hungry eyes, gray, pacman, drill

So, I'm in the locker room earlier this week and they've got the radio blasting over the P.A. system, way louder than usual. The song playing? "Hungry Eyes"

In an age of YouTube and video surveillance, it was not the most reassuring thing to hear. While I'm all for a bit of streaking and I'm not really shy - I'd really rather not end up on the internet. Do I seriously think I was being watched because of a random song on the radio? No. Did I look around for a camera in the shower anyway? Yes.

As I was getting ready for work one morning recently, I noticed that I had one substantial gray hair on the top of my head that would not play along with the others. And no amount of gel would have any impact on it. So, I pulled the damn thing and went to work - mildly cranky.
I've also recently discovered a surge in gray chest hair. Which is quite disappointing as I'm just starting to develop a chest. Again, cranky.

I played a bit of Pac-man world 2 recently - discount games rock. I was doing okay until I reached a level that required a bit of swimming. I acquired all the fruit in that area, they surfaced, got out of the water and tried to proceed. Except the camera refused to move to show me a forward facing view. I used up a lot of lives, but finally forced my way to the end by luck and guesswork. Except it wasn't the end - it was the beginning of the level. I had gotten out of the pool on the wrong side and backtracked through the whole level. Which explains the camera and the need for guesswork. I got turned around and made my way back through the level and then later on I reached an area called B-doing - which I thought meant I'd have to fight giant bees or something. Instead, it's a reference for the sound it makes when he uses a trampoline - of which there are many and of which I suck at using. There might be giant bees later on, but I can't get past the opening area. For now, anyway...

I bought a keyboard tray for our student assistant two days ago since she was having some soreness in her wrist and arm. My mom had carpel tunnel and I wanted to avoid inflicting it on our SA. So, yesterday, we checked it out to see if it would work for her and what tools would be needed. I promised to bring in my drill today and get it set up. Except that my room-mate borrowed my drill - not realizing that I might need it. And he's out of state for the rest of the week and weekend. We're trying to work out something where I can pick up his drill from his secretary this evening. If she goes into his office and if she can find the drill and if she's willing to bring it back to her house so that I can go and pick it up. If I can remember where she lives. I think I'm okay on the last part, but that's still another delay.

So, I'm going to try to use my dremel to get the job done. It's not the right tool for the job, but I'm going to try and make it work. Otherwise, I'll see if I can find one around here - maybe with the networking dudes.

I guess that's about it for now... back to work...

numbers

1 - the number of pairs of goggles I forgot today for my swim.

2 - the number of red eyes that I had afterwards

20 - the number of laps I swam anyway

basement, games, tomb raider, movies, nightmare, scanner

It started with me looking for something in the basement. I can't even remember what it was at this point, but it annoyed me that I couldn't find it. So, on Saturday morning and on into the afternoon - I worked on cleaning out part of the basement. Mostly just sorting things and trying to put some order to the stuff there, but I did manage to fill the garbage can. This lead to sorting through video games and movies to resell - which is always a good thing. I also gathered together all the loose change in the house and between my room-mate and I, we had nearly a hundred bucks. Not too shabby - and we turned it into a gift card for borders at the coinstar location.

I also tried to play the demo for Overlord this weekend - it took multiple download attempts and an update to some software - and then change the display settings before it would run. Turned out to be a pretty cool game, but the computer doesn't have the processing power to keep the frame-rate consistent and the lag is annoying. So, I won't be buying that one.

Played a little tomb raider, made it through some really freaking evil puzzles. The "swinging from a rope while avoiding narrowly timed spinning blades" really sucked. Still, overall, a good game.

Watched some movies this weekend. "It's Alive 2" - the sequel to the 1970's "It's Alive!" - and every bit as bad as the first. My room-mate got the trilogy (!) and we've been watching them as penance for going to the movie theater and spending too much money on popcorn.

I also watched the remake of "The hitcher" - which was pointlessly gory and dumb. I felt nothing for the characters. Live, die, didn't matter. Waste of film.

Also saw "The Thirst" - a direct to video (I think) waste of a DVD. I couldn't even watch the whole thing - even speeding it up to skip to the interesting parts put me at the end credits.

I've also got Brazil on DVD - haven't seen it yet but I've heard good things about that one. It would have to be better than the rest of them I've seen recently.

I had a nightmare fueled by "it's alive!" and a passing comment that my room-mate made over the weekend. The movie may have been lame, but the nightmare was a full-on terror ride. It was too disturbing to go into in detail.

Finally, I found a bunch of letters and cards that I had saved in an old box. I decided that I wanted to preserve those electronically and I went and bought a scanner at BestBuy. Got a pretty good deal and made it through the install without any problems. I think I want to start archiving these things so they don't get lost or damaged.

Well, it's Monday, so it's time to get to work. Been trying to clear off one of our servers and I've just about got everything moved - hoping to wrap this up this week. later...

1408, diablo, spork

I went and saw '1408' last night - based off of a Stephen King short story that I read a few years ago. There were some good jump-out-of-your-seat moments - and in some ways it was better than the book. There was also some cleverness and it wasn't as obvious as some scary movies.

But, the ending was weak and a little too Hollywood. Still, overall, a good flick.


I've been playing Diablo II again at home, it's still a fun game. I've been using a technique to increase the experience gain while making it more challenging. The landscape and the monsters are the same, but I'm still getting a thrill of the hunt.

Today I get to try out my Titanium Spork that I got from ThinkGeek. Never have I owned such a powerful piece of cutlery. It's quite exciting.

Not much else new, time to get back to work...

cheerleaders, game, futon, fuel

Yesterday, on the way back from my 22 lap swim, I noticed a group of cheerleaders walking across campus on their way to their cheerleading camp and it made me wonder...

Is there a collective term for a group of cheerleaders?

A herd of cattle, a murder of crows, a flock of seagulls... how about a "blitz of cheerleaders"?


I dunno, it just popped into my head. Anyway, the blitz of cheerleaders were walking not quite in formation and were practicing one of their cheers. And it sounded... a little militant. As though they could easily start marching while carrying rifles in one hand and batons in the other. I don't think I would want to go up against a blitz of battle-hardened cheerleaders - I suspect they would be well organized and have a very precise combat formation. Making them dangerous - and annoying.

In other news... I squared off against two giant centaurs last night in the Tomb Raider game - and got my ass handed to me. Repeatedly. To the point where today I'm going to try and look up some suggestions on the net. Still got a lot of the game to get through and I don't want this to stop me in my tracks.

Also last evening I went over to my room-mates co-worker's new house to assemble a futon she had bought from me that I don't need anymore. Her husband helped me - I had the bolts going the wrong direction at a critical part. I was making progress, but it would have been nearly impossible to take it back apart in the future. We made short work of it - then went to Arby's.

Finally, I stopped for fuel this morning and noticed that the "cheap" fuel button was nearly worn away, but it was in the opposite position as most gas stations I've seen. The sequence of buttons went from Highest to Lowest - instead of the usual reverse. Looks like they were trying to mess with people and get them to pick the "wrong" one. I usually look for the one most worn away, so I was in the clear. Still, with the virtually random changes in gas prices and sky-rocketing price gouging - maybe a little honest and good nature would be a nice change of pace.

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

fog, game, meetings, phone calls

It was a little foggy on the road this morning - and though a lot of people don't like that kind of weather, I'm delightfully creeped out by the way things are hidden and sort of fade into view.

Played a bit more of Tomb Raider anniversary last evening. I survived the sandslide, the pillars of fire, the gators, and now I'm facing a room full of moving pillars and spikes. Oh, and pretty much everytime I turn a new corner, there are two giant gorillas charging at me. You'd think I'd get used to it, but they still make me shriek like a little girl. Not Laura Croft though, she just stands there with her guns blazing and together we take them down. Kinda wishing I had a grenade launcher, but there you go.

Actually, a grenade launcher might come in handy in real life - though I'd imagine it would be tricky to get ammo.

Had a meeting yesterday - it didn't really go as well as I would have hoped. Not well focused and I had a hard time asking my questions since I don't like to interupt people. So, it ended early and I'm still a little in the dark. It's not a big deal - I was mostly looking for confirmation of a particular process, but it still would have been nice.

I've got three meetings today - it will be a challenge to get some real work done. I'm going to try and get my laps in as well - but I don't know if I'll have time. I suspect lunch will be a shortened time today. We'll see how it goes.

Talked to my Dad and my sister last evening - had a good conversation with both of them. I need to do that more often, but it seems a little silly to call them if there's not much new going on in my life. Got to save up my stories, I guess.

Well, that's it for now - time to get back to work...

books, transformers

I took a little trip up to Cleveland on Saturday to go to the Half-Priced Bookstore and encountered the Worst. Construction. Traffic. Ever. It was extra annoying since I was relying on a map.

Finally got to the store and brought in my 4 boxes of books. In a surprising short amount of time, they returned an offer of 26 dollars. Which seemed a little low, but I went ahead with it - most of the books were paperback anyway.

So, I shopped for a bit and was disappointed. The sci-fi/horror section was small and was heavy on Anne Rice and Stephen King. The crafts section had only 2 books on Origami - and the one labeled "Advanced Origami" was, on closer inspection, not very advanced. The comics? Terrible. No bags, no boards, all of them stacked loosely on a shelf in no particular order. It was sad.

I checked out, got over charged on the comics I did find (but didn't really care at that point) and exited. I made a brief stop at the nearby world market for some rubber ducks, green tea, and candy from Japan - then headed home.

