That was the plan, anyway.

Instead, I got a note in my outlook this morning that the invite to lunch was canceled. No info, no phone call. Just canceled.

Now, I would still help out as much as I can with the project without a lunch invite. And if we did have lunch, I wouldn't have been able to do more for their group. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter much either way. But to invite someone to lunch as a thank-you and then cancel with no explanation - well, does that negate the thank-you as well? I'm not really upset about it since it meant I could do my regular swim (27 laps, thank-you-very-much) - but it was a little odd.

Speaking of odd, I ran into someone in the pool today. I was doing the backstroke and getting close to the end of the lane when I literally ran into a guy in my lane. I've seen him before and I know he's visually impaired - but it was still a surprise. Apparently for both of us - though I'm not a quiet swimmer generally speaking.

The lifeguards helped sort things out - which meant sort of kicking me out of my lane to a non-demarcated area of the pool. Which is okay, but it makes it more difficult to do the backstroke since I'm usually all over the lane. Eh, pretty much how the day has been going.

later...

phrase, lazy

2009-10-05T12:34:00.002-04:00

On my hurried walk up to the pool for my mid-day swim (only 18 laps, I was in a hurry - as I may have mentioned) I heard the following fragment of a conversation. Spoken as clear as the day is long - and keep in mind it's Monday, the longest day of the week - I quote the phrase exactly and in its entirety:

"He pooped on Amanda"

I have no idea what that exactly that refers to. If it was a baby or a puppy, well, it's almost cute. Anything else, and well, gross. In any case, poor Amanda.

On the way back from my swim, I saw the most lazy thing I've ever seen. Even more lazy than in that Jumper movie where the guy teleports to the other side of the couch because the remote is out of reach.

I saw a person in a power wheelchair crusing down the walkway at a pretty good clip - with a person seated on the back of the chair between the handles. Now, I have no way of knowing if this second person was able to walk on their own, but I strongly suspect that they were perfectly capable of walking or even pushing the chair if it came down to it. Lazy.

Almost meeting time... back to work...

darko, game

2009-10-05T08:28:00.002-04:00

I watched Donnie Darko and S. Darko (the sequel) over the weekend - back to back. The first was excellent, the second was pretty good - time travel, alternate universes, the end of the world, teen-age psychopathic activity - but watching them both in one day may have been a mistake. I had some seriously f*cked-up dreams this morning. Like it was personally my fault that reality was falling apart. I was never so happy to have to get up and go to work.

I played a bit more of "Folklore" for the PS3. Had to fight a big sea monster - it involved electrocuting him, cutting off his tail when he was thus stunned, and finally shooting rockets at his head and then ripping his "id" out. Oh, and cowering in a corner in between attacks. With a force-field.

Better get back to work - going to be a busy day.

later...

costume, law

2009-10-04T08:22:00.002-04:00

I went looking for supplies yesterday for my Halloween costume and was very successful. Got a few items that I'll be able to use next year as well - if I'm careful. While I was out and about though, I had the opportunity to see several cases of "the Law in action"

In one busy and crowded store, as I was about to check out, a customer in line reported that his daughter was missing. A nearby customer reported seeing her in the children's section reading a book. So, off he went to find her while the clerks called in a very disorganized "code ADAM". There were several calls back and forth across the loud speakers before finally got her description and name - important things especially for the ones standing at the door. The father found her in short order and the code was cancelled - though a few people were still looking for her until they too got the update. Good that they had a plan - but it wasn't well executed.

On the way home, I saw two cars pulled over. Not that unusual in itself, but maybe a little odd for the location and the time of day.

Went out to Burger King for dinner and saw a police office's car - with lights going - almost, but not entirely blocking the entrance. The car in front of me edged on past him and I did the same. When I got my car parked I turned and saw that the officer had a teen-aged guy up against a minivan with all the doors open. The officer quickly frisked the guy and then marched him around to the back of the police car. There was a guy in another mini-van talking animatedly on his phone. He didn't have any food in there that I could see and I'm guessing he was part of the "incident". I went in, got my food, and left.

Very early this morning, I woke up to hear what sounded like dog barking in the house. I half thought it was somehow the neighbors dog had gotten out of there place and into ours. When I investigated it turned out that my room-mate was awake and had been blowing his nose.

Yes, it sounded like dogs barking. He reported that he heard a gunshot and that was what woke him up. I'm inclined to believe that he was dreaming, but we do have some wooded areas near the apartment and some neighbors - if the local walmart can be used as an indicator - that are not very refined.

I'll concede that not all the events was directly related to law enforcement - but they could be connected without much effort. I'll wrap up this post with one more not-quite-connected thing - tomorrow we relaunch the School of Law's website. Coincidence? Ummm...yeah, most likely.

later...

paddle

2009-10-02T12:40:00.002-04:00

There were only two lanes open in the pool today - the rest of the pool was taken up by a kayak class. There were quite a few out there paddling around and it occurred to me that the phrase, "Up the creek without a paddle" isn't really accurate. If you're up the creek - that is, upstream from your starting point, you can at least drift back with the help of the current even if you don't have a paddle. However, if you're down the creek, well, the problem is only going to get worse as you get further and further away from where you started with no way of controlling or reversing your movement.

Just something that occurred to me.

nerd

2009-10-02T08:02:00.002-04:00

I've crossed a line recently, falling from the safe haven of geek-dom to full blown nerd. Not physically, I don't have tape on my glasses or a pocket protector. But my mental state is on shaky ground. Evidence...

1. Getting ready to leave the Chipotle parking lot yesterday, I started my car only to have it fail. The steering wheel locked up, some - but not all - of the warning lights came on, and the car wouldn't go. I was still in the space so I quickly turned off the car, then started it again. It behaved normally from then on. I referred to this later as "rebooting" my car.

2. We were discussing "under construction" webpage and how much we don't like them. We compared them to newspapers with blank pages, or movies with missing sections. One of my co-workers said it was like going to see Up! in 3-d only to find that the movie was actually Hannah Montana. I said it was like the movie was "redirected"

3. Finally, my car has recently crossed the 100,000 mile mark and I've been noticing and noting every time the number are binary - and how I'll be sad when 111,112 comes around and it will never be binary again.

I'm considering professional help.

later...

lunch, swim, fraud, shirt, game

2009-09-29T13:52:00.003-04:00

We had a celebration luncheon yesterday for a project that I was only marginally involved in and which really isn't done - but the food was good and the dessert was excellent. So, my swim was a bit disrupted and I couldn't go until after work. I got in 30 laps and felt pretty strong, so that was okay.

I've been running a couple of online elections here on campus and we had a small incident of attempted voter fraud. I found it and reported it - ironically, I don't think it was enough to have made a difference in the elections. I dunno what the consequences will be for the parties involved, but it should be interesting.

Catalog season appears to be in full swing and I've gotten a few in the mail recently. One had a t-shirt that said:

"Non sequiturs are like Bicycles. They don't bathe."

FYI - ("Non sequitur" is Latin for "it does not follow.") And no, I didn't know that, but I was pretty close to the correct meaning when I've had the rare occasion to use the phrase in the past.

I fired up the playstation again last night and played some Little Big Planet. There are certain parts of the game that can only be solved by two players and though I've got a second controller and a room-mate that promised to play, I was on my own last night. So, with a little care, I was able to play as two characters and get a few more items. I felt pretty clever to have been able to pull that off - and a little sad that I was on my own. I suppose I could connect online and find someone that way on the playstation network -but most people I've encountered in online games were idiots.

I was supposed to go to a football game this evening, but my FRM's mom called and canceled. She's got bronchitis and decided against going. Which means she doesn't need a driver - letting me off the hook as well.

So, I've got a few errands to run after work - then it's a hopefully relaxing evening at home with a strong cup of tea and a good book. I might even try meditating a bit.

later...

growl

2009-09-28T10:36:00.003-04:00

My morning has turned cranky. I'm not going to go into details cause it's all work related, but when my work phone rang and I noted the caller-ID, I let out a quiet and deep growl as I reached for it.

Before my hand could touch the phone, it stopped ringing. No voicemail, no nothing - it just stopped.

Out of fear.

And that, friends, is how it's done. I'm already in a better mood.

later...

computer, party, movies, costume

2009-09-27T18:10:00.004-04:00

I helped my room-mate buy a new computer this weekend. I had suggested a desktop - since he needs it for work and almost never travels - but he had his eye on a laptop. A very shiny one. I finally gave up and shifted my function from "real practical advice" to "explanation of terminology"

The set up went fairly well - though I was surprised to find there wasn't any office products on there. Just a 60-day trial and then purchase. So, I set him up with Open Office. He had one eye on the football game while I was explaining it to him, so we'll see how that goes.

I went to a party over the weekend - my boss's wife and sister both turned 50 so there was a combined party for them. The food was good, the music was good but way too loud, and the only people I knew there were those that I worked with. I stayed for a bit, did quite a bit of folding, then headed out.

Watched a couple of movies over the weekend - Midnight Movie and The Unborn. Maybe I've seen too many movies, but these were both pretty predictable. There were a couple of "jump out at you" moments, but pretty tame.

I picked up a few more elements for my costume this weekend - still got quite a bit of work to do.

Guess that's it for now - later...

nerd, movie, melt, game

2009-09-25T10:43:00.005-04:00

I had a bunch of files to move from my work computer to my home computer yesterday and it was really too much for email. And too much for the flash drive I usually use. Then I remembered that I had another flash drive - an officially licensed Star Trek flash drive wristband that I'd gotten for 5 dollars and 2 box tops from some cereal. And it had nearly a gig of free space. Sweet! So, I loaded it up, put it on, and wore it home. Well, I wore it to target first while I ran some errands. I got my data transfered and was able to work from home. Ummm... yea? Anyway, the fact that I was finally able to make use of my star trek flash drive wristband was a moment of pure nerd-vana for me. It was great.

I started watching Wolverine last night on DVD. I think it started a little slow - sort of - but despite some issues I had with the characters, it was pretty good. I didn't get to watch all of it - my room-mate was having it out on the phone with his sister while sitting out in the garage in his car. I tried to help him get settled down after that - it was very nearly a melt down - and by then it was too late to keep watching the show. I'll pick it up again today after work.

I'm also going to get back into the gaming mode. I've been avoiding the playstation 3 and the Wii for the past month to prove a point and that time has now passed. I've been a bit more productive, I guess, but not that much.

Work has been more crazy than usual these past few days. I'm not going to go into it, but I'll be glad when the week is done. My swim is going to be disrupted today - I'll have to go later this afternoon.

Guess that's it for now... later...

mood, clay, push, dream, chipotle

2009-09-24T09:46:00.005-04:00

I'm in a much better mood today- and I'm sure everyone around me is happy about that as well. I did some work on a couple of projects last evening - including trying to make a TRON version of Gumby out of polymer clay. It didn't work out very well, but it was fun to try and I learned from my mistakes.

I'm also working on a project involving ash and rust - both of which are taking longer to acquire than I expected. The ash is currently coming from incense sticks - and is really too potent to be used indoors. The rust is from a piece of metal that I found, but it's not breaking down as quickly as I wanted it to. I may burn some paper - maybe even some damaged origami - for more ash. And apparently my room-mate's "new" antique car has some underside rust issues that may contribute. Eventually, when I acquire enough, I'm going to mix the items with a diluted glue/water combo and use them to paint on a small canvas.

Watched the movie Push last night. It was okay as far as the acting went, but really good in the "telekinetic ass-kicking" fights.

I had a disturbing nightmare this morning about a sub-basement where "something horrible" dwelled. Even after I woke up, I kept trying to get back into the dream to confront what was down there - which is odd since I know better. If there's potentially something evil in the basement - don't freaking go down there!

Just got back from Chipotle - the burrito was awesome. As to be expected.

back to work...

beams

2009-09-23T09:54:00.003-04:00

People that drive at night are jerks. I know that's a sweeping statement - so maybe it's just people that drive near me at night that are jerks.

1. Xenon headlights. Thank you. I'm legally blind now. Why do you need headlights like that? Did you lose a contact lens while on the highway last time and now you're looking for it at 75 miles an hour - hoping that the magical headlights will make it twinkle on the pavement so you can slam on the brakes and pick it up? Jerks.

2. Trucks. Great, you've got a big-ass truck that could drive over a school bus. How awesome for you. Are you aware that the ground clearance also elevates your headlights? And that when you drive behind my normal, human sized, car - you flood the interior with enough light to make the dessert at noon look like the bottom of the freaking ocean? Thanks. I'm blind again. It would be even more awesome if you could please tailgate me for the next 50 miles. Jerks.

3. High breams. Take this quick quiz: "Am I using my high beams when:"

a). There's a car directly in front of me?

b). There's a car coming towards me?

c). There's a car anywhere near me?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, congratulations! You're a jerk. And I'm blind. Again.

I had this a lot on the drive back on Sunday. And as the winter months approach, my morning commute is darker and darker.

In other news... my default mood the past couple days has switched to "irritable". It's usually "slightly annoyed", so, a bit of a downgrade on that. Not sure what's going on and I'm hoping I get over it.

Back to work... later...

sign, shirts

2009-09-22T19:38:00.002-04:00

Funny thing I forgot to mention about the trip. When we were going to lunch in Peoria we kept seeing signs for a Crash Inspection Area. We wondered if crashes were brought to the area, if there was an unusually high number of crashes, or if it was about alien crashes. It seemed close to the river, so it might have been something with the coast guard. But I also saw a sign that seemed to indicate car crashes. We were in a hurry and didn't check it in more detail.

Other news... two funny t-shirts from a catalog:

What would Yoda do? Your Ass, KICK IT he would!

I like poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick.

later...

trip - Sunday and summary

2009-09-21T18:57:00.003-04:00

Sunday morning we met up with my parents again for a quick visit with grandma. As before, she had some difficulty with conversations and kept falling asleep. We were outside a bit, but she got cold and we brought her back in to the dining room. We were just in time for the 'special guests' - a couple of miniature horses that visit every Sunday morning. Grandma didn't remember seeing them before, but apparently she had told the guy that her grand-daughter would love them. My sister wasn't the person she had been talking about, but went along with it. Right up until the horse sneezed on her. And there were chunks. She got it cleaned up and we headed into a lounge area to sit for a little while. Grandma drank some green tea that my aunt had brought - which was a good sign since for a while she wasn't able to swallow. She kept dozing off though and it was time for us to leave. She told my sister that she "couldn't wait to meet that new little baby of hers" - which was really good to hear. My sister isn't due until January and isn't showing that much - so, grandma had to have remembered on her own.

We headed out and when to my cousin's again - this time everyone was home and burgers were being grilled. It was a crazy loud house-full of people, but it was a lot of fun too. We couldn't stay long since we had a long drive ahead of us - but we did get some snacks for the road.

6 and a 1/2 hours later - we were back at my sister's. I drove most of the way back and then she took over for the last leg. It was nearly 9 before I headed north and after midnight before I finally got home.

So.

1. I spent a lot of time lost - which I don't enjoy.

2. The trip didn't seem as long with my sister there - she's fun to talk to. Though apparently we have very different political views that we managed to avoid discussing.

3. The wedding was very nice and I'm glad I went.

4. Grandma is getting good care - but even the best of care doesn't seem to have brought her all the way back. It'll just take time - though it remains to see how much better she can get.

5. Dad drives slow.

I was back to work today at 7 am sharp and even got in my usually (though a little shorter) swim between my meetings. I'm very tired now and I think I may hit the sack pretty soon after dinner.

trip - Saturday afternoon and evening

2009-09-21T18:25:00.002-04:00

Saturday afternoon was the wedding so after a quick trip to my aunt and uncle's to get ready, we headed to the church. We got there early and did our best to stay out of the way of the photography. My cousin looked beautiful and happy - though maybe a little dazed. I saw a bunch of relatives that I don't normally get to see. Oh, and with my green shirt and my sister's blue dress and scarf - I decided that we looked like algae.

