Welcome to TsuKata's Org*
This is the first time I've owned a domain, so I'm kinda just having fun with it right now. I work a full-time job, and I have a full-time life so chances are that by the time I finish doing something, it's out of date. Have patience, and most of all, have fun!
Got questions? Got problems? Got milk? Then e-mail me 'cause my milk, as always, has gone bad.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2002
Okay, now that bites...
They're releasing the The Lord of the Rings - FotR DVD in two formats...Widescreen and Regular. So if you want to be able to watch it in the format of your choice, you have to buy both. Um, okay, why couldn't they put both versions into the set? That's what every other movie in its right mind does. Grrr....
PS - Am v. much looking forward to seeing Spiderman this weekend. :)
PPS-Saw Buffy tonight, and it *was* the prior episode!!!! Ha! So there! (Note: If you are not A Jaku, then you probably have no clue what I'm talking about)
PPSS - Buffy was good. Go Anya!
PPPSS-Went window shopping at amazon.com. Still have no idea what to get for mother's day present. Considering microwaveable bear. Don't laugh. It's a bear you can microwave and then it's all warm to hold up against you. But then that's what I would want. Hmm...or perhaps a very nifty plant. Plants rule. Must think harder.
PPPSSS - Work is getting disturbingly easy.
PPPPSSS - Poing. :)
I'm Kiki!! (Was there ever a doubt?)
Which Sluggy Freelance Character Are You?
Monday, April 29, 2002
Humor From A Jaku
Like, okay, so there was this show before Jackass...where the guys did crazy stuff and skateboarded alot. And this one guy went through a drivethrough and ordered the largest drink they had. And then he paid for it, took it, and as the girl turned away from the window he threw it in and yelled FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!! ROTFL!!!!!!! That's like the funniest thing ever. Well, almost. This is the funniest thing ever:
I'll post the whole bit on the forum. :)
Sunday, April 28, 2002
1 and 1 make 2, 2 and 1 make 3, it was destiny...
Well, I had a really cool blog written, but IE lost itself in fit of rage. Must learn to write up blogs in non-browser editor. :( ::pout:: Okay, going to try to re-create post within Word. BRB.
Blog re-creation follows:
At any rate, despite having lost my blog entry originally bitching about this, I am still having that line stuck in my head. Massively evil catchy rhyming lyrics, shiny demons and all. Weekend has admittedly gone very well with the exception of being incredibly late and thus horribly bad friend person on Saturday. You see down there where I said I needed to leave the house at 5:15? I needed to leave the house at FOUR fifteen, not five fifteen, in order to meet xnera for lunch at Hooters. And thus I not only made most excellent friend person sit around waiting for forty-five minutes not knowing that I was blinking idiot and not caught in some horrible car accident involving injury to my very personal person, but also missed out on the opportunity to flirt voraciously with hottie waitresses in tight tank tops and shorts. Remember distinctly being in middle of story of vast stupidity resulting in lateness when waitress bent down to take my order and thus immediately caused me to lose my train of thought and drool incoherently on my Tigger shirt. Oh look, MS Word does not understand diary-esque method of grammar and sentence formation. It’s making pretty green underlines everywhere. Anyways, this is weird to be typing on MS Word and not be at work. Had forgotten what it was like to have a real word processor at home. Reminds me, need to install Super Notetab.
Have been having snarky errors with IE ever since bad installation incident earlier in the evening when an IM came in mid-antivirus install and caused installer to lock up. Made me have to go through and clean out the registry of the half-created entries. But…only seems to be happening when I go to the Origins game site, so it may just be a bug in one of their scripts. Speaking of which, must get back to topics originally discussed in original blog…
We did rather well at the rallye last night, despite rain and amazing amount of confusion (not Confussion…no taking fusses!) and difficulty. Or actually, lack thereof. You see, whenever a rallye starts seeming easy, you know you’re doing something wrong. And we were…but tis hard to remember everything this early in the season. Was overall v. proud of our performance.
Was very fidgety and hyper though, came home and was told of funny and pornographic things by Amanojaku. J Who, btw, rules. (Is there anyone who posts on my forum that doesn’t rule? Don’t think so.)
