lights, balance, swim

The sky was glowing last night - all the reflected light from the snow was making it look like dawn even though it was almost 10:00 when I looked outside. I was out for only a few minutes to put a bill in the mailbox, but stopped for a moment to appreciate the light and the quiet. But I was wearing my flip- flops and it quickly got too cold for that.

My room-mate has been going through some issues with his siblings and has been more stressed out than usual. When I'm around someone stressed, I find myself getting more calm and quiet. I guess it's a way to find a bit of balance and maybe bring a little perspective to things. I also tend to get more excited about things when people are down - and inherently distrustful of hype. Might be a little zen and if so, that's not a bad thing.

Today I hit the pool and switched over to the crawl and backstroke. I was only able to do 10 laps and I was exhausted. No power, no speed. Just... a crawl. Disappointing, but I've been told that this is normal when a new set of muscles are being used. I suppose that's a good thing, but I felt... slow.

I'm hoping for a quiet weekend - with a bit of Wii to keep me occupied.

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

200, text, points

I got in my 32 laps yesterday and finished up my first 200 miles swimming.  Took me a couple years to do and I'm sure my next 200 will go much faster.   I joked with someone about how the English channel is next, but that it 21 miles (at a minimum) and has to be done all at once. 

In other news, I got my first text message spam on my phone.  Sort of an annoying rite of passage, I guess.  So far, the phone has been about what I expected.  Slightly annoying and moderately helpful.   I think the next time around I'm going to go with a much cheaper plan or a pay as you go.

Finally, I bought some Wii points last night - points that can be used to download games to the wii.  I was a little cautious about using my credit card with the wii directly, so I decided to buy a points card at wal-mart.   Here's how it went:

1. I looked at the front of the store in the gift card section - no luck.

2. Back to electronics - one card for sale packaged with a cover for a controller I didn't have.

3. Another area of the electronics section and I found more cards, but they were locked to the shelves.

4. Over to the checkout area of electronics to find a clerk, then back over so they could unlock the card.

5. Back to the electronics checkout again - standing in line behind a woman buying cereal.  In electronics.  There was a major production going on there and a price dispute on one of her items.

6. Finally, another clerk took pity on me and opened another register.    I paid for the card and escape the store.

I haven't used the points yet - I felt the need to savor my victory over wal-mart.

later...

basketball, wireless, swim

I went and saw my FRM's son play basketball on Saturday. I sat with his other two son's and with his mom - there's a long-standing feud going on and though FRM did stop by and shake my hand and say hello, he didn't stick around. The game was fun to watch and I had a good time. It had been a long time since I'd see his other son's - they are now both taller than me and one has a kid of his own.

On Sunday, I decided to set up a wireless network at home. A quick trip to best buy and I had the components I needed. Had a little trouble with the card for the computer and had to do that a couple of times to get it right. And then was a little cranky when I realized the router had extra slots for a wired connection to the computer. Which is not a big deal, just makes it more flexible later on. Once those were in place, I connected the Wii and set that up to get the news and weather and watched a video of a wii game I might like to buy.

Riding high on that success, I decided to hook up my PSP. That went much smoother than the wii and I was able to visit the university's home page, then do a search on google for new PSP themes - and downloaded one. It was pretty cool in a really deeply geeky way.

In about 20 minutes or so, I'll head up to the pool and swim 32 laps - putting me exactly at 200 miles total. Kind of a big deal for me - but I'm not sure what I'll do to celebrate. Cheesecake, perhaps? :)

That's about it for now. Later...

stench

I've been trying to drink a lot more water, just in general. As a consequence, I'm headed to the bathroom more frequently than I used to be. Not normally a big deal, it's not like I get my pay docked or anything. Today, however, both bathrooms here in the building have contained a most unholy stench. Eye watering, choking, pore clentching stench. I have never peed so fast in my life.

lightning, visit, wii, laundry

I had a dream the other night that I was living in Upper Arlington, Ohio and was looking out the window at a huge storm coming in.  I could see a hot air balloon show being swept along towards the house - some of the balloons had cars where the baskets should be.   I stepped outside to get a better look and after a moment I noticed a static electricity  feeling in my hands.  I raised my hand, brought two fingers together and when I drew them apart I saw blue electricity arc between.   The feeling got worse and I ran back towards the house.  I took about three steps and a bolt of lightning struck right behind me.  I realized I had actually run into and through the spot where it was going to strike.  I woke up then, a little shaken.

Back in the real world, I had a visit from my parents and my sister and brother in law.  They came up on Saturday morning and we hung out for a bit before heading to Cici's for pizza and then a brief stop at target.   Back at home, we played Wii for much of the afternoon - and everyone got a kick out of the Mii's (virtual version's of people) I had made for them.  We headed out later for an early dinner, but Ruby Tuesday's had an hour long wait - so, we went to Steak and Shake instead and that had a bit of a wait too - but not as long.   They headed out not long after we got back from dinner - so, a bit of a short visit, but a good one.

Except that they didn't entirely leave.  I was playing Wii bowling last evening and noticed my parent's Mii-s standing in the background at the bowling lane.   Not really surprising since I made the Mii-s on my system and the Mii-s are used as the characters in the Wii Sports - but it was still pretty cool.  

