Thunder of Wade

I ran out of swear words last night.

Now, much like the father in A Christmas Story, I know how to swear. I’m good at it, I practice, and I’m always careful to stretch first.

But last night, I exhausted my lexicon. I was reduced to a repetitive and stammering mess.

The reason? My car. It wouldn’t start when I tried to leave work yesterday – so I called my room-mate to come and jumpstart it. That was enough to get me home – it needed to be re-jumped to get me to AutoZone. I left my car running and locked and with an extra key in my pocket I headed in to get a new battery.

I had to wait in line at the counter why a young mother explained to the clerk how she would have been in the demolition derby last year, only she got pregnant. Her husband went instead and lost a tooth – the clerk suggested that he should have played hockey instead and saved the car.

Such wit!

In my mind, their heads both exploded but in reality, I just waited quietly until it was my turn and made my very heavy purchase.

Back home, my room-mate and I removed the old battery – and faced off against some intense corrosion and increasingly stripped bolts. Hence the swearing.

We finally got the old battery out of there and easily installed the new one. My car started up like a charm and today I’m going to take the old battery back to AutoZone and maybe see about getting the alternator checked – just to be sure.

In other news… I swam 28 laps yesterday. I think I’m getting a little faster again.

Got to go to a meeting now… later…

I went to the new Target that just opened up near my apartment over the weekend to buy a PSP. The store was extra shiny and I’m hoping they stay there for a long time.

Anyway, the PSP is pretty cool – but the power cord seems to be, well, loose. I’m going to see if it settles in for a few days or so – otherwise, I guess I have to ship it back to Japan or something.

I also bought the new Timbaland CD. It had already passed my ‘two good known songs’ test – and one of those is just amazing (apologize..timbaland ft one republic). The downside, though, is that he used… well, the “N” word in a lot of his songs. I just skip past them – but it’s annoying. I had a black room-mate for a while that declared me “honorary black” a few years ago – but that’s not enough to make me comfortable with that particular word. I don’t get why anyone, no matter the circumstances, would use a word like that. Seems that no good could come of it.

In other news… another truck tailgated me again this morning. Time to get out the mirror.

I had some odd dreams last night, but at least I know where they came from.

1. I dreamed that I was on a walk and stopped under an apple tree. I picked an apple and took a bite, and spit it out immediately since there was a huge worm in it. I dropped the apple, and looked down to see there were worms all over the ground. And then a few maggots fell out of the tree onto and I ran away screaming like a little girl while trying to brush them off.
Later in the dream I ended up in a house with a pet dog. A maggot that I’d missed fell off my shirt into the food dish where it promptly started eating a scrape of meat. The dog tried to eat the maggot and the meat and I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. I tried to stop the dog and then woke up because I had to use the bathroom.

Source – I watched “the fly” over the weekend.

2. In another dream, I was trying to play a Nintendo video game (with the cartridges) and each of the levels had an old tv show episode recorded over it. Apparently, my room-mate had gotten some wires crossed and recorded the tv onto the Nintendo. Pretty sure that’s impossible, but there you go.

Source – I was trying to help him burn some CD’s from Napster – plus, I think the new media format for the PHP was in there as well.

Finally, worked more on the costume this weekend. It’s going really well, just a few more minor things to wrap up. I’ve even cleaned up my work area in the basement.

Well, that’s about it for now… busy week ahead, including a couple of late evenings.

later…

My drive into work in the mornings – if I’m on-time – is generally pretty dark. And while I don’t exactly enjoy driving in the dark, I don’t really mind it so much. Except for one thing: when some complete wanker in an overisized-I’m-over-compensating-for-something-really-really-small truck pulls up close behind my car. And that happened again this morning. My first thought was, if you need 7 passenger seating in your truck, just go buy a freaking mini-van. My second, and the more important thought to this topic, was “man, that’s really bright”.

