Thunder of Wade

I’m working on a project at home that required some very specific shapes – and I had one from an old Lego set that fit the bill. Needing more, I checked out the Lego site and found I was able to order specific legos – in any quantity I wanted. It was way cool.

Finally convinced my room-mate to go to Chipotle recently. He thought the burrito was okay, but thought they put too much rice in it. I, of course, ate my burrito in it’s entirety and enjoyed every morsel.

I bought an “abs ball” a while ago – essentially a weighted ball used to enhance abs strengthening exercises. It’s been mocking me for a while in the living room and I haven’t had the motivation to try it out yet. On Monday, I fired up the included DVD and tried it out.

I didn’t really get a good workout from the ball – but I think that was because I was taking notes from the DVD as I never wanted to watch it again. The fitness dude on the dvd was a complete tool and seriously annoying to listen to. I did the exercises and took notes – I’ll run though the exercises again tonight without the DVD. I saved it, though, as the DVD also has an advanced program on it too. I suspect it’s the same guy. Update: I just looked at the website for this product and found they won an award for the DVD! Proof positive that people will give other people awards for everything.

Motivation – I lack it. Really tough to get and stay motivated here at work. We’ve got some big projects, but I’m finding it difficult to stay on track. I’m getting stuff done, but not as much as I should be.

The drive to work this morning saw me going the speed limit and slightly above. And the traffic was flying past me like I was standing still. Normally, I’m a little casual with speed limits but with the cost of gas I’m a little more careful about my speed. Plus, we were all going to work – why would someone be in a hurry to do that?

I got a few “high importance” emails today from people that were wondering what to do with the sudden increase in a particular type of spam. I’ve never really understood a high important flag on an email – am I suddenly going to drop everything else in favor of that one email? Not likely – especially when I get several at once. The spam had a heading about “urgent fund transfer” and one of the users actually asked if it was legitimate. Sigh.

I guess that’s it for now – starting to get busy this morning. Later…

I tried to leave work a bit early yesterday, but I got delayed a few times. Managed to grab a bit of food (2 breakfast bars and a green tea) on my way to the blood drive – so I didn’t have any problems with getting sick afterward. The experience was pretty good and the staff were friendly.

Only one slight downward note was the trainee that took my history. He was very nervous and when he went to take my temperature, he didn’t get the plastic sleeve on the metal temperature probe. Neither of us noticed until I bit down on metal. I handed it back to him and explained the problem. He was quite freaked out and I knew it was a simple accident.

As he cleaned off the probe, the supervisor that was hovering over him said that the metal probe without the plastic would have burned my mouth. So, it was apparently a bigger deal than it seemed. The rest of the process went smoothly and he did a far better job at the finger stick than the last trainee I had. (they had used too much pressure and blood had spurted onto their lab coat – I felt bad about that, but it really wasn’t my fault).

The actual donation part went very smoothly and I was out of there 45 minutes after I had walked in. No problems at all – though I am very tired this morning.

back to work before I doze off… later

I had a meeting yesterday – and got a headache. I’m not saying that the meeting gave me the headache, but I’m strongly implying it. This one centered itself on the sign of my head, on the level with my temple on the left side, but further back. I put some pressure on the area and rubbed it – which seemed to help for a bit – but it came back a little later while I was out trading in some video games. I managed to get myself home and sat quietly for a little while, hoping it would fade out. I also took some aspirin, but it ramped up quickly and I had to lay down for a while. I got up and ate dinner, then just lay around for a while – then gave up, took a shower, and went to bed early. I guess I’m over it, but it was annoying. Especially since I just bought new games and was eager to play.

This is the second time I’ve gone into GameStop – and like last time, they tried to pressure me into getting a discount card. I’m normally a fan of discount cards – but not the kind you have to pay for. In those cases, I always feel pressured to buy more to justify the cost of the card – which kinda bites. The sales guy tried a several times to get me to sign up for the card – and finally pulled a bait and switch on me – which I fell for based mostly on my headache and a desire to get the heck out of there. So, now I’ve got a discount card that I may only use a few times a year, a magazine subscription that I’ll read but wouldn’t have chosen, and entry into their mailing list (great). Still, I got some cool-looking games, so that’s something.

My swim yesterday was pretty average – I did 32 laps. There was a girl 2 lanes over, though, that was swimming the butterfly stroke like some kind of mer-person. She basically exploded out of the water on each stroke and then plunged back at incredible speed. I was really impressed. I don’t know how fast she was, but it would have made a dolphin feel bad.

