Eeep

loser

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:39:13 GMT

I'm a loser cuz I never update my blog and I can't even remember my password.

Wed, 14 Jan 2004 16:00:15 GMT

So i turned my budget in yesterday to our business manager. She looked at the total and said, "Well, that's a number". I informed her that, yes, it was indeed a number. We'll see.

Christmas

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 21:19:29 GMT

So - quick update (since i've not posted in some time).

Christmas was just loverly - Emily and i spent christmas morning together, which was wonderful. We did a thing where we couldn't get the other person anything that didn't fit into our stockings - many quirky and fun gifts ensued, including a book on making snowmen. Afternoon, we went over to memaw's house to celebrate with emily's extended family, which was a blast - i really enjoy getting to know them more.

The day before christmas i show up at work, expecting a normal work day (albeit with only a few people there) and find the building locked, and the alarm armed. No one had told me that we were given the day off :(. This is made more funny/tragic by the fact that i'd been locked in my office two days prior, and the alarm turned on b/c no one had though i was there. I didn't have a code for the alarm system, so walking out of my office and being greeted with loud sirens did not make me a happy camper.

New year’s eve was much fun, overall. My family came down, and we went to fredericksburg's first night celebration, which consisted of: drawing in chalk on main street, a terrible community theater version of a.a. milne's "the ugly duckling", free trolley rides, a visit to the fredericksburg area museum, an amusing magic show, playing around at the junk jam till my elbows were sore, a visit to a 18th century apothecary shop, and watching the pear drop. S’mores and sleep followed.

I started singing in choir again on wednesday. I didn't realize how much i missed it till we started rehearsal. Of course, the choir at church, while good, is not precisely fantabulous compared to the choirs i sang with in college. I'm still amazed with the skill dr. reagles was able to bring out in us.

Currently, i'm working on my 03-04 budget, the new webpage, and what to do this weekend. Yay.

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 17:26:04 GMT

This is my new all time favorite comic. The way it combines craptacular, yet oddly compelling, early 90's cartoons with the father of evolution and power tools is pure ambrosia of the mind. And besides, who didn't want to see that little monkey attack amd maim Ma-Ti?

Um... Ok.

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 21:00:55 GMT

A wandering spirit caring for a multitude of just concerns, you are an instrumental power in many of the causes around you.

And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 16:23:31 GMT

On a lighter note (since my last two entries have been about crappy computer problems) i had a truly wonderful weekend. I engaged in numerous social activities, learned new things, had meaningful conversations, and went on an extended date with my wife. Yay!

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 16:19:38 GMT

I hate orbitnet. It is poopie. If the install screws up, you have to reinstall windows. Their website doesn't even work. The dumb dumb heads. If I ever meet the person who wrote this software, I will punch them in the ear. The left one. Grrrr.

Boingi Boingi

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 13:38:14 GMT

So I spent the first hour of my day today on hold with DirecPC, our satellite internet provider, because our link was down this morning when I came in. Only the transmit half of our link was down, mind you. Four games of solitaire later (of which I only won one... grrr), it turns out that sometime during the night, the satellite went into "test mode" where it tests to make sure it's still working properly. For some unknown reason ("maybe a plane flew between the satelite and the dish at that exact moment") the test failed, and, being the sensible and logically designed set of electronics it was, the system promptly retested itself and went on it's merry way working properly, by which I mean it promptly refused to run another test until we told it it had moved to Arkansas. Joy. But it works now, and I'm off to the Stafford campus to figure out why Heather's computer is beeping at her in class.

Tata

Wed, 10 Sep 2003 17:49:24 GMT

I think floppy disks should be a matter of religion. Because they require faith to operate, you see.

I have no faith in floppy disks. At all. I would rather store my data on paper - in binary, manually - than on a floppy disk. When I use them, they have a habit of becoming unstable and corrupting, for instance, a term paper during the time it takes to move the disk from, for instance, one print kiosk with a non-working printer to another one next to it with a working one. I am constantly amazed that floppy disks don’t crumble to dust when I pick them up, that’s how fragile I'm certain they are, in the same way that I’m certain that, should I venture into that dark room next door, I will be eaten by a Grue.

Elementary school teachers, on the other hand, have faith in floppy disks. They expect them to work. In a school teacher’s eyes, a floppy disk is nigh unto Yahweh* in terms of durability and longevity. A teacher can use one disk for two years as her sole means of storage, and not encounter a single error. And this doesn't surprise her. Given a nuclear attack on the good ol’ US of A, cockroaches and the floppy disks of K-12 teachers alone will roam the prairies. Teachers have faith in their disks.

And so, I propose the creation of a new religion, based on ones belief about the durability of 3.5 inch floppy disks. If you’re a member, you gain access to cheap, reusable, indestructible - if somewhat limited - storage. If not, well then, you get to lose term papers, or that purchase order you spent 15 hours preparing. But on the plus side, you get nifty gadgets like this.**

* As a side note, YHWH is the original spelling of this word. It was, if my sources are not completely wrong, the Jewish name for God, and purposefully included no vowels, so as to make it unpronounceable (or possibly because ancient Hebrew writings frequently didn’t include symbols denoting vowel sounds). Now, besides the obvious question "If you add an ‘a’ and an ‘e’, it’s not, precisely speaking, unpronounceable any more, is it?" that pops up, I want to know who decided that we should add an ‘a’ and an ‘e’ in the first place? Why not a bunch of "o’s"? What's wrong with Yoohoowoohoo?***

** This rant brought to you by the Toshiba M20, which I picked out for 3 teachers here requesting a laptop, and which, if you will check the specs thoroughly, you might notice do not ship with a floppy drive. Sigh.

*** This subject originally raised by my cousin John IV, to give credit where credit’s due.

Weeba. Beep.

Sat, 21 Jun 2003 02:41:23 GMT

So, Munah died today. Munah being Emily's great-grandmother. I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. On one hand, she was an amazing lady, and Emily and I really wished she could have been at the wedding. I really wish I could have gotten to know her better - I used to stay at her house when I went down to visit Emily, and we always had the best time just sitting around, shooting the breeze. On the other hand, after you live through two of your kids dying on you and a stroke that leaves your memory totaled, you pretty much have the right to go quietly into that good night, in my considered opinion. Bah! In brighter news, I managed to negotiate myself a 5% raise in my new job, before I even started. There are a couple ways to look at this: I am an amazing bargainer, the other guy was a terrible bargainer, or they really had just done their math wrong on the contract they sent. I'd love to say the first, but honestly, I’m guessing the last.

Weeeee!

Thu, 22 May 2003 20:00:40 GMT

mmm....
Just put in application for ideal apartment that opens on the 13th of June.
Just sent application to almost ideal job that opens whenever I want.
I'm feelin' pretty happy.

Look ma, I’m 'normal'...

Wed, 21 May 2003 20:14:07 GMT

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Low
Narcissistic:	Low
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

I've joined the dark side...

Tue, 20 May 2003 17:45:31 GMT

But, you know, I’m strangely calm about that. The idea of community, especially online community, has always been pretty fascinating to me. We'll see.