Author: admin Page 14 of 81

The vision of a hawk

On November 18, 2009

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

By admin

On November 17, 2009

In Uncategorized

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

By admin

On November 15, 2009

In Uncategorized

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

By admin

On November 12, 2009

In Uncategorized

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

By admin

On November 10, 2009

In Uncategorized

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…

By admin

On November 4, 2009

In swim

…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

By admin

On November 3, 2009

In Uncategorized

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

By admin

On October 28, 2009

In food, humor, science

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

By admin

On October 27, 2009

In costume, movie

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

By admin

On October 23, 2009

In blog, name, tattoo

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”.