That’s it for now…

This morning, on the drive to work, a truck hauling a backhoe in a cart passed me on the left. Unfortunately, the back right tire of the cart wasn’t up to the challenge and was disintegrating. Chunks of the tire were coming off and flipping up onto the road in front of me. I slowed down and he started to get over in front of me, then managed to get all the way off the road. There was no damage to my car, but I did have the stink of burning tires with me for a few miles.

I frequently get food at the Asian restaurant area of the student union – and when I do, I get a fortune cookie. I like these little auguries and don’t read them until I’m done with my lunch and have eaten the cookie. In the past, I’ve gotten encouraging ones like:

“You will have a long and healthy life” or
“Obstacles can’t hold you back”

Yesterday’s cookie, however, had this message:

“Do not be afraid of computers. Be afraid of the lack of them.”

Ummm… great? What the heck does that mean? I mean, I like computers and I’m not afraid of them – though I’ve seen The Terminator too many times to really trust them.

But for a fortune cookie? Weird.

At some point, I’m going to have to post all my fortunes – maybe on my web site.

That’s it for now… later…

Earlier this afternoon I headed over to the restroom near the vending machines here at work to “do what needed to be done”. This is the larger of the men’s restrooms in the building and boasts 2 stalls and 2 urinals. I proceeded to one of the stalls and discovered that the previous occupant was apparently not feeling well and left behind some “residue”.

But, hey, two stalls. I went into the next stall and found that there was what appeared to be blood on the outside of the toilet bowl. It started at the edge of the bowl and ran down the outside in two areas.

In the men’s room? Blood on the outside of a toilet bowl? I’ve seen this before… in a horror movie.

“what needed to be done” was not that urgent – I’m going to wait until I get home.

(shudder)

As I got out on the road today, the sky opened up and started to pelt my car with rain and hail. I almost typed “me” instead of “my car” but that wasn’t the literal case. It had been, however, pelting the poor soul on a motorcycle before he got under the cover of an overpass. I slowed down as a I went past, thinking that excessive splashing would only add insult to his injury.

I reached my destination, accomplished the tasks I set out before me, and attempted to leave the parking lot.

Now, I don’t like parking lots. Rather, I don’t like the other people that use parking lots – as they usually do it wrong.

1) They park as so to take up multiple spaces. I freaking hate. Either learn to park more accurately or don’t take your fancy pants car out into the world if you are that scared.

2) Lots are designed so that humans not paying attention to their world are forced directly into the lane of traffic right in front of the store.

3) People that cut across the spaces and don’t pay attention.

It’s that last one that really torqued me to today. I was traveling down the lane as I was supposed to and this car came screaming diagonally across the spaces – headed right for where my car was going to be. Since I’m not an idiot, I slowed down to a stop and so did the other car. The driver stuck her hand out the car window and I expected that she was doing so to wave me on or perhaps flick away the cigarette ash.

Instead, she flipped me off – then put the accelerator to the floor and took off in front of me – still going diagonally across the lot. Since she was still diagonal, she decided that the stop sign didn’t quite apply to her so she ran that as well.

Ironically, I caught up with her at the next stop light. She was one car up and one car over – putting me ironically diagonally from her car. She didn’t notice me – or if she did she chose not to acknowledge me. In any case, I thought some unpleasant things about her and considering myself lucky I both saw her in time to stop and that I don’t have a baseball bat in my car since I would mostly now be in jail.

Speaking of guilt – there are two things I am guilty of, and they are both internet memes. Now, I am normally disdainful of overly hyped things. Example: I still haven’t seen Titanic nor do I care to. So, appreciating anything that is defined as hype should be impossible for me, but there are two memes that I really enjoy.

1. LOLcats. I know, I know. It’s terrible. These damn things just crack me up. I mean, there’s some really stupid shit here, but there are a few gems in there that sometimes make me LOL. The best I’ve seen so far is a cat in a box, looking up at the camera. The caption says, “I’m in your Quantum box. Maybe.” That’s funny on several levels.

2. “Do not want” and “All your base are belong to us”. The first is a mistranslation of the ending Darth Vader shout of “Nooooo!” from Star Wars episode 4. The other is another mistranslation – this time from a video game. I really like how they have taken on a life far beyond their orginal forms. Also, the “Do not want” has a decidely Zen quality to it which I’m just really starting to appreciate.

Finally, I tried an experiment today. Over the weekend, I tried something called Cashew Crush – which was a really excellent snack except that I got seriously congested and spent the rest of the afternoon sneezing. I ended up having to take an allergy pill to get it settled down – and I really don’t like to take any kind of medicine until it’s really serious.

