Thunder of Wade

I stayed home from work yesterday morning – woke up with a cluster headache. I thought I could get past it, but when I was dressed and nearly out the door a wave of nausea hit me and I decided to go back to bed. Fortunatly, my neighborhood is fairly quiet during the day so I was able to sleep. At some point the nausea came back and I spent some quality time in the facilities. Hence the need for throat lozenges later.

When I finally got up again a little before noon I was feeling better and decided to go on into work. I went to the downstairs bathroom and discovered, to my delight, that I had a dozen lozenges and they weren’t expired. Which, given my bathroom medicine cabinet, is saying something. But, I fumbled. Blame in on the lingering headache or something, but one of the packages slipped out of the box and then…

splash.

Right into the toilet.

In my shock I nearly dropped the other package of six right in after it, but I recovered and saved. I looked down to see the six packaged lozenges slide gently down to the very bottom of the toilet. The toilet had been recently flushed, but I just really didn’t want to deal with it then. So, I wrote a big note on my message board to myself – “TOILET” – the hopes that it would me remember. When I got home later that day I fished it out and tossed the package.

In other news…I sent an email to Kmart today regarding asking for my zipcode during a debit transaction. I’ll post the response in the blog – if I get one.

That’s about it for now…back to work…

Spent most of the weekend helping a friend of mine move. And the scrawny geek acquited himself well, if I do say so myself. The TV was the worst – down a flight and a half of stairs, across the sidewalk, then up two flights of stairs. Took a lot out of me. Lots of boxes, a computer, mattresses and box springs, etc.

So, I figured that last night I’d be so tired I’d be asleep before my head hit the pillow. No such luck. I went to bed at my usual time and tossed and turned for a while. Finally, around 1 am, I got up and played video games until I was fairly sleepy – sometime around 2.

Needless to say (though I’ll say it anyway) – my posterier was dragging this morning. I’d really like to just crawl under my desk and take a nap. Hmmm…nah, I’d never get away with it.

Well, I’m going to try and get motivated and get some work done, so it’s back to it…

While running some errands this weekend, I made my way first to Kmart in search of a shower mirror for shaving. Which was impossible to find. After scouring the store, I gave up, got my secondary items (soda, beef jerky and a book) and made my way to the check out. After waiting 1.5 eternities, I got to the front and swiped my debit card for my purchase. Instead of asking for my PIN number, it prompted me for a billing zipcode. I told the cashier and she said I needed to put in my zipcode. I said, “but I don’t want to put in my zipcode” – thinking it was some kind of marketing survey thing that I despise. She replied, “well, then you can’t use your charge card”.
I glowered for a moment, then relented and put in my zip code – and then my pin number, then verified the amount, then confirmed that I did not want cash back. While it was digesting all that, I commented that usually the zipcode is some kind of marketing thing. She didn’t reply – though she did thank me for shopping at Kmart. I rather doubted her sincerity.

So, why was I tweaked at having to put in my zipcode? Well, it goes back to the idea of public vs private keys. A public key is like a user name or an email address. Fairly easy to find and work with. The private key is some secret bit of information that allows someone direct access to the public key and the information it holds.
In this case, the card – with my name on it – is something like a public key. If I lose it, anyone could pick it up and try to use it. My name alone is a public key and certain information is available without any special access. This information would include my address and zipcode.

If someone got ahold of my debit card and my pin number, then my zipcode is easy to locate. So, Kmart is attempting to verfiy my private key and my identity with multiple pieces of public information. It’s pointless and gives only the illusion of security. And it’s a waste of time and computer power.

If I hadn’t already waited so long I think I would have taken the items back to their shelves out of sheer annoyance. But, I needed some level of success for my trouble and actually making it through the line would have to do.

After a brief stop to gather my wits – I headed to Walgreens. I found a shower mirror, VHS tapes, a magazine, and some Tazo tea (Giant Peach flavored). Got up to the checkout and the women in line in front of me was apparently paying by check. And the guy behind the counter ( I would use the term dottering if I was british) was having a difficult time pushing all the right buttons in the correct sequence. When he was finally done with her, he wished her a nice day and told her “God Bless You”.

I knew I was in trouble.

His first action was not to start ringing up my items or determining what kind of bag I would prefer – instead, he opened up this weeks circular to see if there were any coupons for the items I was about to purchase. This involved a careful scan of each page, then his reaching over to a small damp sponge to wet his finger – allowing for easier page turning, then actually turning the page and repeating the process. Scan, wet, turn, repeat.