On Sunday, I decided to go see Transformers. I checked the movie times, noted 12:35 as the time I wanted to see, then headed out at 12:05 to ensure a good seat. Well, I purchased my ticket and saw that the next showing was, in fact, at 1:00. So, instead of being a little early, I was a lot early. I decided to buy some popcorn while I was waiting, and when I finally go the attention of the clerk, he spieled me with combos and up sizing - even though I was making it pretty clear that I wasn't interested. I think the only way I could have made it more clear was to reach across the counter and smack the shit out of him - and I was pretty close to doing that. All I wanted was a small popcorn - which cost me $5.00

I folded some paper, ate my popcorn and waited. At about 15 till, I headed in and got my seat. 30 minutes of previews later, the movie started.

And I liked it. It was funnier than I expected and the effects were amazing. With the exception of Frenzy/Soundwave - the characters were well realized and the story was well written. There were some cheesy moments, but still really good. And the actors fit into the CGI seamlessly.

There were a lot of themes in the movie - war, power, love, friendship, loyalty, technology - but I think in some ways, it was really about a boy and his first car.

And I have to admit that when I left the theater, I was a little nervous when I got into my own car. :)

That's it for now - got a big meeting coming up. later...

more zombies, swimming

I had another zombie nightmare last night. This time, I was in essentially a chain-link fence box. Three sides and the "roof" were chain-link, but the north side was open. I was inside with a man and a woman - who I didn't know - and outside, moving from east to west, were endless hordes of zombies. The man was standing near the entrance, but not too near. None of the zombies noticed him for some reason, so we were lucky. I was further back in the box, but trying to stay away from all the sides, just in case. The woman was near me - or rather, I was near her since she would shriek if given the opportunity. Granted, we were all pretty scared, but I couldn't seem to convince her that the screaming would just bring the zombies down on us. So, I had to stand next to her with my hand covering her mouth to keep her quiet while I tried to calm her down and/or get through to her. It was very dark in the dream and pretty much all we could see was the night sky and the zombies moving outside the fence. I remember thinking two things:

1. Why wasn't the man back there with us helping keep her quiet. It seemed like the two were connected somehow, but he was doing his best to ignore her.

2. How did I get in that box? Rule number 1 with zombie attacks - Don't let them back you into a corner. The best advantage is speed and dexterity - both of which are nullified if you get yourself trapped in a box with only one zombie blocked exit.

I woke up without any kind of resolution to the dream - and I'm not sure what it really means.

In other news... I swam 21 laps yesterday. Felt a little tired afterwards, but I think I could have done more if I'd had more time.

Lots of meetings and big projects today - better get back to it...

road joy, green beans

The drive home from work has an interesting feature for me. It involves an entrance ramp, a heavy merge since the lane is ending, and an exit ramp. All of which I need to use in a fairly short span of time. It is, invariably, a delight. A couple of days ago, I was attempting this feat as I usually do and managed to get over into the proper location without too much difficulty. I found myself behind a police officer, who I could tell was getting annoyed at the people ignoring the gigantic yellow "Lane Ends" signs and decided to move his car to cover both of the lanes.

Then, a complete idiot in a pickup truck comes barreling down the road and decided that he was in far too much of a hurry to put up with the merge process. So, he arrogantly ignored the Lane Ends signs and the horizontal marks across the shoulder indicating a "no drive here" zone - and drove on the shoulder in an attempt to get past all of us. And it would have worked except that he was also ignoring the cop. As some as the pickup truck flew past him, the cop put on his lights and pulled behind him, nearly hitting him in the process since the truck slammed on his brakes. I slowly drove past, nearly cheering in the shared triumph of seeing the stupid and arrogant being punished for being, well, stupid and arrogant. It was the highlight of my drive home.

In other news... last evening I went to Friday's for dinner and tried something new. I got the fried green beans, which sounded pretty good. The huge portion came with cucumber and wasabi dipping sauce. Now, anyone that knows me will be able to tell you that I don't dip very often. Not a big sauce guy. And cucumber? Not high on my list of favorite vegetables (and I actually do have a list like that). But, the lure of wasabi tempted me and I tried it. And, lo and behold, it wasn't bad. Not great, but I didn't have to spit anything out and actually went back for seconds.

The main course for me was shrimp that was, essentially, burned. I still ate most of it, but I really should have just gotten the fried shrimp. I mean, if I'm getting fried green beans, I clearly couldn't be bothered to care about fatty foods.

Anyway, I tried something new and it turned out okay. Will wonders never cease?

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

terrible nightmare and hallucinations in the pool

I had a terrible nightmare a few nights ago. I was on a tram that had just stopped to unload in a cave. It was supposed to then keep going, but it got stuck and another tram slammed into it. The carnage was terrible. We managed to transport everyone to a second level and then started first aid. Two guys had been decapitated, I started working on the one who had also had his head nearly sliced into three sections. The only supplies on hand were rolls of medical tape, so I first lined up and taped the three sections back together, then taped it to his neck. I asked another of the survivors how we could revive him, when the man's eyes flew open and he shouted at me to "don't talk about me like I'm not here". I was startled - mainly because I didn't think he was alive and that if he moved around too much I thought the tape might give way. I also realized that because of the time I had spent on this guy - the other decapitated guy was really done for.

It was one of the most gory and surreal dreams I've had in a very long time and I was shaken when I woke up.

In other news, I had some smell/taste-based hallucinations today at the pool. While swimming my 20 laps, I had a weird smell/taste sensation - but only while underwater. The first was a combination of baby aspirin and tang - a sort of false citrus flavor. It faded out and a little later I had a powder/pine flavor that shifted more strongly to powder then faded out. The final wave was baker's chocolate/caramel/powdered sugar. I smelled this one more strongly while above water and it's possible that the rest of the mostly off-duty lifeguards were having a snack. In any case, it was damn odd and it threw me off a bit.

I was wearing my swim gloves this time around. Supposed to increase speed while strengthening the upper body. I'm tired, but it's not unusually so. Not sure if they are really making that much of a difference - maybe with the different stroke?

So, that's about it for now. Got some work to do before my afternoon meeting.

later....

shells, rocks, fireworks

A few photos...

1. Shells from the beach...


2. An interesting rock I found in the ocean, along with a weird thing (coral?)


3. A casing from one of the fireworks we watched on the 4th in Akron when we were Far. Too. Close. This one bounced off my room-mate's foot.


4. This one landed behind us. Yeah, we were way too close. And the embers we had to knock off our arms and out of our hair were a little too close for comfort.

mostly back from vacation

Just got back into town last night from a week-plus trip to Myrtle Beach with my room-mate and his extended family. A few highlights:

1. On the drive down there, we passed through the Polymer Alliance Corridor. Which was fitting since I work at a university known for polymers.

2. While driving, I nearly got attacked by what I'm guessing was a hawk or an eagle - or maybe a pterodactyl. It swooped in front of my car on its way to someplace else and I recall saying some very bad words.

3. Spent a lot of time at the beach - and SPF 50 was my new friend. No major burns to report - which is a nice change of pace.

4. The first day we were there, we went out onto the fishing pier and saw a guy throwing fish scraps into the water - where the 1/2 dozen 5 foot-plus sharks were waiting eagerly. Not sure what kind of sharks they were, but they were pretty cool. And they were only about 50 feet away from the swimmers in the ocean. I didn't swim anywhere near the pier.

5. Speaking of swimming - I tried to get some distance in while swimming in the ocean. The waves made progress very difficult - but I think the buoyancy made it easy for me to try the butterfly stroke again - did okay with that one.

6. I got mistaken for an author by someone who saw me reading and remembered me from last year when I did a lot of writing. She illogically thought I was reading my own book - I had to explain that I wrote a web-comic last year and that I was reading just for fun. A little odd but kinda cool.

7. We went out for dinner one night and waited 2.5 hours. If I had been on my own, I would have bailed out and gone to Chic-fillet, but it wasn't an option.

8. I brought back some sand with me - on purpose. There is a quote by William Blake (that also showed up in the Tomb Raider movie) that goes like this:

"To see your world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower. To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, An eternity in an hour."

So, I want to take a grain of sand and encase it in lucite or something clear. Just in case I want to check out the world.

9. The Myrtle Beach - being more "family oriented" - tends to shut down pretty early in the evening. So, very late one night, I snuck out to the beach, found myself a deserted strech of sand (not difficult to do) and "dropped trou". I prompted walked out into the ocean and swam around for a bit. It was cold and I was mindful of the dangers of rip tides and beasties in the water so I didn't stay out long. When I walked out of the water, still in the all-together, I felt like some kind of minor sea-god. Felt like something ancient and powerful. I found my swimsuit again and got dressed before heading back to the lights and people. Just for a moment though - the ocean was mine and mine alone.

10. After about a week on Myrtle Beach, we headed to Ocean Isle, NC for a bit more beach and sunshine. Lot more shells on this beach and the place we stayed was really top-notch. Still, despite the grueling drive home, it is good to be back in Ohio.

I'm off today and tomorrow as well for the 4th of July - back on Thursday and Friday to finish out the week. I've been trying to go through my emails and I'm starting the process of getting caught up.

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

20 laps, out of sorts

I've been 20 laps in the pool pretty consistently now - and since 18 is a half mile, I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm trying to push myself harder through those 20 and get my time down.

I've been very out of sorts today - feeling like one of those video effects where they try to simulate a time distortion and the image lags and then catches up. I've felt like that since I got up this morning - made the drive into work really interesting. I'll get over it soon enough I know, but it's odd.

Kind of a short post today, but I've got a lot of work to get done. later...

traffic and cookies

Driving home last evening after getting my hair-cut, I got caught in rain and traffic. And, despite this being Ohio where weird-ass weather should be the norm - everyone freaked out and creeped along the highway at 2 miles per hour. Or they randomly stopped entirely.

