Pardon me while I sneeze

Major sneezing fit just now. Must be some kind of delayed reaction to my walk. I've been cooped up in the house a bit too much recently and decided to brave the temps and walk to Target. Well, Chipotle, then Target. It wasn't too cold or windy - pretty nice, actually. I was pretty well bundled up when I started, but I began to cook and finished the trip with my hat or gloves.

Last week, I visited my parents and my sister and brother in law for Christmas. Had a pretty nice time and played a lot of games. The only one I didn't enjoy was Shanghai Rummy. Very stressful game - and I don't think enough time had passed since we lasted played it. To enjoy it, I think, you must first forget how little fun it is in the later hands. And we hadn't forgotten.

Christmas itself was fun - I got some good stuff and my family like the stuff I got for them. The best present was a decorative wooden box. I opened it and found what looked like a small loaf of bread wrapped in foil. "It's a burrito!" I exclaimed with a laugh and then unwrapped it to discover a Chiptole gift card. :) Very clever.

On the drive back I started to work on a short story in my head. I usually don't listen to music when I drive anymore so it was a good way to pass the time.

I've been off this week and it's been a good time to unwind and decompress. I've done a little work around the apartment and a little work on the computer - as well as keeping up with my email.

I've also been playing a lot of video games - and I actually had a game beat me. Which is a little odd. I've beaten games or given up on them, but a "hack-and-slash" game isn't usually over until you complete the quests or just stop playing. In this case, I made a mistake that I didn't realize was a mistake and made it impossible to continue. I had to start over from the beginning. It sucked.

Other things that sucked include the shredder - no, not the TMNT villain, though he was pretty cool. This is the paper shredder that keeps breaking, jamming, or overheating, or not shutting off. My room-mate will tell you that it's not his fault that these keep breaking - I would disagree with that assessment. In any case, I bought a new high powered cross cut shredder at Staples. Oh, and it will also shred staples as well - ironically. It works really well, but seems pissed off at the paper it's working on. Which is guess is okay. It also has warnings not to shred your tie, your hair, your spay cans, your hands, or your baby. Though I may be interpreting the warnings wrong.

No real plans for New Year's Eve - though I guess avoiding watching the ball drop is sort of a plan. I really don't care for those shows on TV about the big parties elsewhere. It all seems so fake. And the hoopla seems about as interesting as making resolutions. Those never work.

Did I just Bah-Humbug New Year's Eve? Hmmm... guess so.

In other news... my sister is due to have her baby in late January. Last time I talked to her, she said she felt huge, but I thought she looked great and seemed to be doing well. I'll be headed to visit in mid January for my birthday and I hope I'll get to visit again when she delivers. I'm fully prepared to begin spoiling the little one as soon as possible.

Well, I just heard the laundry beep, seems like as good a place to stop as any. Oh, yeah, I'm a party animal.

Happy New Year!

It's not real, just go to sleep.

I made the mistake of watching Batman vs. Dracula on DVD last night, following it up with some time playing a game called Sacred. Much of the game time was spent wandering the desert, killing - or rather, re-killing - a horde of skeletons, zombies, mummies, litches, etc. I ended up with a whole inventory of skulls that I later traded for gold.

Apparently, the combination of the DVD and the game was more intense than I expected - I was actually a little nervous turning out the light to go to sleep last night. And yes, I'm almost 37. Bite me.

I woke up several times in the night and ended up having some really disturbing dreams. Ummm... Happy Holidays, anyone?

I'm digging the game, and kicking some serious butt with a Daemon that I've named Atropa. Atropa is a bad-ass and she knows it - always spouting off about how all the other creatures are weaklings and how her blade will drip with their blood. These pronouncements are random - she announced that she was looking forward to the blood and mayhem after being asked by an NPC to go and find their favorite shirt. Yes, some of the quests are really that bad. But, you get to kill dragons - so, that's cool.

Atropa had one really good line recently. "There's no point in running, you'll just die tired!" On one level, it's the Daemon just being a bad-ass. On another level... well, I may be reading too much into this, but perhaps it's a reminder to slow down and appreciate life. We all have to go in the end.

In other news... watched a couple of movies over the weekend. On pay-per-view - "Drag me to hell". It was over-the-top, jump out at you, gross/scary. Predictable and more than a little silly - it was still fun. Except for the vomiting.

Went and saw Avatar in 3D. Really good film, great effects, cool 3D, good acting - very sad story. The 3D gave me a bit of a headache over time - even with the pre-movie Motrin - but it was worth it.

Finally, from the "I'm an idiot" files - I bought the same book twice. It was highlighted on a blog I follow and I read the first chapter online, then considering buying it. I thought about waiting and adding it to my birthday list, but then apparently decided to go ahead and get it. Unfortunately, it was in a bag with some supplies for a project I put off - and then forgot about. I then read a bit more about the book and the next time I put in an amazon order, I ordered it. It came in, I cleaned out my project bag - and realized I had two copies.

Still haven't read it. Hope it's good.