Yes, this is really what happened.

When he was finally done he concluded the same thing I knew just by looking at my own items – there were no coupons that were valid for my purchases. He then scanned each items with care before placing it in the bag and I was way ahead of him with my debit card before he came up with a total. No zipcode this time – thankfully, but he wished me a good day and also told me “God Bless You”.

And again, I’m annoyed.

He used the exact same tone with me as he did with the woman in front of me. No inflection, no depth – nothing. It was as empty as if he’d mentioned something about the weather.

Shouldn’t that mean something? A request for an intersession from the supreme being – spoken as though he was trying to determine if I wanted fries with my combo.

Granted, it’s not like he told me – “Have a crappy day. or Burn in hell, sinner” It was a generic and mildy friendly send-off. But it was empty. And that alone seemed disrespectful in some way.

So, my foray into the retail world was not that great today ( though the cashier at Taco Bell said she liked my shirt that says “You’re just jealous because the voices talk to me”) – but I got through it and I’m now that the bile is out of my system I’m going to take my book and sit outside. Alone and quiet. And if you should see me, please don’t ask me for my zipcode.

Woke up at 4:00 this morning – massive thunderstorm. One of the crashes of thunder sounded like I was in a garbage can being hit by a sledgehammer – the size of a city bus. A really huge loud noise. Of course it’s not the thunder that’s the real problem – that’s just sound. The lightning must have been pretty bad too, but I put a pillow over my head so I couldn’t see it. It wasn’t raining too bad when I had to get up and go to work.

A couple of days ago I remembered something that I came up with while canoeing with my uncle several years ago.

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the river.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Cold things make me shiver.

Not sure why I remembered that, but it struck me as funny.

I’ve been helping my friend move. He’s only going from one building to the one right next door, but he only found out he had to move on Wednesday and they’d like him moved by the weekend. And the new place is filled with stuff (it used to be an office/apartment). And the current buildings entrance is no longer structually sound due to construction. The ceiling could collapse if the posts are “bumped”.

So, yesterday we tried to quickly and very very carefully move things out and pile them in the new place where we could find room. We’ve still got a lot to do and there’s just no space. I had to resist the urge to flip off the landlord every time we saw him.

Going to be a busy day here so I’d better get back to it…

If you open a bag of Doritos labeled: “Now better tasting!”, you should be aware that this means:

“Now tastes vaguely like Cheetos!”

and

“It’s more orange colored!”

Knowledge is power.

Back to work…

I’ve been working on a particular entry for a few days – the annoyance of attention-getting devices.

It didn’t work.

My muse was absent and the whole entry sounded forced, and it was. I guess the reason is that I hadn’t been exposed to the stuff that really ticked me off in a while, so the righteous fury was absent. I still think those walkie-talkie cell phones are painfully annoying – but it’s been too long since I’ve heard some bone-headed idiot use one that I couldn’t devote an entire entry to them. I just wasn’t cranky enough about it. If anyone has one and wants to stop over and demonstrate it for me I’m sure that will trigger my muse again. And maybe a hostile response, so maybe a demo isn’t the best thing.

So, in other news…

Had a good visit with my mom – we went out for mexican. I had a tamale – it was pretty good. There was some green stuff mixed into the edge of the re-fried beans, but I was able to avoid that and the rest of the meal was good.

Over the weekend I went out to dinner with some friends and I had Hunan Tofu. My first tofu experience and it wasn’t too bad. The actual chunks of tofu reminded me, at least as far as consistancy goes, of french toast sticks from Burger King – though chewier. They tasted like the sauce, which I understand is normal. Overall, okay – but I’m not sure I could eat it everyday.

I slept really badly last night – not sure what’s going on there. Trouble going to sleep and trouble staying asleep. Woke up several times, but only once seemed justified (I had to pee). I was kinda cranky this morning – but work is actually improving my mood. Or at least it’s not making it any worse and allowing my default personality to take over. Getting some stuff done and helping some people, so that’s something.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Stop on over if you’d like to annoy me with one of those accursed walkie-talkie and are feeling brave.

Back to work…

Over the weekend I went to a picnic/surprise birthday party for my friend’s dad. While helping set things up, I made a comment of some kind to my friend’s young niece. She replied –

“You’re weird,”

I was busy with something, so I just tossed out a comment meant to slightly confuse and distract:

“Yes, but I’m also very tall,”

Which is true, at least in relation to how tall she was. She thought about it for a moment, then replied.