The temp gauge in my car started to rise a bit - nothing serious, but just a little bit - and I decided to help things out by turning on the heat. The blast of warm air hit me and with it, since I had vanilla air fresheners in the vents, the smell of baking cookies.

I actually laughed out loud as the silliness of the association - then went back to singing along with the radio and waiting for the traffic to clear and let me go home.

later...

father's day

I went to visit my parents last weekend for Father's Day and as promised - it's going in the blog.

Friday evening was pretty quiet, but on Saturday we packed a lunch and headed to Columbus. The destination was the Columbus zoo, but we went to a craft store and a bookstore first. The trip to the zoo was a bit round-about and we were all getting pretty hungry - since we planned on eating once we got to the zoo. We arrived at the zoo around 2:30 - only to find a sign saying the zoo would close at 3:00 for a fund-raising party. So, we skipped that and found a park near where we used to live to have our lunch. It was a little silly, but it worked out.

After that, we headed back to their place and Dad wanted to take a different route instead of the main one - a slightly more scenic drive that ended up being "road closed". Which forced us back onto the main route anyway.

On Sunday we gave my dad a drop-spreader and a back-pack sprayer. The sprayer was not well assembled and my brother-in-law and I got it fixed - with some timely help from my sister. So, we suited her up like a ghost buster for some testing and she pretty much hosed everyone. And since it had a 25 foot range, there was really no running from here.

While this was going on - dad was grilling. And grill he did. We ended up with a pile of food and pretty much everyone ate until physically uncomfortable - then we had brownies and ice cream.

After that, I got rolled out to my car and headed home.

Today, I put those calories to good use and swam really fast today. 20 laps, record time, and a very tired geek after lunch.

That's about it for now - time to get back to work...

off-roading, swimming stroke, cold

The driveway to my apartment is still blocked off, so I'm still "off-roading it" to get to my garage and back out again. The grass is still doing okay for now, but I'm really hoping they pull the tape down soon. Really surprised they are making us wait this long - and I suspect it really isn't necessary since they already did the cutting the day before yesterday.

I went to lunch with some co-workers yesterday and we were talking about our various exercise routines. A couple of them got the conversation started since they were in the Zip-off weight loss challenge. One of them asked me about the name of a particular swimming stroke and I explained what I knew about it. I told them I did a modified breast stoke that adds a scissors kick.

And then things got slightly inappropriate.

One of them asked if there was a name for the stroke I did and suggested that it be called: the "serpette stroke". Someone else said that sounded kinda dirty. I replied that, "I only do that one when I'm in the pool by myself,"

Someone else added, "and you're near the filter, right?"

Well, I said it was inappropriate, didn't I?

Anyway, they were impressed that I could a 1/2 mile and we moved the conversation to less murky waters.

Other news..I seemed to have come down with a minor head cold. Took some Alkeseltzer (sp?) last night - which is an indication of how bad I was feeling because most of the time I would rather just be sick than take that foul-tasting swill. It was a little better this time around since I mixed it with cran-raspberry juice. Made for some really odd foam - but it tasted a little better. I'm better today, must have been able to fight it off last night.

Got a meeting filled day ahead of me - looks like I need to get to it. later...

driveway, swim

Quick entry - since it's almost time to go home.

1. The driveway at my apartment is, indeed, closed. So, yesterday when I came home from work I had to drive across the lawns to get to my garage. And this morning I had to cross the lawns again to get out to the road. As predicted, I was annoyed. If this keeps, I'll see if my sister wants to swap vehicles so that I can use her jeep for my off-roading adventures.

2. Swam 1/2 mile again today. The pool was very busy - I think there was a swim class going on at the shallow end.

Time to spend a few more minutes looking like I'm working, then I'm headed out.

later...

belt, driveway, blood drive

Bought a new belt recently - the old one, while reversable, was in bad shape. And I've lost a bit of weight, so it made sense to get a new one. Took me a while to find one I liked, but when I did, I thought it was broken. There was no metal bit that rotates and and gets inserted in the hole of the leather. Instead, there's a short post on the opposite side that the leather locks into. It's a little odd, but it works well and it remarkably quiet. Not that I really need a "stealth" belt in the normal course of my day or night - but still interesting.

The landlord is finally getting the driveway fixed - we'd had a section near the road that was gravel instead of concrete because they were doing work on the drainage ditch. It's now going to be replaced with concrete. Along with the next door neighbors. Take note of that little factoid, it will be important later. We've been told that it will take FIVE days before it's drivable - which seems excessive to me. And it's been suggested that we park over on a side street, where we are almost certain to be hit - or to carefully drive across the grass to get to our garage. Remember when I said the next door neighbors were having theirs done too? Yep - we have to drive across essentially three lawns to get to our garage - and no shortcuts since the ditch is impassible.

The work was supposed to start today and I'm prepared to be annoyed. In fact, I think I'm already getting warmed up for my annoyance when I get home.

In other news, I went and gave blood last night. I had an appointment, and I was a few minutes early - and it went faster than I've ever had. The only thing that slowed us down was the computer and the printer - everything else was quick and very efficient. They had a movie going, which was loud and distracting, but otherwise it was pretty standard - though very quick like I said.

And then afterwards - I got tired. So very tired. I had gone swimming yesterday at lunchtime - not sure if that was a factor or not. In any case, I was sluggish the rest of the evening and went to bed early and slept very soundly.

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

babies, swimming, another loss, more crazy people

Two posts on the same day? Well, I've got time and a lot to say - and this one is a bit more like my usual posts. Random stuff and my thoughts on the world around me. Here we go...

We got pictures of the new babies that our friends had though their surrogate - they look, as most babies do, adorable. I'm thinking about making an origami mobile for them - maybe something with fish since their new dad likes fish and aquariums quite a bit.

On Friday, I hit the still very cold and surprisingly busy pool for a swim - and made it to a 1/2 mile. I've done this once before - but not during my regular lunch time. I was pretty tired when I finished up, but I made it through. And then I had to face a cold shower since the facility was, once again, without hot water. Irksome - and itchy since I couldn't get the chlorine off of me during my brief rinse off.

One of my co-workers got some bad news this past week - one of his his good friends died suddenly. The service, and tribute concert for the former musician, was yesterday. My co-worker and I talked about this a bit - he hasn't experienced much death and I don't know if anything I said did any good. I'm hoping the service and the concert helps him deal with things a bit.

I've found myself dealing with more crazy people recently - and for a while I almost started to get used to them. I was, for a short while, finding myself on their wavelength - i.e. they almost started to make sense. Thankfully, I'm back on track and I'm annoyed by them again. So much so that I wanted to have a rubber stamp made with the word "CRAZY" on it. I could then walk around and label people on their foreheads as a warning to others. Sort of like a mission - though I suspect I would quickly run out of ink.

I guess that's it for now... I'll try to update more frequently...

life, death, and atoms

I haven't blogged in a while. There, I said it. A lot has been happening, but it was too much to try and put into text. It always ends up as a summary and some essential element gets lost.

So, this wave of things began a few weeks ago, when my room-mate found out that his dad had taken some bad falls and was in the hospital. He got checked out and they found that he had cancer in his lungs and it had spread to his brain. The prognosis wasn't good and he started to fade fast.

At the same time, two of our friends told from Columbus were expected twins though a surrogate that lived near us. As it got closer to the time for the delivery, we invited them to stay with us so they wouldn't have to make the long drive.

My room-mate is still recovering from his nose surgery at this point and I'm pretty much doing just what I do - stay out of the way and try to help everyone. It works, mostly.

The babies came first - a few false alarms and then the new parents went to the hospital for the c-section. With the four of them headed back to Columbus, we could focus on my room-mate's dad.

The poor guy was hurting, he stopped eating, and then swiftly faded mentally. His family decided to take him home and just before Memorial day weekend, he finally stopped fighting and let go. It was swift, as these things go, but it also took forever.

My room-mate was there when his dad passed away and I headed there as well not long after, with my new suit and some origami flowers, for the funeral.

The visitation hit me the hardest - just couldn't seem to wrap my head around the idea that his great story-teller had no more stories to tell. At least, none that we could hear.

One of my last projects at work before I left for that weekend was to work on a commencement speech for the university president. My small task it to take the word doc format and turn it into a web page. Most of these don't mean much to me - but this time the speech really struck me and I ended up buying the book it referenced that evening and reading it over the weekend.

The speech is here - but the section that really hit me (and it hit my room-mate as well when I shared it with him) is as follows:

"The bad news is that atoms are fickle and their time of devotion is fleeting – fleeting indeed. Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours. And when that modest milestone flashes past, or at some other point thereabouts, for reasons unknown your atoms will shut you down, silently disassemble, and go off to be other things. And that's it for you."
(Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, 2003)

My room-mate wanted me to read this at the service - but due to some massive internal strife among his siblings, I didn't get the chance.

And that part, the conflicts they are having, is the saddest bit of all. So much anger, resentment, and petty squabbling - it was terrible to watch. At a time when the family should be pulling together in their grief, they are tearing themselves apart.

I tried to stay out of it - quietly reciting the mantra of my #1 rule - "Don't (mess) with crazy people,". And I relegated myself to the "reaching of things high up" and "lifting of things that are heavy" rolls - the real problems were not things that I could fix.

So, we wrapping things up with a service on a beautiful sun-shining day. And I went back to my life - wondering about my own atoms and what they'll be when I'm gone.

