busy days at work, chewie gets a new sweater

Well, it's been a busy couple of days here at work. Thankfully, I have my Wookie to keep me company. Yeah, it's a little silly, but darn it - I need a little silly in my life.

I've been working on about 4.5 bazillion differnt projects in the past two days - along with updates to a system that take 10 minutes of processing time to complete before I can work on the next one. It's some kind of system glitch, but it really does take 10 minutes to process - I've timed it. Thankfully, I can work on other stuff during that time, so I'm able to keep up with most of my other stuff.

I've got some software to demo this afternoon - and a few more things to accomplish before the day gets away from me. So, back to work.

3 stage rant, the weight of time, Menger Sponge

Yesterday, while heading for lunch I encountered...

A woman meandering slowly across a busy street using a "push to (annoy) talk" phone with a hands free headphone. She was slow. She was loud. She was annoying. And, doesn't using a "push to talk" defeat the purpose of using a hands free? Don't you have to use your hands to push on the walkie-talkie?

The guy with the surfer dude haircut standing behind me in line to get food was standing way to close to me. I mean way to close. And everytime I would try to move away, he'd hurry and catch up so that he was wearing my coat with me. And incidentally - the surfer dude haircut is only marginally cool if you are actually a surfer. And buddy - the surfing here in Ohio sucks.

A trio of fools was standing and talking - and blocking the entire hallway to the main exit of the building. I had to push my way past them to get out. I should have spilled my drink on them.


In other news... I was watching a movie called Das Experiment last night. I've seen it before and it's a good flick. One thing that did bother me though was that one of the characters was just coming from her father's funeral. It was remarked that he was 65 and had lead a good life. I'm 33 and for a moment - the weight of all those past and future years crashed into me. Not entirely sure I'm looking forward to it. Feels more like something to be endured. Which, I'll be the first to admit, is not the most healthy of emotional states. Something I need to ponder, I guess.

Which I can do while I'm working on my next origami project - the Menger Sponge. Level 2 - I think. You can do a search on the web for them - my version will take 768 pieces of paper - I think. I may have done the math wrong.

If I go full sized paper - I'll need to buy 2 reams of paper. If I cut the paper into smaller pieces, it will 192 full sheets. At full size, I estimate the final dimentions to be around 27 inches cubed. Which is big.

The challange - which I've faced before - is not in building the units, but in putting them together. I'll most likely need to glue them - and that means no mistakes can be made in the whole process. A little daunting.

Well, I've got my canned goods to pay my parking fines (one can be waived per semester with a donation to their food drive) and a pile of work to do. So, better get back to work...

birthday, BMV, parking fine, cough

It's been a few days since I blogged - got a bit of catching up to do. The birthday visit went well, I think everyone had fun. My family got in a little later than they expected so we stayed up and talked and hung out. I slept on the bench that I built - which was not quite as uncomfortable as I had thought it would be. We did a lot of running around on Saturday and then had cupcakes and presents. I got a couple of CD's and some shelves - which we put together. We also made some paper before they left - I think Dad got some serious ideas for projects.

As an extra special birthday present from the county - I also had to go get my registration for my car renewed. The BMV I go to is quick and effecient - with reasonably friend staff. However, the fee for the renewed registration was $49.50
And for that I got a piece of paper and a sticker. Great. At least the echeck was free this year...

Earlier this week I had to come back on campus in the evening - in a differnt car than I'm normally in. So, I stuck my parking pass in that car and promptly forgot it. When I got out of work - parking ticket and $25 fine.

Now, I'm an employee here and I still have to pay to park on campus - a policy I've never been happy about since it was instituted. On the parking permit application, I had to put my license plate number and on the ticket they listed that too. So, why is there not a connection between the two bits of data?

I think I can get out of it - by donating canned goods to the parking services food drive.

Still, it's annoying.

And so is the cough I've got this morning. I almost wish I would get "all the way" sick so that I could stay home and people would be nice to me. Instead, a low level cold the whole winter. Great.

I've got a huge-ass and a weird-ass project at work. I'm pretty sure it's at least 12% beyond my current skill level. Should be fun - for values of "fun" that include mental anguish and horror.

Well, I guess it's time to get back to work...

cleaning frenzy revisited, video game, and an odd dream

Chaos is easy - order takes work. Not sure if I made up that simplified description of the forces of entropy, but I'm going to claim it as my own. My parents and my sister are coming this evening for a delayed birthday visit - and are spending the night. This is the first time they've been able to do so - since I really haven't had room for them before.

