Category: Uncategorized Page 60 of 157

This past week I’ve gotten over 1,500 spam comments on my blog.  I, apparently, have been noticed by the spammers and I’m interesting enough to warrant a surge of traffic.  Which I guess is somewhat flattering and also deeply annoying.

I’ve been deleting them, but at one point they were coming in every few minutes.  Different posts, no real pattern – and nearly all are nonsensical.  There were a couple though that I had to actually read to see that they were junk – they were almost, but not quite, related to my the topic of the post.

The spam comments seem to have died off a bit, but if I get another surge it might be worth it to invest in some anti-spam tools for the blog.

In other blog news, my twitter feed came up with an error when I was trying to make my last post – and it froze the page.  I managed to get around it and run an update that fixed it, but for a while I thought my blog was broke.

Finally, in the past few weeks I’ve been getting very bad – but very short – headaches.  The pain hits me in the temple like an ice pick, quickly ramps up, and then fades out.  Of course, I suspect a voodoo doll, but I don’t know anyone with that kind of time on their hands or the inclination to do me harm.   I guess I should see a doctor about them, but they are so short in duration and relatively infrequent I don’t know if it’s worth the effort.  I’m planning a doctor visit after I turn 40 in January – maybe I’ll bring it up then.  The reason I mention it now is that I had one this evening.  Strange and annoying – much like the spam, I guess.

The street outside my house is narrow and unfortunately the small driveways and garages force my neighbors to frequently park on the street.  There is still enough room for two cars to pass each other – barely – but it’s close.  Most of the time one of the cars will temporarily pull to the side and yield the way until the opposing car is past.

This past weekend, I was coming home from some errands and was about a half a block from my house.   Another car was coming towards me and got way over – I figured I had enough room to get past the parked cars.

I didn’t.  Not quite anyway.  As I went past one of the cars I hear a “thunk” and realized I had hit a parked car.   I pulled into my driveway and checked my car.  The passenger side mirror was turned and I noted a small scratch as I rotated it back into position.

I went out and checked the car I had tagged.  The driver side mirror was rotated as well.  I rotated it back and noted a small scratch there as well – but it was an older car and I didn’t know if that was my doing or not.

I asked one of the neighborhood kids that was standing nearby if they knew who’s car this was and got a vague answer that it was someone that lived on the street.  Which is what I pretty much assumed.

So, I went back to my house and wrote a note explaining what had happened and my contact info – then took it back and left it under the windshield wiper.

A little while later I got a call from a woman who didn’t give her name but indicated she was my neighbor and had gotten my note.  She said she noticed a scratch on the car but said it wasn’t a new car and didn’t think it was a big deal – though she would have to talk to her husband.  I apologized again and we ended the call – though I wondered why she called me then if she needed her husband’s input on getting it repaired.     I haven’t heard back from them so I guess they aren’t going to pursue it.

I’m glad I left the note and even gladder that it wasn’t a big deal, but it makes me cranky – once again – at how fragile cars are.  I wasn’t going fast and the mirrors rotated as they are supposed to and still… damage.

So, lesson learned.

This past Friday, I headed down to visit my folks for my Mom’s birthday.  We went over to my sister’s on Saturday and got to hang out with her and my brother-in-law – and my two nieces.  The older is not quite 3 and she’s full of energy.  She talked up a storm and ran around the whole time we were there – when she wasn’t having Grandma or Grandpa read to her.   The younger is 3 months and is really adorable.  I got to hold her a few times and even managed to get her settled down a couple times when she was crying.

They also have an Xbox Kinect and we got to play that quite a bit after we got back from lunch at a mexican restaurant. We played dance games, adventure games and a few sports games.  I sweat through my shirt a couple times and had a lot of fun.  Mom said I did a good job with the dancing game, but I think she was just being nice.

The next day we were back over there for more cake and hanging out.  We played more of the Xbox and I managed to wear myself out again.    The drive home Sunday night was a little uncomfortable – stuck in a car after all that activity wasn’t a fun time.

On Monday, I was really sore, but it didn’t stop me from hitting the pool and getting in my laps.  I’m over  125 miles for the year and trying to figure out my new goal.

This morning I got up extra early and headed to the polling place to cast my vote.  I had all the info I needed – including the precinct number and my ID – and was ballot number four for my precinct.  I used my cheat sheet to quickly fill out my ballot and I was on my way.  No matter how things go, it’s still pretty awesome that we live in a country where we can determine our own leaders and cast a ballot without fear.   It’s also awesome that the political ads are done for a while – it kinda sucks being in a swing state.

I started growing a beard while on vacation and it eventually got out of hand.  And it made me look way older than I am.  So, I shaved it off in stages and took pictures.    There are a couple photos on my “human” page and a link to an animated gif of the transformation.

This year, I dressed up as a Chinese demon called an Oni.  Details on my costume page.  Photos on the new page for this year’s costume

It was trick or treat night in my neighborhood this past Saturday.  I joined up with some of my neighbors to pass out candy – and to demo my costume.    While my friends passed out candy, I freaked out the kids – and the parents – and the drivers of cars that went past.  Much to the amusement of my friends.

