Thunder of Wade

It’s very loud here today. And the voices I’m hearing from over the cube walls are not always english. Heck, I’m not even sure they are human. Time to crank up the volume in my headphones.

Monday, monday. It’s been a busy one. Worked on a survey most of the morning – then found out it hadn’t been approved and would most like need to be massively re-done. Yippee.

Talked to my mom last night about a job she saw for me on the net – a state job, in Columbus. I’m not really qualitied for it – I guess I should take some programming classes. Ick.

Got a new stereo last week and a new entertainment center yesterday. I’ll have to put that together this evening. The stereo is excellent – mainly because I can route my Playstation 2 through it. Sweeeet!

Did a little more work with the Sculpy. Learned more about the properties – thinking about trying something new with it. My little plastic castle didn’t go as well as I would have liked, but I can always try it again.

Got another project in the works, it’s currently behind locked doors. Or rather, cabinets. Christmas gift – shhh!

And before I forget – a big ol’ Happy Birthday shout-out to my good friend Scott! The card is in the mail and dinner is on me. I’m not going to say how old he is – though he is older than me. 🙂

Well, that’s about it for me – back to work…

Well, not really lost, just left at home. My watch, that is. Feels a little odd, but a little freeing too. I tend to be more than a little obsessed with time – though I don’t really have a reason for it. Fortuantly, my computer will pop up a little message to tell me when I have to go to a meeting, so that won’t be a problem.

Didn’t do much last evening – except spend too much money at the craft store. Got some really excellent ideas for projects, should keep me out of trouble this weekend.

Otherwise, it was mostly video games and the Angel DVD – a relaxing evening.

The boss is out today – so I’m getting some of his calls already. It’ll be a busy day, I suspect.

Well, I should get back to work…

Well, not really baking. More like heating a polymer clay until it hardens in a low temp pseudo-kiln – i.e. my oven. The stuff is called sculpey – a clay-like substance for modeling in plastic. You mold it like clay and then bake it to harden it into a solid plastic. I wanted to make a “little plastic castle” – like in the Ani Difranco song – so I tested it out a little bit last night.

The instructions were clear – 130 degrees, for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch thickness. Well, my test case was a little thicker than 1/4 inch and my over starts out at 200 degrees – any lower than that falls into the “warm” catagory. So, I did a whole bunch of estimating with frequent checking – they made a big deal out of not over-baking. Finally just cranked it up and gave it another 5 mintues – that seemed to do the trick. Tonight I’ll try using a dremel on it and maybe a little painting, just to see what it can do. Should have a little plastic castle by the end of the week.

In other news…I did laundry. That was pretty much it. Oh, and watching Angel DVD – lots of ass was kicked last night in the episodes I watched.

My neighbor Josh loaned me a game – X-Men Legends. Looks like fun – I’ll have to give it spin tonight.

Back to work for me…

Got a notice that I failed to pay my School District Tax for 2001 – for the district that my parents live in from 2001. I’ve never lived there and I’m guessing it’s just a clerical error. The problem is that I got this same notice several months ago and replied to it as indicated. And now I’ve got the same notice again, this time with a threat of an additional $500 fine.

So, I’m on the phone with them now – on hold.

Okay, talking to Shawn now – seems like an okay guy. Fingers crossed.

Apparently, the previous notice was for 2000, so this is a new one. And it appears that the wrong school district was associated with my address. Shawn made some updates and it looks like I’m okay. He also cautioned me to avoid using the preprinted address label in the future, since it may have been the source of the problem. Great.

So, that’s all cleared up. I’ll proably still get a warning for 2002 and 2003 at some point, but at least I know what the problem is and can address it.

Well, back to work…

Talked to my Dad last night – his mom was in a car accident and had to be taken to the hospital. She’s okay, but they had to keep her overnight for observation. A little scary for all of us – I’m concerned that she may no longer feel comfortable driving – that will dramatically cut down on her independence.

Been trying to blog all day – lots of trouble with the system. Same kind of stuff that made me stop blogging last time.

Still getting comments from people about the costume – all positive.

