Thunder of Wade

On Saturday, I went out to dinner with some friends for an early birthday celebration. I made them promise not to mention it was my birthday coming up to the server since I despise the false hoopla that these places try for. We had a nice time and talked a little about an upcoming trip a couple of them were taking to Europe. I had the simple salmon – which was pretty good, but over-grilled a bit.

On Sunday, after checking a variety of stores in the area, I finally found a Wii at Target. It was the only one in stock and I stopped my shopping at that point and quickly bought it before someone else scooped it up.

I got it set up at home without too much trouble – though it’s not well integrated into the rest of the electronics set up at this point – and played a game I also bought along with the Wii sports. I did pretty well with the boxing, but my room-mate won all the bowling matches.

My tempur-pedic pillow – that I got a few years ago as with some money I won as part of an award at work – is starting to let me down. Or my head was too warm last night. In any case, the pillow didn’t support my neck and head well and I woke up with a horrible neck pain and headache. I took some motrin and went into work anyway since today is the first day of class and I was needed here. I’m much better this afternoon, but still happy that the day is almost done.

I’m also glad I’ll soon be able to put my hat back on since my hair has grown out enough to be affected by the combination of a wet head and a stocking cap – which occured right after my swim today. I’ve been avoiding a mirror so i don’t know how bad it looks, but I can feel that it’s not behaving – especially in the back.

Finally, my birthday is tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to it, exactly, but I don’t feel how I expected 36 would feel. The gray hair and bald-spot make me look older than I am, but the swimming and other exercise keeps me from feeling it. Except for last week – I felt really old last week. Dunno why, must have just been tired.

Well I guess this is one of those posts where not much happened. Hey, they can’t all be amazingly well written. Anyway, time to go home.

later…

So, I’m swimming along today with a goal of 32 laps and I’ve got about 4 to go when I see a girl at the other end of the pool get into the lane next to mine. Which is no biggie, though I think spreading out is a little better since it cuts down on the wake. Moments later, another girl gets into the pool – into my lane.

Now, see, this is awkward. While there’s no assigned lanes, I always check carefully to make sure I’m not getting in someone else’s lane. And I’m not casual about it – even with my not great vision without my glasses, I never usurp anyone else.

But here she is, with her little kickboard, all ready to go. I’m charging down the lane towards her at full power, then come to a stop not far way and wait to see if she notices me and her error. Either she was really, painfully, clueless or she just didn’t care. So, I dove under the rope and switched lanes.

Now, I’m pretty sure she wanted that lane so she could swim with her friend since they spent part of the time at the wall chatting. If she had waited a moment until I got down to the end of the lane and asked if I would move – I would have without any problem. Instead, she just took over the lane.

Next time, unless I’m sure the person is visually impaired, I’m not giving up the lane and they’ll just have to share – and stay out of my way.

In other news… my boss is considering having me take over the webmaster@uakron.edu email account. Hugh increase in responsibilty, no increase in authority or pay. 🙂

Even though it’s more work, it’s still pretty cool. I think I’ll forgo the title – Master of Space and Time is far better anyway.

I’m headed out early today to go give blood, so this is it for me.

later…

I watched the New Year’s Eve show on CNN – and my only resolution this year is to not do it again next year. Even setting the massive technical difficulties aside, I still didn’t enjoy the show – far too many cringe moments or massive sappiness. And then the ball dropped and I was like – “so?”

I just don’t get the hype about New Year’s – it just feels like some kind of arbitrary stopping point for a continually moving timestream. So, if I’m going to recognize that event at all – I think I need to have way more fun and move past my natural inclination to avoid the roads and drunken traffic – and get my ass to a party of some kind.

I’m back to work today and it wasn’t as difficult to get back into the swing of things as I expected. There also wasn’t a pile of work waiting for me as my infrequent vacations would usually have since everyone around here was gone too. So, that was nice. It should be pretty quiet around here since a lot of people are taking this as a vacation day.

I made a couple calls on my cell phone – and was annoyed by the sound quality and the dropped calls. Still, it was handy since the people I was calling weren’t at home and I would have missed them if they didn’t have cell phones. However, I was at home and could just as easily have called from my land line. So, a little silly on my part to use the cell phone, but if I’m paying for it, I might as well make use of it.