...

flowers, visit, 17.28, wal-mart. movie

I'm sitting at home here on a Sunday afternoon - indoors. I was outside for a while, but after some massive sunburns in the past, I've learned my lesson and get my sunshine in small doses. And even though I'm inside, I can still smell the flowers through my open window. Better than any air freshener.

I visited my parents for Mother's day recently - had a nice time. Pretty low-key, sometimes that's the best way. We did a little yard work and took a trip to Walmart - otherwise, we just kinda hung out. My mom had a book on getting rid of clutter - after reading a few chapters I went and cleaned out my car.

Worked on a new origami project this weekend. Took apart some old diskettes and glued them to some paper. 12 sheets later and I had an origami model done. I'm not as pleased at the connections, but it is the most potentially intelligent model I've done. At 1.44 mb each (I didn't un-format them), the total memory for this project is about 17.28 mb.

I took a trip of my own to the local wal-mart - and suffered the consequence. First up, the lines were long enough that I was prompted to go to the self check-out. And the first item I tried to ring up scanned twice. So, I tried to void it out and had to wait for the clerk to clear it. Which she eventually did once she got back to her post. Not that she came over to check on things, mind you. I had a little trouble getting the DVD security to deactivate, but thought I got it. A quick debit card swipe and I was bagged and out of there - only to set off the alarm at the exit. I stopped and the guy at the door glanced in my bag, saw the CD storage case and asked if it was a camera. I replied that it was a cd storage case and he asked if I had a CD in there - i.e. was I shoplifting? I put a little tone in my voice and told him it was empty. Instead of checking my store or the rest of my bag or even looking at the receipt in my hand - he sent me on my way. Once again, the crack security at Wal-mart prevails. Now, I'd sooner gnaw off my own arm rather than shop-lift, but apparently I know how to do it now.

I watched a time travel movie with Denzel Washington last night called Deja Vu - which I think I may have seen before. (kidding!) It was a good flick - almost too intense. I had to stop watching a few times and let my brain cool down.

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

the car

The wookie and the monkey have a new ride:




Get your children off the streets - they've been watching "The Transporter"

zombies, swimming

I had a dream the other night that I was being over-run by zombies. Which is, unfortunately, nothing new in my dreaming world. This time, I had a solution. I had found a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in which the monster is brought to life with lightning AND a Latin incantation. So, I theorized that applying this "life-giving" combination to the already undead would make them human again. I woke up before I had a chance to try it out, but I was so excited that I lay there until I fell back asleep so I could try it out. It worked like a charm. We sprayed the zombies with water, then one of the other survivors hit the with electricity while I said the incantation. The zombies, normally unaffected by the electricity, fell over and became human again. Those that were too far gone died all the way at that moment, a few had to be put down to end their suffering, but a large number were still "fresh" enough to survive. I woke up again feeling quite chipper - which is a change from the after-effects of most of my zombie dreams.

I went swimming recently and got a surprise, they had re-configured the lanes. Instead of 25 yards, it was now 50 meters. Needless to say, I was freaking tired when I got done. Turns out I was actually close to 1/2 mile - only one long lap away.

So, I resolved that the next time I swam, I was going to go a full 1/2 mile. The pool was still configured the long way and I knew I needed to go 8 laps. About a 1/4 of the way through my last lap, I noticed some people standing by the side of the pool. I swam over to them and told them that when I came back through past them, I would have a 1/2 mile. I asked if they wouldn't mind cheering a bit for me. They laughed and agreed to cheer me on.

As I came past them again, heading for the finish line, they started clapping and cheering. I gave them a wave of thanks and same to the end of the pool. I got out and thanked them as I walked past - they congradulated me. So, I recruited my own little cheering section and it worked out well.

The lanes have been put back and I've gone back to swimming less than a 1/2 mile - mainly because I'm not fast enough yet to get the laps done in the time I have. I'm getting faster and I should be able to that distance during my regular lunch hour.

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

sushi update, hospital, fable, origami

The sushi was, as I expected, excellent. The whole webteam ended up doing and we had a good time. One of my co-workers and I tried to "out-wasabi" each other. It was very intense, but fun.

I took a couple of days off last week to help out my room-mate with some surgery he was having. He was in a minor car accident last December (almost hit some deer on Christmas Eve and hit a telephone pole instead) - so he was having surgery to fix his damaged nose. I did the driving and the waiting around, which was fair since he helped me out during the Great Migraine of 2007 (tm).

I waited around with my container of paper and did a bunch of folding for most of the time I was there. And I had some snacks. A few people commented on the origami, but I was mostly by myself when I finished things up so I didn't give any away - though I did leave them behind when I went to the recovery area.

My room-mate was in bad shape and still pretty well drugged up. He kept falling asleep, then snoring and waking himself back up. This in the span of a few seconds - over and over again.

The doctor released him a bit later and I took him back the next day to get the packing out. Apparently that was a difficult experience as well. I got a call at home, work related - but I was able to get it sorted out without having to go in, so that worked out okay.

The rest of the weekend has mostly just been about hanging around and picking things for my room-mate since he's not allowed to do anything intensive or bend over.

I've spent a lot of time playing fable on the computer and it's increasingly odd. I got the hero all pumped up and fierce with a sword - and so beat the game without too much difficulty. Since it's an expansion, there was more to do after that, but not too challenging. Even destroying the dragon wasn't too tough.

Once throughly beaten, I restarted the game with the intention of creating an evil character. It's strangely unsatisfying. I'm not skillful or strong enough to get away with things so my Evil is pretty minor at this point. But no one likes me, no one at all. And since most of the quests are about saving people or doing good deeds it feels a little false to rescue someone and then slaughter a village. I'm going to try and see if I can get my characters appearance to change in response to being evil (he's supposed to grow horns), but I'm not sure I'll even last that long.

I guess that's reassuring, that I'm not good at or enjoy being evil. Even in a game, I'm having a real difficult time not following the rules.

In the real world, I acquired some cool origami paper and I'm going to do some more work with the PHiZZ unit - and you can make some really huge objects with that.


Guess that's about it for now... I've got more on my mind, but it's beyond the scope of today's entry. later...

blood, jacket, fable, sushi

I went and gave blood yesterday and though I had an appointment, things still didn't really go smoothly. No one really wanted to jump in front of someone else that had walked in just because they had an appointment. It was a little awkward. Also, I had a trainee taking my blood. She was a little nervous, but did okay. The idiot in the chair next to me kept asking stupid questions and had a trainee that did not do a great job. Karma, I guess.

Anyway, I thought it was weird that a known "busy" location would have two trainees, a supervisor, and only one regular person taking the blood. Slowed things down quite a bit. The actual process was pretty easy, I usually don't have much trouble.

And I got a nifty cool jacket out of the deal - I wore it to work today.

Played fable last night, beat the arena and spared by rival (thus earning a pile of respect) and then overthrew the mayor of Bowertown after talking to her sister's ghost and learning the Terrible Truth. It was exhausting. :)

I'm headed for Sushi today with the rest of the webteam. Should be fun.

Well, got a bit of work to do before we leave, better crank up the Britney Spears and get back to it. :) later...

walmart, fable, party

There's a walmart near where I live. And I've been in walmarts that one might, if one were so inclined, consider slightly upscale. This is not one of them. I'm not going to talk about the cleanliness of the store, nor the various insanities and domestic issues that the patrons had. In fact, my concern this time isn't really for walmat at all - it's merely a vehicle for the behavior that places me in the crushing grip of rage that knows no bounds.

And that is: PEOPLE WILL NOT GET OUT OF MY F*#&ING WAY!


Every single aisle, filled to overflowing with mindless zombies wielding shopping carts designed to block the way at every turn. All I want are some snacks and a DVD - and just navigating through the store nearly did me in.

So, what to do about?

1. Change the traffic patterns so people don't have to cross a high traffic parking area to get to the store. Either make it more dangerous so that the clueless people get killed off before they can get in the store, or safer so that everyone is more relaxed and in a better mood upon entering. As it is now, it's just annoying.

2. Put some arrows on the floor. People will follow directions if they are given. A simple set of arrows in an aisle will help split up the flow of traffic in the store and create order.

3. The self-checkout can be helpful if you are only getting a few items, unless you get stuck behind a moron buying 20 pieces of crap, including items that have to be verified by a clerk, and then they insisted on paying for their purchases with crumpled bills that the scanner can't read! My solution is to have a simple IQ test before entering the self checkout area - something along the lines of a rat and a food pellet. If you fail the test, you get sent over to the regular checkout where a highly trained CSR will be happy to help you.

4. A computer controlled, voice activated, death ray. If someone near you says excuse me and you do not immediately say, "Oh, I'm sorry" and move out of the way, a laser mounted on the ceiling will fire a warning shot at you, just enough to give you a bad sun-burn. A second offense, and you're incinerated.

I don't know if that will solve all the problems, but we have to start somewhere.

In other news...

I played a kick-ass game this weekend called "Fable". You start as a generic hero who's actions influence his visual look, how townspeople react and how abilities advance. It's visually impressive with some cool RPG elements. And it's really well written as well. My character was walking along when a villager ran up and told me his wife was in danger and trapped by a Balverine. (think badger and were-wolf, and then piss it off). So, I ran after him and then got ambushed by about 20 bandits who were really pissed off that I had humiliated their leader a while back. I dispatched them, then caught up with the guy that had set me up. He apoligised and gave me a sack of gold as thanks for not kicking his sorry ass. It was really clever - I got duped just as a "real" hero might have.