And living by myself, I tend to let things slide. Hey, I'm a guy, it happens. So, the past few days have been spent cleaning. I still need to vaccume, but that's about it. The biggest part of the work has been in putting things away. A lot of picking up things in one room and taking them to another - then picking things up there and moving them again. It's a little tiring.

I also beat the second xmen game on the PS2 (on easy mode, so sue me). I've started a new game on Normal mode and unlocked a few characters. To really get the most of it, you've got to explore ever square inch of every area. There's a map, fortuantly, but no way to see the whole thing - even after you've visited an area. I get lost easily - which is true in the game and in real life.

I'll wrap up this entry with an odd dream. I was in a parking lot, trying to get to my car, when I noticed a car that was driving eratically. The driver was on the right side of the car with an oversized steering wheel. Not bigger around, but nearly as thick as a tire. The passenage was asleep through these manuvers - though from the damge to the side of the car it was clear that it had been in numerous accidents. The driver tried to run into me several times, but I always managed to get out of the way. Finally, as I got near my car, the driver jettisoned the main body of the car and was now driving essentailly a long cylinder on wheels. It headed right for me, trying to pin me and crush me against my car. Reasoning that the barrel car was much lighter, I stepped forward and held out my foot as though I was going to kick the car - and stopped it. Then I stepped forward again and tipped the car up on it's nose. The driver was trapped and furious - but I ignored him. I left my car and started to walk away when I woke up.

It's too bad I'm not a better artist - I think I could make some of these dreams into a comic book or graphic novel.

And that's it for now. Time to get back to work...

under the weather, and a small chunk of wisdom

I almost called in sick today. Last night I has stomach cramps and a fairly intensive time in the bathroom. And no, I wasn't cleaning. Not sure if it was something I ate or just the latest in my winter long battle with a cold. The cold keeps coming up with new symptoms and I keep enduring them. It seems to have allied with my headaches - and last night was a tag team rumble.

But, I'm marginally better today and I've got a meeting - so, I braved the cold and snow to come to work. Can't really say I'm happy to be here, but I'm getting stuff done. Answered some emails - tracked down a problem with one of the systems. And when I say "tracked down" - I mean that I wandered around looking for the best candidate to fix it. The only person I could find was, ironically, the very person who could make repairs. And when I say repairs, I mean they could reboot the machine. So, problem solved.

I went to the student union yesterday for lunch on the first day of classes for the semester. Normally, something to avoid - but I went for a late lunch and the crowds weren't bad. There were a lot of people there and most seemed to be wandering around. Some of that is "new students" - a group that is, collectively, always slightly lost. And it's to be expected - they're new.

But there was also a group that - in some difficult to define way - was moving randomly, but with purpose. It was like they knew where they were going, but they didn't actually care about arriving there. There was also a large contingent of people standing just inside the main doors - talking on their cell phones. It was raining, so I'm guessing they were trying to arrange a ride. But, there were so many of them that they were actually blocking the doors so that the damp people - me included - had difficulty getting in the building.

Which gets me to my point - if I can actully focus long enough to come up with one.

Several years ago, there was a version of the Transformers on tv called Beast Machines. For those readers that live under a rock - Transformers are robots/toys that change into cars or planes or something. In this case, the something was animals - except for some reason they had trouble turning back into robots. So, the leader of the group with a name so ridulous that I'm not going to mention it - trains the transformers with him to, well, transform, again.

The series stuck in my head due to one line the leader said,

"Focus on the transformation at hand"

Now, clearly this is a play on the phrase "Focus on the task at hand". By saying transformation - the focus is not on the present, but on the transition from present to future. The "process" of change becomes the important part.

Now how does this apply to me being annoyed? Some of the people I encounted were focused only on their own small slice of the present. They weren't seeing the rest of their enviroment - or the consequences of their actions. Instead of moving through a sea of people, adjusting to their ebbs and flows - I had to plow through a log-jam.

And it made me cranky.

So, that's it for now... back to work

a mildly amusing birthday story - and making paper

I'm at a time in my life where birthday's don't really phase me much - hell, I've already got the gray hair and the balding spot on the back of my head which is not a topic for discussion. So, birthdays are not a big deal - except for one thing.

I think that birthday's are a time for family and friends - not a bunch of loud strangers bellowing out a brutalized version of happy (insert resturant name here) birthday with poorly organized hand clapping.

