Thunder of Wade

I’m in a better mood today. No headache – and it’s pretty quiet in the office. Looking forward to a long lunch (the boss is out of town).

I updated my fortune cookie webpage today – I was 6 fortunes behind. I think I need to do something different with this page – it has the potential to get very long and unwieldy.

Went for pizza last night at CiCi’s. The food was pretty good – but the place was almost dead. We were the last two customers in there and wondered if they would still announce “Cheese Pizza on the Buffet!” if there were no customers at all. (if a tree falls in the woods…?) It also appears that they don’t always say good-bye to customers with a hearty “CiCi you later!” though all the employees said normal goodbyes when we left.

Not much going on here… later…

Finally got my video game system back up and running. Switched out the TV for my old one – I had been using one that my room-mate got from his dad’s place. I was looking for a new stereo that would do the job of my old one – but they were either too expensive or didn’t have the right connectors. So, ended up using an old audio receiver that my room-mate had. It all works, but it’s not ideal. The DVD player doubles as the CD player. The cable TV sound can’t play through the stereo speakers – it has to come out of the TV. But, I’m playing video games again and that’s the important bit. Besides, who wants to watch TV anymore?

The political ads are getting worse. I saw one the other day that had a single mom begging us to vote Issue 6 – because she was going to lose her current job and her only hope was getting one of the 10,000 new jobs at the casino? Seriously? That’s your only hope? A casino job? Right…

The news clips on the internet are worse. I saw one where a man was losing his job and was going to vote for Obama because he had a better economic policy. His wife was asked who she was voting for and she said “I’m voting for the one with the most faith in the Lord, just as everyone should,”
When asked what if that meant her husband would lose his job, she replied, “the Lord will provide for us,” She also expressed astonishment that Obama’s mother was an atheist – assuming that he should have been disqualified on that alone. I try to keep an open mind about religions and respect people’s beliefs – but isn’t there something about God helping those who help themselves? Or a separation of chuch and state in the constitution? There was more to the clip, but I couldn’t watch it.

Worse still is the story of the girl with the McCain campaign who made up a story about being attacked by a scary black guy that was supporting Obama and carved a letter B in her cheek when he saw her McCain sticker on her car. Totally made up. She faked the whole thing and cut her own cheek (the B was backward even).

Finally, I saw a clip of a family at a McCain rally where they were all chanting Nobama over and over. Then the little girl pretended to be a monkey.

(crickets chirping)

Yes. It was exactly that bad. This election is really bringing out the worst in people – or maybe that has always been there and the election is just making it visible.

My neighbors put up another sign in their yard – “Another democrat for McCain”. I have, thus far, resisted taking it down. Mainly because I would need to take down all the signs in my neighborhood to throw off suspicion. And because people are entitled to their own opinion – even if it’s wrong.

In other news… I’m getting a headache this morning. Might be what’s making me cranky. Can’t tell yet if it’s a migraine. If it does go that way, I’m so out of here. It’s already been a Monday all morning.

Finally, I got a water bottle this weekend. Partly because the water bottle I get from Giant Eagle have been reported to have higher levels than usual of some toxins. It also makes sense from an environmental standpoint. I got the BPA free bottle at Dick’s Sporting goods and while it looks cool, the only way to drink the water out of the spill-proof bottle is to bite down on the silicon end and suck the water via the straw in the bottle. It’s kind of odd. But it works and I was able to drink 24 oz this morning – which means I need to hit the bathroom now.

later…

I just finished going through all the issues on the ballot for this year’s election – as well as all the candidates. I wasn’t as thoroughly prepared last time around and had to fall back on:
1) unseat the incumbent
2) go with the democrat
3) pick the woman (since I know how guys think and frankly, we really shouldn’t be given any more power)

But that method didn’t always work – so, I spent about an hour on the internet going through everything and taking notes. I’m ready to go this time around and should be in and out of the voting booth in record time.