Also over the weekend, I went to a party with some friends. We hung out for a bit and then played a round of Scene It - the music edition. I'm not as good with music trivia and it took most of the game to get out of the starting gate. However, I'm really good at the visual puzzles and that - along with some good rolls of the dice, catapulted me around the board and into the winner's circle. I was congradulated, but I don't think there was a lot of emotion behind it. Well, there were emotions- just not good ones. It didn't help that I gloated a bit.

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

AT&T, nightmare, church, weekend

So, I got a bill from AT&T last night. A Final Bill Revised. That alone was enough to annoy me. I've had some issues with AT&T in the past - once they delayed connecting my long distance call to give me a brief commercial - and they got an angry email from me about that. This time, though, was after I'd already canceled my service. I got a Final Bill, paid it, then got a collection notice a few days later. I called and they said the notice went out before they got my check - and that I now has a zero balance. So, the Final Bill Revised - with a charge of $.32 - was really annoying. I called and found out they had a "billing error" and that the charge would be removed. I asked that they send me a paid in full notice for my records and they said they would.

What I don't get is why I'm still in the system. I canceled my service, paid my final bill, and had a zero balance. Should be case, and account, closed. So, I'll wait for my letter and see what happens.

I had a bad dream last night - actually several, but only one really sticks out. Or in, as the case may be. In the dream, I discovered that I'd - at some point - laid down on a bunch of upholstery tacks. These are like thumb tacks, except longer and with a spiral screw-type shape. I didn't just get poked, they were screwed into my back by my own weight when I lay on them. I didn't notice them until I looked in a mirror and saw what they were and noticed the infection. So, I spent the rest of the dream trying to find someone to help me unscrew them and pull them out. Each person I would find would pull one out, but then get freaked and refuse to do any more. And I had dozens of them in my back - some so deep the infected skin was starting to cover them. Not much pain as I remember, but scary - especially since I couldn't reach them.

Which is actually a little odd since I'm limber enough to reach all of my back. I still had a lot of tacks in my back when I woke up - it was damn odd.

Over the past weekend, I went to visit my folks, my sister and my brother-in-law for Easter. We hung out, watched some movies, and went to a couple of church services. Not really my cup of tea (normally, green tea with mango) - but it was okay.

One of the movies we watched was I, Robot - which I've seen and I enjoyed - but one bit really stuck with me. The head engineering says this about robot evolution:

"When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote... of a soul? "


Heavy stuff. Well, that's about it for now, time to get back to work...

haircut, windchime

I did some running around yesterday - first to the DMV for an address change. I went the "Fill out the form and send it in for free" rather than the pay $19.50 to do it there. I missed my turn pulling into the place and ended up in some fairly not good parts of Akron. Had to use the "fundamental interconnectedness of things" method of navigation - find someone who looks like they know where they are going and follow them. As before, worked like a charm and I was back on track in no time.

I also went and bought a windchime stand which might end up annoying the neighbors. The windchime, not the stand - although it's a contributing factor.

Then, time for a haircut. And considering how indecisive I was, it's a wonder I didn't come out of there with a frosted tipped mohawk. Really unlike me, but luckily the stylist was indecisive as well and we muddled about until I just ended up with shorter hair.

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

work, sunshine, books, pecos bill

Work has been really busy recently - mostly surveys and survey software demos. I think I'm keeping up with it all, but seems like we keep getting wave after wave of small changes. Hey, job security.

We've also got to sign the same conflict of interest form we sign every year. Last time, I tried to get it turned into an electronic document - with no success. I'd really like to just check a box somewhere that says, "it's still the same as last year" - but we can't do that either. It's such a waste of time and paper.

The weather has been excellent recently and I've spent some time outside enjoying it after work. Did some reading - including a couple of zombie novels and the really excellent Daywatch book - sequel to Nightwatch, naturally. I'm looking forward to some backyard soccer and Frisbee.

A couple weeks ago, my sister and brother in law called me as I was headed off to bed. They were trying to remember lyrics/storylines to Pecos Bill and Big Bad John, respectively. So, I fired up my high-speed internet and looked them up. And then, read/sang them aloud.
That was pretty much the conversation, so we all said good-night and went to sleep.

Not too much else going on - except that I'm swimming 12 laps now without too much trouble. I think I need to stick with that for a while until I increase my speed.

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

random updates

The doctor visit went fine... some highlights:

The preliminary checks were done by a young woman who turned out to be pre-med. She asked where I worked and I told her "The University of Akron, webteam." Then I paused and continued, "I'm a geek". She responded cheerfully that, "I'm a geek too - I'm pre-med at UA"

I was a little puzzled by her jumping of the logic tracks, but I went along with it.

The doctor didn't recognize from my last trip there - "That was you?" he exclaimed. He verified that my symptoms were consistent with a bad migraine and gave me a prescription. He said his nurse would help me with a referral for an oral surgeon for my TMJ - though I haven't heard back from them yet.

I couldn't find my insurance card, but it was okay at the doctor's office. However, when I went to get the prescription filled, they insisted on having it. Which is dumb - they could have looked me up based on my last name - there's only three of us in the state. Nope - so, I had to waste a trip back there to get the over priced drugs. Which I'm only supposed to take if my head starts to get really bad.

I've had a couple migraines since then, including one that ran and hid in the presence of motrin, then came back later on the other side of my head. And my jaw is still not quite right.

But, on the positive side of things - I'm swimming even better than before. The boss was gone for the day recently and I took a little longer lunch and did 12 laps. Felt pretty good afterward.

Read some kick-ass zombie books that didn't give me nightmares - then read the book DayWatch - which did mess up my sleep. And it wasn't even as scary.

I beat the game "God of War2" - and was a little disappointed in the ending. It was too much of a set up for GoW3. Sort of like the ending to Pirates of the Caribbean (sp?) - 2. The movie was totally a set up for 3.

Working on a project at home for a big box for my cranes - plexiglass is the name of the game.

Work is busy - but I'm getting a lot accomplished.

I guess there's more stuff to talk about, but I need to get back to it. I'm going to try and get back into the habit of blogging. I think it's good for me.

back to work...

notes and a trip to the doctor

I asked my room-mate to write up some notes on the migraine day, which I've then added to so that I have a better picture of what happened. I've got a doctor's appointment this morning - I'm hoping to get a bit more clarity on what happened to me. Also got some TMJ issues going on and I think I've got a wisdom tooth coming in. Yeah, I'm a mess.

Got a bit for work to do before the appointment - better get back to it...

the purple dude photos

Got some photos of the purple dude:

http://gozips.uakron.edu/~aws/purple2.html

Busy day today, better get back to it....

music, jaw, work

Heard a cool song this morning on the radio and I found it again on youtube - been listening to it most of the day. The singer is Regina Spektor and the song is "Fidelity". Great little song, the video is pretty nice too.

My Temporal Mandibular Joint Disorder (or TMJ) has flared up again today. I yawned this morning and I felt things shift - and not shift back. Which is troubling and not a little painful. I've tried to force it back into place without much luck - I'll try and ice it up later and give it another go later. Until then, minimize talking and eating.

Work has been very busy recently, not sure what's up with that. I think we've finally got enough people that we can do more than just damage control - except that we still have to do the damage control too.

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

giant paper, bills, deposit, desk, games

I was in a meeting a while back with the Student Life office and, as I'm known to do, I folded a small person out of paper during the meeting. Though I try to be subtle and do it mainly because I'm a little bored, they were still impressed. They made mention of some banner paper they have and offered to give me some. On Friday, I decided to take them up on it. I got three sheets of about 9 ft by 3 ft of bright purple banner paper.

After work, I took over the conference room and taped the paper together. That, along with measuring and cutting down to an 8 ft by 8 inch square took me about an hour. Another 2 hours later and I'd folded it into about a 6 foot all purple person.

Why would I do it? Because I could. He won't stand up on his own - unlike his more reasonably sized bretheren - and I think I folded the waist wrong, but I'm still pleased at the result. No idea what to do with him - I guess I'll figure that out soon enough. I'll try and get pictures one of these days.

Finally got some bills for the "great migraine of 2007". The bill - which was labeled "not a bill" from the doctor's office came to $15.00 Sort of. The math was way funky on it and the final total of the co-pay is anyone's guess.

The hospital bill was quite clear. And insane. A person could take the amount I was charged for my one night stay in "hotel del wake-you-up-every-two-hours" and purchase a car. Not my car, mind you - a nicer car. With power everything and cruise control. And perhaps, a sun roof.

I'm not going to dwell on what the number actually was since this was billed to insurance and I'm not sure how much the final bill will be - but it was still insane.

Two things that do stand out:

1. Speech Pathology. This lady came into my room on Friday morning to check to see if I could swallow and speak. Valid concerns, to be sure. She fed me a variety of cold substances and placed her hand on my throat (which I despise) to check the swallowing function. She then had me read from a card - which I also did without a problem. All fine and/or dandy. Except...

The night before, they also had me read from the same card and gave me a swallow test before I had some of the most completely horrible food on the planet. I also ate again the next morning before the speech pathology lady showed up. And her final diagnosis was that I didn't need her help. I was still charged over $400 for her services.

2. The MRI. It's a really big and noisy machine. Wildly uncomfortable. And, apparently, really expensive to run. I think it was around $1200 for that session. I get that it's expensive for the hospital and they need to re-coop the costs. But, holy crap, I didn't want to buy the damn thing all by myself! I mean, if I'd known it was like that, I would have gone home and used the really strong magnets off of my fridge.

And, incidentally, I was asked what kind of music I would want to hear. I requested "Contemporary. Top 40's. No country." What do I get? It starts off with country since that was what the last wanker was listening to. Then it switches over to top 40's - from the 1940's. For that kind of money, you get Brittany Spears to come over and sing live for me. It's not like she's doing anything now except waiting for her hair to grow back out.