Anyways, got much accomplished today. Scrubbed oven, which now smells like Lavender. Most of my house now smells like Lavender, thanks to Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning products, obtained at The Container Store, which should be called The Obtainer Store as I always obtain more than I need while there. Also took care of finances, verified solvent status, paid bills, cleaned up living room, organized cabinets, hung up target from rifle range on the door (hoping to deter salesmen and criminals…hmm…salesmen and criminals…perhaps is redundant statement). Read several short books sent to me as cheer-up material by Aunt Carole, and finished the sequel to Bridget Jones’ Diary. V. upset as seemed to be half-sequel to book and half-sequel to movie. And cannot say much more about what bugged me without spoilers. But, has inspired me to speak in diary-esque grammar.
Also registered for events for GenCon and Origins. Schedule is as follows:
ORIGINS (07.04.2002 – 07.07.2002, Columbus OH):
Thursday:
5pm-9pm LotR Sealed Deck Tournament
(starting late so that don’t have to rush when driving, can always enjoy last minute events)
Friday:
12noon-8pm MtG Odyssey Block Limited Tournament
(I only do limited tournaments for MtG, although if I had gotten to Origins registration sooner I would have signed up for the constructed Weenie and Pauper tournaments)
8pm-?? Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt (18xx) (promises to be some sort of space version of 1830)
Saturday:
8am-5pm MtG Odyssey Block Limited Tournament
5pm LotR Sealed Deck Tournament
(really wondering how a LotR Sealed Deck will go…figure can get new cards, if nothing else)
Sunday:
12noon LotR Multiplayer Constructed Tournament
(v. much looking forward to this one)
GENCON (08.08.2002 – 08.11.2002, Milwaukee WI):
Thursday:
12n-4pm LotR Constructed Tournament
(Milwaukee is a much shorter drive, plus am already familiar with area and where I’m staying)
5pm-1am Advanced Civilization
(This is being run by GameBase7..hoping some personally run games of it will come up, perhaps will run games next year to help discount cost of con)
Friday:
9am-5pm MtG Odyssey Block Limited Tournament
(Sound familiar?)
6pm-9pm Invasion Block Limited Tournament
(surprised they’re even doing Invasion Block still, figured should try for new cards)
Saturday:
12n-4pm LotR Multiplayer Constructed Tournament
(figure can be even better due to practice at Origins)
7pm-?? 18xx gaming
Sunday:
12n-4pm LotR Sealed Deck Tournament
And then I left a lot of time here and there open for the purpose of doing the ASOIAF game and any others that are debuting. Also know will probably end up going to that liquor shop with Rob at some point (WITH THE CHICKEN!!!). ::giggle:: Feels a little weird to schedule in advance. Before, I just signed up for stuff while there…but granted, I missed out on a lot of cool things because I didn’t sign up early. Anyways…am v. impressed with the Origins registration process. They give you an interactive dayscheduler style calendar to work with. Wizards just does it through their store so it’s imminently difficult to tell if you’re overbooking yourself. Anyways…is now rather late and suppose I should quit with the blog re-creation (no, MS Word Kitty, that is not “recreation”…although it is recreation too…argh, am fuzzy headed and haven’t even had bacardi). Smooches.
Saturday, April 27, 2002
And here's the Friday Five
1. What are your hobbies?
Does gaming count as a hobby? Or is it more of a sport? I suppose writing sideways pervy comments could be my hobby. What about road rallies? Is that a hobby? Someone told me once that the only difference between a hobby and a sport is sweat, but you don't sweat playing golf, and you might sweat playing MTG at GenCon if the AC isn't working. Hm. I'm not even sure I have a hobby. When I think of hobby, I think of cross-stitching or making tiny models of things that are usually much larger. Perhaps should start making clay penii for the enjoyment of hobbyists everywhere. Oh yes, here is Bob...Bob was rather nice, interesting curvature...oh, look, that's Mort...no, it's not a speck of dust...and here is Sparky...don't ask. :)
2. Do you collect anything? If so, what?
Um...well, since the bedpost notch collection has waned, gotta go with the basics...LotR cards mainly, also MTG. I used to collect keychains. And dice. Still like to pick up unusual dice. And then I went through a Tigger phase and gained a Tigger collection as a result of that. Currently seeking maneki-nekos for home and office...and I would be collecting katanas if I had the yen to do so. Heh :) Unintentional pun. Anyways, I guess you could say that I collect dust. There's alot of dust around here. Corner cobwebs too. I like corner cobwebs, but then I also have always had an affinity for spiders. :)
3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do?