I bought some more spray paint tonight for my room-mate’s costume. I think I’ve put more work into this than he has – but I’ve got more experience and apparently more time. A few people at work are trying to get me to tell what my costume is – but I’m not breaking. They’ll just have to wait.

Finally, got some photos of this year’s jack-o-lanterns. Mine is the lower one – it’s a smiley emoticon. Because I’m a geek.

I didn’t have a lot of time yesterday for my swim, so I hauled ass in the pool. 30 laps, in 33 minutes. I don’t know if that’s a new record for me since I usually don’t pay attention to the time, but it felt pretty fast.

Carved some pumpkins last night. Well, I mostly scooped out the guts and my room-mate did more of the carving. He did a pretty cool vampire face on his – on mine I did a smiley emoticon. It was clever, but not my idea. We tried to get some photos, but couldn’t turn off the flash on his camera – time to read the manual, I guess.

And when I went outside around 10:00 to put something in my car, I saw… something.

There was a bright light in the sky – several times larger than a star. There was no shape to it, just a very bright light and a faint contrail behind it. It moved across the sky in a straight, horizontal line. Very very fast and totally silent. It flew over my head and I had to turn around to see it. And then it was gone.

I tried to talk to my room-mate about it – he’s pretty much Mulder Jr. on the subject of UFO’s – but he was strangely dismissive. Here I was, a Scully who’s trying to believe and he writes it off as a shooting star. Then we got into a minor argument about sonic booms and I dropped the issue. Whatever it was, it was pretty weird.

later…

I was watching a bit of TV recently – which I’ve been trying to avoid until the election is over and the ads are stopped – and while I usually tune out the increasingly strident commercials in general, my attention was drawn to a new migraine medicine. It promised to offer relief – and then went on to list the dozens of potentially serious side effects. The side effects sounded terrible – and what about the poor people who helped test this stuff? I think I’d rather have a migraine.

My room-mate went in for allergy tests – the doctors thought there might be an allergy that is causing his occasional wheezing. According to the allergy clinic, he’s allergic to a ton of different things. And the recommended “treatment” is 5 allergy shots every week for a year. And then five more every month for another year. He said the doctor has to be in the room when they give him the shot since it’s essentially a dose of allergen and the the reaction could kill him. Potentially. The end results – after a couple years and thousands of dollars – will most likely be a lessening of the allergy. Maybe.

Sounds like the doctors and drug companies need to learn how to “help” and not hinder. Granted, hindering is more fun, but it’s also kinda mean if you’re serious about it.

I’m wrapping up my costume – just a couple more details to go. Also, I’m helping my room-mate with his costume again this year. It’s more work, but I can make better use of the ‘dry-times’ by going back and forth. I’m really starting to get into the spirit of Halloween again – bought some candy last night and I think some pumpkin carving is in my near future.

Finally, I left my car out last night and this morning I had to scrape off the windshield. Winter is on the way…

That’s it for now… later…

I swam 45 laps (1.25 miles) today. And I seemed to have gotten some kind of second wind or something because I got faster as I went along. I’m pretty tired, but it was good.

The reason for this longer swim? I had a work issue. I generally try not to talk about work in this blog because that’s one of the many delightful ways to get yourself fired. So, I’m going to be very vague about this.

I had a user that I worked with on a huge project. It’s been well over a year since we started it and our team has put a lot of time and effort into getting the work down. The user seemed to be right there and right on track with us – but things got delayed in an approvals process. I sent a note today to check on the progress and found that they thought the tools we were using were in adequate for what they needed. And were essentially abandoning all the work we had done.

I was really fired up by this – at the massive waste of time. And I figured I could use this to set some new records in the pool. But as the bubbles rushed past my head and the laps added up – I realized that it was a little pointless to be upset by all this.