The wedding was nice - and the pastor clearly knew them and spoke to them. Everything went smoothly - although a copy of the marriage license got lost for a bit. It was an autumn themed wedding, so, we threw leaves on the couple as they left the church.

We went back to my aunt and uncle's to relax for a bit before heading out again to the reception. We had the printed directions, but were following out parents with their GPS. They went the wrong way and we stuck to the directions. :)

We sat with my dad's cousin and his family - and got to see his daughter's baby twins and her husband. The twins were a riot - and were really packing away the snacks and then a lot of the dinner when it was served. I had the chicken.

There was a lot of dancing going on, but we mostly hung out and got caught up. My parents left early and my sister and I stayed a bit longer before heading out as well. We took my 14 year old cousin back - he'd already gotten in trouble for having champagne and decided to cut his losses.

It was late when we got back and we all crashed again. The long drive Friday and the long day on Saturday really caught up with me.

trip - Saturday morning

2009-09-21T18:05:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, my sister fixed shredded wheats for breakfast. Turns out I'm not much of a fan. From there, we headed out to meet up with my parents and go to visit my grandma in her nursing home. I think we were a little nervous as to what condition we'd find her in. Grandma was in her room and needed help getting into her chair. She looked and acted better than we had expected but not as good as we could have hoped. We wheeled her out to the courtyard and talked to her for a bit. She could follow some of the conversations, but had trouble starting her own. Mom and Dad helped her get up an walk a little bit - and that hit my sister and I pretty hard that she was struggling so much and that she tired out so easily. We brought her chair back over to her and helped her back inside. It was getting close to lunch time at that point so we took her to the dining room. We gave grandma a hug before we left and she said to me "You look so much like Wade" - we laughed a little at that, but it was still disconcerting.

The place was nice enough, I guess, but it was disturbing to see so many of the residents that were so far gone. I think we were all a little troubled by what we saw in grandma, but she's getting good care and my aunt and uncle are on the ball with her care.

Also, apparently, Mom had ticked off one of the other residents. The lady kept wandering up and down the halls and when she got to us she told us that we were assholes and she hoped we would all die. So, yeah, that was fun.

From there we headed out to lunch so that grandma could get her lunch before splitting up to get ready for the wedding.

trip - Friday

2009-09-21T17:06:00.002-04:00

I took Friday off to go to Illinois for my cousin's wedding. My sister had to work a half-day, so I was going to meet up with her at her house at 12:30 and we'd go from there. I had directions and did pretty well - until I missed a critical turn. I ended up way far out of my way and had to back track. I was looking for a South street and found the North version instead. It quickly turned into a dead end - and I've never been so happy to fail since it meant that a quick turn around would finally put me on the right track.

I finally got to my sister's house and we had a quick lunch before heading out. She did the first part of the drive and then we switched off after going through Indy. We had a good trip for the most part and the drive - though long - went pretty quickly. One funny bit was when I took over the driving. We were in the Wendy's parking lot and I had trouble with the non-standard gear shift. In finally got it into drive and my sister said - "yeah, except that you should start with reverse".

I drove the rest of the way and when we got there we were going to stay with the sister of the bride. I got lost several times in the sub-division where she lived and when we got there she wasn't home. We called her and when she called back she suggested we stay with her parents - so, we headed there and made ourselves at home. When they got back, I gave my aunt the flowers I'd made for her and we hung out for a bit before we all crashed since it would be a long day on Saturday. The bed they had for me was too short, but any port in the storm...

deadline, swim, SMEF, debate

2009-09-17T07:53:00.005-04:00

We've got a project here at work with a launch deadline of Monday - and the folks supplying the information didn't get anything to us until yesterday afternoon. I'm going to be out of the office on Friday, so things got pretty rough. I worked from home last night to get caught up with what they did send and I've got more to do today. We won't be at 100% by Monday, but we'll be at least ready to launch. Makes me cranky - but not much I can do about it.

I had a good swim yesterday. I usually mix up the strokes - 3 crawl, 3 back, 3 breast, repeat. But this time I kept going with the crawl and did 18 laps of that in a row. Then I switched to back for 3 and breast for 3 more - finishing up with 3 crawl to give me 3/4 of a mile. The crawl is my weak stroke, I still don't have the breathing right and it wears me out. So, that many in a row was a big deal for me.

I nearly had a Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure moment last night - a moment where, if my concentration had lagged, I might have ceased to exist. I was taking an early shower, trying to get rid of a headache and I just got so weary with reality that I almost fell out of this dimension. Those usually hit me when I'm walking across campus to a meeting - it was a little unusual to have one strike when I'm actually trying to relax.

My room-mate and I have been having a series of debates recently. On his side - Christianity and extraterrestrials. On mine - beginning Buddhism and decades of reading about science fiction and fact. We were doing okay until he started to question my explanation of wormholes. It got a little ugly at that point until I got out the silly putty and made a model of the functionality. I guess my take on extraterrestrials is that I believe that they may be out there and may have the advanced technology to travel the vast reaches of space. But if all they are doing when they get here is mutilating cattle and probing people - well, what's the point?

Well, time for me to get back to work. later...

fold, walk, metal, 9, appreciate, driving

2009-09-13T17:02:00.004-04:00

I worked on a couple of projects this weekend, both origami. A few years ago, I made a shadow box with a multi-layer set of Mette rings - in orange and yellow with a blue background - that looked like the sun. I gave this to my grandmother for christmas and she really liked it. About a year ago, my aunt asked if I would make one for her and I said I would - but I was a bit hesitant about it since I don't like to duplicate gifts like that. Plus, not long after she asked, my grandmother moved in with her and my uncle and took the sun shadow box with her. I figured that would be the end of it, but then I saw some sun flower scrapbook paper and figured that the sunflowers, done in the same style of origami, would be an excellent replacement. I cut down the paper so I could fit 4 of them in the shadow box - since she has 4 kids - and finished it up this morning. Photos to follow.

My cousin is getting married next weekend and though I've already purchased the gifts from the registry and wrapped them, I wanted to do a little more. So, I glued some white paper to foil - to match the wrapping paper - and folded a bunch of snowbell flowers. Again, photos to follow.

Yesterday, I lay out in the sun for a bit while I worked on the paper flowers, then took myself for a walk. I walked down to a nearby forested park and hiked the trails for a bit. On path took me near the lake and I sat there for a few minutes and wrote a tweet - in Haiku format, of course.

On my way, I picked up a piece of rusty metal. I'm thinking about doing a painting-type project with rust and ash. I've already been gathering the ash from a few sticks on incense - which I'm burning outside since it's too strong in the apartment. The neighbors haven't complained - I guess it's no worse than the occasional smell of pot that comes from down the street on a quiet summer night.

Finally, I went to see the movie "9" with some friends on Friday night. Good flick, a lot of depth to it. The ending was ever so slightly cheesy, but they meant well and that counts. It actually reminded me a bit of the Matrix movies in a way. I'd like to try and build my own little number "9" but I'm having difficulty finding good pictures.

Oh, almost forgot. I helped with the student appreciation day last week. We gave out a great honking pile of t-shirts in no time at all. It helped that we had a system - one guy would scan their card and then they would step over to me and tell me their size. I would turn and repeat the size to the three guys in the back - if they hadn't heard -and they would hand me a shirt that I would then hand to the student along with a food coupon. My boss was in charge of the large shirts at one point and I had to call for a large twice before he responded. I then joked with him - "Dude, you've got one job!' - and he laughed and said, "I know! Sorry!"

Well, it'll be a short work week - thankfully - but I'll have a lot of driving to do. 3 hours to my sister's, then 7 hours to Illinois on Friday. Wedding on Saturday, then 7 hours back to my sister's and three hours back home on Sunday. And I've got a football game to go to on Tuesday - busy week over all.

Speaking of football - the Zips won in their brand new stadium. Go ZIPS!

later...

namor, weekend

2009-09-06T17:23:00.002-04:00

After a really rough morning on Friday, I turned it around with a swim. The pool was configured with the lanes "longways" - twice as long as I'm used to doing - but I stuck it out and did a mile. Three crawl, three backstroke, three breaststroke - then repeat. When I got done, I still felt great - like I could just keep going. But I had a meeting and I needed to get back.

Still, it was awesome.

The weekend has been something of a dud so far. Not really much going on - though I did watch a couple of cool episodes of Dexter. I finished up typing a story I wrote longhand a couple years ago and I'm heading into "edit mode". I've also done a great honking pile of reading. So, not a total waste, but not the top of excitement either.

I'm thinking about a trip to Panara Bread for dinner this evening and maybe over to target for the next season of Dexter. I'm also thinking about putting on some good music and just doing some more writing. Sometimes a story captures me when I read it - sometimes I get captured by writing it.

I've also been working on my Halloween costume - with not much to show for it yet. I'd better get a move on.

later...

stress

2009-09-04T08:34:00.002-04:00

By the end of today, I will have had 11 meetings this week. It's also the second week of classes, which is a busy time anyway. Throw in family and room-mate stress, shake well, and I have turned into one really agitated dude. So, I took myself for a walk yesterday to try and calm down and clear my head. I also got a chipotle burrito - which helped a little. But the bugs started to bother me, my knee started to hurt, and I began to run out of daylight.

I got home, took a shower, and did some reading. The cool breeze through the open window did as much good for me as anything else and I finally settled down. It wasn't to last and I was keyed up again before I went to bed, but I'm grateful that I can put myself to sleep even under trying circumstances.

So, three day weekend coming up. If the weather is good, I'm going to try and get some sunshine. If not, well, I'll clean the basement. I think I need to be really relaxed and disconnected - or really thoroughly occupied.

Oh, and the height of irony? I'd like to start some kind of zen meditation - but I'm worried that I don't have the right set up, that my left knee won't be able to handle the position, and that I haven't found the right mantra.

Ack! Okay, enough of that. Back to work...

game

2009-09-02T11:02:00.003-04:00

I went to a football game of 6-7 year olds for my FRM's youngest son. He was there, along with his wife (and her parents) and their new daughter. Also there was his former girlfriend, her mom and brother. And his older sons - and the oldest's wife and son. And then his grandmother and me. The game itself wasn't great to watch - very disorganized flag football - but seeing the whole extended crew together again was good.

I didn't get home under after 7:00 and then ate a quick dinner and did a bunch of reading for most of the evening.

May be headed for a movie this evening after work - we'll see how that goes.

later...

drive, swell, sing, drive

2009-08-31T10:23:00.002-04:00

I drove down to my parents for the weekend - it took the usual time to make the drive, and as usual, it felt like forever. My dad's hand had swelled up as the result of an infection. He was on some antibiotics and some meds for the pain and was somewhat subdued for his birthday weekend.

We did get out on Saturday and went pretty much all over the region trying to buy some gifts for my cousin's wedding. We also stopped at a 1/2 priced books and I of course went right for the papercrafts section. And was followed by a woman with headphones on - singing some kind of gospel music. Very loudly. I was determined not to react or be driven out - because that level of volume is either insanely rude or asking for a confrontation. She left first, but kept singing around the store at a lower volume before she finally left.

I spent the rest of the weekend with them, mostly just hanging out and watching movies. I brought my old Playstation 2 with me to donate to their pastor's adopted son from the Ukraine - we dropped it off to him so he could arrange to have it shipped back to the orphanage where he used to live.

On Sunday, I drove back. Again, it took pretty much forever to make the drive. Last night, I dreamed that I was a substitute art teacher for an elementary school. Once I finally found the room, it turned into the nicest dream I've had in a long time.

That's about it... back to a busy week at work. later...

cookie

2009-08-26T13:40:00.001-04:00

My fortune cookie had no fortune today. It was empty.

Discuss.

(and no, I didn't eat it by mistake)

lost, meetings, website

2009-08-26T08:17:00.004-04:00

This is the first week of classes and there are always a few freshmen that get lost on campus. I always try to help when asked, but this year I got stopped by a guy that was "looking for the place where he could enroll for fall semester". This, on the first day of classes for the fall semester. So, I gave him directions to the admissions building and wished him luck. He was going to need it.

I've got 4 meetings today. Count 'em - 4. That ain't right. I think I need another note from my mom.

Finally, I made a few updates to my website. No real big changes, just a little re-org and some minor design tweaks. http://gozips.uakron.edu/~aws/

grandma, song

2009-08-21T07:38:00.002-04:00

I got some good news about my grandmother yesterday - she had a colonoscopy that tracked the location of a secondary infection - which they were able to treat successfully within 24 hours. She talking again and more coherent. So, they're going forward with a feeding tube in her stomach and from there she'll head to a nursing home for rehab on her leg. It was a nice change from the flurry of bad news we've been getting recently.

In other news... there's a sign in a neighbors yard on my street that says "Christie Croce for Clerk of Courts" - and every time I drive past I get a Jim Croce song in my head. It's usually Don't Mess Around With Jim, but occasionally Operator pops up. I'll be glad when the election is over so I don't get this compulsion to sing in my car.

That's it for now... back to work...

tea, chipotle, day

2009-08-20T14:54:00.004-04:00

I ordered my tea properly at Starbucks today - and the staff were impressed. I didn't get a discount or anything, but I'm still pleased with myself.

In other food-based adventures - the Chipotle burrito was awesome today. As usual. And it was gigantic. Which is also awesome.

Almost done with work for today - looking forward to getting into more comfortable clothes and playing some video games.

That's about it - not much to report. later...

appointment, call

2009-08-18T13:50:00.001-04:00

I was up early this morning to take my room-mate to the doctor's for the "real" appointment. His aunt wasn't able to take him and one of his friend's didn't get the message in time. So, a little cranky I had to take more time off of work, we headed up to the doctor's office.

We were about 30 minutes early and three other people that arrived after he did got seen before him. Finally, 45 minutes after the appointment time, he got seen. I had a book with me, so I was sort of okay, but it was irksome. Apparently, one of the technicians that was going to help him with a "bone growth stimulation device" was running late and that threw everything off.

I took my room-mate back home and went on into work. No problems with taking the time off as far as the boss is concerned, but it still troubled me a bit. I've got a reputation for not taking time off - which I guess is why the boss wasn't phased by it. Still, you know, grumble.

I talked to my sister last night, she was very upset about an email she'd gotten from my aunt about my grandmother's condition. Grandma just doesn't seem to be getting better and there's a general idea that perhaps she's giving up. My sister and I counter that maybe she needs more things to look forward to and some positive reinforcement. We're going to start sending her lots of get well cards - maybe a little smile from her Ohio grandkids will help.

Well, back to work...

commencement, doctor, swim

2009-08-17T13:18:00.002-04:00

I attended the commencement ceremony on Saturday for one of our former student assistants. The ceremony was a little on the dull side, but it went a little quicker than I expected. They didn't use the ceremonial mace - much to my disappointment. Afterwards, pictures were taken and cookies were eaten, and presents were given. I headed out soon afterwards and got changed into much cooler clothes.

I took off work this morning to take my room-mate to the doctor for his 10 day follow up after his surgery. We were early to the doctor's office - a full day early. His appointment is actually tomorrow - but we didn't find this out until we were already at the office. His aunt will take him tomorrow, I think. Kind of a waste of time and the verdict is still out on where the confusion was - but at least I wasn't at work.

Finally, the ONAT pool reopened today. Nice wide lanes, clean, and uncrowded. And hot water in the showers afterwards. Heaven...