Got a new entertainment center for the living room TV – and of course ran into problems with the resetting up of the system. Seems the HDMI Cable alone won’t carry an audio signal from either the cable box or the DVD player to the receiver. So, I had to use audio cables as well. Which annoyed me since it was so counter-intuitive. And because my room-mate had suggested it and then gloated a bit when it worked. The new entertainment center should keep all the components cooler and the setup is a bit more streamlined.

That’s it for now – looking forward to getting back in the pool today at lunch.

later…

I spent last weekend with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law for an early Christmas since they would be traveling for the holidays. On Friday night, I was the last to go to bed and when I got up to the spare bedroom at my parents house I discovered that my pillow was… lumpy.
The pillowcase contained: A box of kleenex, a stuffed bear, one glove and 2 video game cases. I unloaded it, put the bear outside my sister and brother-in-law’s room – since I was sure it was them and went to sleep. At 6:30 in the morning, I found the small flashlight that was also in the pillow case when I got up to pee.

We got a good laugh about it and later on during the weekend I returned the favor by leaving a small slice of an orange on their pillow – like a mint. It was found and commented upon and we laughed about it.

As I got in the car to drive back home on Sunday evening, I noticed a leaf stuck to my windshield wipers – but didn’t think much of it since it was windy. I didn’t need to use my wipers on the drive back and the leaf was still there the next morning as I got in my car to go to work.

Except it wasn’t a leaf – it was the same small slice of orange that they had put there and it had frozen in place and lasted the whole trip.

For a moment, I considering saving it and mailing it to them as a “late christmas present” – but realized quickly that I would get it back for my birthday in January. Not sure I wanted to start a cycle like that with a food item, I tossed the orange and went on my way.

But I did consider it…

In other news… I bought a cell phone. Yes, Mr. I Hate Cell phones has gone over to the dark side. I’ve added numbers to my address book, sent and received text messages, and made a call. The phone is red, because they were out of the black ones. It’s a LG Scoop with a keyboard. No internet or text packages yet – still need to determine if I’m a cell phone person. I suspect not, but we’ll see.

Finally, I hit the pool for the last time this year since the University will be closed. With the 36 laps I did in the blue pool, my total since I started keeping track is 6,868 laps – which is about 190 miles. It was a little staggering for me to realize that.

That’s it for now – Merry Christmas.

I saw a quote on a refrigerator yesterday that caught my eye:

“No date on the calendar is as important as tomorrow” – Roy W. Howard

On a surface level, it makes some sense – I frequently check my calendar for what’s scheduled for tomorrow; meetings and such. On a deeper level, I completely disagree. The most important date on a calendar is today. Even the most detailed schedule can’t completely predict tomorrow – and the past is subject to interpretation (re: 1984). The only thing we have for certain is this moment, this hour, this day. All the rest is mutable.

Okay, not exactly a failure, but not expected results from a couple of projects.

1. I saw a project on the web where a scanner was turned into a really crazy camera. The project called for the use of black foam-board to build a couple of sliding boxes that rested on and covered the scanner. A magnifing glass was used for the lens and the “focus” could be adjusted by sliding the boxes. There were examples of the photos, but it didn’t seem worth the effort since the scanner cable is short and the “shutter speed” is so slow. I decided to take the idea and modify it to a single box – the idea being that I could scan 3-d objects inside the box when they would normally be crushed by the lid.

It took me a while to get the box built and make it light-proof – and when I tested it, I discovered a few things:

a) It’s difficult to get the object lined up under the box.
b) I made the box too small (it’s only 5 x5x5)
c) the underside of things? Not really that interesting.

Plus, I had to reinstall my scanner software (I blame Vista for that, but happened during this project, so it still counts) and then the scanner would make these really sad little beeps when I had the box in place. Dunno why.

The few objects I scanned (a 3-d puzzle, a squishy ball, and an action figure) – didn’t really turn out that well. I’ll try a few more, but I think the idea is flawed.

2). I saw a few videos on the web for making a wallet out of a Tyvek envelope. Tyvek is a some pretty cool and very strong material and since my fairly new leather wallet is already breaking down, I thought this might be interesting to try. I bought a small package of regular material envelopes to try out from Staples – and noted that they only sell the Tyvek envelopes in pacakges of 50. Since I’m not making a career out of these, I began a hunt for smaller units.