“You’re more weird than you are tall,”

Her mother walked by at that point and told her that was rude and she shouldn’t talk to people like that. I shook my head and said,

“No, she’s right. I am more weird than I am tall. It’s valid,”

And that was pretty much that.

In other news… weird dream last night. I dreamed I was in Washington, DC and had just stopped at a convenience store to get some groceries. As I was walking out of the store, three teenage kids ran up to me, knocked the bag out of my hands, and made off with my groceries.

Slightly upset by this and looking to balance the cosmic scales, I walked over to a nearby armored truck that was unlocked, unguarded, and ideling with the keys in the ignition. I got in and drove off. I was of course chased and since it was DC in an era of terrorism, they called out the military and various swat teams.

But, no one had gotten a good look at me. So, I got out of the van and walked around until I found a crowd of people watching various teams search a park. I watched them too, then started up a conversation with a young woman and her daughter in a stroller. We shared a couple of laughs and talked for a bit, then I told her I had to leave since I was pretty sure I was the one everyone was looking for. And then I just walked away.

I think, because I was so calm about things, she didn’t believe me. So, I walked for a bit until I reached a street that was being blocked off by a soldier. I asked if I could cut through there and he said no and that I couldn’t even turn my car around here. I told him that was okay since I was on foot – and that apparently was the wrong thing to say. The keywords of “restricted area” and “man on foot” must have triggered something in him and he told me to come with him – I guess he thought he’d found the culprit. While I was trying to think of something to say to get myself out of it – I woke up.

In still more news…my mom is in town for the day for work and she and I will be having dinner before she heads back home this evening. So, that should be fun – looking forward to seeing her.

And now it’s time to get back to work…

I fired up the video game Katamari Damacy last night – hadn’t played it in a while. Essentially, you roll a giant ball around a house and eventually the planet, rolling stuff up. It’s strangely fun and a fairly interesting head-trip, but the problem is in the rolling things around. You tend to roll in circles to pick things up, and this causes the camera to rotate around too. And then I started to get motion sick. Yes, motion sick from a video game.

Stop laughing now, okay?

Thank you.

So, I stopped playing and looked for some pepto. I had some, but it expired 2 years ago. Apparently, I don’t get sick to my stomach that often. Instead, I did the dishes, took a shower, and went to bed really early.

And had some serious reality bending dreams. I think I was awake, or at least partly awake, for some of them – and had a lot of trouble waking up this morning. Or more accurately – had a lot of trouble getting out of bed.

I think I’ve addressed this before in a blog, but it felt like something got left behind in that seriously messed up hodge-podge of dreams. Not sure exactly where I ended up last night while I slept, but I’m not sure it’s worth going back there to get whatever might have been lost.

It’s already 11:00 in the morning and I’l still a little out of it. Which is scary since I was on the road coming to work around 7:00. Good thing I take the same route every morning – I think my car was on auto-pilot.

Well, not much of an entry, but I should get back to work…

I’m 32 years old and I still read comics. Not ashamed of it either. Hey, it’s one of the reasons I’ve got a job – to support my comic book habit. But why do I still read them when they are so easy to dismiss?

The stories. Every month – good vs evil. The age old struggle to protect the innocent from those who would harm them. While Superman is at the top of the heap, he’s not my favorite – though there is a good discussion of Supes in Kill Bill vol.2 that I recommend. My fav is the Flash – an everyday dude that has been gifted with incredible powers and who stuggles every day to protect his community and at times the entire world from those that mean it harm. He does this by running fast – but that’s a simplification.

Over the span of several issues, the Flash out-races Death itself beyond the boundaries of time to save himself and the woman he loves. He runs faster than an instantaneous signal to win a bet and save the earth. And in one issue – which all takes place over the span of a second – the Flash saves the entire Justice League.

His story is about doing the right thing – no matter the cost. And when he – or anyone in the Flash legacy – makes a mistake, he takes responsibility and tries to make it right.

Ultimately, even with all his power, he’s still human – he’s real, he’s accessible. And he never gives up.

All that for a couple bucks a month – not bad, eh?

In other news…talked to my sister last night. She relayed to me that our 74 year old grandmother went kayaking recently – and loved it. She’s thinking about getting her own and paddling up and down the river. Go grandma!