Well, just got a big project - better get to it.

later...

i.g.s.g.t. , word, pool

2009-08-14T10:58:00.003-04:00

Since they don't seem to stock the Tazo Tea I like at the local starbucks, I've been getting the shaken iced tea. Apparently, I keep asking for it "wrong" and they always change the order of what I say into the Starbuck's lingo. This time, I paid attention and should be able to order "correctly" next time - and maybe save just a little of the collective brainpower of the universe.

Iced Grande Sweetened Green Tea

Please make a note of that.

Back on the job, I've been trying to unlock a Word 2003 document. And we don't have the password to go in there and make change. It's not going well - we may have to recreate the form from scratch. Annoying.

That's about it, just another day at work - though it's Friday which is cool. Oh, and the pool is still closed. Color me slightly cranky about that. Mainly because I don't like being teased and that's what they are doing with the ever changing "tentative re-open dates".

later...

tweet, shoulder, graduation, game

2009-08-13T13:01:00.005-04:00

I finally set up my phone to send updates to twitter. I'm still using this as a haiku poetry archive so I won't get updates from other people sent to my phone - this should help me keep a handle on my charges. I'm still not using it enough to justify paying for a full texting plan.

My shoulder is still bothering me and though it hurts a little less, it's now wrapped all around my back and somehow up to my jaw on the right side. I'm not sure how to do a stretching exercise to cover all those areas.

The summer graduation for the campus is on this Saturday. I had been invited by a former student assistant to attend and she's arranging for a meet-up for her friends beforehand. The meeting place she's chosen is the only good land mark in the area - I'm guessing it will be pretty crazy there. I'm going to make a big sign to hold up and help gather the group.

I've been playing Mirror's Edge a bit recently - and I find myself lunging at the screen to try and help the character make a difficult jump. I'm glad no one watches me play video games.

Time to get back to work...

back, slow, grandma

2009-08-11T12:54:00.004-04:00

My back and left shoulder are bothering me today - I must have slept on it weird. Reallllly didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but I had to go to work. At least it's quiet here - the boss is out today and I don't have any big projects on fire at the moment. And I think I got an extra piece of bacon on my subway sandwich today - so, that's cool.

My sister wrote a really nice post about grandma on her blog - even if she did diss me a bit about me being in a photo. :) I added a link to her site on my blog.

I thought about writing about grandma a bit and some of the good times we've had over the years, but I find myself starting to tear up - just the thought that those times may be done troubles me enough that I don't want to even think about the good times now.

I'm sure there's a pile of psychology to sort out from that run-on sentence above, but I'm going to let it go for now. I can write about the clinical issues she's going through, but really thinking about what it means really hits me.

I think I need to take a break, maybe get out of the office and get a few minutes of sunshine.

later...

better, doctor, pool

2009-08-10T09:09:00.002-04:00

My room-mate is doing better. He's pretty mobile around the apartment but is still taking it easy. His aunt stopped over yesterday and visited for a bit. I also picked up a prescription for him - I think that helped too.

I also helped change the dressing on the incision on his neck and I gotta say - that was worse than helping him move the dead bodies the week before. The bodies were... well... they were "done". Whatever happened, they wouldn't get any worse from my actions if I made a mistake.

If I had pulled the wrong way in removing the bandages, then glue holding the wound shut might have come loose and he would have started bleeding. And bleeding from a surgical incision in ones neck is never good. I don't think direct pressure would have done much good - so, I was very nervous.

But it went well and he's on the mend. May be a few weeks before he's back to work, but his aunt and friends promised to check on him through the day just in case.

I also got some better news about my grandmother. Dad told me yesterday that they've got the feeding tube back in and that the infection is being beaten back by better nutrition and the antibiotics. She still can't swallow and will eventually need a tube in her stomach, but at least she's still fighting. I'm a bit more hopeful, but we're all still worried.

On a more humorous note, a story from the waiting room before my room-mate's surgery. I was standing there with two of his co-workers who'd stopped by to visit as well. One of the techs came in to put the monitoring wires on my room-mate - and he made it a point to introduce himself to me and shake my hand. He nodded to the other people in the room and made a comment about how he was going to be working with me later in the day.

We finally figured out that he was responding to the name tag on my shirt with my room-mate's last name on it (since I was keeping track of his stuff and the first point of contact) - and thought I was a doctor that he hadn't met yet - but was scheduled to meet that day.

Now, I wasn't even close to being dressed like a doctor and the name tag was nothing more official than a sticker - the kind that they issued to visitors all the time. So, I don't know how he got that confused, but I chose to take it as a compliment.

Finally, at least part of one of the pools may be opening on Thursday. So, I'll miss a couple of days of swimming, but not the weeks that I had expected.

Looks like I didn't miss much here at work from Friday, but still a little catching up to do.

later...

surgery, scare, waiting, news

2009-08-08T19:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday morning, at 4:00 am, I woke up my room-mate with difficulty and took him to the surgery center of Mercy Hospital for his back surgery. I got him checked in and fired up my PSP to play a game. Before I could really start, one of his colleagues/friends arrived to see him before the surgery and so we chatted for a bit. While my room-mate was getting prepped, we got to go back and wish him well - and a couple of his co-workers arrived too. We had a few good laughs and sent him on his way. I was by myself for a few minutes when his aunt arrived. So, she and I waited and chatted. Ironically, I had packed myself plenty of "anti-boredom" gear - paper, books, games, etc. - and didn't need any of it.

After a while the doctor came out and and said the surgery went well with no complications and that he was recovering from the surgery quickly.

My room-mate's aunt and I headed up to the room where he would be staying overnight for observation. We checked in with him and helped him order lunch - then she left for a bit and I went downstairs to McDonalds for my own lunch. I made the calls to all his siblings to keep them up to date, then headed back up and kept him company. His aunt arrived later and brought him a milkshake.

She left a little after that and I stayed around until 8:00 or so before I headed home.

At 10:00, his sister called. At 11:00, his brother called.

At 3:30 AM - the hospital called and the nurse was calm, polite as one can be at that time of the morning - and told me that he'd been moved to the cardiac floor of the hospital due to a heart scare. I wrote down the info and was fortunately tired enough to go back to sleep.

At 6:30, my room-mate called with the same info - but that he was doing much better. I got up not long after that and headed back to the hospital and his new room.

The prevailing theory was that the auto-inflating leg cuffs and drugs were the cause for alarm. The drugs would drop his heart rate as he got sleepy, and then the cuffs would inflate and startle him and wake him back up. So, no big deal - but it was scary for all involved for a while. I stayed with him through the morning, then got lunch again and did some reading in the afternoon while he waited to be released. I brought him back to the apartment and I'm looking after him this evening. Tomorrow his aunt will visit and bring him at least one meal.

While he was settling back in - I got a call from my dad. Things have gotten worse with my grandmother.

The urinary tract infection continues and she has now lost the ability to swallow. Whether this is from the infection or another mini-stroke - the damage appears to be permanent. The doctors have given her a feeding tube through her nose, but since she's already pulled that out, they need to determine a more permanent solution - in this case, a tube inserted into her stomach.

My aunt, my dad, and one of my uncles are now faced with difficult decisions. They're going to try to find a lucid time with her and see if she can decide if she wants the feeding tube. If not, or if they can't find a lucid time, they may look to the quality of life issues. Things are looking grim.

My sister called a little while later and though we tried to talk - there were a lot of silences. This is hitting us both pretty hard and I think we're both feeling very helpless. I think it's only a matter of time.

So, I'm going to make it a quiet evening and try and get some rest tonight. I'm sure to have a full day tomorrow - and then back to work on Monday.

later...

grandma, purchase, surgery

2009-08-06T08:45:00.003-04:00

I got an update from my mom yesterday via email - Grandma is doing worse than dad's recent update suggested. She's got a urinary tract infection that caused a stage 2 renal failure. Which is scary. She's still in the hospital - but thinks she's in prison. She had to be restrained because she keeps pulling her IV out and has kicked a nurse.

I talked to my sister last night and we're really scared for her and at a loss on what we can do - if anything. So, I'm kinda bummed about that.

In other news... I've been having some issues with a recent web-order. I went to the BudK website to order a diving knife and some throwing darts. Not a big purchase or a complicated one - right around $20 - but I had trouble getting logged in. I finally had to request the password and it turned out to not be what I expected. Frustrated and slightly annoyed, I completed the order - and then realized in the confirmation email that the address was wrong - it was my previous address. Now, I'm pretty sure I've ordered stuff since I've lived at my new place so I don't know how that got there - plus, I get the catalog at my new address.

As soon as I saw the incorrect address, I sent an email to their customer support address with the correction. The next day they replied and said the package was "ready to be shipped" and I would need to request an interception - at the cost of $10.

I was a little ticked about that, but if I didn't, the package would go to the wrong place. I wrote back and gave them the go ahead. The replied again and said I would have to call and give my credit card number.

So, I call them and give my credit card number. They said they'll take care of it. In the meantime, I get a friendly note saying the item had been shipped.

I didn't hear anything for several days, so I called yesterday and asked for a status. They told me that the package had already been delivered. I asked if they had charged me the interception fee and they said someone had tried to call to say they couldn't intercept it based on the carrier. I'm guessing they called the old number.

I asked if they had any suggestions and they told me - "you should try and stop by to see if it got delivered".

Great.

So, I wrote up a note including my cell phone number and when to my old address - thinking I could leave the note in case they weren't home. The current resident was just pulling in as I arrived and I introduced myself and explained the situation. He said he hadn't gotten anything and made a show of sorts of looking on the tiny front porch. I asked if I could leave him my number and would he mind calling me if it arrived.

I left then. Could be: 1. He got the package and lied. 2. He didn't get the package and someone else picked it up. 3. BudK never shipped it and has been screwing with me.

I'll give this a few days to see if it shows and if he calls me. Then I'm going to write a note to BudK explaining my concerns and asking to be taken off their mailing list. It's unfortunate since I liked the stuff they sold and the catalogues were always fun - but this time around I really felt like their customer service didn't give a crap. And unless the new resident of my old apartment comes through - I'm out $20. Not the end of the world, but irksome.

Guess I need to find a new edged weapons supplier - or I need to learn the art of forging my own. That would be awesome.

Finally, my room-mate is going in for back surgery tomorrow - he's having some vertebra fused. I'm the driver and caller of his relatives. He's worried, but I think the very busy hours he's been working recently have helped distract him.

That's it for now... back to work.

closing

2009-08-05T13:03:00.002-04:00

I got in 30 laps today at the pool - and noticed a couple new signs. The work on the hot water pipes will extend at least until August 15th - so, cold showers will continue. Even worse, though, is that the rec center pool is closing for maintenance starting this Sunday for a month. And the natitorium pool is still closed.

We've got two pools on campus and I won't be able to swim in either of them. Even worse, I paid for a membership for the summer and though there's been talk about extending that because of the hot water issue - I doubt it will cover not being able to use the pool. I'm less concerned about a refund or an extended membership - I just want to swim.

Cranky.

day, grandma

2009-08-03T15:07:00.003-04:00

The vending machine suggested that I have a nice day and I guess I have.

No meetings today.

I got in my swim - 3/4 mile

Had a Pretzel-Dog for lunch

I've gotten a few projects done here at work, but it's been pretty quiet. Got a bit of a headache, but that's almost par for the course.

Ack! I just made a golf analogy. Gotta watch that.

In other news... Dad called over the weekend to tell me that Grandma had another stroke. It wasn't a bad one, as far as these things go, but she'll be in the hospital and then rehab for a bit while she tries to regain mobility in her right leg.

They've got her on blood-thinners, but can't increase the dose too much or it will cause other issues. So, kind of a scary/sad time.

Almost time for me to head out of here. The headache is getting slightly worse from staring at the computer screen and I'll be glad to exit the building and get some natural lighting.

drug, help, shoes

2009-08-01T16:37:00.002-04:00

There was a comment on my blog - from someone I don't think I know - that talked about my ambien post. I think it was meant as a "if you take it properly under a physician's care then it's totally safe". Ummm... that's not what the post was about, people. This was my personal experience with someone else taking it and how it totally sucked for everyone involved. Thanks for the comment, though.

I'm currently at the funeral home where my room-mate works. He's not been feeling well recently and with the 4 new calls he's had to take in the past 12 hours, I offered to come with him and help in some capacity. This was essentially going to be me keeping an ear out and signing for a casket delivery - which I did. And then he asked if I could... help move a body. A pre-embalmed body.

Oh, nelly!

So, we glove up and head back to the embalming room. The dude to be moved was heavy and my help really was needed. We used some sheets to help pull him into position and then transfer him to a cot for viewing. After the family saw the guy (they were having him cremated later) - we transferred him again to the cremation box. My room-mate does this sort of thing all the time, but I'm a computer geek. I'm not used to that sort of thing, but we got though it.

Surprisingly, I was still hungry for lunch. I got us a couple of sandwiches at Arby's and we ate in the selection room. Which was a little creepy too. I went to run some errands while he did some embalming - since there's not a dang thing I can do to help with that part.

One of my errands was to buy some new shoes. I went to Famous footwear first and they were too expensive. I next when to DSW - and they were too expensive and had no selection. I gave up and went to Target and got a great pair of shoes for $9.99 - 'cause I'm awesome.

I think the rest of the afternoon will be spent playing games and waiting for him to finish up. I'm in the front office of the "house of fun" for the time being - unless I'm called on to move another body. :)

Later...

speed, algae, car

2009-08-01T08:22:00.003-04:00

On Friday at the pool, I decided to vary my stoke a bit while doing the crawl. I usually do a circular motion with my arms - which I know is not the way to do it - and this time I tried getting my hands to enter the water at an angle. A sort of stabbing motion into the water instead of slapping the surface and pulling through.

Hmmm... that actually sounded kinda violent. Anyway, it worked really well. I was able to go much faster and had to breath less. I was still fighting the vortex on the return trip so I didn't set any records, but it was still an improvement.

My co-worker needed a starbucks break in the afternoon - so I went along as well. They were out of the regular tea I like so I decided to try the Green Machine flavor of Naked Juice. The list of ingredients are:

Apple juice, Mango Puree, Pineapple Juice, Banana puree, Kiwi puree, Spirulina, Natural flavor, Chlorella (I thought that said cholera when I first looked at it), Broccoli, Spinach, Barley grass, wheat grass, parsley, ginger root, blue green algae, and odorless garlic.

I haven't mutated since I drank it yesterday. Which is kind of a bummer. It tasted okay, but it was a little pricey for the quantity.

I got my car fixed yesterday - more than I wanted to spend, but at least they were quick. (muffler and tailpipe were rusted through).

that's it for now... later

watchtower, site, repair

2009-07-31T08:36:00.002-04:00

I stopped for fuel a few days ago on my way into work. I was just finishing up pumping the gas when a woman pulled around around my car to park at a somewhat strange angle near another pump. She got and approached me with a booklet in her hand.

"Would you be interested in reading...?" she started to ask and I saw it was a copy of watchtower and I began my polite but firm:

"No thank you..." and she had already turned and was headed back to her van.

I guess we both already had our lines memorized. She was gone moments later. I don't think she even talked to anyone else there - and I'm not even sure she got fuel. Maybe she had a quota?

In other news, I added a minor update to my website about my swimming - with a few photos of me at the ocean. No links on the main page yet, but you can get there here:

http://gozips.uakron.edu/~aws/swim.html

Finally, I'm taking my car into the shop this afternoon. The muffler sounds bad and although I don't think anything is going to fall off yet - there was a pile of rust under my car so I'm guessing it's only a matter of time.

This week has been busy, but productive. I've got a few projects to work on today before the weekend kicks in.

later...

