Category: Uncategorized Page 118 of 157

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

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

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

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

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

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

later…

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

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

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

Is it time to go home yet? Please?

Okay, how about now? Maybe?

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

later…

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

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

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

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

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

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

later…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ummm… boy who cried wolf?

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

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

to which I replied:

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

🙂

So, that’s it for now – gotta run. later…

I ran out of swear words last night.

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

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

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

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

Such wit!

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

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

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

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

Got to go to a meeting now… later…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source – I watched “the fly” over the weekend.

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

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

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

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

later…

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

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

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

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

Nice.

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

It was still annoying and, well, rude.

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

b. Stop freaking tailgating the cars on the road.

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

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

That’s about it for now – other than I’m glad it’s Friday. Later…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I guess that’s it for now, time to get to work…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

back to work…