You know, this is sad, but I'd really like to do art. But...I have neither the time nor the money nor the talent to indulge in it. But I'd like to be able to make pretty things...paint miniatures or draw stuff. I was thinking this morning that I'd really like to have a triad of paintings of Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis...but I have no idea how to find said paintings nor am I talented enough to create them for myself. And I'm v. jealous of those who can draw beautiful silver haired vixeny pics of Draco. Have seriously pervy fantasy crush on evil characters anyways. Evil Cassie Claire for making me like Draco, too.
4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity?
Back when I did cross-stitching, I'd occasionally sell a piece...or I'd use it for christmas presents, which is just as good.
5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to?
Mensa (yep, I'm a genius...aren't you?), NoKidding (social group for people who neither have nor want children), Wheels Rallye Club. :)
Spent most of last night in silly half-drunken stupor over at apartment of Mike and R2 playing MageKnight with aforementioned peoples as well as R2's girlfriend, Madu. Gorged on Thai food and kettle corn. Had leftover Pad See Eiw for lunch today. Was often accused of being horribly evil traitorous whelp by Leaf Worm clan, as have formed an axis of evil with the Satanic Hegemony...not my fault. We always end up running into each other first, blaming evil SEIV game instead of evil self. :) Thinking Leaf Worms would be v. horrified by the Kiki's latest act of treachery. Never trust a ferret...we're related to weasels, and we have very short attention spans for treaties and such. Bwah ha ha.
Today's tasks are to finish doing finances, put away things currently piled in papasan chair, put away dishes. Must accomplish all of this as well as getting dressed (am currently wearing towel) before 5:15pm, at such time is necessary to load/unload car for rallying.
It's a rainy day, which is fine with me, as I'm only happy when it rains. :) Seriously, I enjoy rainy weather. Sunny weather, too, but rainy is nice...gets everything clean and shiny.
Thursday, April 25, 2002
You say you are publishing but you lie!
Bad blogger!
Some Badtz-Maru for you
From Joe & Angela:
And I bought the Tenacious D CD (which is funny for certain) and also the SOD CD/DVD set. Woohoo :)
This is not the greatest blog in the world...
I *so* have that song stuck in my head...and they don't play it often enough on the radio for me to get it out of my head. Evil. And how many lyricists have the niftiness about them to put a shiny demon into a song? Not just a demon...a shiny demon. I actually am somewhat inclined to go buy the CD just because anyone loopy enough to write a song like that (which is actually also musically good) probably will be able to make me laugh and enjoy music much as Cake does. Besides, it's payday. I should get to spend money extraneously today. Okay, but now I'm listening to Rainbow Connection and getting weepy while I read about how Wil Wheaton is also having a bit of a downer this week. But I guess that's what's weird. I've really been in a pretty darned good mood for the majority of this week, considering...and it's like no one seems to think I should be or that I really am...::shrug:: I guess that's fair though. I'm never just one thing...at any given moment, I am elated and desolate, triumphant and fallen. I don't just have one emotion...I multitask. :) Which is why even in the midst of a rant of dejection and resolution, I can still think about the awesomeness of Starbucks and how disturbing that chick with the goiters is. My emotions don't really consume me....they just float around like fruit pieces in a jello mold. Green jello. Because lime rules. Anyways...I did finally at long last get my laundry put away last night. I now have another load of it to do. It's a never-ending cycle. :) I also managed to sort my little glass beads into a nifty sorting container, much in the manner that I saw a guy have his at the LotR tournament last weekend, and I finished putting cards away. Still need to do some deck tuning, but that's another neverending process. Woohoo! I just figured out how to fix Rob's problem with 1830 pc game. Installed it here at work to try to make it work in win2k. :) Yay!!
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Kiss it harder. :)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020423/168/1funr.html Heh. Heh. Heh heh. Golf rules. Heh. Heh heh heh.
Blogger is being mean.
I keep posting stuff and then it doesn't get to the site...something in the page generation script hangs and it never gets published. Grr. Oh well...