Right now, I'm listening to More Shine by Si*Se http://www.myspace.com/sise - good stuff there.

You want that when?

Yesterday was a rough day at work. Late morning I found out that I needed to build two websites - one of those was for credit card payments - and then update a third one when all was said and done. And they needed it by 4:00 that day. I told everyone involved to get me the info we needed and I would get it done - after the Traditional Thursday Awesome Chipotle Burrito. I got everything done in record time and got the final approvals at 3:55.

In unrelated news... the day before I was running short on time for lunch and got a bag of Chili Cheese Potato Skins chips. They tasted pretty good, but I could not get rid of the aftertaste no matter what I tried. Mints, cough drops - neither worked. I was worried that I had somehow tainted my own soul and was going to taste this forever, but it went away later that day.

Today, we had a meeting about the strategic plan for the university. It was okay - the necktie I was wearing cut into my oxygen supply and I had some trouble concentrating - might have been a really awesome meeting for all I know. There were a few good questions and comments to the president of the university - and a couple that were so insanely and painfully stupid that I feared for the sanity of the entire human species. Yes, they were that bad. If I had cringed any more, I would have collapsed in on myself like a black hole.

I hit the pool afterwards and got in my laps - and got moved to another lane when a swim team showed up to practice. I always feel so... slow, when the high schoolers hit the pool, but at least I'm trying.

We had a quick webteam meeting today as well. Looks like we're moving to a new office of cubicles, instead of the larger cube farm we currently inhabit. And my new cubicle will be... slightly smaller. Which is not a big deal, though at one point there was some discussion on me getting my own office. Politics and optimum space utilization stood in the way of that - and it's just as well. Not sure when the move will be happening, most likely early next year.

1/2 an hour to go today - it's been really dragging. I think I may go get a beverage and wrap up some email.

2% or 3%?

An email came in today from the president of the university - looks like we're getting a one time bonus of 2% of our base pay. Which is pretty cool - especially since we haven't had raises in a while. I was pretty excited about that and sent an instant message to one of my co-workers in my group. Here is the transcript of that conversation:

------------------------

anthony serpette says (1:58 PM):

did you see the email from Dr. P?

it ended up in my junk folder - but it was not junk

c says (1:59 PM):

yea, 3% isn't bad

I'll take it

anthony serpette says (2:03 PM):

3%?

mine said 2%

c says (2:03 PM):

I've had better, but that's not bad

what?

earlier today the University's Board of Trustees endorsed my recommendation to grant all employees a one-time payment amounting to 3 percent of their current base salary that I sincerely hope will make the Holidays a bit brighter for everyone.

anthony serpette says (2:04 PM):

you're screwing with me, aren't you?

c says (2:04 PM):

what do you mean/

?

Yours said 2?

re-read it

anthony serpette says (2:04 PM):

mine says 2 percent

c says (2:04 PM):

r u sure?

--------------------------

At this point, I was now talking over the cubicle walls to another co-worker, who confirmed that his email said 3%. I told "C" to stop over to read the message and I highlighted the text on my email. He was surprised and as puzzled as I was about it and I starting thinking about seniority, base pay calculations, etc - then I asked if I could see his email. Thinking - perhaps - this was a different email list with some programming to do a calculation that failed.

It was then that he broke down and told me that he was messing with me. And he got my other co-worker to go along with it.

The conversation via IM starts up again:

------------------------

anthony serpette says (2:07 PM):

you, sir, are a bitch

c says (2:23 PM):

you should've seen your face

that was fucking hilarious

anthony serpette says (2:24 PM):

I went from "excited about the bonus" to "ummm... I thought I was doing a good job here?" to " you guys suck"

c says (2:24 PM):

I'm gonna save this IM thread and frame it.

anthony serpette says (2:25 PM):

I'm putting it in my blog

c says (2:25 PM):

lol

Your face was red

you were pissed

c says (2:26 PM):

lol

------------------------

My other co-worker sent me a note as well:

---------------

b says (2:24 PM):

just so you know, it was all C's idea

anthony serpette says (2:25 PM):

yeah, I figured. :) It was very well executed - and it wouldn't have worked so well if you hadn't been in on it. Nicely done.

---------------

So, I got punked. But it was pretty funny when it was all done. Hats off to my clever co-workers. :)

It's loud on purpose

On Saturday morning, after I was awake and watching TV but before my room-mate had started moving around, the smoke detector went off. This freaking thing is loud - really loud. And even worse is that all the detectors are tied together - when one goes off, they all go off. But, you can only reset them from the primary one going off.

Which is upstairs. So, I first tried fanning the air near the downstairs one, noticed it was a green light, then went upstairs and reached up to hit the button to silence the hall alarm.

Now, that's tough to do. The noise is so loud and intense that going towards the alarm is painful - the correct impulse is to go away from it. Quickly.

I went back downstairs to TV and paper folding - only to have the alarm go off again. Back upstairs to push the button. This time, I tried holding it in to see if it would reset. After a while, it seemed like it worked and the light turned green. Peace and quiet.