So, I'm cranky about the bills and waiting for the final total.

In "money coming in news" - I got the deposit back from my previous apartment. And for the full amount - which surprised me a bit since my former room-mate had done some serious damage that was beyond my capacity to fix. So, that will go in the bank and wait quietly to be blown away by my hospital bills.

My room-mate and I bought a desk over the week-end and I put it together on Saturday. It was one of those sauder ones that usually go together like legos, but this one was a bit more complicated. Still, it wasn't too bad and it looks nice, so I think it was worth the money and effort.

I also played some games this weekend - but did not really enjoy them. Kingdom Hearts 2 - a timed boss battle. Those are freaking evil. Took me 4 tries to wipe out his minions in the time allotted, then nearly had him destroyed before he threw out more minions and this time I didn't finish them in time. So sorry, start over. So, I leveled up a bit and tried it again. And did worse. So, I switched to the computer and played Fate for a bit. Then I died and was teleported up three levels, but had to leave my gold behind. Then I fought my way back down and couldn't get past a box on the floor that was blocking the path to where I'd left the money. So, I skipped it and went down another level, where the game promptly crashed. Nice...

Switched over to a Myst-style puzzle game - wandered around a freakin cave writing down numbers for the puzzles. Except, I can't seem to pick up any items for my inventory and I had to go online and look at a walk-thru to find that I could even flip over the blurry photos to see they had fragments of words written on them.

So, I turned off the computer and went to go read a book.

And now it's time to get back to work...

bananas

Last night, I dreamed I was working as a volunteer at a zoo. My job was to patrol the monkey enclosure and in this case to try and a coax a little girl out of the fenced in area, where she had snuck in - after convincing herself that she was a monkey. I was hunkered down near the opening, eating a banana, trying to lure her out - since monkeys like bananas, it seemed like a good plan. I also had to keep the other monkeys distracted so they didn't come after my bananas or attack the girl.

I woke up before I got her out of the monkey pen, but I'm pretty sure I was making progress. I got up to go to the bathroom and realized that I was still tasting bananas. Now, it's slightly possible that I sleepwalked downstairs and ate a real banana in the grip of my monkey dream - but the taste faded out far too quickly to have been real bananas.

It was pretty freaky.

Not much else going on this morning - so, back to work...

headache, swim counter, sister, movie

Had a minor blip on the migraine radar last evening - not sure if it was the real deal, but I took some motrin and slept for a couple hours. It's mostly gone, but there are still shadows of a headache lurking behind my eye. I'm a little reluctant to go back to the doctor - short of drilling a hole in my head I'm not sure what other kinds of tests they could do to tell me that, "no, it really wasn't a stroke and yes, it was a migraine,"

My swim counter worked great on Monday, I'm looking forward to hitting the water again today. I'm getting faster and stronger and I'm feeling a little less obliterated after my workouts each time - which is a good thing. I had half-way planned on lifting weights last night as well, but the blip put a damper on that one.

I traded a couple of emails with my aunt recently, she was asking me about the Great Migraine of 2007. Got me thinking back over that time period and one thing kind of jumped out at me...

I think I wrote before that my sister somehow knew something was wrong way before anyone else did - and that she's done that with other people and difficult events as well. But in addition to some Extra-sensory perception she's also got some pretty impressive standard perception. After the big headache hit - while I was recovering, but before the next one hit - my family was visiting. I was still having some speech issues at that point and though I was fighting hard to keep those under control, each time I'd have a glitch my sister noticed it. The rest of the room would be oblivious to that, but I would catch her eye and realize she'd picked up on it.

I've always known she was sharp, but I guess I hadn't given her credit for being as perceptive as she is. And for someone who prides himself on being aware of the world around him, I'm feeling a bit clueless that I hadn't really noticed it, much less commented on it. So, there we go.

In one last bit of news, I watched a 1970's remake of Dracula last night. It was fairly true to the Bram Stoker story, but the "effects" (and I use the term loosely) were really funny. Especially the paper mache bat on a string that kept banging into the windows. :)

Well, that's about it for now... got a busy, meeting filled day ahead of me. Later...

back in the swim, the Prestige, dryer, othello

So, a week since "the migraine of 2007" and I've got my trunks and goggles ready - time to get back in the pool and put another 1/4 mile under my belt - or drawstrings, as it were. Looking forward to it and I'll report again later if I should happen to drown or something.

I had planned on watching The Number 23 over the weekend, but instead watched the DVD of the Prestige instead. Damn good movie - I figured it out partway through and had the cold chills as the rest of the story unfolded. It was crazy good and creepy.

The dryer went out on Sunday - in the middle of a laundry cycle. So, I took it apart and found that the starter switch was loose and burned. I guessed that the switch got stuck in the on position and then burned out. So, we did a little driving around trying to find a place that sold replacement switches - with no luck. So, one last stop at home depot to find a switch that - while not an "official dryer switch" would function the same way. Got it home, installed it - and no luck. Then it occurred to us to check the breaker - which had also been thrown. A quick reset and a button push and the dryer fired right up.

I did a little happy dance. We've still got a switch sticking out the top of the back of the dryer, but it's not a big deal.

I also picked up the game Othello and tried to teach my room-mate. He'd never played before, but was willing to give it a try. I beat him soundly the two games we played - which is understandable since he'd never played before - but on the second game, he didn't have any pieces left and we hadn't filled the board. I'd never seen that happen before and my sister and I used to play this game all the time. Even the rules were a little vague on that point.

Incidentally, the new Othello board is inferior to the old version. The grid is raised and the tiles - which are not as substantial as the old ones - either sort of float awkwardly on the edges or get lodged in the grid. Neither of which is conducive to a high speed title flipped event.

Well, looks like a busy day here - time to get back to work...

the worst headache of my entire life - yeah, it's a fun post

On Thursday morning, I woke up with a headache - or rather, a headache woke me up. It felt like another cluster headache, but since I'd just had one recently, I was worried it was the start of a cycle. Time to get to the doctor. First, though, I had to throw up. A couple of times. It was loud enough to wake my room-mate - who graciously volunteered to take me to the doctor if I could get an appointment in the morning. I called into work and left a message, then called the doctor's office and made an appointment for about 1/2 hour later.

Then began the longest car ride of my life. Instead of getting better after throwing up, I got worse. Much, much worse. I was weeping by the time we finally got to the doctor's office and went downhill from there.

My motor skills shut down and I had no balance or strength. In a few minutes the sensitivity to light had overwhelmed me and I nearly collapsed.

The next time period is... vague. I remember trying to answer questions and follow commands, but even though I thought I understood things, my responses were coming up as gibberish. I apparently got a couple shots in the butt, had a hospital gown put on me, and had a cat scan taken. No memories of those things. I do remember them trying to take my temperature, but I couldn't even follow those simple commands. Apparently, about the only things I said that made sense were the swearing - which I feel really bad about.

Finally, whatever it was, passed. The initial results of the cat scan indicated a stroke - but they gave me some cognition tests that I managed to reboot myself into working through. My head still hurt so bad to lift it up that on one of the tests I leaned forward just enough to see the board, then leaned back and described it from memory.

I had since been transfered from the doctor's office to the hospital in the same building - but they didn't have the facilities to really help me out. So, I got transfered again to another hospital and got stuck in the emergency room for several hours. I wasn't allowed water or food and they took a lot of blood for tests. There were several waves of cognition tests and finally I was taken up to a room. More blood - some really wretched "safe food" after a swallow test - and finally lights out. My room-mate had been on the phone to get everyone in the loop and my co-workers, my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law were planning on coming up on Friday. I was awakened every couple of hours for more tests - then in the morning I had an MRI, an EEG, and a vascular ultrasound. I had a surprisingly good late breakfast, then my family arrived along with one of my co-workers. Found out that my sister had awakened not long before I did on Thursday morning and knew something was wrong, but not what. She stayed up and played playstation till she got the news.

The neurologist stopped by in the early afternoon and said that he thought that the initial dianosis of a stroke was wrong since they couldn't find anything. He said it was most likely, "just a migraine". The rest of my co-workers arrived and we talked for a bit. I still had a bit of a headache, but I was in good spirits.

So, with a suggestion that I carry a mega-dose of Motrin with me at all times, I was discharged. My co-workers headed out and my parents followed my room-mate and I back to our place. I got cleaned up and we went out to lunch. We did a little shopping while I tried to gauge my recovery. We had dinner with them before they headed home and I went to bed.

At 4:30 Saturday morning, I woke up again with a headache. I took a couple Motrin and went back to sleep for 6 hours. Then woke up, took 4 more, then slept until evening. Even still, the headache lingered until late in the evening. It was gone this morning, but a coughing spell brought back a trace.

So, not a stroke. Which is good news, especially since I'm only 34. And yet, I find it a little difficult to believe it was just a migraine. I was gone, and I scared a lot of people with my behavior. Looking back, I had all the symptoms of a stroke and chalking up the "mis-read" of the cat scan to improper positioning on the scanner seems a little off.

I'm still a little off - still a little not back in gear with the world. I'm going to try and go to work tomorrow and see how it goes. And I'm going to have flowers sent to the nurse I swore at when the bottom fell out.

It may be the single weirdest time of my life so far. Thanks to everyone who helped me through it and who visited me in the hospital. And especially to my room-mate, who got way more than he bargained for when he volunteered to take me to the doctor's office.