The weather was cold and there was a light drizzle in the air, so as much fun as it was to hand out the candy to the kids, it was great to go inside for some hot soup.   After dinner, we played a few rounds of dominos (I won!) before calling it a night.

I didn’t have my glasses on when the kids came around for trick or treating, so I didn’t get to see much of them.  One kids got points for dressing as a Jawa with light up eyes – but lost points for having them red instead of the correct yellow.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, just a cold and rainy time.

I also found out that President Obama is coming to campus on Wednesday.  Which was supposed to be my day to walk around campus for Halloween.  I’m still going to dress up and try to avoid that part of campus until he leaves.  Hope I don’t run into any secret service.

Went to Fazoli’s for dinner last evening.  I like the food there and I like how they are trying to straddle the line between fast food (you order at a counter and the food is ready quickly) and a sit down dinner (the food is brought out to you and you eat with real silverware).  The staff wear shirts that proudly proclaim they are Garlic Powered, Tomato Powered, or Basil Powered.

On a previous visit, one young woman was wearing a shirt labeled Basil Powered.  She was not quite focused and didn’t more with any deliberation as she moved about the restaurant.  I concluded that Basil must not be an effective power source.

This time, the same woman was there and was working behind the counter.  She was now tagged as being Tomato Powered and was move quickly and efficiently.

I don’t know how that actually works – perhaps the acids in tomato juice function as a primitive type of battery – but there is clearly something to this and requires more research.  For Science!

I was under the weather yesterday – stomachache and headache.  Just out of sorts and cranky all day- even snapped at some folks. I got home, worn out and tired, and saw that my modem lights were blinking – and not in a good way.

I suspected that it was my MAC address since the last sales person I talked to at TWC was vague on that.  So, I girded my loins again and called TWC.

And it wasn’t that bad.  I talked to a local guy, explained what I thought the problem was, and told him about my own diagnostic attempts.  He seemed to appreciate my skill level and we quickly got the correct address entered.  In short order, my Internet was back up and I was on line. He kept me on the line to do a couple more quick tests and then I was done.

I was really worried and prepared to be really pissed off – but everything went really smoothly.

I took some aspirin and had a couple of turkey sandwiches and felt a lot better as the evening went on.  Went over to a friend’s house to watch American Horror Story on DVD – then walked back home afterwards.  He texted me later and said I was brave for walking home in the dark unarmed after watching that scary and disturbing show.  I reminded him:

I am the weapon.

To which he responded.  Hahahahahahahahaha…

Editor’s note:  I’ve been reminded that the actual response was:

“Hahahahahahahahahaha SNORT hahahahahahaha”

I had kind of a late night on Friday, but I was up bright an early for an appointment for a technician from TWC to come out and proceed with the completely pointless installation (since it already worked).

The 8 am to 9 am hour came and went.  At 11:00 am, I called TWC and navigated my way through the the prompts before I finally talked to Olivia.  She was very nice, but could not find a reference to any technician being scheduled to come out to my place.  She was familiar with the offer, but would need to transfer me to sales to get that sorted out.  And that didn’t work.  She couldn’t transfer the call.  So, after a few times of trying she verified my number and said that a person from their sales group would call back, “in seconds”.  I hung up the phone with her.

15 minutes later, I called again and this time worked my way right over to the sales area and talked to Lee.    He tried to do a hard sell on cable TV and phone, came back with the wrong price until I got that sorted out, and insisted that I have a technician come out to verify my identity and do an install.  We politely went back and forth on that before I offered to provide him the MAC address – again – so they could see the modem remotely.  That seemed to mollify him and he was able to confirm that yes, I had paid and that yes, things should be okay.

This morning, I sent a note to the OBEN folks to cancel my payroll deduction.    I figure I’ve got a 50/50 chance that my service will continue to work correctly or that it will suddenly stop.  If it stops, I’ll give TWC one chance to make it right – otherwise, refund and look for another provider.

With my whole Saturday morning wasted, I went out for pizza with friends and then over to the West Side Market in Cleveland.    After about 2 minutes in the meats section, I decided it should be renamed  West Side Market of Various Animal Parts That Someone Would Consider Eating But That Someone Is Not Me.    An entire pigs head, with eyeballs still in place.  Cow’s tongue. Chicken Feet.  Pig stomach.    It was pretty revolting.

I had more enjoyment in the pastry section and found a spot that was selling Bubble tea.  It’s really just tea, with milk, fruit flavoring, and tapioca balls – served with a huge straw to suck up the tapioca.  I’d heard great things about this, but could never find a place that made them.  It was… just okay.  Kind of novel, but not all that.

I did get some dried fruit – strawberry, mango, kiwi, and ginger – but that was the extent of my trip there.  Not really worth the trip back just for that, but still a fun experience.