The sample wallet went together pretty well and I headed to the post office to see if they had these for sale. No dice – though I can order these online in packs of 10. I tried the FedEx/Kinko’s store and the the clerk had no idea what I was talking about.

There’s a UPS store not far from my house – I’ll try there and then give in and order them. Seems a little silly to order envelopes through the mail. Plus, the wallet may not even be that useful since it doesn’t have many pockets for cards.

On the plus side, I’ve got a couple stained glass projects in the queue and some origami that’s going well. Still feels like my Project-fu is weak though.

Back to work…

From a recent “Pearls Before Swine”:

Pig (speaking to Rat): Hey Rat..Mind if I borrow this cardboard box I found in your closet? I’m starting a blog.

Rat’s reply: A blog? What do you need a box for if you’re doing a blog?

Pig: For all the money I’m going to make.

(later)

Rat (speaking to Goat): Are there interventions for stupidity?

I was in the pool the other day and saw a couple of people testing water rescue dummies a couple lanes over. Two funny bits. 1. The dummies had red heads with yellow faces and when I first saw them I thought “Why is Iron Man wearing a wetsuit?” 2. The people doing the testing couldn’t get the dummies to sink – which makes it hard to test a water rescue. So, the guy in the water with them would have to push them to down first, then pull them back up for the rescue. I’m pretty sure that’s not how “step one” is supposed to go. After a while, they finally found the valve to fill them with water and they sank like stones. Pretty funny looking – to the point that I had trouble paying attention to my own swim.

My mom is awesome. This fact has been further verified by her following through with a weird request like a champ. You see, I have 5 meetings scheduled today. I was feeling a little sorry for myself last night and I wanted to get out of some of these and it occurred to me that a note from Mom might help.

So, I called her up last and asked if she would write me a note to get me out of the meetings. And, since I’m planning on getting a hair cut after work today and had a little trouble last time, I also asked if she would write me a note for that. She did, faxed them over this morning, and they are awesome.

Notes from Mom (pdf)

Thanks Mom! Now I’m off to meeting 2 of 5

later….

Even with sleeping in a bit and playing a lot of video games, I still managed to be somewhat productive this weekend.

1. I tried a little Japanese calligraphy. I think I understand it, but my efforts were hindered by not having the right ink. I’ll get some and try again soon.

2. Relearned some origami. There’s a particular module that – although it is very simple – is very difficult to remember. I think I’ve got it this time, but I said that the last two times I learned it.

3. Practiced stained glass. I found my equipment again in the basement and taught myself some techniques. I need to get more glass though, and either find my better soldering iron or buy a new one.

4. Tried to learn how to knit. Seems like a very practical skill to have in case of a zombie uprising. Not that a scarf will stop a zombie, but I’m guessing the TV will go out once the zombies take over and it will be something to keep me occupied. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to follow the directions. This was my second attempt and though I got a little further it turned out I was doing it wrong.

5. Learned a little more CSS. I’m planning on a major overhaul of my personal website and I’ll make heavy usage of these tools.

6. I also cleaned the oven – twice. (my room-mate’s sister is hereby banned from ever using any appliance the apartment again. I dunno what she tried to cook in there, but it looked like an alien had explosively decompressed in there. ) And I did a mountain of laundry.

I also watched much of season two of justice league again – good stuff. And “The midnight meat train” on one of the free-per-view channels. Good stuff and while it didn’t totally follow the book by clive barker, it was close enough.

that’s it for now. later…

The main pool was closed today, so, I had to use the Wellness Center’s two lanes for lap swimming. Though, it wasn’t really two lanes – more like 1.5 since they were so narrow. I got in the “outer lane” to start since the other was in use. The rest of the pool is open for games and such – and includes a whirlpool. All the water is connected, so the whirlpool generates a pretty substantial current. I was really really fast in one direction – and very slow in the other. And I’m pretty tired even though I only did 30 laps.

One highlight from the thanksgiving trip was a game of Cranium. Mom and I were on a team and though we didn’t win, we did rally at the end. My best area was the Sensosketch – sort of like pictionary except that you draw with your eyes closed. The rest of the group was amazed at the accuracy of my drawings – but I wasn’t really surprised since dad and I are both good at visualing things in our heads. It’s one of the things I got from him that works well – unlike the hair loss and intense headaches.

later…