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
So let's see...
I still haven't put away my laundry (remember that being on the list of things to do nearly a week ago?). I still haven't put away all the things that came out of my car. I need to play with 1830 for Rob, and a few other odds and ends. But none of it got done tonight, and damn it, I still haven't had dinner. Must eat my now-cold burnt re-heated pizza. :) Just wanted to wander out and say hello...the forum posts are still cracking me up. :) Joe found them hilarious this morning, too. He, too, finds the chick with goiters to be quite freaky.
Poing! :)
LOL...LN and A Jaku rule. :) Check out the forum. :) And I have a cute icon! Yay! :)
Monday, April 22, 2002
Need to rant for a bit
Or else I'll be gnashing my teeth while I put away laundry and thinking way too hard when trying to go to sleep.
Top 10 List of things TK is sick of:
10. People who cut in front of you and then slow down
9. People who can't grasp that sidewalks could be very organized if you just use the same rules you use when driving (and this includes people who stand in the middle of hallways and hold a conversation...people do that in cars, too...it's equally dumb either way)
8. Questioning everything and understanding nothing
7. Having to take care of laundry and dishes. I want a maid.
6. My ankle hurting. I miss flexibility.
5. The damned DMCA
4. Working my ass off so that development can say "um, we want more time to review it" and thus my due date gets missed and makes me look bad.
3. Getting stuck in the friend zone.
2. Being the substitute girlfriend until the girlfriend comes along (or in my case, until I introduce you to the girlfriend, because I'm a fucking moron who doesn't know any better and silly me, I only want the people I care about to be happy, even if it means that they end up dropping me like a bad penny once they are, to the point where there have to be "us things" and "y'all things" and pity and tiptoeing. and where I have to decide whether it's worth it to go to a gaming convention when I'm going to have to deal with the fact that I'm there and she's not. grr.) because I'm not good enough to be the girlfriend...just good enough to be the substitute in the meantime.
1. Being the strong one who takes care of everything, listens to everything, can handle anything, and gets not a damn thing in return, because whenever *I* have an issue, either I'm over-reacting or what-have-you...not to mention that no one gives a damn in the first place because they figure I can handle it...and I can...I'm just fucking sick and tired of having to.
All my life, I've been the person who was there for my friends. I was the psychiatrist that everyone came to when they needed to talk about their troubles, and I spent most of my life listening...dispensing no advice, but encouraging talk and ranting and such so that they got it all out. But if I went to any of them...all I got was "you should do this" or even worse, the guilt trip of having to deal with their depression once they realize how depressing my life truly is. Hell, I know what I should do, and I'm probably going to do it, but that's not what I want to hear when I'm upset. There are exceptions, there are ALWAYS exceptions...but damn it, I'm ranting, and I don't give a damn about exceptions. And damn it, I haven't gotten laid since January. That bites. And you know what? If I supposedly had no reason to think R* and I were dating, as he seems to think, then why the fuck is he doing the things he was going to do with me with her? Took her to restaurants he was going to take me to...hangs out with her at the times he and I used to hang out...gets her into the things he was trying to get me into...Hmm...could it be because those are things you do with someone THAT YOU'RE DATING??? I wonder... Oh no, wait...I forgot...why in the hell would I think that anyone would want to date me? I mean after all, I can take care of myself, so why would anyone want to try to take care of me? And please don't think that I'm still interested in dating him, 'cause I'm not. I was losing interest back then. But it fucking pisses me off that I've had yet another person essentially drop me to the curb and say "hey, you know, you rule, but not quite enough." You know what, Fuck the whole goddamn system. I'm tired of it. I know there are cooler guys out there. And I'll find them someday, but fuck, it pisses me off to get caught in this fucking bullshit again. And now I have to think about giving up thursday night gaming because instead of being TK's moment of peace and fun like it used to be, it's now just another reminder of the aspect of my life in which I am an absolute fucking failure. Oh and here's another thing...when I'm pissed off about something, I'm going to say it eventually, and you're going to know about it. I wish other people would do me the same damn courtesy so that I don't have to go around second guessing. I guess that's the difference between me and X. When she's upset, she has no words. When I'm upset, I've got words like a dog has fleas in the summertime. And I guess the problem is that I've been going to her with them because, damn it, I was glad to have someone to rant to at long last. But I guess I shouldn't. And I really question why in the hell I'm friends with her or R* when I can't talk to either of them about anything deep or important anymore...just superficial stuff like gaming and rallies and so on. Because sadly, most of my deep stuff these days is in some way going to be hurtful to one or both of them...and you know what? I'm at the point right now where I don't care because it's not like it's my fault. I'm entitled to my feelings. :) And believe me, last thing I want to do is hurt anyone...but I'm hurt. Continuously. Constantly. And there's not a damn thing either of them can do about it, nor do I want them to do anything about it. But fact is, I have to wonder if I can still consider them friends sometimes. And every now and then, I have to lash out. I'm not good at sitting and taking it...the whole reason I am so strong is that I fight for things, myself most of all. But fucking A, I am so sick and tired of everything. Well, except my work for the most part. And my cat. And driving with the windows rolled down. Laying the sunshine. Shopping. Organizing things. Getting lavender smelling cleaning goods. And frappucinos. Goddess bless Starbucks. Therein lies the only true goodness in this world.
