17.28 revisited, washer/dryer, sore

So, I finally got around to getting a picture of the 17.28 mb origami piece I did way back in May. I also got some shots of more recent projects.

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

The washer and dryer got delivered yesterday - though it was a near thing. We set up the time for "after 5:00" - but they called my room-mate at 7:44 yesterday morning to confirm the delivery of the washer in the morning and the dryer in the evening. He got them corrected and both were delivered at around 5:30 in the evening. We got them hooked up, but since the crew tested them on-site, we didn't bother with any laundry last evening. I'll report on the first run when we get around to it.

I'm still a little sore from my walk around on campus - but it was worth it. I'm hoping the swim today will loosen me up.

Well, I'm hoping for a quiet day today, but I'd better get back to it.

later...

halloween 2007

The day off yesterday for my annual campus walk around has put me behind schedule - so, this will have to be quick.

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

This year I was Sobek, one of the gods of the dead from ancient Egypt. People really enjoyed it and I had a lot of fun with the building of the costume and getting to share it with people.

Gotta get back to work - enjoy the photos...

party, portal, suit, grandma, trips

Went to a halloween party on Friday - had a lot of fun. My costume was more "party friendly" than last year, but it was still a bit awkward to move around in. There were some really great costumes there and a few store bought ones as well. My room-mate won a prize for his "mrs. doubtfire" costume and I won one as well for mine. I also scared the crap out of one of the kids that was there - which I felt bad about publicly, but was secretly pleased about.

Tried to play Portal over the weekend, but the servers were always down. Took me two days to download the content of the game, but you can't play it unless you are connected. It bites. I'm going to try again today if it fails, I'm going to fire off an angry email.

Got a new swim suit over the weekend as well - ordered it from SwimOutlet. It's a speedo variant - square cut with extra material for more drag in the water. Feels "more official" - if I'm serious about swimming, I should have the gear for it. The goggles I got are called "vanquisher" - so, I've got that going for me as well.

Talked to my grandmother yesterday - she's recovering from back surgery. She seemed to be in pretty good spirits and we had a good conversation. She's still hurting, but on the slow mend.

I'm going to visit my folks and my sister and brother-in-law this coming weekend for my mom's birthday - then not long after that my sister and brother-in-law will coming up my way and will stay overnight at my place. So, should be fun. I can show them all the sites of Akron - and then after we've spent 10 minutes with that, we can find something fun to do.

Well, that's it for now. I'll have photos after Wednesday when I do my walk-around.

later...

smell

The bathrooms here at work are right off of the kitchen area. I would like to take this opportunity to describe the smells.

1. Imagine that someone made macaroni and cheese with one of those stinky cheeses, then mixed in cooked and rotted onions. Next, they heated this up with not a microwave, but a flaming bag of cow-poo. This was the smell in the kitchen.

2. Pine scented urinal cake. This would be the smell in the men's restroom.

Is it time to go home yet? Please?

Okay, how about now? Maybe?

(sigh) - fine, be that way. But if those smells contain some kind of mutagen and I grow an extra eye in the middle of my forehead - you're paying for the custom glasses.

later...

pool + TV

Went for my swim today and noted a few things they have done as improvements to the pool area.

1. Retiled/painted one of the walls near the locker room. The chemical stench was astonishing.
2. Replaced the main entrance doors - the new ones have bigger windows that let someone see the current pool lane configuration, which is handy.

3. They installed a big screen tv (like one panel of a jumbotron).

I'm guessing this is for swim meets - but I can't figure why they would have it on during a regular day. There are two groups of people in the pool area when I swim.

a) those in the pool - generally preoccupied with swimming and/or not drowning
b) Lifeguards, who generally should be watching group A

Seems like a waste to me and potentially dangerous, but I don't recall getting a survey about this so I suspect my opinion on things is not exactly welcome.

later...

crazy, lights, costume, washer/dryer, TGI Fridays

Those bluetooth cellphone ear pieces annoy me. It used to be that you could tell which people were crazy by the way they walked around talking to themselves in public. Now, you have to be at the correct angle to see this thing in their ear and make a determination. Doesn't seem fair. I think they should wear some kind of sign or t-shirt. "I'm not crazy, I'm on the phone"


They physical plant sent a crew over to begin replacing the lights in our cube farm. They gotten the ones above my desk (leaving little snippets of wire all over the place) and now the lights are exceptionally bright and - for some reason - slightly pink. I'm not a fan of bright lights, as I may have already mentioned. It's like I'm being interrogated back here or something. I'm really hoping this are super high efficiency bulbs or something, or I'm going to be very cross. And I'm thinking about rigging up some kind of filter or something.

Had a minor technical difficult with my costume last night, but got it resolved. It's now sturdier than it had been - so, that's good. I'm going to a costume party tonight - should be fun. My costume is more "party friendly" than last year. :)

The washer and dryer that my former room-mate and I bought at the old apartment are on their last legs, so my new room-mate and I went to Lowe's last night to get a new set.

(FYI - the old dryer has a broken start button that I had to replace with a make-shift switch and no longer stops the heat, rotation, or - most annoyingly - the buzzer when the timer expires. The washer is pitted on the inside and tends to unbalance frequently)

After a great deal of discussion and consultation with the store clerks, we decided on the high-efficiency washer dry combo. Pricey, but using less water and energy seemed like the responsible thing to do. Then there was an issue of in stock vs. floor model. It took the clerk a long time to find one at another store and then arrange for delivery. Annoyed me a bit - there's a point where "just-in-time" starts to impact the customer and that's where we were. The last step was to pay for the set and we did that at the register up front. I also bought a push room - mostly for the irony of the purchases. We'll end up with some gift cards and rebates out of the deal, but it was still a lot of money.

So, with that set, we headed over to TGI Friday's for some serious gorging. I got a turkey burger, fries, fried green beans, and some kind of chocolate dessert. The staff had to roll me out of there.

That's pretty much it for now... back to work... later.

40 laps, a bit of humor

Since I'm working late this evening (got a late meeting) - I decided to swim a bit longer at lunch today to balance it out. I had a massive leg cramp at lap 26 - had to stop and work it out. Once I got going again, I cruised right to lap 30 - then decided to go ahead and do a mile (36 laps) - and I was still feeling pretty good so I did 4 more laps - taking me up to a new personal record of 40 laps. I think I could have done 5 more, giving me a mile and 1/4, but I had a meeting that meant I was running out of time.