So, if you're out to dinner with me at any time around my birthday - whatever you do, don't have all the servers come over and sing for me. I'm not going to like it.


With this in mind - and a warning to those having dinner with me - we went out to dinner for my birthday to Macaroni Grill. The food is always good and the bread is... oh, the bread is wonderful. I polished off 1.5 loaves all by myself.

Our server came around toward the end of the meal - once we had totally gorged ourselves - chided my lightly since I didn't finish my asparagas (though I acutally enjoy it and would have eaten all of them first except that they tasted like charcoal and lighter fluid. I would have complained, but I just wanted to leave and go home and digest).

She also asked if we wanted dessert - I shook my head no and so did my friend who shall remain nameless (the fate of the guilty). Friend also then added - clearly without thinking - "No, we've got cake..." - they pointed at me - "waiting at hom..."

They servers eyes - already wide enough to suggest insanity under normal circumstances - widened even further. My guilty friend - realizing the terrible and potentially dangerous mistake they had made - grabbed the server and dragged her down into the booth. They spent the next few minutes doing everything possible to convince the server not to sing - even begging her to forget that she had heard anything.

For my part - I was resigned to my vocal fate. The food - except for the asparagas - was good and I was stuffed. And there was cake to be considered later. So, I wasn't going to unleash any of my dark and terrible wrath.

Meanwhile, a compromise was reached. The server would bring cake, with a lit candle, but she swore that no one would be singing. I wasn't entirely convinced, but I had already decided it was out of our hands. She left and came back withe promised chocolate cake, one lit candle, and no singing.

She was tipped well.

Later,we discoved that we had been charged $.01 for the cake - and that it didn't taste very good.

Still, overall - a good birthday dinner. And now it's time to get...

Wait, nearly forgot. I got a papermaking kit for christmas and finally got ahold of a blender - so, yesterday I made about 10 sheets of paper with the kit. Worked pretty well - only had one go "bad". I'll make more for sure and I'm considering taking some pictures - but I'm pretty sure it'll just look like a piece of paper. Which, by itself, is not really that cool.

Okay, now I'm done... back to work...

33

Friday the 13th, full moon. My 33rd birthday. I don't really feel any older or anything, it's not really a milestone. Should be pretty low-key; dinner, cake, and presents. Well, hopefully presents. :)

I found out that my co-worker's daughter has a birthday today too - so I made her an origami dragon with the "good" paper. It's kind of pearl-green thing - pretty cool.

It's Orlando Bloom's birthday today too - but I don't have his address to send him a dragon.

Let's see... who else? Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Stack, Patrick Dempsey, Penelope Ann Miller... I'm going to need more paper if they all stop over.

In other news... I found a good storage container and ChewieII is sleeping comfortably in my freezer. What? You thought I was kidding about Cryo-sleep for the wookie?

And I guess that's about it. Hopeing for a quiet, low stress day - we'll see how it goes. Back to work...

things I've noticed, stress, and a dream

I have a round "tin" of Ice Breakers mints on my desk (cool mint) that I indulge in before meetings. Seems like the polite thing to do. The tin has two openings - one labeld "to share" and the other labeled "not to share". The "to share" has a much bigger opening - a clear signal for generosity. However, even though I'm the only one who eats these, the "not to share" side is impossible to use. The opening is too small and the mints seem wedged in there pretty solid on that side. So even though I'm not sharing, I still have to them from the "to share" side - and feel vaguely guilty about it. Though it's not like I can force the mints on people.

"I have horrible breath! Hurry, take a mint so I can have one too!"

In other news... I clean when I'm stressed. I think its one of those "impose order from chaos" kinda things. I've been really stressed for a variety of reasons for the past several days - to the point where I rearragned my book shelves and cleaned out my closets. There are some who would suggest that I remain stressed and keep cleaning, and while that would help the apartment, I'm not sure my own physiology could maintain it. For the record, I've got two copypaper boxes full of books I'm getting rid of, I've lost count of the trash bags of trash to be tossed, and 5 bags of clothes that I'm giving to goodwill.

Finally, I had a dream last night that I was riding a small cart down a trail toward work - but I stopped at a coffe shop for muffins. That's not the weird part. I got up to pee, then fell asleep again. Then I dreamed that I was telling someone about the first dream - and that I was barefoot. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) I was very confused when I woke up.