Thinking that I might be developing an allergy to cashews – which would really bite since I enjoy them – I tried a bit more cashews today in the Cashew Crunch to see if I would start sneezing again. I haven’t. So, that wasn’t it.

That’s it for now… later…

My room-mate’s lease on his car will be expiring soon and so on Saturday he decided to head to Columbus to the dealership where his brother works to return the car and lease a new one. I went along – partly for something to do on a quiet Saturday morning and partly out of relief. For the past several months there has a been an ever increasing debate for my room-mate on exactly which car to get. Make, model, features, color – over and over again. And for me, a non-car kinda guy – it was becoming seriously tedious.

We get to the dealership and I had fortunately brought a book – so I sat quietly in the lounge and tried to tune out the blaring TV. If I could have found a volume control, I would have turned it down.

With the paperwork done, we loaded back in the car, stopped at Long John Silver’s for lunch, and then headed back. The car is pretty nice and has some cool features and such – though not enough cup-holders – but I was just glad that the endless debate was done. Oh, and the car comes with XM radio for 3 months free – but we found that XM radio has commercials. I can’t believe that anyone would pay for radio and also pay to have commercials – thought I guess cable TV is that way. In any case, my room-mate already has Siruis and he’ll be sticking with that.

In other news… the back steps out onto the patio have been starting to bow and pulling the nails up. So, I bought some treated lumber, some outdoor wood-screws and on Saturday afternoon my room-mate and I replaced the steps. We didn’t do the railing or the risers, just the steps themselves. And it was a good thing too as a huge thunderstorm rolled in just as we were finishing it up. It was a successful project – no mistakes in the cuts for the wood posts, no injuries, and the steps are sturdy and level – and lined up well.

Last Friday, I was in a meeting most of the morning and then had lunch plans and so missed my window of opportunity for my mid-day swim. I had planned to go for a swim after work, but then remembered that the pool was going to be closed for a special event. So, that kinda sucked.

The good news was that my lunch plans included a former co-worker visiting – a few of us went to lunch with her at the student center and swapped some work stories and just generally had a really nice time.

I guess that’s it for now. I’m not really looking forward to this week – but we’ll get through it.

later…

I usually don’t fill up the gas tank in my car – usually just put in about 20 bucks or so at a time which usually lasts quite a while since I’d really drive that much. By avoiding the big fill-up, I don’t worry so much about the fluctuating gas prices. This time, since I had a little traveling to do this past weekend, I filled up Thursday morning on the way to work. Grand total: $42.86 It went up that afternoon again, so at least that’s something, but it was still quite a shock to see. I think there are ways to fix the gas price problem – but most of them involve getting people to not be greedy. So, not likely.

I got in 96 laps total last week – and did 36 today. Getting off to a good start on the week. I’ll have to check my records to see what my per week record is.

I went and visited my parents this past weekend for Father’s day. My sister and brother-in-law came over too and we watched some movies, played some dominoes, and went for a hike. My sister didn’t have the right shoes so she had to borrow a too small pair from mom. A substantial blister was the result. I just had my flip flops and while they were a little uncomfortable and loud, they didn’t cause me any injury. Also, we saw a small toad on the trail – so, that was cool.

We weren’t sure where to go for dinner for father’s day that wouldn’t have huge lines – so, we went to CiCi’s pizza in a nearby town. The food was pretty good, the service was okay – but some of the other customers were a little disturbing to see. Let’s just say they could have benefited from more trips to the salad bar and fewer trips to the dessert area.

That’s about it for now… later…

After a mostly unproductive and still cranky afternoon on Friday, I headed to a craft store and then on to get a CD. The CD was in stock, but the craft store didn’t have exactly what I wanted. After my futile search, I got on the highway to go home and suddenly found myself stuck in traffic.

It felt a little like karma – that my pointless anger had traffic based repercussions. In retrospect, I feel a little guilty about things for the rest of the drivers on the road. We were all creeping along when I heard a “pop” and looked over to the side. A guy in a suddenly not-so-nice car was trying to pull off the road with a sluggish success since the traffic was tight. There was smoke coming out of his hood and something leaking from under his car. I didn’t feel karmicly upset about this one – clearly, he’s been having a far worse day than I could be blamed for. He got off the road and a glance showed him to be neither surprised or really upset. I didn’t go try to help him, assuming he had a cell phone.