So, I'm very tired, but doing ok otherwise. Also, the lifeguard blew his whistle early on and we all stopped and looked at him. He said, 'You're okay, I was just kidding'

Ummm... boy who cried wolf?

Anyway, this afternoon I got an email from a user saying:

"I have heard from several people that you are quite helpful and knowledgeable."

to which I replied:

"Helpful and knowledgeable? Yes, but not at the same time. "

:)

So, that's it for now - gotta run. later...

swearing, battery, swim

I ran out of swear words last night.

Now, much like the father in A Christmas Story, I know how to swear. I'm good at it, I practice, and I'm always careful to stretch first.

But last night, I exhausted my lexicon. I was reduced to a repetitive and stammering mess.

The reason? My car. It wouldn't start when I tried to leave work yesterday - so I called my room-mate to come and jumpstart it. That was enough to get me home - it needed to be re-jumped to get me to AutoZone. I left my car running and locked and with an extra key in my pocket I headed in to get a new battery.

I had to wait in line at the counter why a young mother explained to the clerk how she would have been in the demolition derby last year, only she got pregnant. Her husband went instead and lost a tooth - the clerk suggested that he should have played hockey instead and saved the car.

Such wit!

In my mind, their heads both exploded but in reality, I just waited quietly until it was my turn and made my very heavy purchase.

Back home, my room-mate and I removed the old battery - and faced off against some intense corrosion and increasingly stripped bolts. Hence the swearing.

We finally got the old battery out of there and easily installed the new one. My car started up like a charm and today I'm going to take the old battery back to AutoZone and maybe see about getting the alternator checked - just to be sure.

In other news... I swam 28 laps yesterday. I think I'm getting a little faster again.

Got to go to a meeting now... later...

psp, timbaland, truck, dreams, costume

I went to the new Target that just opened up near my apartment over the weekend to buy a PSP. The store was extra shiny and I'm hoping they stay there for a long time.

Anyway, the PSP is pretty cool - but the power cord seems to be, well, loose. I'm going to see if it settles in for a few days or so - otherwise, I guess I have to ship it back to Japan or something.

I also bought the new Timbaland CD. It had already passed my 'two good known songs' test - and one of those is just amazing (apologize..timbaland ft one republic). The downside, though, is that he used... well, the "N" word in a lot of his songs. I just skip past them - but it's annoying. I had a black room-mate for a while that declared me "honorary black" a few years ago - but that's not enough to make me comfortable with that particular word. I don't get why anyone, no matter the circumstances, would use a word like that. Seems that no good could come of it.

In other news... another truck tailgated me again this morning. Time to get out the mirror.

I had some odd dreams last night, but at least I know where they came from.

1. I dreamed that I was on a walk and stopped under an apple tree. I picked an apple and took a bite, and spit it out immediately since there was a huge worm in it. I dropped the apple, and looked down to see there were worms all over the ground. And then a few maggots fell out of the tree onto and I ran away screaming like a little girl while trying to brush them off.
Later in the dream I ended up in a house with a pet dog. A maggot that I'd missed fell off my shirt into the food dish where it promptly started eating a scrape of meat. The dog tried to eat the maggot and the meat and I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. I tried to stop the dog and then woke up because I had to use the bathroom.

Source - I watched "the fly" over the weekend.

2. In another dream, I was trying to play a Nintendo video game (with the cartridges) and each of the levels had an old tv show episode recorded over it. Apparently, my room-mate had gotten some wires crossed and recorded the tv onto the Nintendo. Pretty sure that's impossible, but there you go.

Source - I was trying to help him burn some CD's from Napster - plus, I think the new media format for the PHP was in there as well.

Finally, worked more on the costume this weekend. It's going really well, just a few more minor things to wrap up. I've even cleaned up my work area in the basement.

Well, that's about it for now... busy week ahead, including a couple of late evenings.

later...

lights, game

My drive into work in the mornings - if I'm on-time - is generally pretty dark. And while I don't exactly enjoy driving in the dark, I don't really mind it so much. Except for one thing: when some complete wanker in an overisized-I'm-over-compensating-for-something-really-really-small truck pulls up close behind my car. And that happened again this morning. My first thought was, if you need 7 passenger seating in your truck, just go buy a freaking mini-van. My second, and the more important thought to this topic, was "man, that's really bright".

It's those damn headlights. Since the truck sits so much higher on the road, the headlights are also higher and tend to shine directly into my car. Filling it with light. I think this particular wanker was using his highbeams as well, 'cause that can't have been the normal headlights.

It was nearly blinding and I do not like bright lights- especially since my eyes were used to a dark.

To make matters worse, he pulled up behind me at a stop light. So, I'm trapped and blinded.

Nice.

Fortunately, I turned left and the truck turned right. I managed to get away once the light changed.

It was still annoying and, well, rude.

a. If you must have a truck that big - well, you really don't need one that big. It's silly and a waste of resources.

b. Stop freaking tailgating the cars on the road.

c. If you keep doing it, I'm going to get a big-ass mirror and shine that light right back at you.


All of this rant may have been sponsored by Final Fantasy XII - since I stayed up way too late last night playing. My characters took on a huge freaking dragon and totally kicked it's ass - then had to walk a few miles back to a save point. Good game.

That's about it for now - other than I'm glad it's Friday. Later...

costume, wiring

I went to a few stores looking for an item for my costume and finally ended up at a Halloween USA. This is one of those seasonal places and while the selection wasn't as good as I expected, I still found something that will work.

Paying for my purchase, though, was a little tricky. The cashier rang it up as $2.37 instead of the correct price of $24.37 - ummmm, oops? So, the manager needed to come over and void it out, then re-run it. Took a long time.

The next day I was in Wal-mart and bought some speaker wire and a case of water. I picked the "10 items or less" lane - thinking it would be faster. Especially since there was only one person in front of me.

Mistake. Her purchases came to $5.64 - she tossed a $5 on the counter and spent the next 5 minutes rooting through her duffel-bag sized purse for the exact change. Meanwhile, I'm standing behind her holding a case of water and wondering if she'll ever be done. At one point, I started to shift my weight to see if I could get to my wallet and throw a dollar into the mix - since it would have been worth it to get moving.

She finally counted out the last penny and moved on. I paid with a debit card.

Also over the weekend, my room-mate (who's working on a case of bronchitis) decided to get a new receiver and dvd player/recorder. He spent several hours on the set-up with a lot of swearing and finally got it working - except that the video from the dvd player wouldn't get to the tv.

