walk, race, quantum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

36, taxes, games, twitter

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. The ceiling is coming down on him

4. He's upside down.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(hangs head in shame)

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

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

later...

swim for diabetes

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

http://www.swimfordiabetes.com

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

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

spring, project, head

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's it for now.   Later...

monitors, zelda

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

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

later...

laptop, walk, email

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi,
     Give me a call right now.

Regards
Tony 

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

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

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

...

Nah, it was probably spam.

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

dual, fan, swim, watchmen

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

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

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

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

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

Later...

30, butterfly, phil collins, work

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

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

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

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

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

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

later...

dentist, card, day, swim

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

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

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

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

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

later...

donation, door, temp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

later...

cow, quarantine, tooth

Went to Chick-fil-a for dinner last night and from the balloons visible two blocks away it was evident that a childrens birth-day party was underway. Once in the restaurant, there weren't that many children present - it looked as though the party was over. After getting the food and sitting down, the children returned from the play area.

Now, I'm a big fan of polite, well-behaved children. I think they have neat ideas and an interesting perspective on the world. These children were neither. They got worse when asked to line up to to spin the prize wheel. And then worse again when... the cow showed up. Someone dressed as the Eat More Chikn cow lumbered in and photo ops abounded. I wondered if dressing up as the cow was a reward or a punishment.

Done with the meal, a quick exit away from the cow, and back into the cold - but peaceful - night air.

My room-mate and I watched Quarantine yesterday. It was essentially "cloverfield" + "28 days later" - suspense + bad acting. So, a not quite zombie plague with a camcorder. In a building. Fortunately, I had a good book started and read through most of it - and I don't think I missed much.

I also discovered, last evening, that I had somehow managed to chip a tooth. On what, I don't know. But while not really visable, it's easy to feel with my tongue and very annoying. Looks like I finally need to make an appointment with a dentist.

later...

cables

I recently ordered two cables - one for my cell phone so I can plug it into my computer and another to set up dual monitors at work.

Neither of these are, strictly speaking, essential. But the cable for my cell phone would let me easily download my pictures and the splitter cable would let me run two monitors at work and that would be cool. Plus, everyone else is doing it and I felt left out.

The cables came in last night and I eagerly unwrapped the box.

1. The cell phone cable doesn't fit my phone. So much for trying to get a deal...

2. I took the splitter cable with me to work this morning. It doesn't work. I had one of the repair guys come over and take a look - he suspects the cable may be bad and is going to try and find a replacement for me.

So much for the cool technology - I can't even get the dang things plugged in.

later...

scare, walk, projects

On Friday evening, I'm playing a video game while my room-mate watches from the couch. He says to me "I think my neck is bleeding" and I look over to see blood running down his neck. I think I swore in surprise, paused the game, and ran for paper towels. I helped him get his neck cleaned up and advised him on direct pressure while I went back to my game.

After about 10 minutes or so, we checked the area again and the paper towel was soaked through. And the blood wasn't stopping. This time, I got out the first aid supplies and used several layers of gauze along with some neosporin and tape.

On saturday, we check things out again and when we removed the gauze it started bleeding again. I cleaned the area then put on more gauze. It still wasn't better by the evening, so I called my parents (both former volunteer paramedics) and got some advice.

On Sunday, we were able to remove the gauze without it bleeding again. I again helped with the clean up and replaced that elaborate first-aid gear with a simple band-aid.

Weird things... The affected area was the size of a needle stick. It was on the side and toward the back of his neck. He doesn't have any idea what caused it. He had been taking a lot more aspirin than usual for the past few days due to a cold/headache combo and it could be that it was causing a blood thinning effect.

If it hadn't stopped on Sunday, I think I would have been driving him to the hospital.


In other news... I went for a walk on Saturday over to Lowe's and GameStop. Picked up a new Wii game and some dremel supplies. I also worked on a project to turn an old keyboard into thumbtacks - turned out pretty cool and I'll have to get some pictures. I'm also working on making a primative flute out of pvc pipe.

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

laps, watch, drive,quiet, muppet, not lost

I did 20 laps today - should have done more, but there was a swim meet going on and I had to share a lane.  That, along with a sore knee, a cramp in my side, and a mild headache, got me out of the pool before I really should have.   As a side note, the pool area smelled of tired people, bengay, and the stuff that's used in elementary school to clean up and mask the smell of vomit.  So, that was fun too.

I finished the "watch" series of books (nightwatch, daywatch, twilight watch, and Last watch) - really good stuff.   And I'm glad they made a movie of the first couple - even though they diverted from the story - just so that I could more easily picture the people.  Anton, Olga, Gesar, Sveta - all really interesting characters and I was sorry to see the books end.

Did a little Need for Speed last night - kicked some serious ass.   I evaded the cops - or smashed them up - and found a really cool 'dukes of hazard' style jump in one of the missions.   Sweet.

It's been pretty quiet here today - at least for me.   Yesterday, one of our major systems took a really big poop all over everything - today has been spent recovering from that.   Since I don't have access to help (or make it worse) - I've been working mostly with the users to reassure them that things will be okay and we'll be "back to normal soon".

I've been watching the Muppets on DVD - and working on my Animal impression.   And trying to find a good time to use it here at work.   "web page!   WEB! PAGE!"       Not sure if it will work or not - Animal doesn't seem very computer savvy.

I've also been keeping up with Lost on TV.   My room-mate is very much lost watching the show, but I'm enjoying the mystery.   Our arguments continue about the nature of the show - and I keep reminding him that  - as the master of space and time - this is really more my area of expertise.

Well, I guess I should get back to things.  It's been a really long week and I'll be glad to get out of here.  

later...

24, drive, spy, mood

I did 24 laps in the pool on Monday. I think I could have done more, but I was tired and a little dizzy. I'm glad I'm pushing myself in the pool, but it has consequences.

My room-mate and I played Need for Speed last night a bit on the Wii. He says the controller gives him a cramp in his hand so we switched to use the controller like a steering wheel. It works okay, but is not as responsive as I would have liked. I played a little bit on my own and unlocked some new areas - I think it's far better than previous NFS games I've played.

I think I finally got the spyware cleared off my computer at home. It was annoying and worrying. I also got Norton updated on my machine - I'm hoping that, plus a little caution, will keep this from happening again.