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

random notes

First up - terrible news. The Flash - the finest comic produced by DC Comics - is being cancelled this month. It's supposed to re-launch this summer, but it's going to be a long winter and a longer spring while I wait.

I won an ebay auction for a backup wookie - in case the wear and tear on the traveling orginal proves to be too much for him. ChewieII, as he'll be known, will be put in cryo-sleep when he arrives.

I got a new playstation 2 for christmas and it's allowed me to play some games that I hadn't be able to with my aging PS2. One of those games is Lego Star Wars - hilarious. The little lego dudes can use The Force to move around other legos and solve puzzles. The lightsaber battles are cool too.

I also fired up an old game called Okage: Shadow King. I've played a couple of hours of it, but I think I'm going to stop and sell the game. It's...boring. The storyline has promise, the writing is good - but there are a number of elements that make it nearly unplayable.

1. There's a significant load time when going from room to room in any building or town. And 98% of those rooms are empty, or occupied by an idiot. The time spent just trying to find something useful is terrible.

2. The hero fights his first boss battle with a stick. Not a mystical sword, not a potent spell, no might armor. A stick. First time in - and I got killed. And this was before I'd figured out the save points - so, I had to start over from the beginning.

3. The first dungon has the second boss, who I defeated fairly easily. Then I saved, went back, and battled some ordinary monsters. Did one point of damage, then got poisoned, put to sleep, and killed in the next turn.

4. If I have to battle one more random demon chicken, I might lose it.

I should just eject the disk and go back to Xmen II where I belong.

I was in a couple of stores over the weekend and was amazed again at the lack of awareness. I didn't realize I would need the reflexes of Spider-man to navigate a grocery store without being run over. After some careful study, I think I have figured out why it's so dangerous.

A. Shoppers are distracted by the bright lights and shiny colors.
B. Each one is given a steel cage on wheels with primative steering - and they navigate the store by pushing this weapon in front of them.
C. There are no traffic signals or arrows on the floor - no defined right of way.

Randomly moving, distracted people with weapons. Why not give them all shotguns as they walk in? Might save some time.

Also over the weekend - I helped a friend of mine's aunt with a computer problem. It was, thankfully, not something I could fix - since the fix would have involved 1.5 hours of a download to install. It was AOL's problem and I got out of there with a sigh of relief. Now, I like helping people with stuff - but sitting around watching a computer download some software is not my idea of a rip roaring good time. I got some notes together for when she calls AOL and I think that put her on the right track.

I'm in the process of cleaning up my spare bedroom/library - since it's a cluttered mess. Of course, this has led to utter chaos through the entire upstairs as I decompress the room in order to organize it. The chaos is still there, and I fell down the stairs when I tripped over some clutter this morning in a desperate attempt to reach the bathroom. I'm okay, if you're concerned.

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

back from the holidays

Sounds almost like a destination - and I guess I did a bit of traveling. Here's the recap...

Friday before last, headed down to visit my folks. I stopped off at my sister's new office - a cube farm like mine, but far less oppressive. And she's got a window too. We were supposed to meet mom and dad for lunch after they picked up the christmas ham - but they got lost and were delayed. There's some debate on who's fault it is - and it's better if we just leave that undefined.

Christmas with the folks was good - got some cool stuff and had fun. We did brave Walmart the day before christmas, which was scary - but otherwise good.

After christmas, we loaded up and headed to visit the rest of my extended family. My grandmother's house was pretty well full once we had all gotten there and we got a little loud. My dad entertained the crew with magic tricks and we all had fun.

Also visited some of my mom's family - my cousin just recently had a baby girl who's just amazingly cute. Her eyes are this amazing blue - and wider then they could pull off in Village of the Dammed. It was a good thing, trust me.

My sister and I headed back on wednesday - she had to work. We were all pretty well scattered for New Year's - I spent most of it watching movies - and saw a little of the Dick Clark special.

A few comments:

Ryan Seacrest got Dick Clark's name wrong near the end - on national television.

Mariah Carrey was at her most sluttly. And she totally lip-synced. Whatever happened to the ultra-high-note Mariah we all loved?

Dick Clark... you know, I read somewhere that people were applauding his courage. I feel for the guy, but it was uncomfortable to watch him. Just my opinion.

And now I'm back to work...though I'm not really sure how to proceed. I got a lot of things wrapped up before the holidays and the boss is off today. Still, we never really slow down here...so I'm sure I've got something waiting for me in my email.

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