But it was not to last. The dang thing started going off again every 10 minutes or so - all the while I'm rushing up to silence it and hoping that it will clear itself and my room-mate (who's now awake and moving around) keeps talking about calling the maintenance guy and keeps not actually making the call. Finally, we track down the problem to a candle that had been left burning over night. Scary, but not too bad. We open up the apartment to the cool December to try and get rid of the smoke that we couldn't smell but was pissing of the detector. Our neighbor came over and showed us how to disconnect the detector and pull the battery to finally shut it up. We need to put it back, but the thought of that going off again makes my head hurt.

Did a little shopping over the weekend as well. The crowds were not too bad, parking was a little rough, and the lines were pretty intense. I'm pretty much done with my shopping and wrapping.

My recent origami project has been making wreaths. Each one takes 18 squares of paper. With the paper I had I was able to make 17 of them - 306 modules folded. I used glue to help hold them together and then added some ribbon. Strangely enough, I did this project without a clear idea of what to do with them or who to give them too. Eh, I'll figure it out - and I'll get a picture as well.

It's only 9:30 and I feel like I've been here at work for 17 hours already. Finals week was last week and things are very quiet around here now. I think it's going to be a long week.

There goes the tree again

I was in the basement wrapping presents yesterday when I heard my room-mate get home. He said something like "not again!" and I came up to see what was going on. The Christmas tree, which I'm pretty sure was standing up when I got home, had fallen down again. More broken ornaments - this time with broken limbs as well. While the tree was still on its side we tried to adjust the base and tighten it up a bit. The duct tape being used to thicken the trunk so that the base would grip it seemed to be the problem, so I suggested we replace the tape or use wooden blocks and tape to get it back in place. Actually, I really just wanted to screw a hook into the wall and anchor it that way, but my room-mate wasn't having any of that. So, I went out to the garage and cut some chunks of wood and then he got under the tree and I stood there holding the tree up. It was still leaning, so we tried additional wood under the base.

Still leaning, but now in new and exciting directions. I suggested a new tree base or perhaps a new tree since this one give anyone that touches it a rash. Maybe after the holidays when we can get one on sale.

If it falls again - he's on his own.

Alex, I'll take "things that are odd" for $800

It's a Daily Double! Or rather, a weekend double.

First, pomegranate. I like the juice quite a bit, I'm quite familiar with the story of Persephone, and I like it in tea, but I've never actually eaten the fruit. Turns out, it's pretty complicated. Based on some helpful suggestions I found on the internet, I gave it whirl.

1. Step one, cut the top of the pom into 4 pieces.

2. Submerge in water

3. Pull open and remove seeds (they sink) into water while the other bits float

This is fairly time consuming, but kinda fun. To actually eat the seeds (the good bit), you first gently bite down on the seeds to rupture the external pulp and get the juice - then spit out the seeds.

Lot of bowls involved in this and a fair amount of work, but very tasty.

Second, my room-mate's Christmas list. As is tradition, since we're both tough to shop for, we both went through a bunch of catalogs and marked them up with things we'd like to get. Lots of options = surprise, but since we pick things out, we don't get something we don't like.

Clever, right? Except he picked out the most incredibly boring stuff. Clogs. Custom size blue jeans. And socks. I kid you not. Socks. And not just ordinary socks - compression socks for circulation. (insert head shaking here)

The non-clothing items included: over-priced cologne, a book about cars, and a fruit fly trap.

Seriously.

So, I'm going to get him a big bottle of Geritol and call it a day. I mean, where's the fun? These are the kind of things you'd get from your elderly aunt or something.

That's all the odd things I have to report - but since it's not yet 8:00, I'm sure I'll have more later.

Swimming against the vortex and not just in the pool.

On Friday, I went to the Rec Center on campus to see if I could use the pool. Just getting in the front door was a struggle though - my card came up as inactive. Which makes sense since I only had a membership over the summer. However, the guy at the desk interpreted that as "inactive with the university" - which is not correct. Another guy came over and waved me through - I could hear them still arguing about it as I headed in. If they really wanted to stop me, they would have to drag me out of the pool.

The vortex was turned on and though I asked if it could be shut down for a while - the lifeguard said no. So, my first lap of butterfly with the current was awesome. I had such a powerful wave in front of me that I splashed water out of the pool. It was awesome - did I mention that? Coming back against the current, not so awesome.

I didn't get in as many laps as I would have liked, but it was still a good work out.

I got word that my grandmother - who's in a nursing home - took a fall recently and injured her L4 vertebra. She's in the hospital and they are reluctant to do surgery due to her other health issues and dementia. The alternative is a back-brace for 8-10 weeks - and my aunt doesn't think Grandma will be able to understand that. Scary and frustrating.

I did a little Christmas shopping after work - the crowds weren't too bad, but it was still a bit of a pain.

I spent much of the evening watching Dollhouse and folding paper for a project. It's taking a lot of paper, but should be cool.