I tried a few combinations, then unplugged everything and started over. Took a little bit until I gave up on the instructions and just winged it. The DVD player has a weird sleep mode, but once we got past that, we were good to go. I'm going to try and tackle the speakers this afternoon.

Also had a request to fix an antique fan that some friends of mine own. Not really my area of expertise, but I do know how to take things apart and poke at them - and then usually put them back together. I stopped by their place, but they weren't home. I'll try again today, perhaps.

I guess that's it for now, time to get to work...

forgetten id, annoyed

I forgot my ID this morning - didn't realize until I was in the parking lot at work that the card was at home in my shirt pocket from the day before.

To get in the building, I had to use the buzzer and since it was so early, only the custodian was here - he let me in without a problem.

The day has been pretty ordinary and the forgotten ID hasn't been an issue. Until I got to the pool.

I recognized the attendant and explained that I had forgotten my ID - could they use my driver's license to look me up?

No, in fact, they couldn't. Instead, he had to get on the walkie-talkie and call for assistance. We waited a few minutes until that assistance came - and it turned out to be someone I knew and that knew me. He thanked me for the work I'd done on this website and commented on how well things were working. Then he handed me a paper form to fill out.

Now, I'm pretty sure the guy at the desk knew me. And the manger knew me as well. And hell, he owed me for the work I'd done. With that in mind, there's also about 1/2 dozen different ways that I could have verified my identity for them as well.

But, no, I had to fill out the paper form. And then handed it to manager. He didn't verify any of the information on the form - didn't even ask for my license. He just took the form and sent me on my way. I went ahead and had my swim, then stopped at the student union and paid cash for my lunch.

Under normal circumstances, I hand my card to the desk attendant and they swipe it and hand it back. But it's only marginally about verifying that I'm allowed in there. More importantly, apparently, is getting that card swipe and adding to their stats for the day.

In every way except that card, I had or could verify who I am. Instead, I was "punished" by having to fill out a stupid and pointless form that will be shoved in a file cabinet and never seen again.

It was stupid. Pointless and stupid. Everyone was very friendly - but they were trapped by a system.

So, chalk it up to a lesson well learned and try and get over being annoyed.

back to work...

dream of toilets and dorm rooms

Last night - or rather earlier this morning - I dreamed that I was back in college, sharing a gigantic dorm room with a former co-worker. The room was so big, we had two toilets - except one wasn't hooked up and functioned more has a heavy ceramic bedpan. My room-mate had filled it with water and then used it - and then left it behind when he left the room. I was about to dump it into the other toilet when a neighbor walked in and poured the contents of the toilet on the floor. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and - displaying more violence than I actually get to do in real life - I shoved him out the door while swearing profusely.

In the seconds it took to get him outside the dorm room, two things happened. One, he managed to tear my shirt and scratch me - resulting me being literally covered in my own blood from an injury I couldn't even feel. And two, the police showed up along with the hall manager who then prompted arrested the toilet spiller and from their tone - sent him straight away to a gas chamber somewhere.

As a result - I'm suddenly a hero with a bloody shirt and my stupid former co-worker room-mate and I get a room upgrade. A crowd of well-wishers were called in to move all our stuff to an even bigger room with windows and two working toilets. Apparently, the room had been set up as a reality show, but it was decided that it would be a poor idea to actually turn them on. Or so we were told. The hall manger presented me with a new shirt, filled out all the room-change paper work and bought my books for the semester - and sent for a doctor to take care of that nasty scratch that was finally pointed out to me.

All in all - a good dream, I guess, other than the odd focus on toilets.

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

credit card fury

So, I head over to BP yesterday to get some gas and decided to use my new BP Credit Card. I pull up to the pump, insert my card but instead of the "select fuel type" option - I get a terse message suggesting I "see the attendant".

Great.

So, I head inside and wait for the guy in front of me to finish getting his fritos and his beef jerky sticks, then talk to the attendant. He asks how much gas I'm getting - I reply that I don't know yet. We estimate $20 and I try my card again at the register. And he tells me that my card has been declined and that I'll need to call the company.

Great.

So, I thank him and tell him I'll use my debit card. Which I do and which works fine.

I head on home and try to make the call - but the digital phone isn't working just then.

Great.

Now I'm pretty well steamed up with both the card and the phone - so, I'm not captain happy-pants when I finally call them again and get through this time.

I put in the last four digits of my card when instructed and a woman comes on the line with a thick accent from Somewhere Else. She proceeds to ask me a series of multiple choice questions to verify my identity.

Which is dumb - if I really wasn't who I said I was - would I really be calling the credit card company?

From her tone, I'm pretty sure that if I'd gotten any of them wrong - homeland security would have been at my door in 5 minutes.

The accent makes it very difficult to understand the questions and on one of them I simply couldn't figure out what she was saying. She started to loss her temper with me, but I finally figured out she was asking if I had my card with me. Which is also dumb since she'd just asked me my card number 30 seconds before that.

Finally, with the questions done, she "clears my account". I tell her that I'd just activated my card the day before - and asked if it was really activated. She says yes, but tells me that sometimes they put a hold on the card so that they can get more information from me.

Wait, what?

So, it was activated - but locked. I ask try to ask her about that, but she tells me to have a nice day (which I know she didn't mean) and hangs up on me.

End result? I'm still not sure if my card even works. I had half a mind to call them back and just cancel the damn thing - but the lure of fuel discounts still has me in it's grip and I'm eager for savings. If it fails me again, I'm going to cancel it in a heartbeat.

So, I did some dishes and had some tea - both things that help calm me down a bit and I got on with the rest of my day.

I'm still, obviously, cranky about the whole situation - mainly because I did everything right and still got treated like a bad-credit criminal or something. Annoying.

That's it for now - busy day ahead of me. later...

36 laps, costume, parents

I swam a mile yesterday - 36 laps in the pool. Took me a little longer than my usual swim, but I got it done and felt okay afterwards. Slept really well last night too.

Worked on my costume yesterday - section two is coming along nicely.

Talked to my parents a bit last night - shared a few good laughs about work. I'll be headed to see them for my mom's birthday in about a month.

I got my BP credit card in the mail yesterday. I had to call to activate it - and instead of just doing that, they had to put me on the phone with someone trying to sell me a credit protection plan. By the end of the conversation I was running short of patience - but I got through it.

Otherwise, pretty quiet for me - time to get back to work...

runescape vs. diablo, alone in the dark

At the recommendation of my cousin, I recently fired up the game "Runescape".