I've been working hard and getting a lot accomplished, but I'm not really feeling positive about that. Just sort of down - I think the winter blahs are hitting me again. The exercise is helping - but I also think I need to get going on a project at home. Feels like all I do is work and sleep anymore.

Well, time to get my pre-swim oatmeal and get back to work.

later...

20, visit, spy, manual

I finally got up to 20 laps with a combination of crawl and backstroke. My arms are getting stronger, but it still wears me out. I had to drop back down to 12 last Friday since I was pressed for time. I'm headed to the pool again today, we'll see how it goes.

I visited my folks and my sister and brother in law for the weekend for my sister's birthday. We went out to Olive Garden for lunch and played some games - including a grueling game of Shanghai Rummy. Had a pretty good time just hanging out with the crew - but in the middle of a shopping trip to Menard's, my room-mate called on my Dad's cell phone for me. (my own cell phone was roaming and had 0 bars in the store and I'd turned it off).

He'd been using my computer and clicked on a pop-up that "looked" like the norton anti-virus requested to download an update. So, he did - and got the computer infected with some spyware. It's a pretty nasty program that claims to run a virus scan, displays a bunch of phony warnings, then prompts the user for a credit card for to download the full version.

I got my room-mate stopped before he put in his credit card in - and when I got back, I spent the rest of Sunday evening trying to remove the spyware - with no luck. I managed to kill it in the short term, but it keeps coming back.

So, I fired off an email to one of my colleagues to see if he can help. I hate asking for computer help, but I don't want to make things worse with an untested removal program - or damaging the registry files.

Also, confession time. Last week I looked for, download, and read the manual for some of the software we have on campus. It fixed the problem I was having, but I still felt bad about it. I joked with some people that I was going to start asking for directions when I'm out driving. Yeah, it was that bad.

that's it for now...

12, blob, 1/2

I hit the pool again yesterday and this time got in 12 good laps. I think I got the breathing down for the crawl - though it's not natural yet and I have to pay attention. I alternated doing the crawl and the backstroke and while I wasn't fast, I did okay with some short breaks.

I was pretty disappointed on Friday when I could only do ten laps -but yesterday shows I'm on the right track and with time I should be able to get back up to my 30+ laps.

Not much else going on. Work has been stressful recently but I'm getting through it.

I've been playing "de Blob" on the wii. It's fun, but the constant shifting angles gives me a headache after a while. Not as bad as Spyro the Dragon or Katamari Damacy, but still significant.

Oh, I also finally got up to 1/2 priced books. Got about $40 back from my books - and then spent about $53. So, saved a little money and got some new reading material.

Better get back to work - later...

injur-wii

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.   We finally had our first injur-wii - that is, an injury involving the Wii.     It started off with a round of bowling on the Wii - I totally skunked my room-mate.   Like, I started the game with three strikes in a row.  I'd also kicked ass in the golf game, of all things.   

So, when we got around to tennis, he was pretty hyped up and looking for a dramatic win.  He didn't really need to bother, I suck at the Wii tennis.   Early in the first match, he swung wild and knocked the phone off of its charger.    Later on, the dynamics of the room worked against me.

I'm right handed and I was standing on the left and forward of the designated Wii playing zone in the living room since I had the player one controller.   My room-mate - who is left handed - was standing on the right and futher back.    We're usually far enough apart that his flailing about behind me isn't dangerous, but this time - impact.

He swung the wii-mote wildly and hit my right hand and leg - hard enough to make me immediately drop my own wii-mote and grab my hand and wrist in pain. 

I got some ice on it right away and needless to say, the Wii session was over.   I could still move my fingers and my wrist with only a little pain - so I knew nothing was broken.   By this morning, my hand didn't hurt at all and I was back to wii, computer mouse, and paper folding.  

Lesson learned - next tennis match, I'll stand back and to the right.  Just in case.

later...

lights, balance, swim

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

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

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

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

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

200, text, points

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

later...

basketball, wireless, swim

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

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

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

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

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

stench

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

lightning, visit, wii, laundry

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

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

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

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

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

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

dinner, wii, neck, hair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

later...

usurper , email

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

later...

new year, work, phone, HDMI

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

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

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

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

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

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

later...

orange, red, blue

I spent last weekend with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law for an early Christmas since they would be traveling for the holidays. On Friday night, I was the last to go to bed and when I got up to the spare bedroom at my parents house I discovered that my pillow was... lumpy.
The pillowcase contained: A box of kleenex, a stuffed bear, one glove and 2 video game cases. I unloaded it, put the bear outside my sister and brother-in-law's room - since I was sure it was them and went to sleep. At 6:30 in the morning, I found the small flashlight that was also in the pillow case when I got up to pee.

We got a good laugh about it and later on during the weekend I returned the favor by leaving a small slice of an orange on their pillow - like a mint. It was found and commented upon and we laughed about it.

As I got in the car to drive back home on Sunday evening, I noticed a leaf stuck to my windshield wipers - but didn't think much of it since it was windy. I didn't need to use my wipers on the drive back and the leaf was still there the next morning as I got in my car to go to work.

Except it wasn't a leaf - it was the same small slice of orange that they had put there and it had frozen in place and lasted the whole trip.

For a moment, I considering saving it and mailing it to them as a "late christmas present" - but realized quickly that I would get it back for my birthday in January. Not sure I wanted to start a cycle like that with a food item, I tossed the orange and went on my way.

But I did consider it...

In other news... I bought a cell phone. Yes, Mr. I Hate Cell phones has gone over to the dark side. I've added numbers to my address book, sent and received text messages, and made a call. The phone is red, because they were out of the black ones. It's a LG Scoop with a keyboard. No internet or text packages yet - still need to determine if I'm a cell phone person. I suspect not, but we'll see.

Finally, I hit the pool for the last time this year since the University will be closed. With the 36 laps I did in the blue pool, my total since I started keeping track is 6,868 laps - which is about 190 miles. It was a little staggering for me to realize that.