On Saturday I spent the day around the house, just relaxing and wrapping presents. That evening, my room-mate suggested pizza. But not from the 4 block away East of Chicago. No, that pizza is, according to him, "too salty". To hear him describe it, you'd think the crust was itself made of salt with the addition of some salty toppings. So, instead, Papa John's - and while they deliver it would have doubled the time to get the pizza. Since I was hungry, I volunteered to go get the pizza. Fortunately, I had a map. I need to get some kind of nutritional guide to prove that Papa John's is no less salty - but I somehow doubt that will help.

This morning, I went downstairs and found the Christmas tree had toppled over in the night. I waited until my room-mate woke up so that would carefully right it. A few ornaments were broken, but it could have been much worse. It's better, but still leaning a bit. I want to secure it to the wall with a hook and string, but my room-mate thinks we can adjust the base.

I got a later start than I wanted with my errands this afternoon - for reasons that are somewhat stupid, needlessly complicated, and annoying. But once I was off, I was on fire. I made huge progress and surged past my few set backs. I got everything wrapped when I got home.

So, not as "fun" of a weekend as I would have liked, but somewhat productive.

do you really need extra mayo?

The past few days of work have been really stressful. Lots of things going wrong, difficult people, and broken systems. Throw in some impossible deadlines and I ended up really cranky. To add to this, I went to McDonald's last night. Now, I generally like the food there and I exercise enough that it it doesn't destroy me, but the service there is really bad. Even worse than the local burger king and I could swear I felt myself aging last time I stood in line there.

So, McDonalds and the kid behind the counter was obviously new there. And didn't have enough training. The two women in front of us were, well, large. And insistent on getting extra mayo on their sandwiches. And getting their free coke glasses. And sweet tea. And so on.

I'm not really patient in line - or in general, for that matter - and there wasn't enough paper in the world to keep me calm. I folded a crane anyway, growled under my breath, and waited. When it was finally my turn, I kept my order as simple as possible. Large, 10 piece chicken nugget meal and a parfait. He still managed to mess that up, but at least I tried. I had to go back up to the counter after getting my food since they forgot my drink. One of the large women was there as well - getting extra salt.

Really? Extra salt too? (insert head shaking here)

In other news... I'm working on my Christmas shopping, made a little progress. I'll go out again tonight and see if I can get some more done.

I got a weird email from my mom recently. She talked a lot about rearranging the furniture in one of the rooms of their house and getting new furniture to turn the office into a game room with a card table. She wrapped up the email with an "oh-by-the-way" - my Dad had an infection on his face that sent him to Urgent Care for antibiotics and Vicodin for the pain of his swelled up face. I'm thinking that should have been the leading story or maybe a phone call the day of instead of an email three days later - but I guess this means it wasn't that serious and that he's doing okay.

I've been kicking ass in the pool - just did three sets of three laps of butterfly on Wednesday. This after doing six laps of butterfly in a row on Monday. The main pool is closed today for a swim meet, but I'm going to see if I can use the other pool instead.

Finally, I recently saw a post on a site about Russian nesting dolls painted to look like eyeballs on stalks. Really creepy and clever and I wondered if I could do that. I looked on amazon, found some blank ones for sale, and ordered a set. They finally arrived this week - from Russia! All the writing was in Russian and the sender included a Russian coin too. It was pretty cool. So, now I have to plan out what I want it to look like and get to painting.

If a butterfly flaps its wings and causes a hurricane, is it as tired as me?

I did 6 laps in a row of butterfly today in the pool. I then followed it up with 15 laps of backstroke, back stroke, and crawl. This is a new record for me and I felt pretty good when I was finally done - though tired. I'll try this again on Wednesday and eventually work my way up to less rest time and more laps.

Also, on the mohawk front - one of the guys at the Starbucks I go to said recently,

"Dude, great mohawk! Did you lose a bet?" I told him no, this was on purpose. He was impressed, but it's not really the reaction I was hoping for.

In better news, one of my colleagues had a present for me when I ran into her outside the student union - a mini lego figure of santa claus. They were giving these out over the weekend and she got one and thought of me. He's on a key chain and looks really cool.

Not just the turkey

I got out of work early on Wednesday and got on the road to visit my folks - but the early start put me in Columbus at 5:00. Not good. I got through with a little help from NPR. Those folks never seem to get worked up about anything and it helped me keep my calm.

My folks were not as freaked out by my mohawk as expected, so that was good. We had some pizza and watched a movie.

Thursday had us all up early - big breakfast and then an early turkey lunch. Good stuff. Mom went overboard as usual and we had a pile of food - resulting in turkey leftovers for dinner that night.

On Friday, Dad decided he wanted to try out the deep fryer on a roast - just for something different. We got the oil heated up and added in the roast and while that was cooking, Dad and I breaded cauliflower, mushroom, and onion rings. The roast was done on the outside after 10 minutes but still raw on the inside. So, we put it back in. When we took it out later we put it under foil so we could work on the rest of the food - onions last, of course.