I didn't care for it.

For one thing - too crowded. As I logged in, people were "fountaining" into existance in the same spot. The game was also kinda clunky and hard to control - which is a little typical of a java-based platform.

And it was... mundane. One of the first quests once I got off of tutorial island was to pick some wheat to grind at the mill to make flour so that the baker could bake a cake.

Wait, what? Where are the orcs? Or rock trolls? Or demon zombie wizards?

So, I logged off and headed back to the solo adventure of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. I've played countless hours with all the characters and I still enjoy the game - but why?

For one thing, in the real world, if I was to bake a cake - I'd go to the store and buy some damn flour. If I'm playing a game, I want to get in there and play, not do a half-assed life simulation in the guise of a dungeron crawler.

Two, other people annoy me. I hate to say it and I'm really trying to work on it, but unless the doses are small, people get on my nerves. And strangers are worse. I was only in Runescape for a few minutes when someone started following me around. They finally got my attention in the endlessly scrolling chat window and asked if I was new. I said I was and they asked if I knew about the "wild lands" - which I'm pretty sure is a player-vs-player area. I said yes, but that I was still just checking things out and get the feel of the game.

They then said "wome!" and wandered off.

Were they trying to lure me to the PVP area so they could kill me? Did they want me to join them in a quest? Hello? I'm at the lowest level and no good to anyone in any kind of non-baking quest.

A solo game of diablo is heart pounding. Me vs. evil. I might have a minion or two backing me up, but it's essentially one guy against the forces of darkness. No baking or farming - just big swords and chain lightning. As nature intended it.

In other news... I watched "alone in the dark" last night - a movie based off of a video game. Umm... it was pretty lame. The fire fight against the monsters was kinda cool, and the song in the ending credits was good - but the rest was a mess.

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

tea + keyboard - mixed nuts

First, I have to set the scene a bit:

1. I'm at the computer at home. In front of me on the desk are a cup of tea on the left and an open can of mixed nuts on the right.

2. It's my habit to either:
a. Pick up the cup of tea with my right hand (thus reaching across the desk) and take a drink - or
b. Pick up the can of nuts with my right hand and shake a few into my left hand - then toss the mixed nuts into my mouth.

Now that's set up, we'll begin...

I'm playing a computer game and have been doing so for a while. Every so often, I'll take a drink or get a snack. And then, for some strange reason and clearly without paying close attention, I picked up the cup of warm tea and poured most of it into my left hand.

Pause for a moment for the swearing.

Once that was done, I began the clean up. The desk and keyboard tray were easy to clean up - but the throughly drenched keyboard was a loss. I shut everything down quickly and then unplugged the keyboard and tried to rinse it out. I then let it dry in the sun - but I don't fully trust it. So, I went to best buy and bought a keyboard and mouse set. They're pretty cool and have more buttons, but it was still a waste.

I can laugh about it now, but it was pretty bad when it happened.

New rule... Either drink or snack at the computer - but never both.

later...

30, bomb, cola, costume, game, nails

I swam 30 laps today, despite being a bit tired and getting a late start. Felt pretty good and could have gone further, but ran out of time.

Had another bomb threat today on campus - someone wrote a warning on the wall of a bathroom stall. How lame can you get? I hope the bomb sniffing dogs are getting some good treats out of all of this - they'd be the only ones who might benefit from it.

It's been a few weeks since I had my last coca-cola - I think I've finally gotten the addiction beat. Drinking a lot of water to make up for it, but that's better anyway.

My Halloween costume is coming along nicely - had a make or break moment last evening and things went better than expected. No hints, so don't even bother asking.

Played a little Final Fantasy again last night - and got my ass handed to me. I literally ran away screaming like a little girl. It was sad and pathetic.

Finally, I've been working on not biting my nails anymore. I'm making some progress, but it's taking a lot of concentration.


6 random topics and I'm outta here. Later...

football game, sunburn, time

Went to a football game with my room-mate over the weekend - WVU in morgantown. The drive down was boring on Friday, as was much of the evening. I did a bit of folding and read a book.
On gameday, we head out early and then had some issues with the optimum route. My room-mate and his sister had different ideas on how to proceed and I sat in the back and wondered if we would ever get there.

Finally arrived and found a parking space - and waited for his other sister and her family to show up. They finally did, and we set out to find them in the lot where they said they had parked. He and his sister started out, I told them that I would catch up after visiting the port-o-let. They were long gone when I emerged, but I figured they wouldn't be hard to find. I went to the correct lot and with a little logic, found his other sister and her family. A number of cell phone conversations and my room-mate and his now deeply cranky sister finally arrived. Apparently, they thought I had gone back to our car for some reason. Anyway, we split up once in the stadium and found our seats.

My room-mate's niece had what they called "a meltdown" and the rest of his family left the game just before half-time. My room-mate started to overheat and needed to borrow my hat - though it was only a stop gap measure as he had to leave before the 4th quarter.

Ironically, I wasn't really in favor of going to the game at all, but ended up being the only one who could have stuck it out - though I left with my room-mate since he was driving.

Once back at their homestead, his niece threw up due to her migraine and my room-mate pretty much passed out from the heat exhaustion. I ended up with a sunburn.

Oh, and WVU won the game. (we heard it on the radio as we left)

I had a headache most of the day and went to bed early. The next day I was ready to leave at 8:30 but we didn't get on the road until around 12:30. I went into a low-power mode to help get though the intense boredom - it helped a little. And despite a relatively innocuous visit - there was a comment made right at the end that burned me up. I kept quiet about it, but I have to wonder what holding all this stuff back is going to do to me. Nothing good, I'm sure.

In other news... our university President did it again and gave a commencement speech that I enjoyed reading as I posted it on the web for him. This one was about Time and he quotes Penelope Corfield as she describes time as:

“one long never-ending Now.”

I like that - fits in well with my own personal philosophy.

On the flip side is a quote by Ariel from the video game Legacy of Kain - one of my personal favorites. I played through that section several times so I could write it down word for word:

'All I can do is watch and remember.
Ceaselessly conscious as this wretched world's history unfolds.
Ghastly past, insufferable future - Are they one in the same?
Am I always here?"

At the point in the game where she says this, she's a prophetic ghost. So, it pretty much sucks to be her.

I can identify with that to an extent - in a way, she reminds me of cassandra from ancient greek myths. Blessed with visions of the future, cursed so that no one will ever believe her.