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

1/4 mile, headache, move

I swam a 1/4 mile today at the pool. I think it helped that the rest of the lanes were taken over by a high school swim meet - I was motivated by the people racing past me in the other lanes as well as the screaming crowd. They weren't screaming for me, obviously, but it was still nice. I feel pretty good and I think it was more than a fluke. My next goal will be to do the 1/4 mile non-stop.

I said "headache" in the subject area - but this was a cluster headache. It started out as sun glare, which I later discovered was a trigger, then it turned into that visual incident when you glance at the sun and see spots. Then another, more funky visual distortion, and then the headache kicked in. Wikipedia describes these as the "suicide headaches" - and I can believe it. I thought I was going to be okay, but then the nausea kicked in. So, I left work early and went home to rest. I was better after awhile and was able to fight my way past the pain and finished up the move out from my old apartment. I left the keys there and shut off the lights. Just a tiny bit sad - I'd lived there since 98 after all, but it was a good decision.

So, that's about it for now - time for me to get back to work and save the day. later...

catching up, moving, swimming, work, candid, Kathy Griffin, weekend

It's been a while since I blogged, though it's not for lack of news. Nope, I've just been very busy with work and with home as well.

The biggest news is that I'm moving - or rather, nearly done moving. Got a new place with a garage, and a new room-mate. So, I've been working on moving all my stuff to the new place day by day - though we've made a few trips in a borrowed van as well. It's been tiring and I feel like I've been moving forever, but I think I'm in the home stretch. Just a few more items, then some clean-up and I'll be done. And then I have to start on sorting out the cardboard disaster in the basement - it's been the dumping ground for all the boxes that we don't know what to do with.

I've been keeping up with my swimming, bumping up to 7 laps a couple of times. The other day, the hot water was out in the pool building - which made for a very cold shower. My stamina is improving and I think I'm getting a stronger so once things are settled in my new place I think I may start using the bowflex again.

Work has been busy, doing a lot more with graphics and some programming. Trying to learn more about CSS - I think I may end up redoing my site again in that format.

Along those lines, one of my colleagues looked though my site and said that he was surprised at how candid I was and that I must be pretty secure here. Which struck me as a little odd since I thought I tended to be circumspect and not use names + keeping things a little vague. I think my boss has seen this and since he hasn't said anything about it, I guess I'm in the clear.

Also in work news...I conducted a really good training session yesterday for a student group. Seemed like they understood what I was talking about and they laughed at my jokes - so, it was cool, though my voice started to fade out. I also trained some folks with the board of trustees and got some really nice compliments.

Went and saw Kathy Griffin last night - freaking hillarious. She was on fire from the moment she walked on the stage and didn't let up. Great stories, a lot of swearing, totally funny.

This weekend I'm heading down to visit my folks for my sister's birthday. Should be a fun trip and I'm really looking forward to cake and some time in the hot-tub. Though not at the same time. I've been tired and sore from the cold and the move - and I've already got my suit packed.

Well, that's about it for now - time to get back to work...

deeply cranky, swimming, games, Descent

I'm not sure entirely what triggered it this morning - but I've been cranky since I got to work. Wait, I think I just figured out what started it...

Anyway, I've been cranky all morning. Snarky, even. Biting comments, grumbling, and occasionally growling. It's been a lot of "People insisting on doing things wrong" and "People making things more difficult than they need to be"

So, I figured I should go get a swim and I'd feel better. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? Well? No, apparently, it isn't. Or I did something wrong 'cause I'm still cranky.

I'll get over it, eventually, but for now I'm thinking of putting up the orange cones in front of my cube as a warning.

So, swam again today - 6 laps. Tired when I got done, but no longer feeling like I might die. Which is a step in the right direction.

Played a game over the weekend called Dungeon Siege. Pretty good, though it's got some quirks. For starters, no teleport option. So, no gathering a bunch of loot and teleporting home to sell it. Nope, you gotta carry all that shit to the next town - however far away that might be. The answer to this is to buy a mule to carry the loot around. So I did. And then poor Midnight got scared during a fight and ran the wrong way. He promptly got beaten unconscious by a pack of trolls. I was really pissed off and set all the trolls on fire. They hate that. So, it was on. Later on I shot an arrow at a box that turned out to be filled with explosives. Mistake. It killed three of my characters instantly. And all their stuff fell on the ground. I revived them and spent the next 20 minutes trying to sort everything out. It was like going to Burger King and getting custom orders for a bunch of people.

"Okay, who had the Granite Great Sword of Bashing? Come on, one of you had to have it,"

"These aren't my gloves! I'm an archer, not a magician,"

"I wanted 2 rings of health and I'm not sharing,"

It was annoying. But, otherwise, a good game. I also beat Onimusha 3 on easy mode. Pretty cool swords and a whole lotta ass kicking.

I also watched Descent this weekend. There were a few "pants-wetting" moments, but once you got used to the pacing of the movie you could tell when they were coming. The ending was a little weak and the characters were a little one-dimensional, but not a bad flick.

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

atm, onimushu 3, work

Generally speaking, I like ATMs. Given the frequently unhelpful bank hours, an ATM is a pretty handy thing. Lately, however, they've begun to annoy me.

1. My bank's ATM now prompts for language as the first selection. English or Espanol. Which, considering how I'm never leasurely at an ATM, seems like a wasted step. A better plan would be to have the transaction prompt first, with an extra button at the bottom that refreshes the screen in Spanish should the user choose that prompt.

2. There's an ATM on campus that, even though no one is using it, sits there and quietly talks to itself in a woman's crisp british accent. It's damned creepy.

3. Finally, I was at an ATM yesterday that:

a). prompted me for a language.
b). then asked me if I wanted an account balance. Which, though this isn't my bank and they would charge me a fee, I thought it would be helpful and said yes. It promptly spit out my account balance and then asked if I wanted another transaction.

Wait, what? No, I wanted an account balance WITH my transaction. Why ask that first and make it a separate transaction? Do people just wander around and think, "Hey, I wonder how much money I've got in the bank?" Does that transaction ever just happen on it's own?

So, cranky now, I proceeded to initiate another transaction and withdraw some money for lunch - which it was I was trying to do all along. This time, it gave me the money and spit out even more paper - but without an updated account balance. Wasted a lot of paper on that one. I got my money and left - cash in hand, but still cranky.

I've been playing Onimushu 3 - good game. Ran into some trouble for a while, got better at dodging and blocking - and now I'm kicking some serious ass.

Work... ugh... saving the day - again. Getting tired of this last nano-second crap. Our new programmer is starting on the 29th - still trying to hire a graphics person. Hope they can hit the ground running and help us out.

Well, gotta get back to it...

34, driving, work

I went to visit my parents and my sister last weekend for my birthday. I turned 34 on Saturday - and people keep asking me if I feel older. And I don't - but apparently I look older.

The student assistant working with our group and I were talking on Friday and I mentioned I had shaved off my goatee because it was so gray. He said, "I don't even know how old you are - 40?"

When I reacted with shock, he quickly back-peddled and came up with 32. I told him I'd be 34 on Saturday. Then I said, "40!?!? You're fired!"

I didn't really fire him and we had a good laugh about it. He's only 19, so I can't really fault him for guessing poorly on ages.

I did a lot of driving this past weekend and encountered some of the longest patches of fog I've ever seen. Pretty intense and rather surreal.

Classes started here yesterday and other than more people being around in the student center for lunch, things done feel too different for our group. I guess parking is even more of an issue this semester, but I get here real early in the morning so it's not too bad.

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

barry, swim, birthday, games, good deed

After I posted my "copacabanna" lyrical incident, my sister called me when I wasn't home and - with no preamble or closing comment - sang what she knew of the song to get it restuck in my head. While I was planning a rebuttle, she emailed me the complete lyrics and again got it stuck in my head.

Problem being is that she uses her cell phone as her primary phone, so it's tough to catch her at a time when she "wouldn't" answer her phone - since I wanted to leave a message. She had class last night and I called and left her my own message. I sang the entire "Mandy" song all the way through and then hung up. Which is an extra funny selection if you know my sister.

She called me later that evening and was impressed that I sang it all the way through. We had a good laugh.

Swimming - I'm up to 6 laps in my thrice weekly swim - but I'm having trouble keeping track of the numbers. I was using varied strokes to help me keep track, but I only know so many strokes and I loose track easily. I need to get one of those lap counter watches.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I turn 34. Heading down to visit my folks for the day - should be a quiet, but fun, time.

Games - I got a number of gifts cards for christmas and have put them all to good use. Managed to score several "new to me" video games and I've been enjoyed them. Also picked up season 1 of Justice League - good stuff. I'm a big fan of the Flash, but when the Green Lantern says his oath I do get the chills a bit - it's really well done.

Got a call from my ex-roommate's mom. She's been in the hospital and asked if I would take her mother to the store for a few things. So, I hopped in the car and helped out with the errands. While we were out, the following items were purchased:

1. a bag of ice
2. stamps
3. scratch off lotto tickets
4. lotto numbers
5. newspaper

So, there's my good deed for the week. Did you see that one, God? Write that one down somewhere. "Helped little old lady buy lotto tickets,"

Granted, not as good as picking her up from Bingo during a driving snowstorm a few years ago - but still worth some good karma points.

Anyway, I was glad to help out. They're both a little crazy, but in a fun and non-scary way.

Well, I've got a slew of meetings coming up now, time to get back to work...

song, grandma, gift cards

I woke up this morning, after a series of dreams about work, with the song - "Copacabana" running through my head. I've been trying to scrub it out with some help from iTunes and YouTube, but even the most bubble-gum-ish top 40's pop isn't enough to purge it from my head.