That's it for now - Merry Christmas.

quote

I saw a quote on a refrigerator yesterday that caught my eye:

"No date on the calendar is as important as tomorrow" - Roy W. Howard

On a surface level, it makes some sense - I frequently check my calendar for what's scheduled for tomorrow; meetings and such. On a deeper level, I completely disagree. The most important date on a calendar is today. Even the most detailed schedule can't completely predict tomorrow - and the past is subject to interpretation (re: 1984). The only thing we have for certain is this moment, this hour, this day. All the rest is mutable.

project-fu failure

Okay, not exactly a failure, but not expected results from a couple of projects.

1. I saw a project on the web where a scanner was turned into a really crazy camera. The project called for the use of black foam-board to build a couple of sliding boxes that rested on and covered the scanner. A magnifing glass was used for the lens and the "focus" could be adjusted by sliding the boxes. There were examples of the photos, but it didn't seem worth the effort since the scanner cable is short and the "shutter speed" is so slow. I decided to take the idea and modify it to a single box - the idea being that I could scan 3-d objects inside the box when they would normally be crushed by the lid.

It took me a while to get the box built and make it light-proof - and when I tested it, I discovered a few things:

a) It's difficult to get the object lined up under the box.
b) I made the box too small (it's only 5 x5x5)
c) the underside of things? Not really that interesting.

Plus, I had to reinstall my scanner software (I blame Vista for that, but happened during this project, so it still counts) and then the scanner would make these really sad little beeps when I had the box in place. Dunno why.

The few objects I scanned (a 3-d puzzle, a squishy ball, and an action figure) - didn't really turn out that well. I'll try a few more, but I think the idea is flawed.

2). I saw a few videos on the web for making a wallet out of a Tyvek envelope. Tyvek is a some pretty cool and very strong material and since my fairly new leather wallet is already breaking down, I thought this might be interesting to try. I bought a small package of regular material envelopes to try out from Staples - and noted that they only sell the Tyvek envelopes in pacakges of 50. Since I'm not making a career out of these, I began a hunt for smaller units.

The sample wallet went together pretty well and I headed to the post office to see if they had these for sale. No dice - though I can order these online in packs of 10. I tried the FedEx/Kinko's store and the the clerk had no idea what I was talking about.

There's a UPS store not far from my house - I'll try there and then give in and order them. Seems a little silly to order envelopes through the mail. Plus, the wallet may not even be that useful since it doesn't have many pockets for cards.

On the plus side, I've got a couple stained glass projects in the queue and some origami that's going well. Still feels like my Project-fu is weak though.

Back to work...

blog reality

From a recent "Pearls Before Swine":

Pig (speaking to Rat): Hey Rat..Mind if I borrow this cardboard box I found in your closet? I'm starting a blog.

Rat's reply: A blog? What do you need a box for if you're doing a blog?

Pig: For all the money I'm going to make.

(later)

Rat (speaking to Goat): Are there interventions for stupidity?

iron man wetsuit, awesome mom

I was in the pool the other day and saw a couple of people testing water rescue dummies a couple lanes over. Two funny bits. 1. The dummies had red heads with yellow faces and when I first saw them I thought "Why is Iron Man wearing a wetsuit?" 2. The people doing the testing couldn't get the dummies to sink - which makes it hard to test a water rescue. So, the guy in the water with them would have to push them to down first, then pull them back up for the rescue. I'm pretty sure that's not how "step one" is supposed to go. After a while, they finally found the valve to fill them with water and they sank like stones. Pretty funny looking - to the point that I had trouble paying attention to my own swim.

My mom is awesome. This fact has been further verified by her following through with a weird request like a champ. You see, I have 5 meetings scheduled today. I was feeling a little sorry for myself last night and I wanted to get out of some of these and it occurred to me that a note from Mom might help.

So, I called her up last and asked if she would write me a note to get me out of the meetings. And, since I'm planning on getting a hair cut after work today and had a little trouble last time, I also asked if she would write me a note for that. She did, faxed them over this morning, and they are awesome.

Notes from Mom (pdf)

Thanks Mom! Now I'm off to meeting 2 of 5

later....

projects

Even with sleeping in a bit and playing a lot of video games, I still managed to be somewhat productive this weekend.

1. I tried a little Japanese calligraphy. I think I understand it, but my efforts were hindered by not having the right ink. I'll get some and try again soon.

2. Relearned some origami. There's a particular module that - although it is very simple - is very difficult to remember. I think I've got it this time, but I said that the last two times I learned it.

3. Practiced stained glass. I found my equipment again in the basement and taught myself some techniques. I need to get more glass though, and either find my better soldering iron or buy a new one.

4. Tried to learn how to knit. Seems like a very practical skill to have in case of a zombie uprising. Not that a scarf will stop a zombie, but I'm guessing the TV will go out once the zombies take over and it will be something to keep me occupied. Unfortunately, I can't seem to follow the directions. This was my second attempt and though I got a little further it turned out I was doing it wrong.

5. Learned a little more CSS. I'm planning on a major overhaul of my personal website and I'll make heavy usage of these tools.

6. I also cleaned the oven - twice. (my room-mate's sister is hereby banned from ever using any appliance the apartment again. I dunno what she tried to cook in there, but it looked like an alien had explosively decompressed in there. ) And I did a mountain of laundry.

I also watched much of season two of justice league again - good stuff. And "The midnight meat train" on one of the free-per-view channels. Good stuff and while it didn't totally follow the book by clive barker, it was close enough.

that's it for now. later...

swim update, cranium

The main pool was closed today, so, I had to use the Wellness Center's two lanes for lap swimming. Though, it wasn't really two lanes - more like 1.5 since they were so narrow. I got in the "outer lane" to start since the other was in use. The rest of the pool is open for games and such - and includes a whirlpool. All the water is connected, so the whirlpool generates a pretty substantial current. I was really really fast in one direction - and very slow in the other. And I'm pretty tired even though I only did 30 laps.

One highlight from the thanksgiving trip was a game of Cranium. Mom and I were on a team and though we didn't win, we did rally at the end. My best area was the Sensosketch - sort of like pictionary except that you draw with your eyes closed. The rest of the group was amazed at the accuracy of my drawings - but I wasn't really surprised since dad and I are both good at visualing things in our heads. It's one of the things I got from him that works well - unlike the hair loss and intense headaches.

later...

table, shopping, swim

I did my first "tableless" table in HTML recently. It's a terribly geeky thing to be proud of - but proud of it I am. I'm still just a novice on this, but it was pretty cool and not as tough as I had expected.