Man, I feel like that all the time. Things would work out so much better if everyone around me would just listen to me and then do exactly what I tell them to do. I'm seriously going to have to break out the mind control drugs one of these days.

Well, that's it for now. Gotta get back to the grind.

later...

credit card, hospital bill, red cross, cola

I got a bill a couple days ago for my credit card - the one that I'd thought I'd paid off and canceled. Apparently, I'm being charged interest on the amount before my check got to them. $2.83 cents. Wankers.

I also got a bill from the hospital for my stay back in February. For $50. Not bad. I suspect they'll be more, but it looks like my insurance paid about $4000+, so I'm not complaining.

Got a call from the red cross, encouraging me to give blood. Which I'm not allowed to do anyway since I just gave within the past couple of weeks. Not sure what's up with their records.

The strep throat has had one good side effect - I think I've broken my coca-cola addiction. It hurt far too much to swallow the carbonated soda, so I found myself not drinking it at all. It was rough going for a bit there, but I think I've gotten stopped at this point and I'm drinking a lot of water and a little bit of tea. We'll see how it goes.

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

grape

While still fighting my sore throat, I bought some grape flavored cloroceptic (sp?). It was the children's strength, but still did the job and tasted better than the cherry flavored adult stuff I'd been chugging.

This is important to note since I have also gotten into the habit of using a spray cleaner that I got from my eye doctor for cleaning my glasses.

While in Illinois I grabbed the spray bottle and the lens cloth and hit my glasses, once per lens on each side. And even though the bottles are nothing alike other than that they spray liquid, I managed to grab the wrong one and doused my glasses with grape cough medicine. I even started to use the lens cloth to wipe off the grape liquid before the color and smell stopped me.

I got the lenses washed off with water and tried again. I also shared this incident with my family, who got a good laugh over this.

And I am very glad they didn't get mixed up the other direction - otherwise, I might have poisoned myself.

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

donation, christening, block party, wedding, strep, old friend, chipolte

Well, time to catch up a bit.

1. Went and gave blood recently. Went pretty smooth, except the woman that took the donation kept talking about how she wouldn't take blood from another employee as they would be too critical of her work. Well, turns out there would be good reason to be critical - she didn't do a very good job. Not the end of the world, but not really precise.

2. Went to a christening for the couple that stayed with us while waiting for their surrogate twins to be born. It was a nice service and the church would make a great place to hide from vampires as it was covered in crucifixes and had holy water on tap. Handy. The service made mention of an exorcism, but it was not as interesting as it would have seemed. I got to hold one of the twins afterwards and told her she was my buddy until she pooped. Instead, she spit up on me.

3. That same weekend, went to a pretty cool block party. Stayed late, talked to a lot of people, ate some good food and did a little dancing. Also participated in the potato race - which involved holding a potato between one's legs and attempting to run. I wasn't very good at that.

4. Went to a wedding late weekend for my cousin. She looked radiate, her groom was in a kilt and there were bagpipes playing. The service was outside and only lasted about 10 minutes - justice of the peace running the show. The food consisted of snacks and I hung out with some my extended family. Had a nice time - though the drive to Illinois and back was really long.

5. In and around all of this, I'd been fighting a sore throat. A bad one. I finally went to the doctor and got a prescription - which seems to have finally done the trick. I thought I was going to OD on menthol for a while there.

6. The middle son of my former room-mate contacted me recently - he's college age and starting at UA. Which is pretty cool - I'm hoping we can get together for lunch one of these days.

7. I finally went to a chipolte recently - and that was some of the best food I've ever eaten. I ate a burrito that was the size and shape of a brick like it was nothing. Man, that was good stuff.

Guess that's about it for now... back to the video games.

aeros, bats, bugs, baby, blood, busy

Went to an Aeros game last night with my friends - had a good time. We got half off for the tickets and I used my campus parking pass, so we save a little money and then blew it all on food and snacks.

The Aeros made three errors and ended up losing the game, but we still had a good time. I continue to be puzzled at the coaches that argue with the umpires. Like, has that ever worked? And the endless conferences on the mound that serve only to delay the game. We left with 1/2 an inning to go and it was still pretty late for me.

We also saw some wildlife. After the sun went down, the bats came out. They were flying high above the ballpark hunting insects and apparently interested in the pop-ups that occasionally went into their area. Pretty cool.

We were also joined by a preying mantis that landed on top of the first base dugout. The mantis apparently watched the game with us for a bit, then stared at the baby sitting in front of us. I think it was trying to decided if it could take the baby, but ultimately decided to risk the bats and fly off.

In other news, the red cross is after me again to give blood. I've gotten several letters and phone calls - I think the next step is a house visit and a non voluntary "donation". Better call to make an appointment.

Classes started this week and we've been pretty busy - better get back to it. Later....

glasses, swim, game

Got my new glasses yesterday, they are really nice. And I got magnetic clip on sunglasses, which are extra super cool. I'll get a pick one of these days once my zit goes away and I can get my hair under control. Getting both of those things to happen at same time might be a challenge, but I'll do my best.

Went for my swim today - half the pool was closed off for a water polo practice. I was in the "dangerous" part of the pool where only 2 days ago the lifeguards were concerned that the ceiling would collapse. Apparently, that's no longer a concern and I was free to pick my lane.

More Final Fantasy last evening. I reached a new area and the local chief vouched for me and said I must be very brave to get there. Umm... not really. I mostly ran around like a crazy person trying to find a save point, but hey, if the chief wants to vouch for my bravery, who am I to argue?

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

game, swim, headache

So, playing final fantasy xii this weekend - here's how it went down.
1. Found myself at a village by the river, can't cross because the barge is on the other side.
2. Need to cross to complete a quest and take out an evil chicken-thing.
3. Look for alternate route, find one (I think) but blocked by a sandstorm.

A little later on in the game, I go to the entrance to the dessert and meet a dude who is studying sandstorms (!) He suggests that I talk to man sitting at the fountain. Man at fountain says he used to stop sandstorms all the time with a device, but his buddy has half of it. Buddy is in the sewers.

I head to the sewers and find his buddy, who says he hid his half of the device out in the dessert under a giant cactus. He is a little vague as to where. I head out to the dessert and look under dozens of cacti until I find it. Back to the sewers - the buddy is gone. Back to the fountain - that guy is gone too. Find them both at the entrance to the dessert where the fountain dude does "something" to whatever it was I found under the cactus and tells me it will now work - whatever that means. The dude studying sandstorms says he can't go because his funding was cut. He suggests that I go there on my own - if that's what I really want to do.