That’s it for now – back to work…

I went to a festival over the weekend – the standard carnical rides and elephant ears sort of deal. Not normally my cup of tea, but I was helping out a friend who was part of the committee running it. I got there early evening on Friday and though I had a special pass, I wasn’t sure where to park. So, I followed the signs that said additional parking was available at the school. So, I found a school – discovering that it was under construction as I pulled in – and parked there anyway. It’s not like I had to go off-roading, but it still wasn’t a finished lot by any means.

I enjoyed the festival for a bit, but didn’t stay too long. I made the trek back over to my car, but as I tried to leave, a woman was pulling a baracade across the exit/entrance. I pulled up and waited a moment until she noticed me – then she came over to my car and asked me a deeply stupid question:

“Are you leaving?”

My instincive response was to say “duh” – but she still did have things blocked off. I don’t think she would have tried to trap me there out of revenge, but you never can tell about crazy people. So, instead, I nodded and told her yes. She then proceeded to tell me that the lot wasn’t supposed to be open – and that they had conducted a band event there which is why there were cars there since it was under construction.

I, of course, didn’t give a rats posterior about the explaination – I just wanted to leave. After a couple of minutes of droning on, she finally realized what I had known all along. That being:

1. I was trying to leave – making me no longer part of the problem – but part of the solution.
2. I didn’t care what she was saying and I really just wanted her to get out of my way so I could leave.

She moved the baraicade just slightly off to the side giving me barely enough room to pull out into traffic and let me get on my way.

I think she was blinded by the problem before her. It might have even been her fault that it wasn’t blocked off to festival parking or that there weren’t better signs. But she was so caught up in her own vision she couldn’t see that the fastest way to resolve the problem was to get the cars out of there – and I was trying to help.

While I appreciated her problem I was still annoyed by her. Which is pretty much standard with me. I try to avoid being strongly angry about things since it rarely does any good – but I can’t seem to help being annoyed.

Also this weekend I watched the latest episode of Justice League Unlimited on Cartoon Network. Only a small portion of the population of the planet might actually care about this part of the post – but that’s better odds than what I usually have – so I’m going to write about it.

The Justice League faces off against the combo of Brainiac/Lex Luthor – and the JL gets their butts kicked. They make a little headway and Brainiac/Luthor makes alternate version robo-clones of the Justice Leagues – as based on an alternate version where the Flash dies. Since there’s nothing to base the Flash clone on – they used the Reverse Flash: Professor Zoom from the comics! While everyone is battling their clones, the Flashes are racing around. The good Flash stops, begins to vibrate his hand at super-speed, and plunges it into the chest of his clone – causing it to explode (a power that works just like it did in the comics – and incidenatally, the same way that the comic reverse flash was taken out – though less messy).

The Flash is heard to say “I won’t be trying that one again”.

A little later in the fight, Brainiac/Luthor knocks out all of the Justice league – except for the Flash. Brainiac/Luthor tauts the Flash and he runs away. A moment passes and suddenly there’s a blur and a piece of Brainiac/Luthor’s armor is knocked away. Another blur and more is torn away. Then we see that it’s the Flash – racing past B/L and tearing him apart piece by piece – far too fast to be stopped. We catch a view of the Flash in motion, running across the planet to build up tremendous speed. After several more hits, the Flash comes at B/L at near lightspeed and tears into B/L – fists hammering at the armor and lightning flashing. The rest of the Justice Leage is recovered by now and watches as an explosion obscures the area. When the smoke clears, Luthor is fully human and Brainiac is destroyed – but at a cost. The Flash is now translucent and fading fast – vibrating at incredible speed. He says,

“I think there’s something wrong,”

Then he vibrates out of existance.

The Justice Leaguers’ jaws drop (mine did too)- then Luthor starts posturing and has words with Superman. Suddenly, the Martain Manhunter shouts that the Flash isn’t gone yet, that he’s still nearby but fading fast. A portal open up and Hawkgirl reaches in. We hear the Flashes voice, describing where he is – “a force – made of speed – it’s wonderful”

(Just like in the comics!)

The Justice Leaguers form a chain and together pull him back from the Speed Force. When he’s finally rescued he says that “I can never go that fast again or I may never come back” – harkening to the comics where he used to have a mental speed limit based on his fears and how only his connection to his wife would be enough to pull him back from the Speed Force.

There’s a bit more to the show, but it’s mostly about Superman.

But, that’s not important – the important part is that, once again, the Flash saves the day.
…

This is already a really long blog for me – so I’ll wrap it up for now and next time I’ll talk about why any of this matters.