Did some shopping last night on Amazon.com - made a pretty big dent in my list. Still got a few things to pick up this evening - wish me luck.

Finally, the main pool here is closed today for a swim meet - and the other pool area only has too lanes for lap swimming. Should be interesting...

later...

drive, turkey, buffet, list

I left work at 4:00 last Tuesday and while it usually takes me 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to my parents house, it took me 4 hours because of a lane being closed for no reason. Not a good way to start a trip. The next day - Wednesday - my dad drove us to Illinois. That trip took 8 hours. My parents also took their dog - who ended up being very stinky much of the trip. Too much pork, I suspect.

We visited with my grandmother much of the extended weekend and had Thanksgiving at the my aunt and uncle's house. I ended up staying there a few nights since there wasn't room at grandma's house. Hung out with my sister and brother in law and several of my cousins. One of my cousins recently had a baby and determined that my sister and I now had the title of FCOR ("F-CORe" first cousin, once removed).

Turkey dinner was pretty good and for a change of pace, one evening we went out to Ming's Chinese Buffet. I ate way too much and I think a few of my relatives were impressed.

My parents headed back on Saturday - I waited and went back on Sunday with my sister and brother-in-law. 6.5 hours there, then chili at my parents house before I got in my car to head back to akron. 3 hours there since I took a longer route to avoid traffic.

Total time in a car = 21.5 hours. I really dreaded getting into my car this morning to drive to work.

So, I'm back to work. Looking forward to my swim today and thinking about my Christmas list while I try to get caught up.

That's about it for now. I'll write later about some more details.

thanksgiving, chipotle, cable

My room-mate is hosting thanksgiving for his family at the apartment this week and is stressing about in a major way. I've offered some suggestions - but I'm going to be out of town and he's pretty much on his own. Not that no one has offered to help - that's actually part of the problem since the kitchen is not that big. I wish him good luck - and I hope the place is still standing when I get back.

Due to the holiday schedule, my co-worker and I deviated from our regular Thursday schedule and went for Chipotle Burritos today. They were excellent, but not as massive as we've come to expect. I also skipped the swim today and I'll do that tomorrow instead.

On Saturday, I unhooked the cable box and headed down the road to the local cable tv office - with the intention of swapping out the box for an HD one. Except that they were closed. No weekend hours at all. In fact, they are only open from 9 Am to 4:30 Pm Monday through Friday. And closed everyday from 1-2 PM. Must be nice. Given the rest of... well, the rest of the country's work scheudule, this seems pretty well designed to avoid anything that would work for anyone else. Except me. I'm getting out of here a few minutes early and I'll be over there by 4:15 at the latest. Wish me luck.

That's it for now...

painting, bond

I did a little painting recently, using the style of Mark Rothko for a color block piece.   I titled mine though.   You can see it here.

Went and saw quantum of solace this weekend.   Good film, much like Casino Royale.   Not much like the classic Bond films.   No gadgets, little humor.  The fights were amazing, the car chases fierce, the acting was awesome  and it was strangely... sad.   Too many explosions for a love story or anything sappy like that, but a real picture of a man who was driven by so many differnt forces.  

later...

swim, head update x2

I swam a mile today - though I was strangely disconnected from it. I always have a few things going on in my head when I swim because it doesn't take much brain power to count laps - but I was just a little... off today.

It carried over into my afternoon - and I suspect that listening to Sia Fuller's "Soon we'll be found" hasn't helped much. Maybe I need some more Bob the Builder to get me out of my funk - though yesterday I had that song lodged in my head for much of the evening.

Also, forgot to mention something about the haircut yesterday. The near "head-shaving" experience had the stylist rubbing her hands over my head to make sure she didn't miss any of the stray hairs. Which is good - that attention to detail is important. And then... then... well, my hair - despite the swimming and chlorine, is very soft. And she was almost... caressing my head. It was very subtle, but just slightly past the professional contact. Granted, the soft hair does make my head feel "plush" so I can understand the tactile attraction. But it was a little uncomfortable for me in a way.

Maybe I was reading too much into it, but it was still a little odd.

later...

snow, head, movie

I called the snow line this morning and was, as I expected, disappointed. "The university is open, all classes activities and special events are being conducted as scheduled." Yeah, I've called it enough over the years to have the standard message memorized.

The roads were pretty clear, which was fortunate as some idiot pulled out in front of me as I was trying to get on the highway. His lane wasn't going fast enough for him - which would have been an indication that a) the roads were bad or b) there was an accident up ahead. And those are both good reasons not to drive like an idiot. I slammed on my brakes and laid on my horn - and was ignored.

I can't really blame the guy for ignoring my horn. I would like a horn that says - or at least implies - "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY". Instead, it's more of a little toot that says "Hi, ummm... sorry to bother you, but would you mind moving a bit? Thanks! You're the best!"

I made it to work without further incident.

Yesterday, I stopped off at the post office to drop a package in the mail and get some stamps. I had a difficult time just getting into the parking lot since someone in an SUV was waiting on someone in line in the building and was parked blocking the only lane though the lot. I hit my "I'm terribly sorry to bother you" horn and finally got them to move. Once inside, there was the usual and standard people trying to make things more complicated - including a women who insisted on paying with her credit card, but refused to sign the back - despite the posted signs to that effect. I got through that and went on to get my hair cut.

There was no waiting at the Great Clips and I was seated right away. The stylist noted from my records that I usually get a buzz down to level 1 of the clippers. I said this time I wanted a zero - i.e. stubble.

A slight argument ensued. I say slight because we were both polite about things, but it was still an argument because I made a reasonable request and she was disinclined to follow through. I explained that I'd shaved my head in the past but it was too much trouble to maintain - but with stocking cap weather, a very short cut was easier to handle. This was my follow up to "don't you like hair?" from her.

We finally negotiated down to a 1/2 setting. But I was still a little cranky about it. I mean, seriously, I'm 35 years old. Almost 36. If I go in to get my hair cut, and I'm not drunk or high, I should be able to request any hair cut I want without a note from my mom. Although, that would be funny. Ha! I'll have to have that ready to go for next time.

