Thunder of Wade

Well, I replaced the RF Modulator on my video game/TV set up – thinking it would fix the problem with the screen going blank while playing a game and then randomly coming back up either on it’s own or after I jiggled the wires. It worked, for about a minute, before the problem returned. I tried a couple more things, then plugged the cable right from the wall into the TV. This failed – leading me to believe the TV is going bad. Then it started working – and refused to fail after that.

I have the computer set up opposite the TV and while playing a computer game I was able to watch the screen with a carefully placed reflective CD. I had the sound turned down so I didn’t actually have to pay attention.

The reason? The debate was on last night. And if it wasnt’ the debate, it was the endless and truly vile political commercials. I’m to the point where, unless they have authenticated footage of a candidate eating a baby, I’m really not going to be moved to change any of my political decisions. I’m amazed when I see the polls that a lot of people are still on the fence about the big election. Weird.

So, once I was done with my testing for the evening, I switched to the room with the better stereo and listened to the cable tv music stations and worked on a project. Far better than the debate.

that’s it for now… later…

I decided not to take down the signs for McCain/Palin for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, it would defeat the purpose of a free election – that we are all entitled to our opinions and ideas and allowed to vote for whomever we choose. No matter how wrong that choice might be. Plus, the signs are essentially meaningless – I mean, does the presence of a sign in someone’s yard influence another person’s vote? It’s the yard-based equivalent of a bumper sticker, except that most people take down the signs after the election. I still see bumper stickers for Bush/Cheney on cars all the time.

I’ve been listening to a song called – “I’d start a revolution if I could get up in the morning” by Aimee Allen. It’s a good tune and I can relate to it – especially this morning. I overslept and woke up tired anyway. While getting dressed, I for some reason started with my shirt. After exhaustively doing up all the buttons, I looked at my pants laying on the bed and contemplated the zipper, button, and belt – and half-seriously wondered if I could skip the pants today since it seemed like far too much work. Rational thought won out – as it usually does with me – and I put on my pants.

Dunno what’s up with me – but I think I could use some coffee or something…

Later…

I recently bought some Mana: Magic Potions from Think Geek. Unlike the video game equivalent – these were supposed to be energy drinks. They came in cool bottles and I thought they might help with my swimming at lunch time. The website had a warning though – those with a niacin deficiency might experience a “niacin flush” – red, itchy skin for 20 minutes as a result of capillary action and a histamine response. Undaunted, I drank half the potion in one gulp.

1/2 an hour later, no effect. So, at least I’m not niacin deficient. A bit later and I finish off the potion. It smells funny and tastes like an undefined citrus that is very sour.

Still nothing. I go for my swim and notice a very very slight boost in energy – which I attribute to a placebo effect and a very very slight dizziness – which could have been caused by my lack of oatmeal that I usually have.

Nothing really bad – but not really anything good. Whatever performance boost I got was minor at best. Disappointing, but at least my skin didn’t turn red.

In other news… my room-mate has been traveling for business. In one week, he’s gotten not one, but two speeding tickets. He hasn’t had one in ten years – partly because of his radar detector and partly because he knows the areas locally where the cops hide. He’s already plead guilty to one, but plans to fight the second one based on some inconsistencies on the ticket. I’ve wished him luck, but I think his chances are slim. He’s mostly worried about his insurance going up – and the points on his liscence. And the fines… well, I guess he’s worried about the whole thing.

Got a meeting in a few. I’m still hoping for some kind of magical powers to surface, but I think it’s unlikely at this point.

later…

The neighbors in the other half of the duplex put up a McCain Palin sign. Or it was put in their yard for them – I dunno which is the case. Anyway, it annoys me to the point where I’m going to sneak outside sometime this weekend and steal/destroy it. Sneak because I like this people and really don’t want to get into a political debate with them. Destroy because if I have to look at that thing every time I look outside my front window from now until election day, I will lose it. I think I may have to take down the only other one on the street as well, just so it doesn’t look too obvious. I’ve considered taking it to the Republican headquarters to see if I can trade it in for an Obama one, but I suspect the humor would be lost on them.