I've worn out the batteries on my Wii-mote controller already.  It was bound to happen, but it was sooner than I expected.  Looks like I need to switch to the rechargeable.   I'm really enjoying the boxing.

I spent much of the day yesterday doing laundry and doing a little work from home.  Not the most exciting day off, but it was strangely peaceful.

back to work today... time to check the email and get busy.

dinner, wii, neck, hair

On Saturday, I went out to dinner with some friends for an early birthday celebration. I made them promise not to mention it was my birthday coming up to the server since I despise the false hoopla that these places try for. We had a nice time and talked a little about an upcoming trip a couple of them were taking to Europe. I had the simple salmon - which was pretty good, but over-grilled a bit.

On Sunday, after checking a variety of stores in the area, I finally found a Wii at Target. It was the only one in stock and I stopped my shopping at that point and quickly bought it before someone else scooped it up.

I got it set up at home without too much trouble - though it's not well integrated into the rest of the electronics set up at this point - and played a game I also bought along with the Wii sports. I did pretty well with the boxing, but my room-mate won all the bowling matches.

My tempur-pedic pillow - that I got a few years ago as with some money I won as part of an award at work - is starting to let me down. Or my head was too warm last night. In any case, the pillow didn't support my neck and head well and I woke up with a horrible neck pain and headache. I took some motrin and went into work anyway since today is the first day of class and I was needed here. I'm much better this afternoon, but still happy that the day is almost done.

I'm also glad I'll soon be able to put my hat back on since my hair has grown out enough to be affected by the combination of a wet head and a stocking cap - which occured right after my swim today. I've been avoiding a mirror so i don't know how bad it looks, but I can feel that it's not behaving - especially in the back.

Finally, my birthday is tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it, exactly, but I don't feel how I expected 36 would feel. The gray hair and bald-spot make me look older than I am, but the swimming and other exercise keeps me from feeling it. Except for last week - I felt really old last week. Dunno why, must have just been tired.

Well I guess this is one of those posts where not much happened. Hey, they can't all be amazingly well written. Anyway, time to go home.

later...

usurper , email

So, I'm swimming along today with a goal of 32 laps and I've got about 4 to go when I see a girl at the other end of the pool get into the lane next to mine. Which is no biggie, though I think spreading out is a little better since it cuts down on the wake. Moments later, another girl gets into the pool - into my lane.

Now, see, this is awkward. While there's no assigned lanes, I always check carefully to make sure I'm not getting in someone else's lane. And I'm not casual about it - even with my not great vision without my glasses, I never usurp anyone else.

But here she is, with her little kickboard, all ready to go. I'm charging down the lane towards her at full power, then come to a stop not far way and wait to see if she notices me and her error. Either she was really, painfully, clueless or she just didn't care. So, I dove under the rope and switched lanes.

Now, I'm pretty sure she wanted that lane so she could swim with her friend since they spent part of the time at the wall chatting. If she had waited a moment until I got down to the end of the lane and asked if I would move - I would have without any problem. Instead, she just took over the lane.

Next time, unless I'm sure the person is visually impaired, I'm not giving up the lane and they'll just have to share - and stay out of my way.

In other news... my boss is considering having me take over the webmaster@uakron.edu email account. Hugh increase in responsibilty, no increase in authority or pay. :)

Even though it's more work, it's still pretty cool. I think I'll forgo the title - Master of Space and Time is far better anyway.

I'm headed out early today to go give blood, so this is it for me.

later...

new year, work, phone, HDMI

I watched the New Year's Eve show on CNN - and my only resolution this year is to not do it again next year. Even setting the massive technical difficulties aside, I still didn't enjoy the show - far too many cringe moments or massive sappiness. And then the ball dropped and I was like - "so?"

I just don't get the hype about New Year's - it just feels like some kind of arbitrary stopping point for a continually moving timestream. So, if I'm going to recognize that event at all - I think I need to have way more fun and move past my natural inclination to avoid the roads and drunken traffic - and get my ass to a party of some kind.

I'm back to work today and it wasn't as difficult to get back into the swing of things as I expected. There also wasn't a pile of work waiting for me as my infrequent vacations would usually have since everyone around here was gone too. So, that was nice. It should be pretty quiet around here since a lot of people are taking this as a vacation day.

I made a couple calls on my cell phone - and was annoyed by the sound quality and the dropped calls. Still, it was handy since the people I was calling weren't at home and I would have missed them if they didn't have cell phones. However, I was at home and could just as easily have called from my land line. So, a little silly on my part to use the cell phone, but if I'm paying for it, I might as well make use of it.

Got a new entertainment center for the living room TV - and of course ran into problems with the resetting up of the system. Seems the HDMI Cable alone won't carry an audio signal from either the cable box or the DVD player to the receiver. So, I had to use audio cables as well. Which annoyed me since it was so counter-intuitive. And because my room-mate had suggested it and then gloated a bit when it worked. The new entertainment center should keep all the components cooler and the setup is a bit more streamlined.

That's it for now - looking forward to getting back in the pool today at lunch.

later...