I didn’t do anything wrong in the whole project, nor did I drop the ball or hinder the user at all. In every case, I worked to make things easier and faster and offered to help at every turn. That the user decided – at something beyond the last moment – to do something entirely different, well, nothing I can do about that. I stand by the work that the team did and I think the user is missing out on a great new site and a new tool to update things. I’m also a little curious as to how they will explain that to their bosses – ’cause this was very much not the plan.

I guess that’s it for now – looking forward to getting out of here and relaxing at home – and maybe working on my costume a bit.

later…

I try, frequently, to not ‘want’ things. A casual association with material possessions seems to suit me better – and it’s got a Buddhist feel to it. That’s not to say that I don’t purchase things that I enjoy, I just try to not get wrapped up in the ownership of them.

There are two exceptions to this – and one of those was completed this weekend. Converse shoes. I’ve long wanted a pair of converse shoes – just because they look so damn cool. But, every time I looked at them and looked at the prices, the sheer impracticality of spending that much money on shoes put me off. This weekend, however, I found that Target had them for $30. And in brown – which I think, as a geek, I can wear with my kaki’s to work.

The other item is a truck. I think at some point in my life I should own a truck. Not really sure why – and that’s a main reason I haven’t bought one yet. What, exactly, does one need a truck for? Hauling stuff. And I don’t do that very often. Even the times where I’ve purchased some lumber or something – well, the back seats of my car fold down and I can put a lot in there.

So, the impracticality of it seems to have stopped me. Along with the price, the fact I don’t know how to drive a stick shift, and lack of fuel economy, size vs. parking issues, and the lessor passenger space.

In other news… I did a mile in the pool last Friday. Not a big deal, I’ve done that before. I think I was a little faster than usual and I felt stronger in the water than I usually do. The interesting part was how I felt after the swim. I felt… rested. Like I’d just had a really comfortable nap. A sort of “slightly groggy happy”. Not what I would have expected after a long swim, but a good feeling.

That’s it for now… later…

I watched “the happening” last night. Mark Walberg… not a great actor. The movie was okay, but a little heavy handed at times. And the ending was a little predictable and a little flat. The effects were okay, so overall it was an okay movie.

Worked on my costume today – made some good progress. I’m helping my room-mate with his costume as well, we got some of the supplies today.

Reading a bit more of a book called “True Enough – Living in a Post Fact Society” – a study on media and information and how pretty much everything gets distorted. Very appropriate for an election time. I’m getting really tired of the ads on TV and the endless signs posted everywhere.

My video game set-up has taken a turn for the worse. The TV is no longer reliable and the picture keeps cutting out on the “more off” side of randomly on and off. And now it seems that the stereo has bought the farm as well. Not sure what my next step is here – I’m considering splurging and getting a new TV and a PS3 all at once. Not very likely for me though.

That’s it for now – time for another coat of paint. later…

I had a dream the night before last that a time machine appeared in front of me. I opened it up and got a good look at the workings of it with my suddenly photographic memory – and then it vanished. With a little help, I managed to build one myself from memory, but I hadn’t seen the wiring or how the software worked. Fortunately, a version of me from the future showed up in a working time machine and fixed the wiring for me – and loaded a copy of the software from his machine into mine before he headed back to the future. So, I now had a working time machine – built pretty much on paradox.

My room-mate is head to Columbus today after work so that he can get up early, make it to the court house on time, and fight the speeding ticket he got. He read the prepared statement to me last night and I suggested he cut about 95% of it. I think he was a bit offended by that – but what I lack in legal experience I make up for in bullshit. I am well versed in that medium and have a talent for separating it out from actual valid content. Not that I always choose to do that, but I can at least recognize it. So, I wished him luck and reminded him to go to the ATM before he left. 🙂

That’s it for now… later…

I had a dream the other night that pretty much lasted all night. Now, I know that dreams only last a few moments and our brains try to fill in the gaps to make a story, but this time I kept waking up to go to the bathroom and falling right back into the same dream.