(I just did a spell check on the page - and for what may be the first time, no spelling or typing errors. Hoorey!)

ambien

2009-07-25T14:43:00.002-04:00

My room-mate has trouble sleeping after the long drive back. So, he decided to take an Ambien.

Now, I don't know if you've heard about the side effects of this stuff - but it is seriously dangerous.

from wikipedia

He took a dose last night and fell asleep in the tub. I managed to wake him up about 1:20 AM since I had to use the bathroom and it took me a while to convince him that he was actually in the tub and needed to get out of the tub, get dressed, and go to bed.

Then things got weird. He didn't recognize me, had no sense of balance, and was increasingly irrational. At one point he tried to choke me, but his lack of balance worked in my favor and I fought him off with a body slam into the closet door. I tried to keep him from going downstairs - afraid that he would fall - but his paranioa kicked in and he fought me on that as well. I gave up and helped him downstairs and then back up - with him fighting me most of the way. I finally got him settled and went to bed myself - with a sword at my side and a locked door. At this point, I didn't realize he'd taken anything and figured he's just gone insane.

This morning, I woke him up at 11:45 and asked him to explain what had happened. He had no memory of anything that had happened after he got in the tub after taking the now admitted ambien. I detailed everything that had happened and he apologized. I also made him throw out the ambien.

So, welcome back from your vacation - right into a drug fueled nightmare.

To the "Committee for the Most Understanding Roommate award" - don't bother with a plaque, just send cash.

I forgot to ask him if he slept well - I sure didn't.

beach trip - summary

2009-07-25T14:27:00.004-04:00

I did a lot of swimming on this trip - more than I've done in the past. I think the total was around 14 miles - not too shabby. Someone asked me what I thought about out in the ocean and the answer is - not much. I mostly just paid attention to the stokes I was using and my breathing and trying to time the waves.

I did a lot of reading - I think I got through 7 books while I was there. Spent a lot of time in the sun and got a kick-ass tan. No burn this year, I was careful.

I wore my square-cut speedos while I was swimming and while I was working on my tan. I was a little self-conscious, but only a little. The swimming over the years has paid off and I felt okay about how I looked. I've swum in the ocean in board shorts and it does make a difference.

In the evenings, I played a bit of PSP and enjoyed the games I brought.

Overall - I did very little on my vacation. As it should be.

beach trip - part 3

2009-07-25T13:51:00.003-04:00

7/19/2009

Went to Trip's for dinner - the Crab Cake this time around had peppers in it. I spent the rest of the evening burping the taste and it was not pleasant. We headed to the Ripley's Aquarium - which was one part lame and one part totally awesome. The had a viewing area with a saltwater tank full of sting-rays - really amazing. There were also aquariums with jelly fish and moray eels. The best, though, was the tunnel under the aquarium that was full of fish - and sharks. Amazing to see them swim overhead. And a little scary too.

One strange note - there was a sign outside about homeland security level at "elevated". Dunno why Ripley's Aquarium would be a target. They also had a uniformed security guard taking the tickets at the door.

45 minute ocean swim

7/20/2009

I swam twice again - the regular mile and then another 22 minutes for catch up. We went back to Drunken Jack's again - this time with a bit shorter wait. The sever recognised us from our earlier visit. :)

45 minute ocean swim

22 minute ocean swim

7/21/2009

We had been told that the buoys just off the beach were part of the EPA study. So, after my regular swim and after the lifeguard was done for the day, I swam out to take a look. They were labeled "hazard area" - so, I still don't know what they were all about. It also rained again while I was swimming.

45 minute ocean swim

7/22/2009

We were planning on coming back, but instead decided to stay an extra day. I swam for about 22 minutes before my left knee and hip started to bother me. I took a break for a bit and then swam again. Also, I had two people within 10 minutes of each other shout "shark" and point near me. I don't know if they thought I was a shark or if they were trying to scare me - but it pissed me off something fierce.

22 minute ocean swim

7/23/2009

Return home. The drive was even longer coming back. Lots of traffic and accidents - including a pre-fab home that fell off a truck and crash on the highway. There was also a huge thunderstorm while I was driving. My room-mate was nervous, but I just kept focused on the road and we did okay. Coming back when we did will give us both a few days to recover before heading back to work.

beach trip - part 2

2009-07-25T13:28:00.003-04:00

7/14/2009

Went to Drunken Jack's for dinner - there was an over 2 hour wait. We've been to this place before and the food - while okay - isn't really worth the wait time. But, it's tradition, so we waited.

45 minute ocean swim

7/15/2009

Took a trip to the Piggly Wiggly for food and supplies. We didn't have a "pig card" and so were denied the benefits of the "greenbacks". Whatever that means. The crew played a round of "scene it" - I was the MC and tried to keep things on track.

45 minute ocean swim

7/16/2009

I tried my first Crab Cake today - it was quite good to my surprise. I also finished up the 4th of my vampire books I brought. Hey, if all you do all day is swim and sit in the sun, the books go by pretty fast. I swam twice again today - and got called in from the water by the lifeguard. Apparently, the water I was in was too deep and I had to go to "waist deep". Let me tell you, it's tough to swim in waist deep water in the ocean.

45 minute ocean swim

45 minute ocean swim

7/17/2009

I hung out with my room-mate's niece and nephew and we threw "toy-pedoes" at each other in the pool for a couple hours. I think they wore me out. It also might have been the short swim in the ocean - the waves and the wind were so rough that I ended up about a 1/2 mile behind where I started. I cut the swim short since I was tired and didn't want to get hurt. Later that evening, my room-mate wanted to send a note to a message board he's on for people that meet up while on vacation. So, reluctantly, I set up my PSP to connect to the free Internet. He wrote up a note, I showed him how to input text - and then he realized the "novel" he'd written would take forever to enter. He re-wrote it and I put the text in. Technically speaking, this wasn't "my" Internet usage, but I still felt a little dirty.

22 minute ocean swim

7/18/2009

The rest of the crew left early in the morning, but my room-mate and I packed up to wait for the new condo to be available. (we couldn't get the same place for 2 weeks). While we were waiting, we head to Books-A-Million to restock (I was almost out of books) and when we got back we unpacked again and I hit the ocean again - this time, I had to dodge surfers.

45 minute ocean swim

beach trip - part 1

2009-07-25T12:57:00.003-04:00

Just got back from the annual beach trip with my room-mate and his family to Surfside Beach in South Carolina. I took some notes, so... here it goes.

7/10/2009 - the drive down. Took 10 hours straight through and we stayed at the Day's Inn the first night since we couldn't get into the condo yet. I drove about 2/3 of the way and was tired and cranky when we finally arrived - and even more so with the stupid slow elevators.

7/11/2009 - I woke up in time to witness a very slow and boring car accident from the balcony. Two cars, pulling out at the same time, slowly backed into each other. There was minimal damage and no one was hurt, so it was pretty funny.

We got moved into the condo and I noted that the owners had free wireless set up. I vowed to resist the urge to set it up and connect to the 'net.

I also hit the ocean for my first swim of the trip. It's hard to gauge the distance, but I know in the pool I can do a lap in just over a minute at my normal speed. 36 laps equals a mile, so I decided that if I can do 45 minutes in the ocean, I'm pretty confident that I'm doing at least a mile. So:

45 minute ocean swim

That night, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and snuck out to the beach to do some streaking. Hey, it was very late and no one else was around. When else am I going to do it?

7/12/2009

The EPA was conducting a survey on the beach about water quality - and with the lure of a free tote bag and a check for $25 - how could I say no? Actually, I would have done it for free, but they had a grant and a process. I hit the water twice - and was very tired out when I was done. So:

45 minute ocean swim

45 minute ocean swim

7/13/2009

The whole group when to Angelo's for dinner. Later, we played a card game called "screw your neighbor". There's some strategy and luck involved - and I managed to win $9. Yea!

Earlier in the day I hit the ocean for a swim and got rained on. I didn't stop of course - I was already wet.

45 minute ocean swim

pelham, fireworks, pillow, vibrate

2009-07-02T10:45:00.002-04:00

I went and saw The Taking of Pelham 123 last night. It was a pretty good flick with plenty of suspense and action, but plot was a little thin and I figured it out pretty early on. Denzel and Travolta were both good - I'd give the movie a solid thumbs up. I generally like my movies with a little less realism, but it was enjoyable.

When I got home, the neighbor kids on the other side of the trees in the backyard were setting off fireworks. At 10:15 PM. Now, I know it's almost the 4th of July, but it wasn't yet there and was really annoying - especially since I was getting ready to go to sleep.

So, I got a flashlight and a substantial pocket knife (just in case there was a fireworks luvin mob of zombies over there 'cause you never know) and walked across the backyard and through the trees to the cul-de-sac. I saw the teen-ager that was setting off the fireworks and I approached him. I asked if he was about done and he asked why. I responded that I had an early day at work the tomorrow and that I lived right over there. I told him to wrap it up and save them for the 4th. I turned to walk away and he responded with "whatever" - but either he was really out of fireworks or he actually listened to me because the fireworks stopped.

So, yea me. I did feel really old with the "hey, you kids. Hold it down," - but not everyone is on summer vacation, dang-it.

I needed the help with the sleeping environment since I've switched to a new pillow. Apparently, my snoring can be heard from the street and causes a seismic event that knocks cars off the road. The new pillow apparently stops this entirely, but it very difficult to adapt too. It's been a couple of nights now and I'm having trouble falling asleep and then waking up in the night. I'm also having seriously screwed up dreams. They are too disjointed to remember, but the general impression is that I need some professional counseling.

Finally, our building is shaking ("Regan, why aren't you in your room? My bed was shaking")

They are doing construction work to put in a ramp right next to the building and the machinery is making the whole building vibrate. I think they're finally done now, but it was pretty intense for a while.

Well, got a bunch of stuff to catch up on from my two days of usability testing - better get back to it. After a trip to chipotle, of course.

later...

cake, minion, cold, testing

2009-06-30T09:26:00.002-04:00

My room-mate's birthday was this past Sunday. He's usually at the beach with his family on vacation, so I decided to do something a little different. Since I'm not really much of a baker or a cook, I found a no-bake cheesecake mix. I also grated some Heath bars to put in the mix. The crust didn't work as well as I hoped, but it turned out pretty good - we ate some while sitting outside enjoying the weather on Sunday evening.

I also got him a DVD set for when he's stuck at home after his neck surgery. And a fake lemon tree plant and some real lemonade mix. He's been feeling a little picked on at work recently and I thought a friendly reminder on attitude might help. I didn't make any "age" jokes - I already get letters from AARP wanting me to sign up - so, I didn't want to go down that road.

In other news... I picked up the Overlord game for the PS3. I have this for the PC, but could never get it to run. It's a blast to play and really funny. I'm making good progress and really enjoying it.

Yesterday, I headed up to the rec center for my swim. And though I was pre-warned about the lack of hot water - it was still rough taking a shower afterwards. I was still damp from the pool so I soaped up first - then turned on the cold water and rinsed as fast as I could. I suppose I could have skipped the shower, but I figured a little cold in the short term was better than somewhat itchy for the rest of the day.

Finally, I'm working with the crew on some usability testing again. My roll is mostly "keep track of the tech and render the video" - so, I'm keeping up with my emails and waiting quietly.

Better get back to the email and check in... later...

flush, pool

2009-06-24T13:10:00.002-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, I headed to the restroom here at work. It was the kind of trip that, had I been at home, I would have had a book with me. But I was at work and bookless and proceeded to do my business without any reading material. Before I sat down, however, I noted that the toilet now had an automatic flush device installed. It looked like this.

Now, I'm not generally fond of auto-flushing toilet and urinals since I either can't get them to acknowledge that I exist or I can't get them to stop.

But, my needs were urgent and I was at the mercy of the technology. When I was done, I stood up and the auto-flush device made it's usual noise - but then nothing else happened.

No flush.

I sat back down for a moment - then stood back up. I will also admit to feeling a little stupid about this. Same noise - no flush.

I check the device and notice that there was a manual button. Relieved, I tried that. Same noise, but still no flush.

I tried a couple more times with the same result.

So, now what?

I washed my hands at the sink and left - then called the building coordinator to report the problem and got his voice mail. Next, I called the Facilities dispatch office and reported it to them. The building coordinator called me back and I confirmed what I'd done.

Then I made up an out of order sign, posted that on the door to the stall, and went back to work. I mean, what else could I do?

I got the update today that it's been resolved, so I guess things are back to normal. Or as close as we can expect.

In other news... I hit the pool today and it was once again filled with screaming children. And I mean screaming. Like some kind of sonic weapon - really intense. The lifeguard cleared a lane and I did my laps. They had cleared out before I was done, so at least the last bit was more calm. On a related note, a little more digging on the Swim for Diabetes site revealed some contradictions on length vs. lap - I may have earned the ribbon after all.

Work has really sucked this afternoon. I'll be really glad to get out of here today.

later...

father, uncle, guest, 100

2009-06-23T07:59:00.002-04:00

I went to visit my folks for Father's Day this past weekend. Unfortunatly, Dad had to work all day on Saturday, so I only got to see him a bit on Friday and Saturday evening - though we had more time on Sunday.

On Saturday morning, when my sister came over for breakfast, she asked me a question.

"So, do you want to be called Uncle Anthony or Uncle Wade?"

Yea! My little sister is having a baby! She's about 8 weeks along and is due in January - just a little after my birthday.

My sister, mom, and I hung out on Saturday. We talked about baby stuff, my sister's food aversions, and about names a bit. My brother-in-law got there in the evening from a business trip and Dad got in a bit later from work.

On Sunday, after everyone got back from church, dad invited one of his friends and caretaker over for lunch. Dad's friend has a really severe case of cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheel chair. His caretaker wheeled him in and right over in front of me where I was sitting - and then everyone went off to do their own things. So, things were a little forced - and somewhat awkward. After a little bit I was able to understand him, but it took a tremendous increase in mental processing power on my part to understand him, stay focused on what he was saying, and keep the flow of conversation going. After a bit, we had lunch and the guy and his caretaker stayed. And he dominated the conversation and ended up overstaying his welcome. Dad eventually told him it was time for him to leave. A little blunt, but I guess he and Dad understand each other and I don't think offense was meant or taken.

We did the Father's day thing and I had a bite to eat before I had to get on the road.

Finally, I got an email from the Cleveland Diabetes Association. It was a follow up to the Swim for Diabetes event and made mention of those people who were in the 100 Club. Except, it turns out that it was the 100 laps club - not 100 lengths. Which was kind of weird since all the measurments for the event were in lengths. When I finished up my swim of 150 lengths - 75 laps - they handed me a ribbon for the 100 club.

And I don't think I really earned it. Which bothers me a bit. I'm debating taking another Saturday morning to swim 100 laps and "earn" the ribbon.

Well, time to get back to work.

later...

resolved, tea, mirror, planet, 48, call

2009-06-16T08:28:00.003-04:00

I think my room-mate and I have mostly resolved things. I'm still slightly cranky over the way things went, but I'm getting over it. So, back to the news of the ordinary and slightly weird...

I've told stories of how my Dad makes iced tea - he adds water to a plastic jug, adds teabags and seals it up, then throws it in the hot tub for a bit. With this in mind, my room-mate decided to make some sun tea outside this past weekend. I didn't pay much attention to the process until he asked me how long it took. I told him to base it on the color - when it's dark, it's done. He said it was already dark and I realized I remembered him filling the teapot.

"Wait," I said, "Did you start with hot water?" He said he did.

"With sun tea, the sun heats the water so it brews. If you start with hot water and then put it in the sun, well, you're double brewing it,"

The tea, needless to say, was very strong. But, not too bad with a lot of sugar.