Went home, hit the elliptical for a bit, played some games on the computer, and then watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army while I did a little painting. Good flick, I enjoyed it. Great special effects and well written story. A little cheesy at times, but still good.

That's it for now...

vending, bob

There were architects at the vending machine area a few minutes ago. And there are rumors abounding about a possible removal of a vending machine to make way for something else. Let this be fair warning...

Geeks Need SNACKS.


In other news... I helped fix a calendar event for when Bob the Builder Live comes to campus. Did a little research on the guy as well - I like his ideas. "Can we fix it?" "Yes we can!"

Catchy theme music.

Feeling a lot more productive with this playing in my headphones - back to work... later...

swim, dream

I was busy through yesterday with meetings, so I had to get my swim in after work. The pool was crowded, some kind of high school swim practice, and there were only three lanes open for lap swimming - one of which was going to be closed not long after I got there for water aerobics. Another lane was being used by a guy and his kids. Fortunately, a lane opened up just as I got there and I hit the water and tried not to keep up with the high school swimmers. Man, those kids are fast. And when they really got going, I got tossed around a bit by their wake.

I had a dream last night/this morning that I had bought a house and moved into it. Along with the stresses of moving and setting up a house, I also had to get a plan to rebuild the garage since it was about to fall down. Finally, a neighbor came over and was suddenly possessed by a unstoppable demonic force. On more familiar ground, I was able to slow the attacks with a massive set of steak knives, but knew that it was only a matter of time before it got me and tore me to pieces.

I woke up then, very disconcerted. I even took a wrong turn going to work. I've mentioned before that I wonder about dreaming of some place far away - and then having trouble making it all the way back to the waking world. Kinda feels like that this morning.

Anyway... back to work...

72

I'm working later this evening to conduct a training session - so, I decided to take a long lunch to balance it out. With the extra time - I decided to spend it in the pool.

1 set of 13 laps, 2 sets of 14 laps, 1 set of 13 laps, 2 sets of 9 laps = 72 laps = 2 miles.

Felt a little tired, but still pretty good. I was really hungry after the swim too - guess the oatmeal wasn't quite enough.

This afternoon I'm feeling a little sleepy, but I'll get through it.

later...

minor injury #3

While I was toweling myself off after my shower (after my swim) I noticed blood on my towel. Since it was fresh and I was alone in the locker room, I quickly concluded that it had to have come from me. I checked my minor injuries from yesterday and they were fine - still covered in band-aids. I check my arms and my torso and felt around on my back - nothing. It was when I was putting my underwear on that I realized that I had a gash on my left knee and blood was running down my leg.

Which is really odd since I don't remember injuring myself. It must have happened when I was getting out of the pool. It didn't hurt - at all - but it was bleeding pretty good.

And I'm wearing new pants today. Crap.

So, I got some paper towels and tried direct pressure. No luck / I didn't wait long enough. I improvised a bandaged with a long piece of paper towel , twisted and tied around my knee.

It worked great while I finished getting dressed - and then I felt it slide down to my ankle when I stepped outside. I reached down, tucked the bandage into my sock since it was too sturdy to tear, and went on my way.

When I got back to the office I cut the loose bandage off from around my ankle, and then doctored myself up with my stash of Hello Kitty bandages. Two for the knee, one for my thumb and the other for the side of my hand.

Why is this significant? Well, I don't injure myself very often. I'm just naturally careful. All three happened because I was in a hurry, so I guess I paid for my impatience.

Oh, and the Hello Kitty band-aids? Well, they make me feel better for some reason. I can't really explain it.

later...

Adventures in HD

My room-mate and I have been talking for a while now about splitting the cost of an HD TV. After extensive - and I mean extensive - research for both of us, we finally decided on a 42 inch, 1080, Panasonic Viera Plasma tv. The price shopping was yet another research challenge, but it finally looked like Sears had the best deal.

So, we headed to Sears in my room-mate's car, found the right department, got ignored by some sales people, found the TV anyway, and got someone's attention to ring up the sale. After a check on my own finances earlier in the day, it was decided that I would pay for it and he would pay me his half later. Debit card in hand, I prepared to make the purchase.

And things got complicated. Low and behold - my room-mate has a Sears card! And with that we can get 10% off or 6 months same as cash!

okaaay.

Except it wasn't that easy. My room-mate hadn't used his sears card in a while and it was no longer valid. But no problem - he can get a new one! So, paperwork ensues and is signed. Meanwhile, I'm starting to wander around a bit, slightly bored now.

I overhear the salesman say something about 10 (mostly unintelligible) or 6 months same as (also mostly unintelligible). My room-mate choose the 6 months option.

Receipt in hand, we head back out to the car and to the loading dock. I take the receipt in, scan it at the kiosk, and by the time my room-mate has the car in position, they are bringing out the tv in a box.

But it won't fit. The tv is not supposed to be laid down, so the trunk is out. And the backseat - while wide enough - isn't tall enough. Thinking quickly, I suggest we get the van from my room-mate's work. Which is right nearby. TV comes out of the car and back into the loading area and we head over to his work. Except, when we get there, the van is gone and in use.

Back to Sears, still in the car - thinking we might have to unbox it in the parking lot to get it back to the apartment. With some careful seat arrangement and the proper angle, we get the tv in the car - still in the box. It's no longer a comfortable ride - but it gets the job done.

Back to the apartment and unload. We have issues with getting it out of the box and getting it onto the (finally) correctly assembled stand. The current living room TV goes to the video game room. This is when I incur minor injury #1 to my hand on the tv/door frame intersection.

(swearing interlude)

Game room TV in place, new HD is put in place. I read the instructions while my room-mate used the remote and you can imagine how well that went. We finally got a picture going and I was pretty much sick of all things HD as this point. Especially since I incurred minor injury #2 on the packaging for the HDMI cable - which we ended up not using yet since neither of us could bear the thought of facing all the cables behind the TV.

I decided instead to install the shower caddy that had also been purchased that evening. The removabl of the old, rusted caddy released a small flood of gray/black water. I'm thinking it was just from the end cap deteriorating, but it might have been mold or something. The new caddy is complicated enough that I considering reading the installation directions, but managed anyway.