It’s those damn headlights. Since the truck sits so much higher on the road, the headlights are also higher and tend to shine directly into my car. Filling it with light. I think this particular wanker was using his highbeams as well, ’cause that can’t have been the normal headlights.

It was nearly blinding and I do not like bright lights- especially since my eyes were used to a dark.

To make matters worse, he pulled up behind me at a stop light. So, I’m trapped and blinded.

Nice.

Fortunately, I turned left and the truck turned right. I managed to get away once the light changed.

It was still annoying and, well, rude.

a. If you must have a truck that big – well, you really don’t need one that big. It’s silly and a waste of resources.

b. Stop freaking tailgating the cars on the road.

c. If you keep doing it, I’m going to get a big-ass mirror and shine that light right back at you.

All of this rant may have been sponsored by Final Fantasy XII – since I stayed up way too late last night playing. My characters took on a huge freaking dragon and totally kicked it’s ass – then had to walk a few miles back to a save point. Good game.

That’s about it for now – other than I’m glad it’s Friday. Later…

I went to a few stores looking for an item for my costume and finally ended up at a Halloween USA. This is one of those seasonal places and while the selection wasn’t as good as I expected, I still found something that will work.

Paying for my purchase, though, was a little tricky. The cashier rang it up as $2.37 instead of the correct price of $24.37 – ummmm, oops? So, the manager needed to come over and void it out, then re-run it. Took a long time.

The next day I was in Wal-mart and bought some speaker wire and a case of water. I picked the “10 items or less” lane – thinking it would be faster. Especially since there was only one person in front of me.

Mistake. Her purchases came to $5.64 – she tossed a $5 on the counter and spent the next 5 minutes rooting through her duffel-bag sized purse for the exact change. Meanwhile, I’m standing behind her holding a case of water and wondering if she’ll ever be done. At one point, I started to shift my weight to see if I could get to my wallet and throw a dollar into the mix – since it would have been worth it to get moving.

She finally counted out the last penny and moved on. I paid with a debit card.

Also over the weekend, my room-mate (who’s working on a case of bronchitis) decided to get a new receiver and dvd player/recorder. He spent several hours on the set-up with a lot of swearing and finally got it working – except that the video from the dvd player wouldn’t get to the tv.

I tried a few combinations, then unplugged everything and started over. Took a little bit until I gave up on the instructions and just winged it. The DVD player has a weird sleep mode, but once we got past that, we were good to go. I’m going to try and tackle the speakers this afternoon.

Also had a request to fix an antique fan that some friends of mine own. Not really my area of expertise, but I do know how to take things apart and poke at them – and then usually put them back together. I stopped by their place, but they weren’t home. I’ll try again today, perhaps.

I guess that’s it for now, time to get to work…

I forgot my ID this morning – didn’t realize until I was in the parking lot at work that the card was at home in my shirt pocket from the day before.

To get in the building, I had to use the buzzer and since it was so early, only the custodian was here – he let me in without a problem.

The day has been pretty ordinary and the forgotten ID hasn’t been an issue. Until I got to the pool.

I recognized the attendant and explained that I had forgotten my ID – could they use my driver’s license to look me up?

No, in fact, they couldn’t. Instead, he had to get on the walkie-talkie and call for assistance. We waited a few minutes until that assistance came – and it turned out to be someone I knew and that knew me. He thanked me for the work I’d done on this website and commented on how well things were working. Then he handed me a paper form to fill out.

Now, I’m pretty sure the guy at the desk knew me. And the manger knew me as well. And hell, he owed me for the work I’d done. With that in mind, there’s also about 1/2 dozen different ways that I could have verified my identity for them as well.

But, no, I had to fill out the paper form. And then handed it to manager. He didn’t verify any of the information on the form – didn’t even ask for my license. He just took the form and sent me on my way. I went ahead and had my swim, then stopped at the student union and paid cash for my lunch.