Weirdest. Movie. Ever.
Motorama. And Netflix recommended it to me tonight, along with Hunt for Red October and a few other obvious choices. What's wild is that I watched this movie once really really late while at Tulane, and it had a strange appeal. It's this crazy adventure with so many weird things that you're just waiting for what the next freaky incident will be. Hey, if you have any movies you've seen that were just plain freaky, post them over on the forum. I'm curious. There was that one David Lynch film that Ryan and I saw at Loyola...can't remember what it was tho...
Toto and Maggie
Faithful readers may recall that cute-Rob gifted me with a Furby. Well, the Furby had just been sleeping alot, and that seemed odd. Then yesterday, when Joe was here, his batteries died, so I was like, well I guess that's why he was sleeping alot. I replaced his batteries today and wow...he's all happy and dancing. :) I found out how to get him to say his name, and it turns out his name is Toto. Maggie was initially very curious about Toto but then Toto frightened her when he started to dance. They made up, and now Toto and Maggie are both asleep in the chair next to me. :) Toto snores lol...
Correction
In the tournament description below, my memory was not doing so well. I outran the guy I won against...didn't kill him (but probably would have within a turn or two anyways). I can't believe I forgot this...but get this...I sent his Uruk Hai up against Frodo. Frodo was overwhelmed...except...I laid down three intuitions and a stealth...Frodo became something like strength 20 and throughly whipped the ass of the Uruk Hai. Go Frodo! ;-)
News in the World of TK :)
Friday:
Was at work until 10:30pm. V. long day for me. Something like 13 hours, I think. Remember that project where I have to stay late once every two months? Well, that was it. And I'm still not done. Plus I have my usual tasks, plus one of my old projects is cropping up again. ::sigh:: Afterward, I dropped by the bowling alley to return a DVD to Josh, and to see if his team (him, medrvstang, Nicole and one other whose name I'm drawing a blank on) won the league, but I couldn't find them, so I left again. Turns out they didn't win. :( Second place is still awfully respectable considering how bad they were doing earlier in the season. Reminds me...I want to join a bowling league. Seems like fun. Then I went by Roger's to pick up some Aragorn's Bows for an LotR tournament on Saturday. I have 2 being sent to me in the mail from a successful eBay auction, but they're not here yet...only paid $10 for the two of them. They usually go around $7-8 a piece. I'm doing well at eBay by bidding on the "personal sellers"...that being people who aren't stores, who don't have a million feedback points. Most bidders avoid them because there is more risk when you're dealing with someone who very rarely sells things. Anyways, had a good time doing deck tuning at Roger's place...and then playing against him. Won once, lost once. I was using the aragorn-gets-huge fellowship and sauron orcs. Decided to ditch the orcs for the tournament and use nazgul instead. Nazgul are so deliciously evil. Got home and took care of SEIV, as it was time to start the game. Woohoo! May the Kiki reign supreme!