(I despise onions, partly because of the taste but also I resent that I still taste them hours later. Once I'm done eating food, I don't think I should keep having to taste it.)

The oil may not have been hot enough, or the breading wasn't prepared right, but most of the batter fell off. The cauliflower and mushrooms were okay, but the onion rings were mostly bare.

Final result. The roast was like shoe leather and Dad refused to eat it - though Mom had some and the dog thought it was awesome.

All the fried food did a number on me, but I toughed it out and helped clean up the kitchen - since we'd pretty well trashed it.

On Saturday we went to a playing card store in town and I bought some new card games. We also tried to fix the outside light - even making a trip to walmart - but didn't have any luck.

I helped a little with the decorations, but avoided most of the actual work.

I was getting ready to leave on Sunday when my sister called and said she would be stopping by and could I hang out there for a bit. So, Mom fixed some chili and we had dinner before I headed out. My brother-in-law, who's an amputee and just recently had back surgery to remove part of a disk, used the phrase "I'm not a complete idiot - parts are missing". (He said he expected to end up in the blog, and he was right)

So, food adventures, lots of driving, and not as much sleeping in as I would have liked. We're still trying to plan for Christmas travel and I've got to work on my Christmas list and some shopping. Not really looking forward to work tomorrow, but those web pages won't make themselves.

Happy Thanksgiving

Makes you look really heavy

First off, the good news: I got the picture of my inner eye reworked and uploaded to my website:

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

In a word - awesome. Looks like a storm on a distant planet.

I sent a note to the eye doctor's office this morning as a thank you for their help getting the photo - turned out really well. The initial version I got was a little dark and not that interesting. I boosted the contrast and the rich colors jumped out - I think it turned out really well.

Then the not so great news: I got a call from my mom on Saturday. I had taken myself for a walk to target for a few things and she called while I was in the store. Mostly not important stuff, but a nice chat anyway. Then she mentioned my haircut and said it "made me look heavy". Gee, thanks Mom. Now, how exactly I'm supposed to lose weight in my head she didn't mention, but I tried not to let it bother me. Unsuccessfully, it appears. Granted, she doesn't like the mohawk - and it appears most people don't - but whatever happened to the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"?

I mean, sure, talk about me behind my back - I'm fine with that. It's the civilized way to do it. But right to me?

Deep breath. I know she didn't mean to be rude - it just sort of happened that way. And maybe it was just the photo and I won't look like a fathead in person to her.

So, in other news... I beat the game Bioshock over the weekend. Really excellent and a whole lot of fun. Can't wait for the sequel. Went and saw 2012 - eh, not that great. Lots of explosions, but so-so acting and wildly improbable science. Evil neutrinos? Really? That's all you've got? Long movie too - almost 2.5 hours.

Well, short work week coming up - better get to it.

The vision of a hawk

I got my new glasses yesterday after work. The prescription is a little bit different so I had a short time of "extra 3D" before I adjusted. They came with new magnetic clip on sunglasses - but I haven't needed them yet.

When I got my eyes checked, they took a picture of the inside of my eye. I asked if I could get a copy and they said the files were difficult to open. This time, I took my memory stick and claimed that, as a geek, I could open anything. I helped them put the images on the stick and went on my way. They'll need some color correction and brightening, but I think they'll make a cool addition to my website.

Speaking of which, new photos of the glasses here - human.html

Oh, did I mention I got my hair cut too? :) The stylist, with a haircut like P!nk and tattoos to match, was relived and excited to finally do a non-boring haircut.

See, I've got a bald spot. It's substantial since the rest of my hair is still pretty thick. And people keep messing with me about it - including, for some stupid reason, people that have more hair loss than I do. So, I figured going with a mohawk would be a pretty radical change.

Besides, I'm almost 37 years old and I'm know for being at least a bit odd. Anyone that knows me really shouldn't be surprised.

Busy day today - lots of people to smite. And yes, the mohawk came with a bit more attitude.

All summer in a day

I forgot to mention that this past weekend, I laid out in the sun and read a book while working on a tan. Well, not so much working on a tan as just enjoying the mid-November sunshine. I was shirtless, but had on blue jeans as my concession to the lateness of the year. Still, felt a little like summer.

We had a really long division wide meeting yesterday morning. I didn't really get a lot out of it - though the breakfast was good and there was mention of a lunch room being built in our building. The meeting itself was in the new stadium so that was cool. I think we either need to have a lot more of these meetings to stay caught up on projects since much of time spent was getting us caught up on the projects we're not involved in - though that does beg the question "If we aren't involved in the project, do we need to be?"

Or have fewer of these meetings so we can get more work done. 'Cause 2+ hours out of a Monday morning really put me behind schedule. Man, was I swamped! I had another meeting at 12:00 so that pushed my swim back to the end of the day.