After all that? Hell yeah I want to go. Dumbass....

So, I make my way back through the dessert to the sandstorm area. The device is working, apparently, since the sands open up and....

There's a big freaking DINOSAUR! waiting for me. He's apparently deeply pissed off and hungry. My characters swing into action and in a few moments, the three main characters are dead. I call up the reserves and they don't last any longer. In less than 2 minutes, everyone is dead and the dinosaur is almost entirely unhurt. Game Over.

I then turned off the playstation and went to read a book.


In other news... went swimming today. I headed for the nearest open lane from the locker room and got in. I was about to put my goggles on when one of the life guards started talking to me. I couldn't hear and got out to talk to them. Apparently, the two entirely unmarked lanes were closed since they were afraid that the ceiling would collapse.

Ummm... what?

So, I switched lanes to the deep end and started my swim. I was going along pretty well until guys got into lanes on either side of me and proceeded to lap the hell out of me. I felt... slow. Still, I comforted myself with the notion that I had already done 16 laps by the time they started, but it was still unpleasant. I nearly gave up at 18 since I was so tired, but struggled on to 27 somehow - putting me at 3/4 of a mile for the day. The ceiling never did collapse while I was there, may be interesting to see when I go back on Wednesday.

Finally, I've had a headache most of the day. And staring at a computer screen for 8 hours really hasn't helped. I'm going home in a few and I think I may actually try to nap - which I'm not very good at.

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

haircut, eye exam, credit card

I got my haircut on Wednesday. The stylist did a good job, but she was "too meticulous" - in a way that made me nervous. So much attention to detail and I felt like she was going to miss something anyway. The conversation was a bit strained - but the end result was a good hair cut.

Yesterday, I went to get my eyes checked and to order a new pair of glasses. The doctors assistant was excellent and very professional. The doctor was even better and was very through and professional - and made me feel at ease. The lady that helped me pick out my glasses was a hoot and a half. She really enjoyed her job and helped me pick some excellent frames - and worked the insurance to save me several hundred dollars. The girl that did the checkout, however, was flighty. She had to run my card twice since she didn't include the glasses with my eye exam. And then she joked about using my card for online shopping. Eh, not really funny.

My new glasses should be here in about a week or so. I'm quite excited. After that, dentist and then investments. Not a good idea to have too many irons in the fire if I can avoid it.

I paid off a credit card last night and canceled the card. They sent me to a different department to do the process the cancellation and try and persuade me to keep the card. Suddenly, I was a valued customer. They could refund my interest for the past three months! They could lower my rate to 15%! And the more they offered me, the more resolute and pissed off I became. Where were they in the 8 years I've had the card? They resold my account several times, jacked up my interest rate to loan-shark territory, and sent me crap nearly constantly that I never needed. My room-mate told me that I could call my credit card company to get my rate lowered at any time. Great. Except that's not the point. If I'm really a valued customer, waiting until I was pissed off enough to cancel the card is too late.

I may get a card later on - maintain a zero balance and use it just for emergencies. But it sure felt good to make that call and get out from under that chunk of debt.

that's it for now... later

the incident

My usual swim trunks are in the wash, so I had to use an older pair that I have. They have the following properties:

1. Smooth material
2. A Velcro fly
3. A drawstring that closed, but does not tighten at the waist band.
4. Strings that do not hold a knot well.

5. Finally, it also does not fit me as well as it used to since I've been exercising.

Walking around does not present any problems when wearing the suit - and even the minor issues with relieving oneself are trivial and easily dismissed.

In the pool, however, the problems become substantial.

Things started out okay, though there was an increased bit of drag in the water and some looseness to the trunks even with everything securely fastened. As I progressed, however, the looseness increased and I began to get concerned.

Then suddenly, in the middle of the pool, disaster. The string, which had been loosening on it's own without my knowledge, gave way entirely. Without that support the Velcro didn't stand a chance against the forward motion through the water.

I was, in a word, exposed.

There were several factors that prevented a total FCC meltdown wardrobe malfunction.

1. I was in the middle of the pool
2. The lifeguards were not, thankfully, paying that close attention
3. The only other person in the pool was swimming in the opposite direction.
4. I have quick reflexes.

I quickly realized the problem, tucked everything back in where it needed to be, and refastened the Velcro. I modified my stroke to get me back to the side of the pool and reconfigured once there. I was worried that a double knot would lead to problems later, so I went with a single know again - though this time I monitored it more carefully.

I finished out my swim, certain that I was partially "mooning" the rest of the pool, but since no one said anything, I think it was okay.

The ironic bit? If given the opportunity, I would have gladly doffed my suit and gone without out. However, I'm fairly certain it's against the rules...

Hmmm... maybe I should check that out.... hang on...

Well, technically there are no rules about that posted on the pools website.

However, I think I know what they would be and I'm certain to get into trouble - and perhaps even make the school paper, though not in a good way.

And as for the suit? Never again. I'd burn it if I was sure the fabric wouldn't create a toxic cloud. So, it's headed for the trash.

later...

sign, watch

On the drive to work in the morning there is a large sign that I pass that displays various messages - usually related to the businesses below it. Sometimes, though, it has other kinds of messages and today it said:

"Litter is a pain in the grass"

Cute. But who, exactly, are they talking to? People that don't litter and wouldn't even consider it - like myself. I've cleaned up a lot of litter in my day and I couldn't imagine adding to it.

Or is it targeted to those that throw stuff outside their cars as they drive along? Would a "too cute" message really get the point across? Would they even notice and/or care? Doubtful.

What would be more effective is a radar system and laser cannon, controlled by a low-level AI. If you toss something out the window, your car is targeted and a laser shines into your window and burns out your cell phone. Two birds... one stone.

In other news... in the past week I've discovered - on two separate days - that I've put my watch on upside down. Now, to my defense, the clasp is easy to do in either direction and the watch face looks pretty much the same either way, except for the brand name in "gray on silver" at the top. Still, kinda odd for the master of space and time.

That's it for now...

Premonition, video game, eye doctor, parents

I watched "Premonition" last night - pretty good flick. I was pretty much 2 steps ahead of the plot the whole time and figured out the "big twist" way early, but it was still well acted. At one point I said to my room-mate, "Now, that's why you don't f--k with time travel," He got a good laugh out of that one.