That’s about it for me – back to work…

Well, I meant to blog this yesterday and had it all typed in – but Blogger took a gigantic crap and I lost it all. So, here goes take 2 – or at least the highlights:

“Darkness falls across the land”

The people have spoken and they are idiots. GW is a lunatic and his screw-ups are legendary. Apparently, a majority of the county forgot about those and are going to give him 4 more years to screw things up. Keep in mind, though, that it was a small majority – a whole bunch of people, including me, were hoping to get rid of Bush. We’ll be watching…

End Political Rant here…

In other news, my sister wore pink yesterday – one of those breast cancer awareness braclets. Considering that she hates the color with a passion that borders on lunacy, this is really saying something. She asked that I alert the media – which I’m unable to do – but I can record it for the ages in this blog.

In still more news… gave my boss a ride to pick up his car after work. Major brownie points.

Watched some more of the Angel Season 4 DVD, finished Dune: Battle of Corrin, and generally chilled out.

And now it’s time to go back to work…

I went and voted this morning before work. Couldn’t find the address, so I was a little later getting there than I expected. I arrived at 6:40 (polls opened at 6:30) and there was a line out the door. And it was sort of one line, though there should have been two since there were two precints. There were no signs or clear markers – you just had to ask around to figure out if you should veer left or right. I paid attention and had no problems. And I had my voter card and picture ID, in case there were any problems. No way was I going to be denied the chance to vote.

A very primitive set-up, but it seemed to work. Fingers crossed.

I’m glad it’s over – the signs in the yards on every street, the mudslinging, the endless debates and discussions.

But if the war-monger wins, I’m moving to Canada. I wonder if the University of Toronto is hiring?

Back to work…

It can now be told – I was a Giant Lego-man for Halloween. And let me tell you, it totally rocked!

Let’s start out with big props to Jeff for his invaluabe help on the costume. He’s wicked with a can of spray paint and the end result was exactly what I envisioned. Also a shout out to Debbie – her help with the “suiting up” in the morning when I got to work was much appreciated.

So, the costume. Red sweatshirt, blue sweatpants, yellow-ish workboots. Red cardboard box for the torso, shaped to match the lego style. Bright yellow cardboard head with a section of screen so I could see out. Cut PVC pipe connectors and dowel rods for the hands. I’ll have pictures up on my site this week sometime.

I visited a lot of people on Friday – and startled a few. The funniest part was walking on campus and seeing people notice me and try not to react. Come on, people. You’re not too cool to laugh at the 6 foot tall lego man. Enjoy it – it’s freaking Halloween!

Since my face was totally hidden, a few people guessed it was me based solely on the fact that I do this every year. I think one recognised my voice, but a few people had to wait until I’d lifted off my lego head before they were sure it was me. 🙂

Great reactions from people, lots of fun. My own little moral booster for the campus. And hey – I got some candy too!

More later, including a link, once I’ve caught up on work…

I saw the eclipse last night – really cool. I was doing some work on my costume and had to go in and outside several times. Each time I went out, I could see more of the progress, until it was finally gone. Couldn’t stay up for the whole thing, but I found some pictures on the web that show it in all it’s glory. Makes a person feel a little small when you think about the grand forces and mathematics of the planetary movements.

Had a weird thought yesterday about squirrels. They seem so focused and busy, especially this time of the year. Wonder what would happen if we could teach them to use fire? If awareness and knowledge could be given to these so called tree-rats? For one thing, I think the neighborhood cats would be in deep shit. I don’t think it would take long for squirels to become militant and agressive. After all, they’ve been low mamals on the totem pole for a long time – payback would be a bitch. With this in mind, I plan on feeding the squirrels all winter. To stay on their good side. Just in case…

Tons of weird dreams this morning – tons. Fragments from work, amalgams of people, falling, being chased, college, driving…my hip and my back are sore and I’m exausted. When I finally did manage to extract myself from the dreams and get up, I felt like my mind had fallen out of bed. And I mentally hit the floor pretty hard. Didn’t help that I’d shaved off my beard last night, I didn’t recognise myself for a moment when I looked in the mirror this morning.

So, now I’m at work and if I didn’t have two meetings today I think I would have taken a sick day and gone back to bed. “Severe Reality Impairment”.

Costume is coming along, despite some setbacks. Had to modify my original plan a bit, but I’ll get it done in time.

Well, back to work…