In other news... stayed up late watching Mirrors last night. Good flick, a little predictable and very gory. It was after midnight before I hit the sack - which made the morning that much more difficult. Also, I avoided looking in the mirror when I got ready for work.

I played a bunch of Little Big Planet yesterday - excellent game and a lot of fun. I think I may try a bit more of the level building feature this afternoon - or I may sell some of my PS2 games and pick up another one for the PS3.

I got my new blood donor card the other day - I'm up to 48 pints donated. That's 6 gallons lifetime. Not too bad. I think I'm eligible to give again in the first part of July.

Finally, I got a call at home last night. It was an akron number, but I didn't recognize it. I answered anyway and the girl asked for me by name. She said she was calling from The University of Akron Alumni office and asked if she could verify my address and if I wanted to provide an employer. I hesitated a moment, then told her, "The University of Akron". We both laughed a bit and she verified my uakron email address. Then she asked if I wanted to donate to the college of business and I politely declined and ended the call.

I guess that's it for now. It's a pretty quiet morning here again, but there's work to be done.

later...

trek, ps3, sun, trick

2009-06-14T16:47:00.002-04:00

Went and saw Star Trek this weekend. Good flick, very intense - and while the plot was okay, I was a little disappointed in the direction they took. Eh, the explosions were nice. And I so have to get me some Red Matter.

I also went out and got myself a PS3. I've been holding out for a price drop, but since that wasn't happening, I gathered up my coupons and gift card and headed to best buy. The PS3 and one game ended up being around 480 dollars. With the coupons, best buy rewards, and giftcard - I got it down to $178. I think the clerk was annoyed at the gift cards, but it didn't bother me at all. I've been playing little big planet quite a bit and I really like it. I haven't gone online with it yet - mainly because people online are stupid.

I got a little sun today, sat outside and read for a bit. My room-mate came out and shared the funnies with me from the sunday paper - and they were actually pretty funny instead of the usual - "heh".

I was pretty warm and noticed his cup of lemon-aid. I asked if I could have a sip and he offered to get me my own glass. I said I just wanted sip and he handed it to me.

I took a sip and immediatly spit it out. It tasted horrible and I couldn't come up with enough spit to rinse my mouth. It looked and smelled like lemon-aid - but there was something else. I asked him what it was and he told me it was lemon-aid + vodka. And he laughed at my reaction.

Now, I don't drink. Haven't since college. Sort of drew a line in the sand on the whole thing. If other people want to drink around me, I'm generally okay with that provided they don't try to force it on me and don't get too messed up.

So, I put away my chair and took my book inside. I went to the cabinet and found the bottle of vodka and then poured it in the sink. Then, for good measure, I got a half-full bottle of wine out of the fridge and poured that out too. Both empty bottles went in the trash.

He apoligized - then sarcasticly thanked me for pouring out an expensive bottle of wine when he found the bottles later.

Was I being petty? Yep. Sure. Why not? Should have poured out more. Still might.

I think I need to do some cleaning or something. Need to create a little more order in my life. Maybe need to look at Apartments.com later as well. Yeah, it's that bad.

later...

chemical, guest

2009-06-12T13:55:00.002-04:00

I got to the rec center at my regular time and as I entered the pool area and prepared to get in the water, I noticed that a guy was dumping a white power in the water at the end of the lap lanes. I asked the lifeguards if it was okay to swim and while they were unsure, they said it was probably okay.

So, I walked over to ladder and started to get in. The guy dumping the powder didn't react to my presence and he finished up before I was ready to start my laps. I did my laps with no ill reactions - and noted that at least a part of the powder didn't dissolve right away.

I'm still doing okay, no weird skin itches or anything. Still a little weird to be doing something to the pool water during regular hours.

The AA Founder's day is this weekend on campus. A few parking lots have been closed off and we've got a lot more people on campus than usual, but it hasn't really affected us much. I avoided the student union food court just in case there were long lines, but otherwise no biggie.

The afternoon is going slowly, but I'll be out of here soon enough. Looking forward to some sunshine this weekend.

later...

taken, gas, meeting

2009-06-12T08:22:00.002-04:00

Watched the movie "taken" last night. Even though he was a jedi, I was a little skeptical about Liam Neeson as an action hero, but he pulled it off. Lots of "judo chop" moves and ass kicking - pretty intense.

I was standing in line at Starbucks today with my coworker. There was a man standing at the counter getting his coffee and a woman behind him. The two were good naturedly arguing and he said,

"better be careful, I've got a lot of gas today"

to which she replied,

"I've got a really long umbrella,"

prompting my co-worker to comment,

"I've got a lighter"

Ah, Friday morning on campus.

In other news, my FMR's mom and grandmother were supposed to come over for dinner last night, but had to cancel. The weather was a little bad yesterday so that may have been a factor.

Well, I was supposed to be 1/2 way through a meeting/training session - but they haven't shown yet and it's now a little after 8:30 Oh, well, makes for a quieter day.

That's it for now... later...

spam, headache, swine

2009-06-11T13:22:00.002-04:00

I got a spam message today - from someone I know. Occasionally I'll get a message from someone that has been accidentally tagged as spam (the message, not the person) and of course I get a ton of spam from strange addresses - but this time I recognised the name and address of the person - but the content of the message was spam. It was from someone that had invited me to use Linkedin - I wonder if their database got hacked?

I went home yesterday with a headache. Not a migraine, but bad enough that I took some motrin and went to bed for a bit. It stayed with me most of the rest of the evening - sort of coming and going as lighting conditions and noise levels changed. And it's back again this afternoon - though not as bad. Don't know if it's stress, a hold over from this cold I can't seem to kick, or the flourecents in the office here.

Just got an email from Mom about WHO upgrading H1N1 to a pandemic. I don't have the body aches or fatigue, but I do have the rest of the common symptoms. Great. Swine flu. Just like Link Hobthrob.

Still got 2 hours to go today. It's been pretty quiet here though that doesn't make the time go faster.

My room-mate and I are having my FRM's mom and grandmother over for an early dinner this evening (they don't like to drive late). Should be fun - they are both fiesty old ladies from the Bronx. Meaning: fun, but don't cross them or you'll get a facefull of mace.

Guess that's it for now. later...

cold, swim, drive

2009-06-08T13:41:00.002-04:00

I've been fighting a bit of a cold for the past few days - but since it's been combined with my eye swelling up again I at first dismissed it as some kind of allergy thing. And it didn't help that my neighbor had his charcoal grill and lawn mower going right outside our windows - thought I was going to sneeze my head clear off.

I'm doing better today, though my throat is still a little sore.

I hit the pool today and did 21 laps. Not my best, but okay considering I'm really not at my best. The water was really warm - I kept watching the lifeguards to make sure they didn't throw in any vegetables.

I did a little errand running on Sunday - got some supplies for a a few projects and bought an mp3 player and an external hard-drive. I've held off moving from the cds for a while - but some artists are only releasing music digitally now, so I'd better get on the bandwagon. I've got a big project ahead of me converting my cd's to mp3 - but I've got time and plenty of space now, so it should be fun to rediscover my music collection again.

later...

mario, crowd

2009-06-05T14:11:00.002-04:00

I played some super paper mario last night - the Pitt of 100 Trials. Essentially, 100 levels of enemies to fight. Some rooms I cleared in 20-40 seconds, others took as long as a couple of minutes. In the very last level, I fought a huge dragon and at a crucial moment I meant to hit the button to open my menu and use a health item - and instead I hit the button to jump and smashed into an enemy on the dragon's back.

And died.

Game over.

I turned off the Wii and the television and went outside to read a book. Stupid game.

I hit the pool today for my swim and as I walked in I realized that the pool was busy - there must have been about 40 kids in there for some event. And they were also in the lap lanes.

I approached the life guard to ask if they had the whole pool reserved, but before I got the word out, she asked if I was going to do lap swimming. I said I was and she said she'd clear them out of the lap lane. And she did.

Yea!

So, I had a lane to myself and got in my laps. No records set, but it still felt good.

It's been a rough week here at work and I'm looking forward to getting out of here and getting some sunshine. And it's Friday, so, bonus.

later...

pants

2009-06-04T15:17:00.003-04:00

My co-worker and I went to Chipotle for our weekly lunch event. We met up with his cousin and sat at a table outside to enjoy the sunshine. I was part way through my burrito when my co-worker spilled his drink.

I could see it racing across the table toward me and I had only a moment to act.

Abandon the burrito and use the lag time that gave me to get out of the way

Carefully set my burrito down in the tray, protecting it from the soda, and take whatever came at me.

Well, there was really no question about which way that was going to go. I carefully set my burrito down and moved away from the table - too late to avoid the onrush of soda that soaked my pants.

But, the burrito was safe and that's all that mattered. My co-worker felt bad, but my pants dried quickly in the sun. And the burrito was awesome.

later...

clever, shoes, mile

2009-06-02T15:30:00.002-04:00

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I remembered that I had a meeting today with a student group that had caused me some grief in the past. I have to work with them, so I got dressed with an eye toward a carefully calculated impression. Long sleeve white dress shirt with a UA logo indicating that I was part of the establishment and would be expected to follow the rules. Sleeves rolled up to indicate that I was someone prepared to work. Dress pants - and my dressier flip-flops - an indication that I'm cool and that I can relate. Or at least that I'm trying to fool myself into thinking that I'm cool and that I can relate. I never put this much thought into what I'm wearing under usual circumstances, but this group had been stubborn and I was going to need all the help I could get.

So, image complete, I headed into work. And when I checked my calendar, I realized that I also had a meeting today with the Office of General Counsel - i.e. the lawyers. And while flip-flops might be appropriate for a meeting with a student group - they would not be appropriate for a meeting with the lawyers.

One of my co-workers and I headed up to the student union for starbucks and I mentioned my footwear issues and that I might have to go home and change shoes before my meeting. He asked what shoe size I wore (10) and then offered to let me borrow his shoes for the meeting. He had a backup pair in his car and no meetings - so, it would work out fine and though I had to go sock-less I was in much better shape than before.

I 'shoed-up' just before my meeting and things went fine. Back to flip-flops for my second meeting and that went fine too.

They say you have to walk a mile in someone's shoes before you really know them. I didn't quite cover a mile, but I was impressed by his generosity and I appreciated it.

I learned a lesson about planning and still ended up making the right impressions.

The rest of the day has been pretty much business as usual, but I'll head out of here in a much better mood than I had yesterday.

later...

600, day, swim

2009-06-02T08:38:00.002-04:00

This is post number 600 for my blog and I had rather hoped for something deeply meaningful or a fundamental truth about existence. Instead, I think it's pretty much going to be same old-same old.

I ended up having a really really crappy day yesterday. One task that should have taken 15 minutes lasted all day. I had 2 meetings that annoyed me and promised to create a massive amount of work. And then I screwed up the survey tool software by not carefully following the instructions - though, to my credit, they were very much counter-intuitive.

So, my swim was delayed and I didn't get to go to the pool until after work. I was really looking forward to getting some of my frustrations out.

Instead, the two lap lanes were in use. There's a guy swimming in one and a mother teaching her kids to swim in the other one. Now, it's a big pool and I'm pretty sure that a swimming lesson is not appropriate in the lap lanes, but I tried to not be annoyed by it and got in the lane with the guy swimming laps.

I tried to stay out of his way - he was less concerned about staying out of my way - and as a consequence I ended up scraping my elbow on the wall. I stopped in the middle of the lane, lifted my arm out of the water for an inspection and as soon as I did that, it started to bleed.

So, that was it for me. I kept my arm out of the water and got out of the pool. I snagged a paper towel and had the bleeding mostly stopped by the time I was dressed and on my way out the door. When I got home, I opened it back up and cleaned it with alcohol and then slathered on the neosporin and a band-aid.

I played some video games, read a book, and cooled down. Today is not shaping up to be awesome, but I'm going to keep my head down and get through it. On a brighter note, the boss is out of the office this week - so, I'm predicting a slightly longer than an hour lunch hour.

later...

weekend

2009-06-01T08:10:00.002-04:00

Went to Olive Garden on Friday for dinner - not really impressed. The calimari appitizer was underdone and the pizza was rather mediocre. They did take the calimari off the bill, but even with that I just wasn't impressed. Think I'm going to avoid that one for a while.

I went to the final soccer game of the season for my FRM's son. As usual, I drove FRM's mom to the match and hung out with her and the little dude's mom. (one day I really need to map out their family tree). FRM's mom seems to have reconciled with he and his new wife - I think partly because of their new baby girl. Which is good - since FRM's mom wasn't on speaking terms with the rest of the family and it may any encounters very tense. The little dudes and dudettes won the match 2-1 - so, very exciting times.

I got a little sun in the afternoon and took a trip to Lowe's for some 2 ft square concrete slabs so we can set the grill off the patio in the back. They were heavy and since my room-mate is headed for spine surgery soon, I was the designated lifter of heavy things. I also bought some dumbells while I was out - it's way past time that I started lifting again, even if it's just to tone up a bit. I also need to work on my abs - so, it's literally crunch time.

On Sunday, my room-mate's second cousin and her husband stopped by in the evening for a visit on their way to Falling Rock. It was a surprise visit in that my room-mate had forgottent they were coming until they called in the morning. We did a rush job of cleaning to get the place ready and had a nice dinner and evening. I taught them some origami too.

This morning I woke up with a headache and despite a brief respite during the walk up to starbucks, it's been pretty persistant. I think it's the lighting in here. I took an excedrine and we'll see how that goes.

Two meetings today - one at eleven (pushing back my swim) and another at one (rushing my lunch). Looks like I'll be swimming late this afternoon.

So, not a bad weekend, but something of a rough Monday already. Better get back to work.

later...

argue, king, sick, true

2009-05-29T08:04:00.002-04:00

I had an argument with my room-mate last evening. It' s an old argument and not very interesting and though I usually get along with him pretty well - tempers flared last evening. I ended up kicking the wall in anger - but strangely and instinctively carefully since I was wearing flip flops - and stormed off.

I went to burger king to get some overdue dinner and calm down. The service was slow - despite me being the only one in the restaurant - but I got my food and headed home. I read a book, ate my dinner, and tried to relax.

Filled up, I sat on the couch and got ready to watch "True Blood" season 1 - vampires, naturally. All of the sudden and from totally out of the blue, I felt like I was going to throw up. I hurried to the bathroom, made it in time, and proceeded to violently and thoroughly hork up my meal.

It was... substantial and went on for a while. When I finally stopped, exhausted, my head was hurting from the tension in the muscles in my face. My throat hurt and there were flecks of blood when I spit.

But it was over. Like a thunderstorm - violent and sudden - then just as quickly stopped.

My room-mate felt bad - blaming himself for the argument and making me upset enough to hork. I think it was a combination of things, but if he wants to take the blame - fine by me.

I fixed myself some green tea and watched the first episode of the series. I'd read the books and enjoyed them - and the series opener was pretty good.

I'm tired today and working on a headache. I'd rather be home - or at least somewhere other than here.

Sign this entry - cranky, but enduring. Eh, at least it's a swimming day - maybe I'll feel better after that.

later...

baseball

2009-05-27T07:05:00.002-04:00

Some friends invited me to the Akron Aeros game last night. It had been threatening rain all day and the forecast wasn't good, but when it looked like the game would at least start, I headed out to the ballpark.

The Aeros field is a pretty good one - not a bad seat in the house - but the team pretty much sucked last night. So, we focused on the other events in the ballpark.

1. #17 on the Aeros broke his bat. He later went on to get hurt diving for a ball, but was back on his feet in a couple of innings.

2. Instead of an animated race on the scoreboard, three people dressed up as cream sticks raced around the field. I have never seen such violent doughnuts before. They were knocking each other down and tripping each other. Finally, around the home stretch, vanilla emerged as the clear winner.