Under normal circumstances, I hand my card to the desk attendant and they swipe it and hand it back. But it’s only marginally about verifying that I’m allowed in there. More importantly, apparently, is getting that card swipe and adding to their stats for the day.

In every way except that card, I had or could verify who I am. Instead, I was “punished” by having to fill out a stupid and pointless form that will be shoved in a file cabinet and never seen again.

It was stupid. Pointless and stupid. Everyone was very friendly – but they were trapped by a system.

So, chalk it up to a lesson well learned and try and get over being annoyed.

back to work…

Last night – or rather earlier this morning – I dreamed that I was back in college, sharing a gigantic dorm room with a former co-worker. The room was so big, we had two toilets – except one wasn’t hooked up and functioned more has a heavy ceramic bedpan. My room-mate had filled it with water and then used it – and then left it behind when he left the room. I was about to dump it into the other toilet when a neighbor walked in and poured the contents of the toilet on the floor. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and – displaying more violence than I actually get to do in real life – I shoved him out the door while swearing profusely.

In the seconds it took to get him outside the dorm room, two things happened. One, he managed to tear my shirt and scratch me – resulting me being literally covered in my own blood from an injury I couldn’t even feel. And two, the police showed up along with the hall manager who then prompted arrested the toilet spiller and from their tone – sent him straight away to a gas chamber somewhere.

As a result – I’m suddenly a hero with a bloody shirt and my stupid former co-worker room-mate and I get a room upgrade. A crowd of well-wishers were called in to move all our stuff to an even bigger room with windows and two working toilets. Apparently, the room had been set up as a reality show, but it was decided that it would be a poor idea to actually turn them on. Or so we were told. The hall manger presented me with a new shirt, filled out all the room-change paper work and bought my books for the semester – and sent for a doctor to take care of that nasty scratch that was finally pointed out to me.

All in all – a good dream, I guess, other than the odd focus on toilets.

that’s it for now… later….

So, I head over to BP yesterday to get some gas and decided to use my new BP Credit Card. I pull up to the pump, insert my card but instead of the “select fuel type” option – I get a terse message suggesting I “see the attendant”.

Great.

So, I head inside and wait for the guy in front of me to finish getting his fritos and his beef jerky sticks, then talk to the attendant. He asks how much gas I’m getting – I reply that I don’t know yet. We estimate $20 and I try my card again at the register. And he tells me that my card has been declined and that I’ll need to call the company.

Great.

So, I thank him and tell him I’ll use my debit card. Which I do and which works fine.

I head on home and try to make the call – but the digital phone isn’t working just then.

Great.

Now I’m pretty well steamed up with both the card and the phone – so, I’m not captain happy-pants when I finally call them again and get through this time.

I put in the last four digits of my card when instructed and a woman comes on the line with a thick accent from Somewhere Else. She proceeds to ask me a series of multiple choice questions to verify my identity.

Which is dumb – if I really wasn’t who I said I was – would I really be calling the credit card company?

From her tone, I’m pretty sure that if I’d gotten any of them wrong – homeland security would have been at my door in 5 minutes.

The accent makes it very difficult to understand the questions and on one of them I simply couldn’t figure out what she was saying. She started to loss her temper with me, but I finally figured out she was asking if I had my card with me. Which is also dumb since she’d just asked me my card number 30 seconds before that.

Finally, with the questions done, she “clears my account”. I tell her that I’d just activated my card the day before – and asked if it was really activated. She says yes, but tells me that sometimes they put a hold on the card so that they can get more information from me.

Wait, what?

So, it was activated – but locked. I ask try to ask her about that, but she tells me to have a nice day (which I know she didn’t mean) and hangs up on me.

End result? I’m still not sure if my card even works. I had half a mind to call them back and just cancel the damn thing – but the lure of fuel discounts still has me in it’s grip and I’m eager for savings. If it fails me again, I’m going to cancel it in a heartbeat.