There had also been a stop at Old Navy since I wanted to get some pants (soloman grundy want pants too!) and my room-mate had a coupon. My pants and shirt fit fine and I'm wearing them now. My room-mate got the wrong size on the pants he bought and managed to cut the shirt he got when trying to remove the tags.

A mixture of success and failure yesterday. And a very long day. Very long.

lap, text, irony

I hit the pool again today and did 32 laps. One of my co-workers was in the pool as well and though we weren't "racing" - I still managed to lap him at least once and maybe twice. He held his own when doing the freestyle, but when he switched to breast stroke and side stroke, well, he didn't stand a chance. Not that we were racing, as I said, but if we were...

Anyway, I stopped off at the student center for lunch as was relived that there was no line at the sandwich place. I went right to the front of the line - if there had been a line, which there wasn't - and ordered my 1/4 combo with lettuce only. Transaction complete, I went to wait for and pick up my sandwich. From where I was standing I could see the "cook" - though I use the term loosely.

He was texting. Texting! He should have been paying more attention to the hamburger bun toaster, because half the bun was burned. Burned, I tell you! Much like my emotional state when I discovered this atrocity.

I ate the burger anyway when I got back to my desk, but had to discard half the bun resulting in some kind of weird-ass taco shaped burger. It was odd, but functional.

Finally, I noted - as I frequently do - the strange places I see people smoking on campus. Maybe not strange, but somewhat ironic. On the way back from the pool I noted people smoking outside the natatorium and the physical education building. Where, presumably, the people that frequent these places would be trying to get more healthy. I also saw someone smoking outside the college of nursing - where people could see inside someone's lungs to witness the effects. Weird and dumb.

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

catnip update, bowl

Update - no side effects to report from the Tension Tamer (plus catnip!) tea. A little disappointing - maybe it needed to be radioactive before it would "do" anything to me.

Also, today marks the successful use of the flexible bowls I got from ThinkGeek. I used the big one for my oatmeal this morning and then later (after washing it out) for my tea.

That is all... you may resume your day.

hanged, math, pineapple, catnip

I've got a stuffed Flash figure in the back of my car - belted in and just along for the ride. My car is red, the Flash is red - the Flash is fast, my car is... an appropriate speed based on local traffic laws and weather conditions. Anyway, he's usually in charge of the backseat unless a human being gets in there. A couple of weeks ago, I was driving a couple of co-workers to Chipotle and one of them flipped the Flash over and hung him from the seat pull-down strap by his ankle.

I left the Flash that way because I was sure I'd seen that somewhere before - I recently figured it out. It's the same pose as the Hanged Man (Traitor) in the tarot cards. Freaky.

I swam today - and mixed it up a bit by making the math more complicated than it needed to be.
A set of 10, 2 sets of 2, a set of 10, a set of 6, 2 sets of 3 and a set of 4. So, 40 laps in all. Hey, what else am I going to do? I also did some planning on next year's costume. I can see it in my head, but it's going to require learning some new skills.

Finally, I was enjoying some mixed fruit last night and started to choke on a piece of pineapple. Part of the chunk flew out of my mouth onto the floor and the rest slammed into my soft pallet and tried to go up by nose from the inside. It's a little funny now, but it was pretty intense when it happened.

Finally - part 2. One of my co-workers just gave me some tea to try - called Tension Tamer. Not that I'm really all that tense right now - but one of the ingredients is catnip. So, of course, I have to give it a whirl. I'll report on the effects later.

that's it for now...

psychic, webcam, facebook, directions, toilet

My room-mate called East of Chicago for pizza this evening & got the total and the estimated time it would be ready. I waited until the appropriate time, then got in my car to go pick it up. There were no other cars in the lot and I could see in the window of the store. The clerk saw me as well and was setting two pizza boxes on the counter. I got a couple sodas from the cooler and approached the counter - and then was surprise when he gave the last name and when I nodded - gave the total, including the sodas that I had not yet even set down. I paid the obviously psychic pizza maker and went on my way.

Now, my arrival was exactly on the target time-wise; but they must have been really slow to have been waiting for me like that.

In other news... my webcam is apparently not Vista compatible. I even tried to find the drivers online - Vista mocked my attempts with some harsh error messages. Wankers. So, I guess I need to go out and get a new, Vista compatible, webcam tomorrow.

The reason I need a webcam? I wanted to take my own picture for Facebook. Yes, you read that right, I'm finally going to start maintaining my facebook page. Now I'll have the guilt of not maintaining two web sites. Yea. Still, a lot of my friends are on there and it might be a good way to get back in touch. I'm still not getting a cell phone and there's no way in hell that I'm going to start twittering.

In still more news... I gave directions to someone today. Now, those that know me know that this is not a good thing. I'm terrible with directions - I mean, really really bad. I'm okay if I've got a map, but otherwise, I can't really be trusted to find my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. In this case, I was walking to my car in the target parking lot and got stopped by a guy in a truck. The truck was about 600 years old - and I think the guy was older by a factor of two. Both were on their last legs, but the guy wanted to know where the flea market was.

I didn't have a clue and told him so -but guessed if there was one in the area, it would be at the Tadmor Shrine. So, I gave him simple directions there. No idea if it was really there, but frankly that kind of lack of planning deserves a bit of being lost.

I was at target to buy a new toilet seat - which I then installed this afternoon. Never done that before, but it was really easy. I kept thinking I must have been missing a step - but since it works, I must have been on the right track.

Well, guess it's time to head on over to facebook and see what I can do there.

later...

swim, paper

I got in 30 laps today - I think. I had a lot of difficulty keeping count for some reason.
So, call it 30 +/- 1.5

It's really warm in the building again today - I'm in short-sleeves and getting sleepy from the heat. The temp gauge in my co-workers cubicle reads in at 84.2 degrees. Annoying.

I picked up a copy of the student paper today - it has several stories on the home page about the election as I expected, but at the bottom of the front page it has an advertisement. The ad has an attractive young woman surrounded by rose petals and it's for a local plastic surgery center. It lists their website, their services, and a tag-line of "It's time to love yourself a little more,"

How screwed up is that? As if college girls don't have enough to deal with - now they have an ad on the front page of the school newspaper implying that they could love themselves more (and presumably other people would love them more too) - if only they got a little plastic surgery.