It was chilly last evening – I closed the windows before I went to bed last night. Looks like summer is fading…

The RF adapter for my video game tv is going bad. Meaning, in the middle of the game, the picture may just vanish. I can usually fiddle with the wires to restore it, but it’s only temporary. Annoying? You bet.

I ran a bunch of errands last night – got a lot done, but didn’t get home until nearly 7:00. Spent a lot of time waiting in lines…

Not much else to report… later…

I had a dream last night that I was back in high school, except that technology to exploit fractals and multi-dimensional space was commonplace. So, location was influenced by the motion used to access that space and things could be vastly larger on the inside than on the outside. So, my entire high school was in a small area of a small office building. I got in the elevator with a girl from one of my classes and we both laughed when the elevator had flip over twice to get the correct orientation to access the high school.

We were early and went to the cafeteria – which looked the size of a closet on the outside but was big enough to seat 300 on the inside. I got a small box of cereal that replenished itself from a storage area, some juice, and a cup of hot water. Rotating my wrist a certain way allowed me to pluck a tea bag from a personal storage area and we sat down. We were joined another classmate who pulled on the fractal edge of the table to stretch it out and make room. He was complaining about how he couldn’t get things papers out of his notebook. I asked if it was broken or if he had forgotten the hand gestures needed access the various spaces inside.

He angrily replied he had forgotten the gestures for the correct areas and I suggested he just try all the common ones to get all the papers out, and then refile them. His vague refusal to do that then earned a shared glance from the girl and I – it was rumored at the school that he was selling drugs and that the paperwork he couldn’t find was related to the sales. We then went to class.

After school, the girl offered me a ride home. On the way, we stopped to rescue a guy who had fallen in a fractal hole “filled” with water. He had managed to find an infinite supply of air so he wouldn’t drown, but still needed help getting out. I invited the girl in for a snack and she was amazed at how nice the house was. The guy on the first floor in the living room was my father (though nothing like my real dad) was on some kind of holo-phone talking to someone for business and ignored us.

I mentioned that it was an older house, built not long after the fractal tech had been developed and that the builders had shown off by only making one door on the second floor. Depending on how you turned the knob, you would access different room. I explained to her that later homes had multiple doors to access the rooms since in that house, you couldn’t ever leave the door open and it tended to isolate. I then told her that my parents kept forgetting how old I was and kept assuming that I had already moved out and was in college – to the point where they kept moving all my stuff in my bedroom down to the basement storage area. We shared a small laugh – but she could tell it really bothered me.

It was time for her to go so her own parents wouldn’t worry and I settled in to do some homework. I woke up when I heard her car start up to leave.

Very weird, very detailed, and very consistent within it’s own parameters. I was a little disappointed to wake up.

One of the staff members in my optometrist’s office recommended following the 20/20/20 rule: After 20 minutes of looking at a computer screen, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Since I seem to be getting more headaches than usual, I have decided to give it a try with a little timer on my desktop that goes off every 20 minutes. A few things I’ve noticed since I started doing this:

1. Working here in the cube farm it’s difficult to find anything interesting to look at 20 feet away. Even standing up, it’s still damn boring. I need to put up some Hello Kitty stickers or something near the ceiling in some key areas that I can look at every 20 minutes.

2. Even though it’s a short break, it still feels like the day is broken down into 20 minute chunks – which is not a bad thing. Makes the time seem to go faster.

3. The chime on the timer is not the most annoying sound I know – but it’s pretty close.

In other news… I tried to help my room-mate get some new vechicle icons downloaded onto his Garmin – except the darn thing has a non-standard USB connector that the cables we have don’t fit. What the hell are they doing re-inventing a USB cable? And why? So, I’m on a quest to find a cable that will work – and I’m really hoping that it won’t require some kind of custom and therefore really expensive cable. Wankers.

My swim today was a good one – I tried a little freestyle (which is really draining for some reason) and a little Butterfly. I can do the arm motion okay on the butterfly, but the kick is without any power. I’m used to a surge of motion with the breaststroke kick and the kick with the butterfly does nothing for me. I must be doing it wrong.