In other, less disturbing news, I got a call from Dad with an update on Grandma. She's home and doing better. I called her last night and we chatted a bit. Seems like she was in good spirits and we had a nice conversation.

I got a pile of gift cards for christmas this year - looks like I get a second wave of christmas this year while I do some shopping for myself. Which is always quite nice.

So, that's about it for now - except that it appears that I'm the only one in my group here today. Could be a really quiet - or a really busy - day.

later...

recap of the holidays

I had a sort of pre-christmas with some friends, then headed south to visit the folks. My sister and her husband came over early for dinner, presents, and a trip to see the Zoo Lights in Columbus. The lights were really impressive, but after a while - when pretty much everything was covered in lights - it started to all look the same. So we headed out and called it a night.

Christmas eve - very late - I got a call that one of my friends had been in a car accident. A relatively minor one, but still worrying.

Christmas morning was just my folks and me - though my sister came back for lunch. We had all been planning on heading to Illinois - but my sister wanted to spend time with her husband and I wanted to head back to see if I could help my friend out - since his car was in bad shape.

So, we all headed out the day after christmas. I was able to help out my friend with some driving around and watched a bit of Dick Clark for the new year's eve ball drop.

Might be my increasing cynicism, but the New Year's eve show was kinda pointless. Dick Clark was not looking good and the rest of the crew seemed like they were having an almost enforced excitement. When you get down to it - it's really just another tick of the clock. One funny thing - I called my folks at 12:07 to wish them a happy new year - they'd been asleep since 10:30. I felt bad, but it was funny.

What wasn't funny was my happy new year call to my grandmother yesterday evening. I asked how she was doing and found she was headed to the hospital. She'd been hurting much of the day and the medicine wasn't helping her. I cut the call short as my uncle was arriving to take her in. Not so much a happy new year for her - I hope she's okay.

So, I'm back to work - got a meeting in a few that I'm not looking forward to, but those are the breaks. That's it for now...

there and back again, interview, shopping

Last night I got a call at home from the boss. Seems like the changes we'd made to the home page weren't working properly in IE. So, I had to go in and either fix (and it was code that I wasn't familiar with and/or it was unfixable) - or restore from backup. The backup was the easier route and I had things back in a few minutes. Still, I was cranky about it.

We've got an interview today with a web developer - we'll see how it goes. As a consequence, I'm wearing a tie. Well, not really wearing yet - it's draped around my neck like a scarf until I'm done with my swim today. No way I'm tying this thing more than once in a day.

In other news... apparently, I've got a bit more shopping to do. Small things, but still needs to be done.

Watched the remake of "The Wicker Man" last night before my little trip back to work. Good movie.

I guess that's about it for now. back to work...

Holiday party, no swim, hand-made, tires

Yesterday was the division wide holiday party. We had pizza, chicken, pasta, and lots of desserts. There was a visit from the school mascot - Zippy - and classical music performed by students here at UA. We also had a game show and prizes.

I was on the committee and it was a great honking pile of work. But, I think everyone had fun so it was worth it.

I didn't go swimming yesterday - too tired, though I felt bad about skipping it. I'll be going again on Friday and I may even try to go today as well - depends on how I feel and how screwed up my morning becomes.

Finished up a couple of Origami presents that I'd made for people and got them wrapped last night. Nothing real complicated, but I think they turned out well.

And finally, I've some new tires and wheels to put on my car this evening. Or rather, to have put on my car since I'm not going to be doing it myself.

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

sore, ennui, holidays

I swam again today - and sort of felt bad about it. I was the only one in the pool and the lifeguards had to climb up in the little chair and watch that I didn't drown. Got to be one of the most boring jobs on the planet. Couldn't have been interesting to watch - swim to end, stop and pant, swim back. I did try to mix up my strokes a bit so that might have made it more interesting, but that was only because I'm not very good and I get tired.

And sore. This is the first time I've gone swimming in a while and actually been sore afterwards. Which is not a bad thing, just kinda odd since it didn't feel like I worked any harder.

In other news... I got hit by a massive wave of ennui yesterday. Wikipedia says: "ennui describes weariness or annoyance over a long period of time"

I don't know if a day constitutes a long period of time, but I was more weary and annoyed than those words can really cover.

I think part of it is the holidays - which haven't really been a heck of a lot of fun for me in a while. They are so endlessly stressful and even the simple task of going to the mall - or anywhere near the mall - becomes a grueling experience. I'm essentially done with my shopping at this point and everything is wrapped - so at least that part is done.

Shopping for other people (not nearly as fun as shopping for ones self), trying to spend "just the right amount" and get "just the right gift" for everyone who ended up on my list, and then the travel - which I dread.

I'm trying to be festive and not bring the people around me down - but I don't think I'm doing a great job of that. And hey! More guilt.

And I know I shouldn't feel like this. It's supposed to be a happy time. I'd try and chalk it up to some kind of SAD, but the nice weather refutes that.

So, apply Happy Face (tm) and soldier on through. And I know that I'll enjoy parts of if and will wonder why I was so cranky earlier. Still, it all feels a little empty to me. The Christmas spirit seems to have passed me by.

Enough of this rambling - nearly time to go home and do a bit of cleaning. Yep - I'm a party animal. Later...

watching time

I've got, as it may be abundently clear, a few issues. Not any real bad ones, just a few small ones that don't have much of an impact on my life. One of those is a strong dislike for unfinished timers. Particullary on microwaves - where someone has had a timer going or had been cooking some food and stopped it before it went off - thus obscuring the clock that we would otherwise see there. Though I can resist it, I'd really rather hit that clear button and go back to the clock. I also enjoy setting clocks that have lost their way due to power outage or daylight savings time.

And I think I've finally figured out why these hidden or disrupted clocks bother me. On more than one occasion - and more frequently with the clock in the bathroom - I've glanced at an analog clock just after it ticks over to the next second. It may not have even come to a full halt, but I've caught it at the critical time and have watched the whole second from start to finish.

And, I've got to tell you - that's a long freaking time if you're paying attention. It feels like more than a second passes before the next tick of the clock.

At the quantum level, observation changes things. That's one of the reasons a quantum computer - as super cool and powerful as it would be - is tough to build. If you look at it, things change.

And I guess a fear - or strong concern - is that if I hadn't been watching the clock at that instant, would it have gone on forward? Maybe time only exists in a linear fashion because we're watching it.

There are, fortuanatly, a lot of people here on planet earth and many of them are more obsessed with time than I am. Maybe that was my second to watch, to keep track of thing and keep them moving forward.

And if I can't see the foward progression of time - like on a stopped timer on a microwave - what if I miss the next instant that I'm supposed to observe?

Would everything... stop?

It doesn't keep me up at night - but it does give me pause. And whenever I see a stopped clock, I try to make it right. Just in case I need it...

back to work...

dangers of safety

I recently walked past some construction and went to step over the Caution tape that had broken and was on the ground. The wind caught it and nearly got tangled up around my foot.

Then, I was in a restaurant and almost ran into a "caution: wet floor" sign.

And then, I almost slid on the partially melted salt that was supposed to protect me from the ice that had long since melted.

I'm totally going to be killed by my seat-belt before I can even get my car started some morning.

later...

good, but also stupid

I went to Eat and Park last evening for dinner - or rather, tried to. See, the new smoke free Ohio went into effect last night - prompting the short-term closure of the normally 24 hour restaurant. Eat and Park closed last night at 8:00 PM - and I had arrived at 8:06. They were closed in order to clean the smoking section of the restaurant - but why that necessitated closing the whole thing remains a mystery. Sandblasting of the walls? Sub-Sonic pulses to remove trace particles from the carpet? Concentrated mists of Lye in the air? I don't know - and I ended up going to Steak and Shake since they have been smoke free for a while and weren't affected by the change over.

Incidentally, the smokers in my building are already looking for loop-holes.

So, ultimately good - but also kinda stupid.

In the same catagory is the Loyalty Oath that's come up recently. This essentially says that "I'm not a terrorist and I don't help terrorists". And you have to sign it before you can work here.

Which is great. I'd rather not work with terrorists - but it's also worthless. Are they going to say, "Oh, sorry. I totally forgot I was a terrorist, I can't sign this,"

Nope. They're going to lie. I mean, if they really are a terrorist then a little lie on some paperwork is the least of their worries.

So, we get more paperwork, a little bit more fear that "they're potentially everywhere" and then a little false sense of security that we've got some paperwork to protect us.

And on that note - I've got some forms to fill out. So, back to work...

1/8 mile, soy sauce, courtesy

I swam again today. Still only getting 1/8 of a mile, but I'm not as close to death as I had been - so, progress.

At the student union today I got sushi again, along with fried rice and some juice. It used to be that soy sauce was distributed in little packets - which were easy to stow in a pocket for transport. They've done away with those and switched to the following system:

An old-fashioned squeeze bottle (like for ketchup or mustard - except clear) filled with soy sauce, along with little plastic containers and appropriately sized lids.

You dispense sauce into said contain, acquire and affix the lid - and then hope to God that you've got the lid on there securely or you'll be wearing the sauce in no time.

I managed, with some difficulty, to get back to my desk without spilling anything - but it was a windy and harrowing experience. I was annoyed by this.

And speaking of annoying - what is it with chicks and doors? I was entering a covered walkway and held the door for the woman behind me. She thanked me - then took off in a full-on powerwalking moded. And as such, she managed to get ahead of me - even with my height/long legs and impressive stride that I usually command. Still, I was only a little behind her when she exited the walk-way - and she let the door slam in my face with nary a backward glance.


grumble, grumble.

Well, that's it for me now... time to get back to work...