3. Later, three contestants were brought out to play a fun game of "fish or no fish". They looked up at the scoreboard, saw a word, and had to decide if they thought it was a fish or not a fish.

The word was Dentex and they all decided it was not a fish. They were all wrong and they all lost the round. And there was only one round, so, you know, fun.

4. At 8:54 PM, someone from the upper deck dumped beer on us. At least, we hope it was beer. They didn't show their face the rest of the game.

5. There was also a guessing game for the first guy in a section to hold up a box of popcorn. He picked the wrong pizza box and won a roll of toilet paper.

6. The first person to hold up their national city bank card got to go change out the third base.

7. And while the previously mentioned #17 was limping off the field, a clip of Animal House was played to keep us entertained. It didn't work.

8. There was a guy in front of us, with a mullet, wearing a shirt that boldly proclaimed "Sex is like Air". It was apparent that he was suffocating.

The rain, which had been threatening all evening, finally began in earnest. We were amazed by how many people actually stayed the entire time. The Aeros lost 5-0.

Still, it was fun to get out for the evening and hang out with some friends. I'm hoping to catch a few more games this summer.

Three meetings today - time to get back to it. later...

gps, yellow, drive1, dune, lunch, drive2

2009-05-26T07:12:00.003-04:00

I started off my trip last weekend early on Friday morning as I headed out to my sister's. I had a borrowed GPS and a google map and figured I was good to go. Unfortunately, the outlet in my car didn't work and the battery on the GPS was dying. I managed to get to the correct highway and shut it down - thinking I would rely on the google map. That worked until I got close to her house, and then it turned into a steaming pile of crap and I was lost. I fired up the GPS, nursing the battery until it died when I turned onto her street. I was actually early, but shaken a bit. I really don't like being lost.

While waiting for my brother-in-law to get home from work, my sister and I took a little road trip to see her new office (she has a door, a fridge, and a window with a view - it rocks) and to go to Yellow Springs, Ohio. Kind of a weird, fun little town. The sign poles - for example, were covered in knitted cozies. No idea why. We checked out a couple of weird little shops and headed back in time to get the car packed and get some dinner before heading out.

The drive took forever, as usual, and we got in fairly late. There was a minor dispute involving the sleeping arrangements for me at Grandma's house (she's staying with my uncle and aunt). Apparently, I could sleep on the floor - which was the only place for me as far as I could tell - provided I left enough room for my parent's dog to get past if she needed to go out in the middle of the night. Not the first time the dog has outranked me and I knew that my folks were tired from the week of cleaning out grandma's place - but it still rankled me a bit.

Saturday, out to my uncle's for the day to visit grandma. We got to ride in dune buggy - quite a ride - and had some sandwiches for lunch. When my parents left to head back to Illinois, grandma had some troubling mood swings which I guess are symptoms of the stroke she is still recovering from.

On Sunday we went out to lunch and grandma and I did battle over the check. She's fast, but I was more clever and determined - and I won. I think she was a little ticked at me - but if Dad was there, he would have fought her over the check as well.

Sunday evening was a trip to my cousin's place for dinner on the grill. I think grandma had a good time, but asked my uncle to drive her back early so she could go to bed. We stayed there late playing trivial pursuit - then crashed back at grandma's place.

We stopped by my uncle's place to say our goodbyes before getting on the road again.

I did a lot of folding on the trip back, then dozed a bit. From my sister's, I then headed back to akron. Traffic, in general, was pretty tame - especially considering it was memorial day weekend. I'm still really tired this morning and not looking forward to the day.

Overall, I'm both pleased and dismayed at the progress grandma has made since her stroke in April. Mentally, she's better that I thought she would be. She has good spells and not so good ones, but still had her sense of humor. Her mood is mercurial and she has some memory issues. Her vision is still bad in one eye and that has damaged her confidence in getting around. She is unsteady on her feet and somewhat frail.

I guess the plan is for her to stay with my aunt and uncle through the summer - then if she's much improved, she'll continue on there. Otherwise, she'll move to a nursing home. Meanwhile, her house is being cleared out and cleaned up so that my cousin and her fiance can move in and rent it. The time table seems fast to me - but it's very much out of my hands/opinions.

I'm worried about her and I wish I was closer so that I could do more.

(sigh) Well, at least it's a short work week. Maybe I need a little more sunshine.

that's it for now - back to work...

time, mario

2009-05-19T15:32:00.003-04:00

Just got a call from the payroll office - I'm about to exceed my accrued vacation time. Beyond that, and I start to lose the time.

Do they not know that I'm the master of Space and Time? I mean, seriously, me? Lose time?

Yeah, it sucks.

I dunno why I've got so much time accrued. I guess part of it is that I don't like to travel. If I'm not working, well, then I'd be at home. Why not work then?

Plus, the idea of having a lot of vacation time was appealing. Sort of as a back up in case I really needed to take time off - injury/illness or some other serious event. Although I've also got a pile of sick time as well.

The notion that I've earned this and now it will just go away if I don't use it - well, it doesn't seem fair.

So, I've got to take some time off. I'm already starting to plan for a few days in July, but I may need to start taking a few here and there as well. Maybe some long weekends.

I'm also a little torqued that I didn't get any heads up before hand. At this moment, I'm already over my limit. A little earlier warning "before" I hit the limit would be nice. And trying to find out that limit? Took me 20 minutes of searching through our site before I found a PDF on the General Counsel's website.

It doesn't help that I'm cranky and have been all day. Mild headache, non-awesome lunch, and annoying stuff here at work. The irony that the best remedy for this kind of mood is to take some time off is not lost on me.

It's almost time to go home for the day. I'm looking forward to some sunshine and maybe a good book.

Oh, almost forgot. I finally earned enough money to get past that section of the game in Super Paper Mario.

(Actually, I earned more than enough and lost the extra when I couldn't use it. Hmmmm....)

Anyway, I got stuck and had to go to the Internet to find the solution. I'm making progress again and enjoying the game - I may play some more this evening when the sun goes down.

later...

visit, soccer, wheeling, party, gerbil

2009-05-18T12:46:00.004-04:00

My room-mate's sister visited last week - she was there for a few days and helped him plant some flowers while he was off work. I think they had a nice visit. She was also around and was able to help when the new floor was put in. Apparently, it was a much bigger, louder, and dirtier project than anticipated. The appliances and the island in the kitchen needed to be moved - as well as the toilet in the bathroom and the contents of the hall closet. Fortunately for me - I was at work and missed the entire event - including the smoke detector going off for half and hour. Yea me!

Saturday morning I took my FMR's mom to a soccer game for her grandson. It looked like rain and I was prepared with an umbrella. When it first started, I held the umbrella over her and that was okay for a while. When the rain really picked up, that was enough for her. I took her home and went on my way.

That afternoon, we took my room-mate's sister back to Wheeling. I helped them clear out some stuff from their dad's basement in preparation for the house sale. I think we could have done more, but she was done. I also insisted that we stop for dinner at Long John Silver's - figuring that I had helped with a clean-up/move I was entitled to some food. :)

On Sunday, went to a graduation party for a friend. It was cool to catch up a bit and see some friends. I had a nice time, but it was a little chilly in the shade.

I also did a bit of reading and video game playing over the weekend - and at times, I did both at once. One of the new games I got - Super Paper Mario - has little Mario accidentally breaking a vase and having to pay for it. Unfortunately, its in a currency he doesn't have and will have to earn the money to leave the area.

1 million rubees.

The best way to earn this is to have mario run in a treadmill and generate electricity. Like a gerbil - in fact, the other characters refer to him as such. I held down the run button for a while, then checked the earnings. Tried holding it down for a while to determine the rate and realized that there's a 10 minute cap of 18,000 rubees. He can run longer, but doesn't earn any more. So, hold down the button for 10 minutes, collect reward, repeat. Fortunately, you can put the money in the bank and save the game. I've been playing this same really boring area for a while and still about 485,000 to go. I've also read two books - one-handed - during that time and I really wish I could just get back to the game. I checked online and the only hints they have involve taping the controller button down.

That's it for now - back to work. I'm getting close to my 600th post on this blog. Not that it means much, but it's interesting. Didn't realize I had that much to say.

later...

lost, carabas, floor, mood

2009-05-15T10:41:00.003-04:00

The season finale for Lost was this past week - as expected, extreeeeem cliffhanger. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it, but I'm hoping they don't negate the entire season via time-travel.

Went out to Carabas last night for dinner with my room-mate and his sister (she's in town for an extended weekend). The food was okay, a little under-whelming. Overcooked veggies, bland bread - though the fish was pretty good. The server was... pushy. She reacted in horror when I declined the salad (which you can't get plain) and the soups (none of which I liked). She ended up pushing the salad onto my room-mate's sister and was at a loss when my room-mate declined the options as well. Not really sure why she was pushing the free items on us like that. I think next time around I'll just get the pepperoni pizza and play it safe.

There's a crew scheduled to be at the apartment today to replace the kitchen floor. The tile was coming up and we finally convinced the landlords it was a trip hazard - as in, I have already tripped and you'd better get it fixed before I fall also. So, last night we move all the furniture out of the way and while it would be awesome if it was done before I got home, I sort of doubt that. It's a big and weirdly shaped area.

I've been in sort of dark mood recently. Some random work stress and some stuff at home. And it doesn't help that the pool has been closed all week. It'll be good to get back in the water and get back to a better mode.

I'm thinking about trading some games in for the wii - I got a couple of duds that are just collecting dust - may be something fun to do this afternoon.

Sort of a quiet day here at work. Probably just as well that I don't have a window - I'd be getting even less done.

I guess this is it for now... later...

flu-box

2009-05-08T14:03:00.002-04:00

For the past week, there has been a giant cardboard in the kitchen/breakroom here in the building with a garbage bag as a liner. There are no labels or signs anywhere near the box to indicate i's purpose and rumors abound. Today, I contacted the building coordinator and he gave me the facts.

The cardboard boxes are for the swine flu.

Okay, stay with me on this, it gets better.

The idea is that restroom users will be able to open the door to the restroom as they leave while shielding themselves from the handle with a paper towel. That potenially swine-flu laden towel can then be disposed of in the cardboard box.

All fine in theory, except:

1. How would we know to follow that practice?

2. The restrooms exit out into the kitchen. Not a good storage area for biohazzard materials.

3. The garbage cans are right inside the restroom doors - allowing a user to open the door while holding a paper towel, then throw it away and exit before the door closes.

4. There's already a garbage can in the kitchen - so now we have two and less floorspace.

5. Seriously - this is supposed to protect us from swine flu?

I'm more worried about the "black dust" that blows out of the vents and settles on our desks and tables - and, I'm guessing in our lungs. And the hazerdous chemical waste storeage facility behind our building next to the loading dock.

Swine flu? Please, if I can survive this building, I'm not worried about the flu.

later...

muppet, wine

2009-05-08T08:04:00.003-04:00

When I'm helping build a webform, there's always a testing period. For at least the first test, I put in real information so that if it ends up not going were expected, it will be easier to track down. I always use a made up name - the more ridiculous the better - and the word Test if there's a comment area.

Well, apparently the test data didn't get cleared out of the database. I got a call on the answering machine at home yesterday asking for confirmation of attendance at a luncheon. The message was directed toward.... Link Hogthrob.

For those of you that don't know - and apparently the person making the call is one of those - Link Hogthrob is the pig captain of the SS SwineTrek along with First Mate Piggy and Dr. Julius Strangepork. On the Muppet show.

My room-mate suggested I tell them he can't come because of the swine flu - but if they didn't get the Muppet pig reference - the won't get this joke either.

So, I have to make a call today that I'm dreading. Do I play it cool and actually pretend to be Link and cancel? Or do I try to explain and not embarrass them?

In other news... I went to a wine tasting event last night that my room-mate's rotary club puts on every year. The only reason I go to these is to make sure he gets home okay and to bid on the silent auction items for a Mother's day gift. The pickings were slim at the auction table, though I did get something that will work - I think. Fortunately, I brought plenty of paper and just stood quietly off to the side. Kind of a strange and boring evening for the designated driver, but I knew what to expect and got through it.

That's it for now... later

essay

2009-05-07T08:32:00.003-04:00

Yesterday morning, I had a dream I was back in college and had missed an English class. The assignment was to write an essay on the topic "If you knew you were dying, who would you tell and why?"

So, still in the dream, I began to write the essay. It was still going around in my head when I woke up and I kept thinking about it as I drove into work. As soon as I got to my computer, I transcribed it - as closely as I could from my notes in the dream. I finished the one and a half page essay and saved it. So, my homework is done.

But, how in the world am I going to turn it in?

later...

flop

2009-05-03T20:36:00.002-04:00

I was heading up the stairs from the basement this afternoon when the "incident" occured. My flip-flops - which, since they have the UA logo on them are really zip-flops - betrayed me and I stumbled. This instantly turned my zip-flops into trip-flops and I went down hard. My left big toe got cut and the nail was painfully torn. I made it to the top of the stairs and stood there for a moment - then verifed that yes, I was bleeding.

I got myself doctored up and was back up to speed in no time. And then I headed back downstairs to see if I'd at least managed to damage the steps. I didn't.

The weekend has been pretty quiet otherwise. Lots of reading and video games. Not looking forward to work tomorrow, but it's finals week and it should be a little quiet for us.

later...

membership

2009-05-01T12:43:00.003-04:00

With the natitorium pool closing next week, I decided to get a membership at the rec center pool. Both are on campus and within easy walking distance of my work building - the nat has a nice pool, but the rec center is a nicer facility over all. The biggest difference for me, though, is the price. As a staff member, I can use the nat for free - the rec center membership for the summer costs $100. Seeing as how I really want to keep swimming this summer, I don't have much of a choice.

So, I headed over to the rec center yesterday to get a membership - and it took about 10 minutes for them to find someone that could process the membership. I had to fill out a form - which was dumb since it only asked for info already on file in my employee records - and when she asked how long I wanted the membership I explained:

"Just for the summer - I usually swim in the nat..."

Her reply: "You know the nat pool is closed for the summer,"

Me: "That's why I'm here,"

She did give me a bit of a bonus by starting my membership a week early I won't have to miss out my swim before the summer "officially" starts.

Today I headed to the rec center for my swim and got in 27 laps. There's a current that I alternately benefited from and fought - I think it made for a better workout overall.

later...

HDMI

2009-04-30T15:38:00.002-04:00

The other day, my room-mate and I tried to watch 1408 on DVD - but the DVD picture wasn't working. The sound was okay though. So, after a bit of testing, I determined it was the HDMI cable that was the problem. Which ticked me off cause those things are expensive. In the short term, I swapped the cable with that for the cable box - and we were in business.

(I went and got a new HDMI cable the next day)

So, with picture restored and surround sound cranked, we fired up the DVD and I settled in to enjoy a pretty good interpretation of a really good Stephen King story.

And less than 10 minutes in, my room-mate fell asleep.

Now, 1408 is the story of a man vs. a haunted hotel room. And the room pretty much destroys itself trying to drive him crazy. Fires, floods, monsters, screaming - pretty much the whole package.

I tried to wake him a couple of times and finally just gave up and woke him when it was done.

Not too surprising, really - he fell asleep in the theatre during James Bond.

later...

grandma, book, neighbor

2009-04-28T11:50:00.003-04:00

I talked to my sister late last evening - she gave me an update on my grandmother. Grandma isn't really doing better and although the doctors had said at one point that it might take 15 -20 weeks before she shows marked improvement, some decisions are already being made. There's been discussion about her moving in with my aunt and uncle and then renting out her house and selling her car.