I've been playing Final Fantasy 12 on PS2 - good game with amazing graphics. However, it keeps sneeking up on me. I've walked into an area pretty sure of myself and then some horrible monster walks up and kills everyone in my group. Even when I was prepared, a giant snake thing took out my three toughest characters and then when the reserves came up, they got killed too. I was pretty close to taking that monster out, though, so I think I need to level up a bit and try again. Not real comfortable with all the systems yet, but I'm working on it.

I made an appointment to see an eye doctor on Thursday after work - though I may need to leave a little early to get there on time. However, the sequence of events is worth noting.

When I lived in Cuyahoga Falls, I had a great eye doctor. She and her staff were excellent and got me back into contacts and even hooked me up with the costume lenses for halloween. It was during this time that I started to develop massive headaches and my family doctor sent me to Novus clinic to get checked out - making sure there was nothing wrong with my eyes since that's where the pain was. I got a stern note from my insurance saying they weren't covered and I'd better have a damn good reason for going there.

Then my insurance changed and my really good doctor wasn't covered anymore. So, I found a new one in my area that was recommended - though I wasn't as pleased with the staff or the facilities. The doctor knew his stuff, but wasn't generally as helpful as my last one.

Then that doctor moved his practice and he was no longer covered by my insurance. So, back to the insurance site to find a new provider. I found that Novus had a location about 5 miles from my house and was now covered by my insurance. Hence, the Thursday appointment.

My parent's anniversary was on Sunday and I tried to call my Dad's cell - got his voicemail. I tried calling Mom yesterday, voicemail again. It's possible I got my timing very wrong and "this" is the week they are on a vacation. Still, a cell phone is supposed to negate the communications issues with travel. I think they were easier to get a hold of when all they had was a landline. I'm thinking of a Happy Anniversary email, but it seems impersonal. Eh, guess I'll think about that one today.

Time to get back to work...

blimp, 23, appliciances, patty, target, 3/4

The blimp was flying over the apartment not too long ago. Which is not really much of a big deal when one has lived in Akron over a decade. They are still cool, don't get me wrong, but nothing that would warrant staring at them for hours on end anymore.

Still, it made enough of an impression that I dreamed about a blimp that night. In the dream, it was double-bag blimp (side by side) and had these gigantic get engines at the back. Looked a bit like the blockade runner from Star Wars - except it flew just above the tops of the tress. And the pilots decided to do a loop-de-loop over my grandparents house - where we were watching them.

Back to reality - such as it is - I bought some appliances yesterday. Well, I bought the microwave and my room-mate bought the cordless phones. I had some coupons from the Best Buy reward zone and saved us both some money. Worked out pretty well - and the new microwave is very shiny.

Watched the movie "The number 23" last night. Jim Carrey, to my surprise, did a good job. He was dramatic, scary, and intense - as well as a slightly bored, but caring family man. The numerology reminded me a little of the math that has been done with the Koran and with the hidden information in the mathematical formula to calculate Pi in the movie contact. The ending was a little weak, maybe, but the movie over all was good.

When I walked out to get the mail yesterday, I noticed some newspaper near the end of the driveway. It wasn't moving around in the breeze, and when I investigated I realized it was wrapping up something. More careful examination indicated that it was neatly wrapped around a cow patty. So, I gloved up and bagged the mess for trash night. It was:

1. almost certainly random
2. poorly done - since it was well wrapped, there was no mess, unless they expected it to be run over
3. possibly meant for the neighbors, but still more likely stupid kids being random.
4. annoying.

We'll see if there's a repeat.

Finally, went to target recently to do a little wedding shopping for my cousin. I went to the kiosk to print out the list, but the machine wasn't working. As I waited, I heard the customer service person try to help a lady with her refund. Apparently, the lady had paid for something with a check and then returned it before the check cleared. She got a gift card, then used that to make a purchase which she also returned. She wanted cash for that return and swore she would never shop there again if she didn't get it. I finally found a machine that worked and printed out the list and made my selection. While I was standing in the line, the lady from watches and jewelry came over and asked if I wanted to check out at her station. So, no waiting, friendly service, speedy checkout. I thanked her for keeping an eye on the lines and exited.

Finally, I think I've stabilized on 3/4 of a mile on my swim. Seems like a good number and one that I can accomplish without too much trouble in the time I have for my lunch. Based on my total laps swum since I started in December, my dad reports that I'm only a few miles away from an English Channel swim - but he jokes that it won't count since I didn't register with them first.

That's about it for now... time to play some video games... later...

1 mile

36 laps = 1 mile.

Feeling pretty good, but tired.

back to work...

cell phone

If you know me at all - even to just have passed me on the street - you'll know that I despise cell phones. Last evening, there was an "incident" that I'll report.

I had tried to call my mom the night before, but she didn't answer - so, I left a voice mail. Didn't hear back from her yesterday, so I tried to call my dad. The first time I tried, nothing happened. Thinking I had mis dialed, I tried again. It rang, went to voice mail and I started to leave my message. In the middle of my speaking, I was interupted by some automated message saying:

"Your message was not saved because the connection was lost or you were not speaking."

Well, excuse me, but I was speaking. So, now I'm cranky. It was followed with:

"To disconnect, press one. To leave your message, press two"

So, I hit 2 and started talking. In the middle of my second attempt, the voice interupted me again and said:

"Are you still there? To disconnect, press one. To leave your message press two."

And I'm like, "shut up so I can talk!"

So, I hit 2 again and got the same message. And then I pressed one and hung up.

I called my sister to see if there was something up with the folks - she said they were at a Vacation bible school this week.

I talked to dad later that evening and we had a good laugh at the automated response system.

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

work = stress

I swam yesterday - got in 27 laps again. I didn't have as much energy as a usually do and I was running late when I finished up.

Work has been stressful. Can't seem to make much headway - I keep getting derailed. And pretty much everything is making me irritated. I wish I could go home and take a "cranky" day. Don't think it would work.

And I found out recently that our student assistant it leaving. She's got to get a different job to fit her internship requirement and is running out of time. So, her last day is next week. I guess the timing is as good as it could be - we had just finished up a major project and had to yet to start her on a new one. Still, I'm bummed 'cause she was great to work with and helped us out tremendously. My boss is trying to get the rules bent on the qualifying job for her internship - but it's not looking good.

The internet has been flaky pretty much all this week - something with our internet provider. It's made the webteam a little cranky as well. Or maybe that's just me.

Not much of a post, granted, but I'll try to do better next time. Oh, and I'm working on an update to my cell phone rant.

later...

quick dream archive

In cleaning out my basement (still/again) I found a small archive of dreams that I had written down in a small spiral notebook. The notebook is musty and in poor shape - I've decided to jot down the impressions and toss the notebook.