I was working at and giving a tour of a massive research facility powered by something we called “the atomic pile”. Apparently, during one of the tours I was doing, the atomic pile went critical and was about to release a radiation cloud on the ground floor and out in the surrounding area. The group I was with was -at the time – on the basement level. I tried to keep order and suggested that we head down into the sub-sub-sub-basement levels that I knew had once been designated as a fall-out shelter. The group grew as we went along until there were a hundred of us or so. As we reached the entrance to the sub-basements, about half the group split off and decided they would risk staying at the basement level. I cautioned them that we didn’t know how bad the radiation would be – but they angrily refused. The rest of us headed deeper into the facility and safety. However, we didn’t have enough supplies for the size of the group. So, for the next few weeks, I led what I hoped were peaceful missions to the basement level for more supplies – since that group has more than enough. Each time, though, they got more and aggressive and the radiation started to affect them mentally. Finally, it degenerated into a series of attacks and counter-attacks – with me at the lead since I was the only one that knew the access codes to the lower levels. In our last mission before I woke up, I had lead a team for supplies and we were ambushed. I had what I thought was a flare gun with me and fired it – hoping to startle the crazed basement level group. Instead, it was a gas gun and I ended up incapacitating one of my own crew.

When it was finally time to get up in the morning, I was relieved and exhausted from my night’s sleep. I think it was a combination of the “Time Machine” (crazed morlocks?) – and “Lost” (with me as Dr. Jack Shepard.)

I went to a wedding over the weekend and ended up helping with much of the decorations. I was one of the few designated “tall dudes” and helped with hanging lights and tule. I did a lot of the work on this – but balked at the decorations that needed to be hung from the rafters of the lodge where the reception was being held. If there was a child up there, trapped and in danger, then I would easily brave the heights. For lights and tule? No freaking way.

The wedding itself was okay – though it was held outdoors and started almost 45 mintues late. We were sitting in the sun – fending off heatstroke and bees – and when it finally started, the minister did not make any friends in the crowd with his long winded and frankly fairly negative commentary. “through the good and bad” leaning toward the bad. I dunno what was up with that.

I helped again with moving the chairs in and dinner started pretty late since the photographer got lost. I ended up with a headache and didn’t do much partying. Plus, the DJ played the same music you hear at every wedding. I mean, really, there’s like a billion songs out there – something other than the “Electric slide” would have been awesome.

Finally, I hung out with my room-mate’s niece and nephew for a bit this weekend. There was some family strife going on and I did my best to keep them distracted. We did a little origami and play the “Game of Life”. The rules were a bit different than I remembered. For one, there were more stops on the board to do things like draw a career card and decide on family paths. One of the kids drew the “Doctor” card and it looked like he would have the clear advantage. I got the Lawyer card and did pretty well though the game. The other player – despite having a lower paying career at the start and switching jobs several times – ended up landing on a lot of the “Life” spaces – gaining a stack of Life cards for things like taking a trip or meeting famous people. When all was said and done, the Doctor came in last – his salary wasn’t enough to beat my middle of the road. His sister – with her stack of life cards – won the game by a landslide once the cards were translated into a monitary value.

The doctor and the lawyer lost the game to someone who had a far more interesting life. It was interesting to me and I tried to convey that to the kids – almost a life lesson that the most money didn’t always mean the most sucessful life.

I was reminded a bit of one of my co-workers – who, despite being my age almost exactly, has had this far more hugely intersting life – filled with adventure and world travel and a collection of friends that would be too implausible for even a sitcom. I think I envy that a bit. Not that my life sucks or anything, but it is far more low key. Of course, I am then reminded of Mr. Adventure in Star Trek 3 who complains to Uhura that his life as a transporter technician is far too low key – right before she pulls a phaser on him and locks him in the closet. Adventure can be fun – but not always.

Not looking forward to work tomorrow – I think I will have far more than my usual level of disasters to repair tomorrow.

that’s it for now…