Of course, had it be a reversed situation – I would have needed some help since I don’t yet have a cell phone. Another reason, I suppose, that I should reconsider getting one. Even well intentioned people will assume that should I break down, I would be okay since I could just call on my non-existent cell phone for help.

Anyway, back to the traffic. We were still creeping along when I came upon an exit – though it was not the one I wanted. There may have been more detailed signs that I didn’t notice before, but all this one said was Exit 122b. I don’t know where it went, only that it was within a few miles of my home, but maybe not the direction I wanted to travel. I tend to find a route and then stick with it until there’s some kind of extreme situation and I wasn’t sure if stuck in traffic warranted getting lost and maybe wasting even more time trying to find an alternative way home.

A car in front of me – really mostly past the road – decided that they would give old 122b a try. They executed a tight, almost U, turn and took the exit. They rounded the curve and disappeared behind the trees. I remained in my car, with the windows rolled down and my heat turned to try and keep my engine cooler. I wondered if they knew where they were going. If they had a plan and a route in mind. Or maybe they just decided moving – in any direction – was better than just sitting there.

The “horrible” accident that had traffic backed up in both directions for miles turned out to be a fender bender that had been pulled off the side of the road and the only thing blocking and slowing traffic was, well, traffic.

In other news… yesterday evening I went to a party with some friends to see the latest addition to an outdoor train set in one of the friends backyard. The train itself was having some issues, but the setup was amazing. It included some new buildings since I was last there – a new house and more cars and an amazingly detailed greenhouse in miniature.

The snacks were good and the conversation lively. I overheard a discussion in the kitchen that seemed to mix religion, politics, and alcohol in equal parts. Curiously, everyone in the conversation seemed to be on the same very loud side. Not an argument, then – but a general complaint session on the sorry state of the world. I stayed out of…

Wait. I need to pause for a moment and un-recommend a snack food. Early this morning, I had some “bold” flavored chex party mix working off the assumption that the chex mix was almost like cereal and counted as a breakfast food. It’s good and has a nice and appropriately bold flavor, but even teeth brushing and mouthwash have failed to remove the taste. While I was typing I burped a little bit and the flavor came right back. It is NOT good the second time around and I feel the need to just go ahead and drink the mouth wash this time. I’ll be back….

(please wait)

Less intense mouthwash? Don’t believe everything you read. Anyway…

I stayed out the discussion and had a really nice conversation with a few other people – one of whom is allergic to alcohol. He had one beer that he really enjoyed – and then spent the rest of the night sneezing and blowing his nose. I both started and stopped my drinking while in college – but I could still sympathize.

Anyway, it was late when my room-mate and I got back – turned out he’d been one of the debaters in the kitchen so I drove his car back.

I’ve been enjoying the quiet Sunday at home – did a little reading outside and now I’m listening to the new Aimee Mann CD while I write this unusually long blog. I guess that’s it for now.

later…

I swam 54 lap today – that’s one and a half miles. I was fast and intense – hardly even slowing down on the turns. I outlasted everyone else in the pool.

I feel pretty good physically afterward – caught my breath in less than a minute and was composed before I hit the locker room. I swam through my lunch hour and just got a couple of healthy snacks instead.

The reason for this personal record-setting swim, however, was not a good thing. I generally try not to talk about work here – and when I do I’m impossibly vague – since that sort of thing tends to get people fired. So, I’m going to vent a little here, but I’m still going to be vague.

I got called into a meeting this morning and got dragged over the coals for things that were not my fault by someone outside our department. I took it personally – which was a mistake, I know. I think I’m good at my job because I care about what I’m doing with the big picture – but that same commitment was attacked today. This guy was belligerent, condescending, arrogant, argumentative, and a whole slew of unpleasant big words. Even worse, my boss got the meeting started and then left for most of it – returning only at the end.

I felt thrown to the wolves. We’ve done extraordinary work in very little time and this guy had only bad things to say about what we’d accomplished. I stayed polite, quiet, and civil – and managed, just barely, to keep my cool. Should have gotten some kind of award for not smacking the shit out of him.

I think the swim made use of “rage-propulsion” and most of that has burned off. I’m back down to my standard “slightly cranky” – and I can live with that. In the grand scheme of things, this guy was just an ass and with that kind of an attitude, life is going to punish him far better than I could. I’d still like to help punish him – I’ve even started a list – but we’ve got too much to do.

So, time to get back to it. I think I may go buy a CD after work or maybe some flower stems for an origami project. I think some good music and a little folding will do me wonders.

later