07/22/94 - Tori Amos stops into the SuperAmerica where I work and buys $14.68 worth of gas. She pays in change, ones, and the gold backs of earrings. I get her autograph.

07/27/94 - My grandmother cuts my hair and uses static electricity to make it stick out and easier to cut.

07/30/94 - I'm at a hot dog stand at the Westland mall in Columbus, OH. I buy a shirt for a friend who's 10 foot tall, but the shirt is too small.

07/31/94 - Driving back to Ohio, the cell phone rings and Dad answers - but doesn't know the code for the area so the signal is mostly scrambled. I try to answer, but I can't hear and I'm mostly mute. Dad says it must be Blackford (?) Mom says, "Oh, he found the rat," The song "Mr. Jones" by the Counting Crows is playing.

08/14/94 - I'm at Ball state helping my sister move into her room. I meet up with fraternity brothers and party at the student center. I goto Miami, FL and Maria from Biomed does not remember me. I end up living in a haunted house at the end of a street where all the houses are miniatures.

08/15/94 - I'm at a SuperAmerica in a Kroger in the mall. My sister visits during my break. She applies for a part time job at Froxx communications which is somehow connected to Zima. I'm suddenly back in high school and I'm being initiated into the Order of the Peach - which is a far less blood-thirsty ritual than the Order of the Kiwi Strawberry.


08/16/94 - I check my work schedule and go in for 2 hours - then, for some reason I go home and call them to ask if I'd been there and should I have been? The manager says I wasn't and that I shouldn't have been - and that I must have been dreaming! I'm next playing poker at my grandparents house and I lose. My aunt stops over and asks if we want to play a drinking game.

Spring 1995 Day ? - At my grandparents house, all the kids climb a raspberry tree and knock the branches off. We gather the branches and sing - like a children's musical.

Spring 1995 Early April - I'm an agent guarding an African diplomat at the mall. 200 assassins come after him and using knives and a sword I kill them all with the help of another agent.


Yeah, I need help.

30 laps

One of my co-workers challenged me to do 30 laps in the pool. So, I paced myself when I needed to and pulled out all the stops when appropriate - and did 30 laps today. Still felt pretty good when I was done and could have gone farther, but ran out of time. Now I just need to get though the rest of the day do I can go home and nap.

later...

pure evil, feline-based humor

I encountered pure evil over the weekend. Pure, concentrated evil.

In the form of a toilet seat cover.

See, these things had to have been invented by a woman. No two ways about it. First, it's just something extra that's supposed to "look" pretty, but has no purpose. No guy would do that.

Second, it creates a problem that wouldn't affect women, but would affect men.

So, here's what should happen - and then I'll explain what happened in the presence of this evil.


A man enters the bathroom, raises the lid and the seat, and stands with feet at shoulder width apart. He extracts, by whatever means he feels comfortable with, that which needs to be extracted. With careful aim, he relieves his bladder and gives a slight shake. The extraction process is reversed and he flushes the toilet while he lowers the seat and occasionally the lid, then washes his hands and leaves the bathroom.

In this case, however, the fuzzy toilet seat cover prevented the seat from remaining in an upright position. Without support, the lid would most likely come crashing down during the operation and cause a terrible mess. Also, not lifting the seat would result in a terrible retribution from the next woman to use the bathroom.

In the past, I've dealt with this problem by using a bungee cord to force the seat into compliance, but none was available. So, with a little planning, I attempted the following operation:

I entered the bathroom and approached the toilet. When it became clear that the seat was going to be a problem, I extracted what needed to be extracted, then stood at an angle to the toilet. I also stood much closer than usual, then raised the seat. Holding the seat in place with my knee, I proceeded to relive myself nearly straight down - which, in the absence of a toilet is a good way to urinate on ones shoes and is thus avoided.

I worked quickly for fear that my leg would cramp up or that I would loose my balance. Task completed, I gave a little shack and lowered the seat, then reversed the extraction. Lid lowered, toilet flushed and hands washed - exit.

Each time I had to use the bathroom at this location, I had to repeat the same operation. I did a lot of swearing and I was cranky. And it was all so that the toilet seat would match the rug.

Evil, I'm telling you. Pure evil.


In other news... my room-mate and I don't have any pets. Still, somehow, we've managed to acquire some music-related, feline-based humor. It started several months ago when he decided that the Enya song "Storms in Africa" had cats meowing in the background instead of the children singing that everyone else hears. Since them, we'll both find ourselves quietly meowing along with a song, where it sounds appropriate. Yeah, it's silly - but you'd be amazed at how funny it is. Last evening, while we were eating a meal, listening to music and I was telling a story - the song, "I can't go for that" came on the cable music.

During the second chorus, my room-mate interrupted me and said in time with the song - "I can't find my cat". Totally matter-of-fact and perfectly timed.

You really had to be there and since I was, its a good thing I didn't have food in my mouth since I most likely would have sprayed it out along with some braying laughter.

So, that's pretty much it for now. Later...

27 = 3/4

Just got back from my swim. I was getting tired around lap 15 and figured I would just try and get 20 done and call it a day. When I got to 20 I thought, "well, maybe I can go ahead and get 23 or 24" - which had been my current record. When I got to 24 I was feeling pretty good and decided to do 25. I powered through lap 25 and decided to go for it and do two more laps - which put me at 27.

And, if my math is correct, is 3/4 of a mile.

Which is not too shabby considering that when I started back in December I was exhausted after 4 laps.

And now I'm very tired... :) later...

dremel, work, rain

The dremel was a complete success - I really shouldn't have doubted it. The keyboard tray got installed with very little incident, though I did get a little sawdust in my eyes. I should have followed the instructions and gotten the safety glasses from my car. Actually, I should have gotten them because it would be funny - which is a much better reason for doing things.

I was swamped yesterday afternoon at work - I got a lot of stuff done, but it really wore me out. I think I got everything covered, but I thought I was going to have to stay late to get it all done.

It was raining this morning when I woke up - and it was really great sleeping weather. To the point that my plans of getting an early start on the day were disrupted by my inability to get my sorry ass out of bed. I was a couple minutes late for work as a result, though that was more caused by slow drivers and my need to stop for fuel on the way in.

Well, guess that's about it for now... time to get back to work. Oh, I'm listening to Linkin Park right now - those guys must go through throat lozenges like crazy with all the yelling they do.

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...