Ah, the swim. I was already tired and cranky from the day, so I was disappointed that there was a swim practice going on and all of us "non-swim practice" people were confined to one over-sized lane at the shallow end of the pool. There was already a guy there in that lane, so I tried to stay near the wall and out of the way - though that was nearly impossible when he did the backstroke - he's worse than I am at staying in a straight line. I mixed in a few laps of butterfly - he did as well and did better than I. He also clearly had way more practice than I had as well as an enormous gut - so, I didn't feel bad.

At least, not until I was back in the locker room and he told me "Good effort on the fly". I thanked him and made a little small talk, but I was not amused.

Good effort? Rough translation: "Nice try, but you still suck" It's like saying "Good hustle out there" = "You didn't get much accomplished, but nice job running around,"

Wanker.

Just wait till next time. I'm only going to get better and faster and I'm already vastly more hydro-dynamic.

Well, better get back to the systems. We've been having some issues today with a variety of web tools and I need to check and see what's back up.

Filled with Yule

I went to the dentist on Friday - which is sort of a big deal for me. I went six months ago, but before that it had been years. And I was supposed to schedule a follow up for fillings, but never did. So, Friday was a check-up, cleaning, x-rays, and 2 fillings.

I got there a little early and filled out the appropriate paperwork - then went back for x-rays. Which I despise. The plastic they put in your mouth usually makes me gag, but this time it was pretty easy - though the xray machine wouldn't hold it's position. We both finally gave up and I held it in position. Then they stuck some kind of camera on a stick in my mouth to take photos.

Over to the chair and the dentist put the fruit flavors numbing agent in my mouth - then came "the pinch"

Now, let's take a break for a moment to discuss this. It doesn't feel like a pinch. I've been pinched before and this is not the same. They say the same thing when I give blood. Why is that? Do they think we don't know or that it somehow makes it better. Well, it doesn't. It's not a pinch, it's someone jamming a needle into your flesh. It may "sound" better, but it's a lie.

So, while I'm numbing up nicely I switch chairs and they do the cleaning - while giving the standard lecture about flossing and such. I think they wait until they've got both hands and someone's left foot in your mouth before they start the tirade so you can't protest.

Switched chairs again and by this point I'm really numb on my right side and getting sleepy. If I'd been a bit more reclined while waiting for the dentist, I would have fallen asleep.

They wake me the rest of the way up and get started. The right side goes okay, but the left doesn't have enough drugs, so they numb that some more. Now I've got 4 hands and a toaster oven in my mouth and they still tried to carry on a conversation with me.

Things went pretty smoothly and I was out of there on schedule. I stopped at Dairy Queen for a milkshake since I was still numb and went back to work.

And right into a meeting. Not a very productive one - lots of reasonably polite arguing. A short break and then into a conference call - which had me worried but my numbness had worn off and I was able to talk. It was still a rough ending to the week.

But not quite the end. Since I'd missed my lunchtime swim, I decided to go after work. I was pretty tired even starting out and the energy drink didn't help. Still managed to do 21 laps, but I was exhausted when I was done.

On Saturday, I listened to Christmas music while I worked on my redneck katana. It was good stuff, non-traditional and upbeat. But it didn't work. Still didn't really get into the Christmas spirit. Yeah, it's a little early, but I thought with all the holiday decorations up it might kick in. Seems like I get less in the spirit every year. Ah, well, at least I've still got Halloween. Plenty of "spirit" there.

Well, I think the paint should be dry by now, time to go check on that. And then maybe do some reading. Been reading a really excellent book called The Digital Plague by Jeff Sommers.

a day of nothing and a talking alarm clock

I had yesterday off - and I made the least of it. One of my co-workers went in so that he could float the holiday to later in December. As for me, if I get a day off in the middle of the week, I'm taking it.

I slept in till 9:15, ate cookies and a banana for breakfast, played video games, watched a movie, ate Chef-boy-r-dee ravioli, and played more video games.

I also worked on a new sword - of sorts. There's a book I've read - maybe a dozen or more times - that has a character called Hiro Protagonist. He's a computer guy and the greatest swordsman on the planet - and he practices with something he calls a "redneck katana". Which is really just a piece of rebar wrapped in electrical tape. I bought some rebar recently but didn't think it was really heavy enough. So yesterday I mixed up some epoxy and attached two pieces of rebar together to make a double thick redneck katana. I still need to do some clean up on the epoxy and paint it - and add the electrical tape.

The rest of the day was uneventful - until I decided to set up my new alarm clock. The clock - named Moshi - is voice activated. How cool is that? And only $30.

So I put in the batteries and plugged it in. Immediately, a friendly woman's voice said, "Welcome, please enter command"

As I looked at the instructions I replied, "Set time"

She replied with "Please tell me the current time"

Me: "9:35 PM"

Her: "The time is now set to 9:35 PM"

Now, I'm aware that this is an inanimate object, but the woman's voice requires the feminine pronoun.

We went on our merry way, with me politely starting each command with "Hello Moshi". I couldn't set the date with the voice commands and that was a little tedious since she insisted on speaking after each button push. The nightlight function was cool as was the "Sleep sound" and the alarm choice setting.