(sigh)

Well, at least the day is almost over. It's been a really long week and I'm tired. It's also entirely possible that the highlight of my weekend might be buying a new shower curtain - and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

later...

complicated

Pretty much my entire day - with the blissful exception of Chipotle - has been a steady-stream of people trying to make things more complicated than they need to be.

Is the world not as terrible as they think it needs to be?

Are their jobs not challenging enough?

I mean, seriously, people - chill out and work towards solutions. I'm still fighting the good fight and trying to be helpful and pleasant, but I'm running out of patience.

It doesn't help that the heat is on full blast over here. I think it's around 84 degrees in the building now. Some weird thing where they set the building temp based on time of year instead of actual outside temp.

A building full of over-heated and cranky geeks. It's a good thing we've sworn to use our powers for good.

Enough complaining for now.

later...

vote

I feel a little bad for people that had to stand in really long lines to vote - my experience was really easy today.

I left work at 3:30 and I was at the polling place in about 15 minutes. There were no problems with parking and there were signs directing people to the entrance.

I was in line for maybe a couple of minutes before I was able to get checked in - and the check-in took maybe two minutes.

I had my checklist so the voting process was easy. I tore off the stubs for the ballot and only waited a minute before I was able to feed them into the machine. I got my sticker and headed out - I was home by 4:00

There was a bit of drama in line behind me - one guy couldn't vote because the records said that an absentee ballot had been sent to his address. He claimed he had never requested one - but they had no way of knowing if he had sent it in or not. So, he had to cast a provisional ballot.

Otherwise, pretty uneventful.

later...

november, donation, sleep

It's November. The leaves are still falling and Halloween is done for another year. I had a really great time with my costume on campus and I think the people I visited had fun too. I got a few screams and lots of laughter - and a surprising dose of awe that I'd made the mask myself. That was pretty cool. I sometimes wonder if I should keep doing this - but I got such great feedback this year that I'm encouraged to keep going.

Election day is tomorrow and I'm planning on leaving work a little early to get to the voting place. I've got my notes and my map and a good book picked out - should be fine. I'm not expecting any problems, but woe be it to anyone who challenges my right to vote.

I heard a news story about a woman who refused to give out candy to children - or presumably their parents - who didn't support McCain. What kind of a wanker would bring their political views into Halloween treats with kids? How fair is that? I would have lied to her about my political affiliation to get extra candy - then egged and TPd her house just for spite.

I went to give blood today and the drive was doing some kind of time survey on a little card that you carried from station to station where they noted the time. So, I thought I'd play along to see how it was going. Here's what I had - and I actually had to correct one guy (more on him later) since he filled in the wrong boxes at his station.

Arrive at blood drive location: 4:03 PM (my appointment was for 4:30 - not that it matters)
Enter the history area: 4:35 PM (already we've got a problem)
Leave the history area: 4:56 PM (I had a trainee)
On the table: 5:04 PM
Start the prep work: 5:16 PM (the other table had a problem and no one came to help the staff person)
Needle in: 5:26 PM
Off the table: 5:36 PM

At first glance, it would seems like today was not a good day for them to be checking the time it takes to process a donation. With a little thought, however, maybe it was a good day. These times are an indication that they were understaffed - though I actually thought they had enough people, they just weren't being utilized well. Maybe next time they'll have more than enough people to make up for the times and things will go quicker.

So, let's talk about the trainee. It's fortunate that I'm an old hat with blood donations - he would have scared me off otherwise. He had to repeat the steps a few times, had trouble with the finger stick, got some of the info wrong, had trouble with the blood pressure/pulse and just generally made me nervous with his manner. I know a lot of that comes from practice, but a little more 'non-donor' practice would have suited me fine. I got through it, but it could have gone smoother. How to I keep ending up with the trainees? Seems like the law of averages would help me out sooner or later. Or maybe it's for the best since I'm not going to get scared off and they can practice on me for the new donors.

In other news... I swam a mile today and that - along with my blood donation - should help me sleep well tonight. My arm was still bleeding with I took off the bandage - which is a little worrisome. So, I put it back on and I'll keep it covered for the rest of the night.

I guess that's it for now... already getting sleepy.

(yawn) later....

halloween costume 2008

On Friday, I did my annual walk-around on campus and had a blast. This year:

Cthulhu

I had a blast with this. Scared some people, got some laughs, visited some friends. And won first prize at a costume contest!

I'm still recovering... and already starting to think about next year.

later...

TV, newspaper

The Obama infomercial was on last night - I didn't watch it though I've heard it was well done. Still, who was it directed at? The undecided voters? I have a difficult time understanding why someone - even after the inundation of the media - would still not have made up their mind. One argument I heard was that they wanted to have all the information before voting. Well, I have news for you. It's all lies. Or policital speak that sounds like truth depending on who you are. And as far as not really liking either of them - another argument I heard - well, it's not about liking them, it's about picking the one least likely to make things worse. I mean, seriously, make up your mind and go vote.

A few months ago - I guess it would have been sometime in the spring - I built a framework of wood and plexiglass and hung it over the urinal in the men's room so we could put the twice a week student paper there to read. You know, while we were "otherwise" occupied and standing there.

I made it my job to keep this up to date until the summer when the paper wasn't published. In the fall, I started up restocking it with new issues - but I noticed that the "old" paper wouldn't be there when I went to add the new one. It would just be an empty frame. It got so bad that the paper would be gone within a few hours. I decided that someone was either stealing it - which made no sense since the paper is free and easy to get - or they really didn't like the paper and was throwing it away.

I finally got tired of the futility of keeping it stocked and took the framework down a couple of days ago. The double-sided foam tape didn't come down well and each time I use that urinal, I take a moment and scrape a little more off.

Kinda disappointing. I dunno who was removing the papers - and I haven't asked since I didn't ask permission to put it up in the first place.