I'm getting all this 2nd or 3rd hand and I guess there's some tension building between my dad and his siblings. I guess we knew and could see a slow decline, but this is... well... sudden.

My sister and I are talking about taking a couple of days and going to visit - though the question suddenly becomes - "where will we stay?" - since we always stay with Grandma when we visit there.

Strange times.

I had a bit of a headache yesterday and had to lay down a bit - fortunately, it didn't turn into a migraine. I did some reading - a new book called "sharp teeth". It's written in the style of poetry, which had me a little worried when I first opened it up, but it's an easy read and well put together. And you really have to work at it to go wrong with werewolves.

The new neighbors were out in the back yard, and they failed the only test I have for neighbors. That being - are they quiet? I'm pretty much fine with everything else - up to and including ritual sacrifice. As long as it's done quietly. And they weren't.

I had a busy morning - but the afternoon is slowing down a bit. Made some good progress on a big survey project and I've got to close down a ballot later today. Just kind of in a quiet mode.

I guess that's it for now. I think I'm going to try and write another twitter haiku.

later...

eye, sunshine, books, pandemic

2009-04-26T20:17:00.002-04:00

Friday afternoon, while still at work, my right eye started to swell shut. I used to get this when I was a kid and even had allergy tests done that were inconclusive. The remedy back then was Benedryl and sleep - and I didn't have much choice on the sleep part after taking the Benedryl.

So, when this happened, I at least knew what to do. I stopped on my way home and got some Benedryl and took one as soon as I got in the door.

And though I didn't fall asleep, I was pretty much drugged up the rest of the evening. I took another before I went to bed.

On Saturday, I still wasn't back to normal - so, I took another dose. Spent much of the day outside and when I was feeling a little better, I ran some errands. Which was not the best thing to do. I'm always a careful driving, but I could feel my reaction time was not up to par and took things extra slow. I felt a little better after a snack and about a gallon iced tea from Wendy's.

Today, my eye is better - almost back to normal. I still don't know was causes this, but at least it didn't interfere with any plans.

It's been really nice outside the past couple of days and I got a little sun for my pale geek flesh. I'm a ways from tan, but I think shorter doses will be better.

I've been doing a lot of reading this weekend, finished one book, read another cover to cover, and started a third. Lazy weekends are made for sitting outside and reading.

I got a call from Mom this afternoon with some precautionary warnings about the potential pandemic. I'm not sure if I'm going to be stocking up on food and water yet, but the Ohio case that's been found is in Lorraine county - which is not that far away.

Not looking forward to work this week - got a couple more big projects and a huge survey to put together.

I think I'll play a little bit of a video game and call it an early night.

later...

soccer, sisters, sick, sleep

2009-04-20T07:28:00.002-04:00

I went to a soccer game on with my former room-mate's mother. We were there to watch her grandson and although I enjoy her company, the tension between her and her son is starting to get to me. If pressed, I think I could come up with what she had told me was the cause of their 'cold war' - but it seems so trivial. So, I stood on the side lines near her - and because of that her son never acknowledged me. I'm not really sure if he would have if she hadn't been there actually, but I like to think he would. It's just... tiresome. And I seem to be caught in the middle of it. Not really sure what I can do about it. And there are a lot of soccer games coming up.

While I was at the field, my cell phone rang. The number on the caller ID was my sister's and when I hit the button to take the call, I heard a horrible noise. It almost sounded like distorted words in with the buzzing sound so I listened for a minute before I figured out that it was the sound of a chainsaw.

This didn't really surprise me. My sister and brother-in-law have a wood burning stove and they are always on the hunt for firewood. Also, my brother-in-law really enjoys his chainsaw. When the noise didn't stop, I figured I'd been called by accident and hung up.

After the match, I called my sister back and asked her how the wood cutting had gone. She said it was fine, but couldn't figure out how I knew. I told her that she called me and we got a good laugh out of it - though she's pretty sure her phone locks when it's closed - partly ruling out "butt-dialing". So, strange, but funny.

I did a little running around that afternoon with a few errands and got a little sun. It was good while it lasted. Sunday was gray and raining.

And Sunday morning started far too early. I was still in bed a little before 9:30 and while slightly on my way to being awake, I was still enjoying being partly asleep. And then the phone rings. After a couple of rings, I realize my room-mate isn't going to get it. I glance at the caller ID, grumble, and answer the phone with my most sleepy sounding hello I can muster. The conversation goes like this:

Me: "Hello?"

My room-mate's sister: "Hey, are you awake?"

M: "Just barely and not happy about it. Is this an emergency?"

M R-M S: "No. Bye."

Me: "I'll have him call you later."

(click)

Turns out my room-mate had been awake since 6:30 that morning, but was in the bathroom when she called. When he called her back later, she made a comment of how it took him 5 hours to call back after I got over being pissed off. (Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me either)

Personally, if I had called someone and awakened them at a time when it would be usual for someone to be asleep - well, I'd be tripping over myself to apologize. No such response.

For the record, I'm up at 6:30 every morning of the work week and on the weekend - if given half a chance - I'm going to sleep in. Especially single digits AM.

In other news...I've been fighting a cold for the past few days and it got bad enough that I took some alkaseltzer plus cold. I know people who tell me that it isn't that bad. And those people are lying. I did feel a little better though as the evening went on - but ended up having a bit of trouble getting to sleep.

Which is not a good thing. I've been having trouble getting enough rest for the past week or so. I'm getting the same number of hours - but they aren't doing the job as well as they usually do.

Not sure what's going on with that, but I'm not liking the dark circles under my eyes or the extra-tiredness I've got going.

So, it's going to be a busy week. I'm going to be in several day long sessions for evaluation of our website as the tech guy for the evaluation software. And I'm really hoping it doesn't break. So, lots to do today to try and get ahead.

later...

news, sleep, story

2009-04-17T10:17:00.003-04:00

I got an update on my grandmother today - she's not recovering from her stroke as quickly as we'd thought she was. Still some vision problems and some cognitive issues. It's got me a little down.

I've also not been getting enough sleep recently. There's been some work and family stress going on and though I'm getting the same sleep hours I usually do - they aren't working as well. I've also had a bunch more dreams upon waking and though I can identify some of the elements from my waking world, the combination is disturbing and disconcerting.

In better news... I spent much of the afternoon outside when I got home from work. Had a snack, did some reading - just relaxed a bit on my quiet back porch. Wasn't quite warm enough to how shirtless and get some sun - but it was fine for t-shirt, blue jeans, and flip-flops.

I've also starting kicking around a story in my head - a sort of modern day retelling of the myth of Pandora. She's got a thing for containers and I can certainly relate. I want to work on it in my head for a little while before committing it to pen - maybe I'll work on it on this beach this summer.

Time for another meeting... gotta run.

later...

donations

2009-04-14T15:40:00.003-04:00

Just a few minutes ago I got the last check from my list of confirmed donors. Which is pretty cool and means I'll be sending off a packet tonight with the checks. There are a couple other possibles, but I don't want to delay any checkbook balanceing for the rest of the people that donated.

Someone asked me today if I'll be doing this again next year and I think the answer is yes. Not sure if I'll be trying to break any personal records, but it's for a really good cause and maybe I'll get even more donations if I get an earlier start. I think my grand total is just over $513.

I've been fighting a headache most of the day today and trying not to let it escalate. It will be good to get out of here and get home.

later...

taxes, work, mood

2009-04-14T07:07:00.003-04:00

I'm fully in favor of paying taxes. I think it's a good idea and helps support a wide variety of programs I'm in favor of - as well as quite a few I don't care for but wasn't asked about.

What I despise, though, are the accursed forms that are required. I used Turbo Tax online for the state and federal and that wasn't too wretched - but the city of green has the worst form I have even encountered. I'm a reasonable smart guy and I struggled with this one.

More than just the complexity - it was the attitude that got to me. The form implied that the person filling it out was:

1) stupid

2) going to do something wrong

3) was going to be late

There were a lot of running totals to be kept and lots of "add line 1c and add that to the total of line f and 3b" And at the bottom was the line for the assumed late fee and penalty percentage. They made note of how you could request an extension, but you should pay the tax on time anyway since you'd get a penalty. No word on how you'd figure that up if you weren't actually filing the form.

It wrapped up with a section where I could estimate my taxes in advance and pay that now. But, due to their own form set up and verified on the online tool, I didn't need to.

I don't know how long it took me to complete, but I ended up being cranky most of the evening.

Also, some "stuff" happened yesterday where I was sort of called onto the carpet - in the nicest possible way - of some things that I had done "wrong". I wasn't given clear guidance in advance of how to handle the situation and it all seemed pretty subjective to me. When pressed, I was finally given the information on how to do it right - but it left me feeling a little out of the loop and cranky.

Seems like the theme from yesterday. Cranky. I even tried wearing my silly hats, but I couldn't get in the mood. Is my whimsy suddenly broken? Is a tax form and a slight at work all it takes? (sigh)

In other news... I kicked some ass with the Legend of Zelda, watched a couple good episodes of Venture Brothers, and did some reading. It wasn't a really bad day - all things considered - but I was in a bad mood none-the-less.

I guess I can blame part of it on the weather - yesterday it was mostly cold and rain. Today it's started with sunshine - and rain.

Well, enough with the complaining - there are people far worse off than I am. Time to get back to work and get some shit done.

later...

visit, game, grandma,

2009-04-13T10:09:00.003-04:00

I visited my parents, my sister, and brother-in-law this weekend for easter. We went to the 1/2 priced bookstore and then over to Micheal's Crafts - I bought some foam hats. (which I'm planning on wearing here at work since I freqently tell people "I wear a lot of hats")

We also played UNO, Dominoes, and a new game called Zombie Flux. It was one of those games that winning wasn't as important as the constantly changing play of the game. One hand took almost 2 hours before there was a winner - and the zombies almost won a couple of times.

We had ham for an early dinner, then I got on the road and headed back home.

No real change in Grandma's progress. She's at a nursing home for the next 20 days or so while she tries to recover and my dad and his siblings try and determine the next steps for her.

I've just about got all the donations collected for my swim for diabetes - just three people to go. A few have given me more than they initally planned and my total now is over $500.

Well, I'd better finish my oatmeal and get back to work. Later...

writing

2009-04-10T09:18:00.002-04:00

My co-worker's brother - who also works on campus - was the designated driver to Chipotle yesterday. On the way back, I saw some graffiti on the wall of a building near some train tracks. We went past it too quickly for me to see what all was written there, but I saw enough to want to investigate.

So, after work, I drove over to a parking lot near that wall and located the text. Here's what it said:

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

Orwell you were so right

Well, duh. I was hoping for something more insightful than that. If you're going to go to the trouble of defacing a building with an intellectual quote (instead of, say, "kilroy was here") - then you should either leave it as it stands or add to it in the spirit of the original writer. What is this? Youtube?

Disappointing.

early, worry

2009-04-09T06:25:00.002-04:00

I got up early this morning - around 5:00 am. I had a time-sensitive task to complete today and it needed to happen before 7 am - and it's one of those that had a 50% chance of going completely wrong. So, I gave myself plenty of time and things went smoothly.

Strangely enough, when I came downstairs this morning - my room-mate was already down there. He's usually not up and running until after I've already left for work. Apparently, he fell asleep in the chair watching TV and was there all night. I'm of the opinion that when I'm tired, I go to bed. He frequently does the whole "I'm tired and I should go to bed, but I'm going to stay up for no apparent reason and watch some mindless crap on TV".

In other news... my dad called me at work yesterday. My grandmother was recently admitted to the hospital with what was thought to be a diabetes issue but turned out to be a stroke. My uncle found her - very disoriented - at her house and he and my dad decided over the phone that she should be admitted.

She's doing better and her motor skills and speech are on track - but she's having some vision problems still and the last update still had her in ICU. She's getting good care, so, not much we can do at this point other than wait for news. Dad promised to keep me updated.

Well, it's just about time for my day to officially begin - better get to it.

later...

big swim, cards, twitter, vampire

2009-04-06T07:45:00.004-04:00

The big swim was on Saturday. I had intended to do 144 lengths, which equals 72 laps or 2 miles. I was feeling pretty good as I neared the end and decided to do 3 more laps to set a new record for myself - though I only reported 144 since some people had donated based on the number of lengths.

I had to share a lane for part of the time, which was not a big deal except for when I did the backstroke - I'm all over the place on that one. It was difficult to avoid being kicked in the head - or kicking the other person in the head. Plus, no overhead flag lines were set up so it was difficult to determine when I was supposed to stop at the end of the lane. I didn't hit my head this time, fortunately.

So, I got in my laps and got a ribbon for being in the 100 club.

On Sunday, I sat outside and wrote up the thank you cards. It was a nice day for the most part, but a little windy. I'm not used to writing that much and my hand got tired, but I'm glad I did it. I may use email as a reminder for those that pledged but haven't turned the money in, but a thank you card seems the right way to go at the start.

I've also started Twittering. But, I've decided that all my Tweets will be in the form of Haiku. Just for the challenge and for something different.

Finally, watched an odd vampire movie called Let the Right One In. Set in Sweden, it was dubbed in English and told the story of a social misfit who befriends a 12 year old "looking" vampire "girl". Strange movie - very nuanced.

That's it for now... later...

long

2009-04-03T15:10:00.002-04:00

Longest.

Afternoon.

EVER.

I've still got 49 minutes to go before I can get out of here and if I wasn't the master of space and time I'd swear that time had slowed to a stop and was starting to drift backwards.

48 minutes now.

okay, 47. At least time is still moving forward.

Sort of.

I've gathered up my swim donation forms and I'll work on some thank-you cards after my swim tomorrow. Maybe a little over the top, but I really do appreciate that people have donated. Looks like I should break the $400 mark if I get all the money turned in.

The longer I have this post the more likely I am to keep looking at my watch - and that aitn't helping.

later...

rest, better, temp

2009-04-03T09:31:00.005-04:00

I'm taking the day off from swimming. I think I could still do a mile today and then 2 miles tomorrow, but I think I've earned a break. A few people have decided to do donations per length - so, I'm more motivated to go the distance and don't want to risk being too tired to finish.

My room-mate called last night from his sister's to report in about the funeral. Apparently it was a mostly good service (with the exception of most of what the minister said and the overly loud and somewhat self important singers) - and even the guy's defense attorney got up and spoke for a bit. I asked my room-mate if he thought he got some closure and he said he did.

I talked a bit to my co-worker - he and his sort-of-maybe-ex-ish girlfriend had a good talk last night and went out to eat. So, there's hope there. He didn't really go into detail and I didn't pry - but thinks may be on the right track for them.

In other news... the warm weather has had an impact on the building temperature where I work. Since it's controlled by time of year and not actual outside temp - it's still set on heat and was in the mid eighties in here yesterday. I dressed in layers today in case we get up there again - but the rain this morning should help.

So, looks like we're got another mission critical last nano-second project brewing here - looks like I'd better get back to my email.

later...

worst

2009-04-01T07:15:00.003-04:00

I usually focus on this blog on what's happening with me, since I've got first hand knowledge and writing about other people is by definition second-hand knowledge. Given the date today it's going to seem pretty far fetched - but this is all true.

My room-mate is a funeral director and has been for over ten years. As a consequence, he always wins the "who had the worst day" contests. For me, a bad day might be that I couldn't get to my email for a couple hours or a server goes down when I need it. For him, he might have to sew someone's head back on. So, he always wins.

I've learned to brace myself when he uses the phrase, "Not to be gross, but..." and I try to get him stopped then if I'm eating or there are other, less brave, people in the room.