Almost time to go home for the day. Looking forward to working on the costume and playing some video games – especially Lego Batman.

later…

I went to a UA men’s soccer match yesterday. One of my co-workers had suggested it and decided not to go, but since the only soccer match I’ve seen before involved 5 year olds, I figured I should see how it’s really done.

The match was – kinda dull. Both sides were so evenly matched that it was feint and counter-feint for most of the time. Overall, I think Akron had better technique and the other team may have been slightly faster. Or at least one of their guys was – every time he would come tearing down the field he looked like an out of control locomotive. I wouldn’t have gotten in his way.

The AK Rowdies were out in full force – taunting the other teams goalie. They did this thing where they shouted out “left” and “right” whenever he took a step. It was pretty funny – but if he was paying any attention, he didn’t let on.

I think I saw our student assistant at the half-time, but I wasn’t sure.

While there were a few yellow cards in the first half – the second half was where they really came out. All on the other team – and then a couple of red cards as well. Looked like we were going to have a fight on our hands a couple of times, but the rest of the teams got the potential combatants separated.

It was still scoreless with a minute to go in the second half and I was debating if I would stay for the overtime – but decided that I’d been there that long, I should stick it out. Still no score at 30 seconds.

Finally, with nine seconds to go – Akron scored a goal and won the game. The crowd went wild. Pretty much made the whole evening worthwhile.

The next home game is in October – and I might go. Might be a new soccer fan in the making.

later…

This is post #500. Which is somewhat amazing since I’m usually the quiet one without a lot to say. Apparently, I have a lot to write.

Today, while walking back from my swim, I saw a group of people working on one of the flower beds in the shape of the UA logo. They had tarps set up and were carefully working on the white flowers – spray painting them blue. UA blue – to be exact. This would be a nice contrast to the naturally occurring UA yellow flowers under the tarps. I’m hoping this was some environmentally friendly organic paint – but it didn’t smell like it. It was like something out of a chuck Palahniuk novel.

I forgot to mention earlier that my room-mate bought a Garmin last night – with a little technical help from me. Ironically, it sent us the wrong direction of the first place we tried and it listed a Pizza Hut that closed a while ago. The rest of the directional requests went well and he has it talking in a crisp British accent. I think the next step will try to get it to speak Italian.

later…

I went to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner last night and had an excellent meal. The only downside, once again, was the sneeze shield over the salad bar. I’m 6 foot tall and my shoulders are fairly high off the ground as a result. The sneeze is set much lower than that to protect the food, which is fine, except that to reach the items in the back, I need to hunker down to almost comical levels. I got what I wanted, but it was more of an adventure than I needed. I’m not sure what the solution is though, a raised shield would let short people sneeze on the food. And that would not be good.

I’ve been thinking, for some reason, that the idea of state laws is a little comical. Given the proximity of states to each other and the relative homogeneity of Americans – or for that matter, human beings – having different sets of rules for people that might live only a few feet from each other seems really odd. There’s nothing to be done about it – I mean, we’ve got people that are so state-centric that they would consider leaving the US, so me with my complete lack of state identity is likely to be ignored. But it still seems weird to me.

Finally, I picked up the Batman Lego game last night. It plays pretty much like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones versions, but it’s pretty cool.

That’s it for now… later…

I was headed up campus to swim recently and went past what looked like a mini-skate park set up on the tennis courts. Seemed a little odd to me – but what was odder was the sponsor of the event – the national guard. I’m sure there are skate boarders that are also in the national guard, but it doesn’t seem like there would be that large of an overlap. More troubling were the two attractive girls I saw walk into the student center with cheaply made back packs with the National Guard logo on them – with the intent to give these out. I think the term for this kind of behavior is a “shill”. In any case, it bothers me that the national guard is able to recruit on a college campus. I’m not entirely sure why it bothers me, but it does. Especially with the skate park and the pretty girls as recruiting tools.

Also, the College Republicans had a table set up in the student center that same day. Seemed an odd coincidence.

In other news… I’ve been keeping up with my swimming, though today was very tiring – more so than usual. Still got in my 30 laps, but I didn’t enjoy it.

Only about an hour or so to go for the day – later…