Work has been busy and frustrating today. Looking forward to tomorrow to make my annual rounds.

later...

snow, game, garage

It's snowing today here in Akron. Not a lot, just a little in the air. I was still okay in my lightweight jacket, but I may have to hang that up soon and switch to my winter coat. There have been a few people I've talked to that have been somewhat astonished at the snow - which has me thinking, "remembers last year? when it snowed? It's just like that." And seriously, it's Ohio. If we had a 90 degree temperatures in December in or snow in August, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

With my video game system back up and running, I've been going back through my games and replaying a few. Dawn of Mana didn't last long before I put it in the "to be sold" pile, but Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is pretty good. I got stuck last time with a boss battle and lost my patience, but I'm giving it another go from the beginning and enjoying the acrobatics of the title character.

The costumes are essentially done - for both myself and my room-mate. Which means I can reclaim my half of the garage that had been designated as the spray paint area. Which is good since I despise scraping off my car in the winter. I mean, seriously despise. Can't stand it. Most hated part of winter. You see where I'm going with this. I'd rather drive in a freaking blizzard or shovel snow all day than scrape off my car in the morning.

Well, looks like I've got a couple disasters to deal with here at work - better get back to them.

later...

mood, page, pizza

I'm in a better mood today. No headache - and it's pretty quiet in the office. Looking forward to a long lunch (the boss is out of town).

I updated my fortune cookie webpage today - I was 6 fortunes behind. I think I need to do something different with this page - it has the potential to get very long and unwieldy.

Went for pizza last night at CiCi's. The food was pretty good - but the place was almost dead. We were the last two customers in there and wondered if they would still announce "Cheese Pizza on the Buffet!" if there were no customers at all. (if a tree falls in the woods...?) It also appears that they don't always say good-bye to customers with a hearty "CiCi you later!" though all the employees said normal goodbyes when we left.

Not much going on here... later...

video game, ads, headache, water bottle

Finally got my video game system back up and running. Switched out the TV for my old one - I had been using one that my room-mate got from his dad's place. I was looking for a new stereo that would do the job of my old one - but they were either too expensive or didn't have the right connectors. So, ended up using an old audio receiver that my room-mate had. It all works, but it's not ideal. The DVD player doubles as the CD player. The cable TV sound can't play through the stereo speakers - it has to come out of the TV. But, I'm playing video games again and that's the important bit. Besides, who wants to watch TV anymore?

The political ads are getting worse. I saw one the other day that had a single mom begging us to vote Issue 6 - because she was going to lose her current job and her only hope was getting one of the 10,000 new jobs at the casino? Seriously? That's your only hope? A casino job? Right...

The news clips on the internet are worse. I saw one where a man was losing his job and was going to vote for Obama because he had a better economic policy. His wife was asked who she was voting for and she said "I'm voting for the one with the most faith in the Lord, just as everyone should,"
When asked what if that meant her husband would lose his job, she replied, "the Lord will provide for us," She also expressed astonishment that Obama's mother was an atheist - assuming that he should have been disqualified on that alone. I try to keep an open mind about religions and respect people's beliefs - but isn't there something about God helping those who help themselves? Or a separation of chuch and state in the constitution? There was more to the clip, but I couldn't watch it.

Worse still is the story of the girl with the McCain campaign who made up a story about being attacked by a scary black guy that was supporting Obama and carved a letter B in her cheek when he saw her McCain sticker on her car. Totally made up. She faked the whole thing and cut her own cheek (the B was backward even).

Finally, I saw a clip of a family at a McCain rally where they were all chanting Nobama over and over. Then the little girl pretended to be a monkey.

(crickets chirping)

Yes. It was exactly that bad. This election is really bringing out the worst in people - or maybe that has always been there and the election is just making it visible.

My neighbors put up another sign in their yard - "Another democrat for McCain". I have, thus far, resisted taking it down. Mainly because I would need to take down all the signs in my neighborhood to throw off suspicion. And because people are entitled to their own opinion - even if it's wrong.

In other news... I'm getting a headache this morning. Might be what's making me cranky. Can't tell yet if it's a migraine. If it does go that way, I'm so out of here. It's already been a Monday all morning.

Finally, I got a water bottle this weekend. Partly because the water bottle I get from Giant Eagle have been reported to have higher levels than usual of some toxins. It also makes sense from an environmental standpoint. I got the BPA free bottle at Dick's Sporting goods and while it looks cool, the only way to drink the water out of the spill-proof bottle is to bite down on the silicon end and suck the water via the straw in the bottle. It's kind of odd. But it works and I was able to drink 24 oz this morning - which means I need to hit the bathroom now.

later...

candidates and issues, costume, pumpkin

I just finished going through all the issues on the ballot for this year's election - as well as all the candidates. I wasn't as thoroughly prepared last time around and had to fall back on:
1) unseat the incumbent
2) go with the democrat
3) pick the woman (since I know how guys think and frankly, we really shouldn't be given any more power)

But that method didn't always work - so, I spent about an hour on the internet going through everything and taking notes. I'm ready to go this time around and should be in and out of the voting booth in record time.

I bought some more spray paint tonight for my room-mate's costume. I think I've put more work into this than he has - but I've got more experience and apparently more time. A few people at work are trying to get me to tell what my costume is - but I'm not breaking. They'll just have to wait.

Finally, got some photos of this year's jack-o-lanterns. Mine is the lower one - it's a smiley emoticon. Because I'm a geek.

30/33, pumpkin, object

I didn't have a lot of time yesterday for my swim, so I hauled ass in the pool. 30 laps, in 33 minutes. I don't know if that's a new record for me since I usually don't pay attention to the time, but it felt pretty fast.

Carved some pumpkins last night. Well, I mostly scooped out the guts and my room-mate did more of the carving. He did a pretty cool vampire face on his - on mine I did a smiley emoticon. It was clever, but not my idea. We tried to get some photos, but couldn't turn off the flash on his camera - time to read the manual, I guess.

And when I went outside around 10:00 to put something in my car, I saw... something.

There was a bright light in the sky - several times larger than a star. There was no shape to it, just a very bright light and a faint contrail behind it. It moved across the sky in a straight, horizontal line. Very very fast and totally silent. It flew over my head and I had to turn around to see it. And then it was gone.

I tried to talk to my room-mate about it - he's pretty much Mulder Jr. on the subject of UFO's - but he was strangely dismissive. Here I was, a Scully who's trying to believe and he writes it off as a shooting star. Then we got into a minor argument about sonic booms and I dropped the issue. Whatever it was, it was pretty weird.

later...