So, I did some dishes and had some tea – both things that help calm me down a bit and I got on with the rest of my day.

I’m still, obviously, cranky about the whole situation – mainly because I did everything right and still got treated like a bad-credit criminal or something. Annoying.

That’s it for now – busy day ahead of me. later…

I swam a mile yesterday – 36 laps in the pool. Took me a little longer than my usual swim, but I got it done and felt okay afterwards. Slept really well last night too.

Worked on my costume yesterday – section two is coming along nicely.

Talked to my parents a bit last night – shared a few good laughs about work. I’ll be headed to see them for my mom’s birthday in about a month.

I got my BP credit card in the mail yesterday. I had to call to activate it – and instead of just doing that, they had to put me on the phone with someone trying to sell me a credit protection plan. By the end of the conversation I was running short of patience – but I got through it.

Otherwise, pretty quiet for me – time to get back to work…

At the recommendation of my cousin, I recently fired up the game “Runescape”.

I didn’t care for it.

For one thing – too crowded. As I logged in, people were “fountaining” into existance in the same spot. The game was also kinda clunky and hard to control – which is a little typical of a java-based platform.

And it was… mundane. One of the first quests once I got off of tutorial island was to pick some wheat to grind at the mill to make flour so that the baker could bake a cake.

Wait, what? Where are the orcs? Or rock trolls? Or demon zombie wizards?

So, I logged off and headed back to the solo adventure of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. I’ve played countless hours with all the characters and I still enjoy the game – but why?

For one thing, in the real world, if I was to bake a cake – I’d go to the store and buy some damn flour. If I’m playing a game, I want to get in there and play, not do a half-assed life simulation in the guise of a dungeron crawler.

Two, other people annoy me. I hate to say it and I’m really trying to work on it, but unless the doses are small, people get on my nerves. And strangers are worse. I was only in Runescape for a few minutes when someone started following me around. They finally got my attention in the endlessly scrolling chat window and asked if I was new. I said I was and they asked if I knew about the “wild lands” – which I’m pretty sure is a player-vs-player area. I said yes, but that I was still just checking things out and get the feel of the game.

They then said “wome!” and wandered off.

Were they trying to lure me to the PVP area so they could kill me? Did they want me to join them in a quest? Hello? I’m at the lowest level and no good to anyone in any kind of non-baking quest.

A solo game of diablo is heart pounding. Me vs. evil. I might have a minion or two backing me up, but it’s essentially one guy against the forces of darkness. No baking or farming – just big swords and chain lightning. As nature intended it.

In other news… I watched “alone in the dark” last night – a movie based off of a video game. Umm… it was pretty lame. The fire fight against the monsters was kinda cool, and the song in the ending credits was good – but the rest was a mess.

that’s it for now… later….

First, I have to set the scene a bit:

1. I’m at the computer at home. In front of me on the desk are a cup of tea on the left and an open can of mixed nuts on the right.

2. It’s my habit to either:
a. Pick up the cup of tea with my right hand (thus reaching across the desk) and take a drink – or
b. Pick up the can of nuts with my right hand and shake a few into my left hand – then toss the mixed nuts into my mouth.

Now that’s set up, we’ll begin…

I’m playing a computer game and have been doing so for a while. Every so often, I’ll take a drink or get a snack. And then, for some strange reason and clearly without paying close attention, I picked up the cup of warm tea and poured most of it into my left hand.

Pause for a moment for the swearing.

Once that was done, I began the clean up. The desk and keyboard tray were easy to clean up – but the throughly drenched keyboard was a loss. I shut everything down quickly and then unplugged the keyboard and tried to rinse it out. I then let it dry in the sun – but I don’t fully trust it. So, I went to best buy and bought a keyboard and mouse set. They’re pretty cool and have more buttons, but it was still a waste.

I can laugh about it now, but it was pretty bad when it happened.

New rule… Either drink or snack at the computer – but never both.

later…