I was at home yesterday when he called and said he was going to be very late. They had just gotten a new call and the individual was over 400 pounds. The essential process of embalming is the same no matter how much the person weighs, but it gets more difficult the more they weigh. My room-mate went into a level of detail that I'm not going to share, but you can be assured that you would not be able to handle it. It ended up taking him over 5 hours and his hands were so fatigued that they were shaking when he got home.

While he was gone, I took a couple calls for him and then had to share the bad news when he got home. One of his friends from back home hung themselves yesterday. Which is terrible all by itself, but the story leading up to it is even more tragic.

Apparently, this guy killed his uncle, hid the body in a trash can in a field, then fled the state with $50,000 dollars and guns - and was hiding out in a hotel under his dead uncle's name.

He's been in jail for the past two years and in and out of the court room. He had pled not guilty to all counts (including abuse of a corpse), but the evidence was substantial and prior to his sentencing yesterday he did the deed.

One of the calls I took last night was from this guy's mom - the victim's sister. She asked me to pass along the message to my room-mate when he got home. I can't imagine what she's going through.

So, on the heels of a really graphically difficult day at work, my room-mate gets the news. He called the guy's mom back and got the details of the service on Thursday, which he's going to try and go to.

This morning, when I got into work, I related this story to one of my good friends here. We talked for a bit about how crappy that all was, then he told me that he and his girlfriend are on the rocks. She's wanting the "marriage-baby" plan and he's not ready for it. He may be moving out and breaking up with her.

So. My room-mate is dealing with this huge tragedy and my friend is in the middle of relationship crisis. And me? I'm playing video games, watching DVD's, and getting ready for my big swim. I can only imagine what these guys are going through and I have no idea how to help. I can't even properly relate to them because things are going okay for me. Just ordinary.

I guess I'll just try to be there for them if they need to talk - or to vent. Kinda puts things in perspective, I guess.

That pretty much wraps it up for me now. I guess I could relate some minor news that's going on with me, but it seems pretty inconsequential compared to what my friends are going though. So, I'm just going to close and get back to work.

walk, race, quantum

2009-03-29T15:42:00.002-04:00

I went for a long walk on Saturday, about 4 miles or so. No real purpose except to get out of the house. I planned my route, adjusted the laces on my shoes, and headed out for Walmart.

Not exactly an epic quest, but still a bit of an adventure. I stopped at Home Deport to get some pricing on materials for a couple projects I have in mind and then over to Walmart to pick up Quantum of Solace.

During my walks, I sent a text message and made a couple of calls. I hit voice mail on a couple of those, but talked to my grandma for a bit. She was headed out again in a bit, but we talked for a little while and I mentioned my swimming. She offered to make a donation to the Swim for Diabetes and though I tried to talk her out of it, she was insistent. I gave up quickly - I've seen grandma argue with people and she usually wins. It was near the beginning of the conversation and she was planning on a nap before she went out - so, good chance she'll forget. I appreciate the sentiment, but she's diabetic herself and it seems like you shouldn't have to donate to find a cure for a disease you have.

Anyway, it was a good walk and I'm glad I went. I got a response on the text message a few minutes after I got home. No time for shower - just some additional deodorant and a clean shirt and I was out the door. Went and saw Race to Witch Mountain - good flick. The effects were good and it didn't take itself too seriously. The kids from the original movies - now all grown up - had significant cameos in the movie and ended up moving the story along. I thought they were great back when the first movies came out and it was cool to see them again.

Later in the evening, I watched Quantum of Solace on DVD. Also a good flick. Good story, intense action. I think Daniel Craig is a great James Bond and Judi Dench plays an excellent M - but the interplay between the two characters is the best part.

Today has been pretty quiet. Did a lot of reading - just about to finish up the last of the Academy series of books by Jack McDevitt. Watched some Eureka on DVD and I'm now listening to a little Ingid Michaelson on CD. Might work on my personal website a bit.

Less than one week before I hit the pool for a long swim. later...

36, taxes, games, twitter

2009-03-27T14:15:00.003-04:00

I did 36 laps in the pool today - no problem. I wasn't even winded when I got out. Next Saturday's 2 miles should be a snap.

I worked on my taxes the other evening. The federal and state were okay - I used Turbo Tax and breezed through those. I haven't done the city one yet - those are always the worst. The forms are almost deliberately complicated and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm trying to decide if I should be a in good mood when I start - thereby only dragging me down to a middle level. Or if I should wait until I'm already in a bad mood since it won't ruin a good mood.

I played a little Red Steel for the Wii. It reminded me once again that I am no good at first-person shooters. I barely made it through the first section of the first level before I died. And with really long load times, eh, I don't think this game will spend much time in the fun category.

I also played a little Super Mario Galaxy last night and did pretty well until I got to a level where:

1. Mario is trapped in a essentially a Plexiglas box.

2. He has to run around and jump over obstacles.

3. The ceiling is coming down on him

4. He's upside down.

What is this? A death trap from the old live action Batman series? Who comes up with this?

The way out of this is to keep moving left and jump when appropriate. Simple, right?

Wrong. "LEFT! RUN LEFT, YOU IDIOT! PAY ATTENTION!"

All the shouting at the TV did no good - just like when my room-mate yells at the TV during WVU football games. The yelling turned into swearing and threats, but that didn't help either. I finally gave up for the evening and read a book.

Well, I signed up for twitter. Ugh. I realized I was missing things that were going on with my co-workers and friends - they kept referring to things that they had twitted and I was out of the loop. Will I send my own twits? Not until I get an unlimited cell phone texting plan. So, you know, never.

I've got a twitter account. What the hell happened to me? I mean, just a year ago I was still on the "cell phones are dum" bandwagon. And now I've got a twitter account.

(hangs head in shame)

I still don't have a blu-tooth-walking-down-the-street-talking-to-myself-like-a-crazy-person-headset So, there's still hope for me.

Starting to get a big of a headache - I think I need to take a break for a few minutes. We still don't have a vending machine in the building, so I'll have to head over to the school of law to get a snack/drink.

later...

swim for diabetes

2009-03-26T10:54:00.002-04:00

I've decided to do this year's Swim for Diabetes. It's next Saturday at the pool on campus and I'm going to try and do 2 miles.

http://www.swimfordiabetes.com

Should be good - but tiring. I do a mile pretty frequently, but I've only done 2 miles once before. I feel pretty confident that I can pull that off - but I'm also pretty certain that I'll need to eat a pile of food when I'm done.

I'll add more later as I get ready for the big swim.

spring, project, head

2009-03-20T09:09:00.003-04:00

I've gotten into the habit of glancing at the temperature gauge in the kitchen in the morning before I leave for work to determine what level of jacket I need for the day. Or at least the start of the day - 'cause it's Ohio and it's really any one's guess as to what the weather will do. It was in the 20's this morning, so I dressed accordingly and drove to work - noting the snowflakes in the air.

And today is the first day of spring - what a crock.

I got an idea for a project last evening with some stained glass - and I wanted to finish it last night. Fortunately, I could see the whole thing in my head and the steps I knew I needed to complete it. Sadly, I generally suck at most of those steps. The glass broke wrong - twice - and I had to adapt my design to accommodate the new shapes. The copper foil tape wasn't sticking and the soldering iron Refused! To! Obey! Me!

Very frustrating. I also didn't have the right color of glass in my supply, so when I was all done, I had to paint the dang thing.

The end result - is not what I had hoped for. But it's not as bad as I had feared. Also, no seriously injuries! Yea!

I'll try and get some pictures and post them once the paint is completely dried.

In other news... my head hurts. It's going to be a long day here at work, staring at my computer screen(s).

That's it for now. Later...

monitors, zelda

2009-03-17T14:32:00.003-04:00

Finally got the dual monitors going - thanks to the help of our computer repair dude. The computer board got replaced, the fan works quietly, and the monitors are in place and are awesome. I also moved my computer to the floor to give more room on my desk - I think I could play ping pong here. It is soooo nice.

At home, I've been playing Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and really enjoying the game. There were a couple of needlessly complicated puzzles that I had to look up - but the most recent area was really clever and fun to figure out. I could have played more last night, but I wanted to make the game last and savor it.

later...

laptop, walk, email

2009-03-16T07:13:00.002-04:00

I'm on a laptop here this morning. No word yet on how soon the replacement board will come in for my dual monitor machine, so, to avoid the wrath of my cube neighbors, I decided to borrow a laptop and work quietly. Not a big deal - though I don't have admin access on this machine and ran into some flash-issues because I couldn't install it.

I also recently got the latest version of Adobe Creative Suite - but that's on the main and still very noisy machine. I would have liked to take that for a spin today, but there's other work to be done anyway.

Over the weekend I went for a long walk. My room-mate needed a prescription picked up and Rite Aid was within my effective range. Took me about an hour round trip and though the weather was nice, there were two problems.

1. The trash. I was amazed and dismayed at how much litter was along side the roads. Beer bottles, plastic bags and wrappers and one very obviously used diaper. Seriously, what kind of a person throws a used diaper out the window of a moving car?

2. I was wearing short socks and the left one kept sliding down. By the end of my walk, my shoe had rubbed the back of my ankle raw and I was bleeding pretty good. When I got home I put some alcohol on it, then swore with some powerful intensity, and put a band-aid on it.

Finally, I got a very strange email over the weekend. No subject line. It was from: MR. "Tony" [sdsaf.34634@gmail.com] and addresses to my alias email address at work. The content of the message was this:

Hi,
Give me a call right now.

Regards
Tony

That was it. Now, I know a couple of people named Tony and neither of them would have used an address like that - nor left such an obscure message. I did a look up of the address and couldn't find it.

So, clearly spam - but weird spam none the less. No links, no embedded email. Just the request to call - and no phone number.

And there's that reference to Tony - a name I have considered using, but never have. Could the message be from me - from the future? Some kind of recursive temporal request? Tachyon bombardment of the email server? Was I trying to warn myself of something that was going to happen Saturday morning?

...

Nah, it was probably spam.

That's it for now, back to work...

dual, fan, swim, watchmen

2009-03-13T15:18:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to get dual monitors set up on my work machine for a few weeks now. My first try was a cable splitter that "should" have done the job. No luck. Even the computer repair guy couldn't get it going. He suggested a new splitter cable - which we ordered. That was delayed in shipping and when it finally came in it didn't work either. Next, he thought it might be the DVI-D cables and that didn't work either. Finally, he tried a new video card - which finally worked, but caused a "CPU Fan failure". So, now the fan runs all the time. At full power. It's actually a nice breeze, but in time this will kill the fan. He tried another fan and that was no different. So, a replacement motherboard is on order and should be here Monday. In the meantime, it's quite loud here. But the dual monitor is very very cool.

I bought some new square-cut speedos and goggles recently and tried them out in the pool today. The anti-fog coating on the goggles really helped - they also were tinted which was nice. The speedos covered up the bits that are supposed to be covered up and that's about all that one can expect of them.

I've been trying to mix up my swimming workout a bit with a goal of doing more and more of the crawl, but with more variation so I don't get burned out. Today I went though all the strokes I know - including butterfly - and really mixed it up. The variation made it easier to get through my 30 laps. Of course, this afternoon I'm eating a bag of Chilli-Cheese Fritos - so I'm not turning into some kind of fitness nut.

I went and saw "Watchmen" the other day. Really good flick - well done and thought provoking. Good vs. evil, hero vs. villain - and the vast gray areas between. Big ideas - and also big special effects. I wasn't in full "fan-boy" mode, but I enjoyed it.

Looking forward to shutting this loud beast down for the weekend and going home. No big plans for me, just some video gaming and maybe a hike if the weather holds.

Later...

30, butterfly, phil collins, work

2009-03-09T21:49:00.002-04:00

I did 30 laps today in the pool - which is not too big of a deal, except for the kind of laps. I did 5 crawl, then 5 back, then 5 more crawl, then 5 breaststroke, then 5 backstroke, then 4.5 laps of crawl. The crawl is what I'm really trying to work on - but that last 1/2 lap I decided to step it up a notch since I was feeling pretty good. So, the last length I did the butterfly stroke.

Which I'm not really good at. At my best, I was only able to do about a 1/2 a length before I would get that thought "Oh, I'm going to drown," and then I stop.

This time I got to that spot and thought, "Hey, I'm not drowning," and I just kept on going. My form wasn't great and I wasn't very fast. But I did it. 1 length of the pool. Maybe next time I'll do more.

In other news... I was watching the Music Choice channel and Phil Collins came up. In a fairly recent picture... well, he looks like my dad. Disturbingly so. My room-mate thought so too. But my room-mate also thinks my dad looks John Locke from the TV series Lost. So, not sure about that. But the Phil Collins thing was weird.

Finally, work has sucked. Spectacular deadlines, massive stress. It's actually messing with my sleep. Which I didn't think was even possible.

And it's about time for me to try to sleep again. After a shower, I still smell like chlorine from the pool.

later...

dentist, card, day, swim

2009-03-07T15:09:00.002-05:00

I went to the dentist on Friday. It had been a while - well, a long while - since I had gone and I was expecting the worst, including a lecture. Instead, they said my teeth were in pretty good shape, all things considered. The x-rays were not fun - I kept gagging on the plastic they put in my mouth. The wait time was quiet long, but I had plenty of paper and kept myself busy. I wasn't impressed with the actual dentist - his presence was sort of limited - but the rest of the staff were pretty good.

I headed into work after that and tried to get caught up - but had to go right into a meeting. The content was mostly over my head - something I don't like to admit - but I tried to follow along. After the meeting, it was back to work and the disasters of the day, including a major system going down. It's still not fixed properly, but I don't have the access to even be properly worried about it.

I got out of work late and headed to the pool for a late afternoon swim. Got in 30 laps, but was a bit disappointed that so many of those were non-crawl. I really have to work on that.

Finally, I managed to get an SD Micro card for my phone. So that, along with a cable that finally works - means that my phone is now accessible by my computer. I was able to download my phone's photos and upload a new wall paper. Next is to try and customize my own ring tone. Yes, I'm going down that path. And yes, I'm scared.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and get the ring tone working, then I've got to get out of the house before I go stir-crazy.

later...

donation, door, temp

2009-03-04T10:33:00.002-05:00

I gave blood on Monday. Went pretty smoothly, though they changed the procedure a bit for the sign in. I felt fine after the donation and was only in the recovery area long enough to eat a small package of cookies and drink a can of juice before heading out with my new red cross first aid kit. I've really got to figure out a polite way to not get these things. The umbrella was nice, but the I think they are starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

I got really tired that evening - I guess swimming earlier in the day plus giving blood really took a lot out of me.

In other news, the garage door is messed up. It only goes down about 1/2 way and then goes right back up. So, I called the landlords office yesterday when I got home and they sent out their repair guy. The dude showed up, said he couldn't fix it, and promised to come back today - early this morning.

Well, in the meantime, it's been very annoying. The door is normally automatic and apparently the manufacturers didn't think it would ever go wrong since they didn't put a handle out the outside. (well, they must have figured something might happen since they put in the "ripcord" for the manual use of the door).

This morning, I had to manually open the from the inside, start up and pull out my car, go back into the garage to close the door, back through the apartment, then out the front door, then back in my car, restart it, and then I was on the road. I'm hoping they get it fixed today, otherwise I'm going to strongly consider installing my own handle on the outside of the door.

Finally, someone put a temperature gauge in the men's bathroom here at work. The bathroom is on the side of the building and is apparently unheated - and is on an outside wall. The gauge said it was 50 degrees in there this morning. Chilly.

I had a surprisingly good day on Monday. Tuesday kinda sucked and got worse over time. Today has been moderately crappy. I hope the Chipotle is good tomorrow and that the dental appointment goes well on Friday or I'm going to end up with terrible weekend if the current trend continues.

later...