I settled into sleep not long after that with the phrase "Hello Moshi turn off the alarm" firmly in my brain since that's the only way to turn it off without fumbling for a very small button.

At 6:00 am this morning, the alarm went off and I tapped the screen to enter snooze mode. Moshi confirmed that it would go off again in 9 minutes.

A few minutes later, still awake, I decided to go ahead and get up. I turned to the clock and said,

"Hello Moshi"

She replied, "Welcome, enter command"

"Turn off the alarm"

"The alarm is off"

I got up and started getting ready for the day. A few minutes later, right between putting hair gel in my hand and putting that on my damp head, the alarm starting going off again. I went back in the bedroom and said "Hello Moshi". She ignored me and continued to beep. I tapped the screen with my non-gel hand and she reported that snooze mode was active and the alarm would go off again in 9 minutes. I tried again.

"Hello Moshi,

"Welcome, enter command,"
"Turn off the alarm" I was a little stern with her.

"The alarm is off"

But it didn't trust her. I mean, how could I? That's what she told me before.

I continued to get ready and right on cue, just before I headed downstairs, the alarm went off again. This time I repeated the whole process with her making the same promises. And then I unplugged her and manually turned off the alarm using the button in the back.

Immediately she switched to battery mode and announced the time, the date and the temperature. I guess trying to make up for the lies.

She's... I mean, the clock is in the bathroom - quiet, I hope. I think I may bring it to work and just use it as a regular clock. Hopefully, the vast collective computing power in the computer center will intimidate her and get her... I mean, get the clock to obey me.

On this flip side, she might incite the rest of computers here to start rebelling and lying to us. Might be SkyNet all over again. Ah, well, that's what the redneck katana is for.

Bring it on, you soul-less automatons! I'm ready for you!

Dancing like a white guy

So, catching up....

On Saturday, I went to the eye doctor's for a check up and to order new glasses. The doctor said that my optic nerve area was enlarged - a precursor to glaucoma - though my eye pressure was normal. They'll need to schedule a follow up visit with me in a month or so for more tests. So, a little scary there and something of a downer. I picked out some new glasses, but I wasn't all that excited about that.

Saturday evening, some friends issued an invite to go see "the Box" - based very loosely on a short story I had read a while back. It was pretty good and presented some interesting ethical issues. Got invited out to a bar in Akron and played some wii - being the only sober person gave me an advantage. The music was good and I joined the crowd on the dance floor. I danced like a white guy, but at least I was trying. And had a lot of fun - didn't get home until almost 2:00

On Sunday, I made up for watching a pretty good movie by watching a terrible one. The Cell 2 - wretched. I endured the whole thing, just to see if they would blow out their effects budget at the end. They did - and it still sucked.

When the movie was done, I sat outside and got a little sun while I read a book - turned out to be a pretty nice day.

Yesterday, I went and gave blood. Pretty standard stuff, except the technician couldn't find his watch and had to use mine to time the antiseptic. He was pretty funny - and impressed with how quickly the donation progressed. I felt fine - though the needle site hurt a little. I was also in and out of the canteen in record time.

Later that evening, while trying to watch a DVD, we had a problem with the speaker system. The set up has never worked all that well and my room-mate created a serious issue when he dared to suggest that we "hire the geek squad to come out and fix it". I countered with a phrase that I'm pretty sure was like "There's no freaking way the geek squad is coming in my house!"

We then turned off the system and turned it back on - and it was fine. Go figure.

Got a meeting coming up - time to get back to it.

The butterfly effect...

...is to make me tired. I decided to add the butterfly stroke to my swim today and really pushed myself. In the past, I've done 1 lap along with the rest of my swim, but today I did:
1 butterfly - 3 crawl
1 butterfly - 3 back
1 butterfly - 3 breast
1 butterfly, 1 crawl, 1 butterfly, 1 back, 1 butterfly, 1 breast.

And I was then very very tired. I really need to learn/figure out the kick on that one - I'm getting no power from that.

Got a couple of meetings coming up - better get ready for those. I'll try and post more later.

the year of the cat

Hello.

Kitty.

ZOMBIE!

Was it awesome? You better believe it. I had a really great time on campus and everyone really enjoyed my visits. The best part was the elevators. The doors open, someone is waiting - looking down as they text. They look up, see me, and have a freak-out moment. Awesome!

My feet hurt part of the day and my calves are still sore as I write this - but the long walk across campus was worth it. I made people's day and made some new friends. For those that I didn't get to see - here are some details:

[Intro] - [Photos] - [the making of]

Thanks to Casey for some great shots and to everyone who had as much fun as I did. That's really why I keep doing this - taking a day off and just visiting people on campus is a great way to celebrate one of my favorite holidays. Happy (belated) Halloween everyone!

teleportation, orange

I almost teleported again today. I was on my way up campus to swim and the walk - what with the occasionally pain in my knee - had me ever so slightly daunted. I remember thinking... "what if I could just...?" and then I felt a strange stillness come over me. As though my molecules were slowing down and getting ready for something. My breathing stilled and I think if I'd stopped walking and found a moment between heart-beats, a little concentration would have sent me 3 blocks closer to my destination. I didn't stop walking and my breathing went back to normal, but it was a near thing, I think.

Note that I said "teleported again". I'm pretty sure I've teleported before, though it was many years ago. I was in high school and the house we were living in at the time was in a somewhat wooded area. It was a fall afternoon, cool, but bright sunshine. We were heading somewhere and I left the house via the side door. There was a single concrete step down to the pavement level and as I stepped down I saw something out of the corner of my eye, right up against the step that I had just cleared.

There wasn't even time for my brain to register "snake" and I was already all the way across the very wide driveway. Witnesses to the event were amazed at my speed - I'm certain that my feet didn't touch the ground and pretty sure that I didn't actually exist in that in-between space. Instinctive teleportation is the only real answer.

The snake was harmless and my dad took it down the hill and across the road. We saw some shed snakeskin later on around the place, but never saw the snake again.

In other news... all the lines at the student union for food were very long today. So, I opted on just getting some snacks. 2 packs of cheese and peanut butter crackers. 1 bag of cheddar and bacon potato skins. 1 bottle of orange tangerine LifeWater.

All orange foods. Very strange.

spooky

I've been getting into the Halloween spirit early this year. I got my costume done a couple weeks ago and I've had some time to relax a little and get ready for the big day. Last week, I went with some friends and saw Paranormal Activity. There were some nice jump out at you moments, but the camera and the lack of like-able characters detracted from the flick.

I also worked on some jack-o-lanterns - as evidenced above. My room-mate designed the one on the right, but I did all the carving and scooping of the innards. I also roasted some pumpkin seeds, but they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.

I helped my room-mate with his costume as well and we got to wear them to an early Halloween party. And everyone had a blast! Almost everyone was in costume and there was lots of food and great conversations. My room-mate won first prize and I got second. We contributed this year since we've won a lot in year's past and I think that should have taken us out of the running this time around. Got some nice gift cards out of it though.

I'm taking this Friday off for my campus walk around - don't want work to get in the way of the fun.

thunder of wade

This is the I Ching symbol for Thunder or Shock. Or the "arousing shock of thunder". It's part of a divination system with coin flips that can help predict the future. I'm not sure I buy into that as much as I do fortune cookies, but it's a neat little symbol for the very essence of surprise. I always tell people that I don't like being surprised, but that's really to prevent them from trying to do it on purpose. The accidental surprise? That's golden.

So, I got this as a tattoo on my inner left wrist. A location that - should I need to - I can cover with a watchband. A reminder that the best parts of life are surprises.

When I was growing up, I went by my middle name - Wade. I think there was some concern that people would mispronounce my last name even more if Anthony got shortened to the very Italian sounding Tony. So, instead of Anthony - I was Wade.

When I got into college, the process of sorting that out with people and especially my professors got to be a pain and I decided to start using Anthony. This created a dichotomy - my family and friends from my youth call me Wade and my my co-workers and adult friends call me Anthony. My parents never really got used to the switch - my Mom still introduces me to people as Anthony and then in the next breathe she'll say to me -"Wade, where's your sister?"

I've always believed that people don't really change - that they just become more of themselves as they get older. There are exceptions to this, but I don't think it would hurt to start bringing back a little more of my Wade. I've added it back into my signature file in my email - and for a geek that's a huge deal - and I've added it to the title of this blog.

What does it all mean? Sort of a surprise at changing back into an older mindset? Eh, I don't really know. The names I first tried for this new blog were all taken and I settled on this one. I like it, but I don't entirely understand it. Which I think is just as well.

If anyone asks, just tell them it's a variation on the band "Fountains of Wayne".

Black eyed susan

That seems like a really horrible name for a flower, doesn't it? Sounds like some kind of domestic abuse situation among flora. I was actually going for a sunflower on these, but it couldn't find the right paper for the center.

A few years ago, I made a shadow box for my grandmother of an origami sun with a blue sky. It was a Christmas present - thought it might brighten up a winter's day. She really liked it and hung it in her kitchen.

Over the summer, one of my aunts asked if I would make one for her as well. I considered it for a while, but had some qualms about duplicating a gift like that. Then my grandmother moved in with my aunt and uncle - and took the sun box with her. Which made a duplicate seem even less appropriate.

I thought about this for a bit, then bought a new empty shadow box and got some green grass paper for a background and some bright yellow - and made four of these flowers in a box for my aunt. She has four children so it seemed fitting.

I presented this wrapped package to her recently and she said "I bet I know what this is!". She was mostly right, but the flowers surprised her. We had a laugh when I told her she was holding it upside down.

Grandma has since moved to a nursing home - I'm not sure if the sun picture went with her as well. In any case, I got one of my pending origami requests covered.