Saturday:
Woke up early, showered, got dressed, built nazgul half of deck. Gathered stuff for the Lord of the Rings Gimmick Road Rallye. Headed out the door to find Niles, IL...location of Pasttimes game store, where the tournament was to start at noon. Stopped for breakfast at Einstein's (poppy bagel with butter and a SpontaniTea, favorite breakfast). While driving, I finalized my nazgul decisions. At stoplights, I pulled them out of the binder. Once I got to the store, I sleeved them...turns out that place is a HUGE game store. LOTS of room for game tables. They don't have much of a selection, but they have tons of space and therefore lots of potential. Met up with Bo and Andrew (two of the guys I play with on Thursdays...not the same Andrew as MechE Andrew...damn, do I have to do A1 and A2 now???), and proceeded to have the worst draws of my gaming career. Went up against Bo, got killed by Uruk Hai when I couldn't get armor out in time for Hollin. Went up against Andrew, got killed by a mass of cheap orcs at site 4. Went up against another guy, Aragorn got killed by the Balrog. Frodo lasted alone until site 7. Again, had a hand full of nazgul. Went up against a kid named Eric, we were both playing nazgul so we were helping each other accidentally...and at site 4, he got Witch-king, Pale Blade, and Toldea out on me. Ouch. My only win was against an older guy (who later did some very good-for-me trading) at which point everything came out like it was supposed to, plus I was getting at least one nazgul out, hitting him with the nasty blade tip combo, relentless, etc. It was awesome. And I killed him. Wasn't running as I had a good lead on him. All of the above will make sense to anyone who has played LotR CCG. The rest of you may be lost. At any rate, I do blame luck as I played a second game with Bo, with Eric, and with the other guy...and I either won or came really close to winning all three times. I think I don't shuffle well enough between tournament games. Dunno. Anyways, then I hung around with the people there...met some players, did some trading, handed my uncommons/commons to someone new to the game...started sorting some cards that had been in decks and then got pulled from decks...was returning them to the pages so that I could verify that I was indeed at that point only three cards away from my full set...started chatting with the guy who won the tournament about deck possibilities and the next expansion...looked at my watch CRIKEY! It's 6pm!! I'm supposed to be at the rallye by 6:15! And I'm a good forty minutes away! With construction traffic! AAAHHH! So I quickly gather and drive like hell to Schaumburg. Get there, am starving as haven't had anything except for the bagel...confer with Xnera briefly to convey my apologies for being late and my desperate need for beverage. Sign the paperwork, hop in my car, and burn rubber over to Taco Hell. Two tacos and a gulp of pepsi later, I'm at the driver's meeting...freezing my ass off because my ankle won't fit into any shoes except my birks, and no one (except The Weather Channel, damn them) was expecting the level of cold we were experiencing that evening (30s...we've had mid 80s for most of the week). Anyways, the LotR soundtrack calmed me down...but then the rallye was particularly challenging, and my navigator was tired. :( Poor X. Someone's been wearing her out, and thankfully, I'm not the culprit. :) No writing on the blackboard for me. Anyways... We managed to place 11 out of 30, which is better than the last rallye we did, but still not very good. Needless to say, I was not entirely happy. But Barnaby's had good salad, individual Viennetta...and...::drum roll:: I got asked to join the Wheels Rallye Team!. :) They have the coolest website of all the rallye teams...including web-based rallyes for those who are unfamiliar with the sport, and they do the nifty unusual rallyes...like the puzzle rallye..and they did the one that I won on my own. Anyways, I'm very happy as that kinda means that I'm accepted as being a cool rallye person, which is always a good thing. :) I feel bad for Ted...he's the Mensan who posts the rallyes in the newsletter...which is how I started rallyeing to begin with...and his partner is now in Arizona, so he's doing them alone. He says it's actually something of a mixed blessing. I can understand that. Doing them alone is immensely challenging, but there's also a great satisfaction if you do well...and the ability to only blame yourself if you don't do well. Anyways...then I came home and took my SEIV turn. Had forgotten how much I missed SEIV. Sadly, the Kiki and the Leaf Worms are on opposite ends of the universe. :(
Sunday:
Fortunately Joe was coming over, which induced me to clean up a good bit. We took pictures of some more of his rifles, and he helped me improve my dining room table. Joe is a handyman. :) Then I went to the Container Store in search of the perfect hamper, and failed to find it...but I did get some random organizational items. I can't go into that store and come out empty handed. Bought some nifty smelling cleaning supplies. Lavender scented ironing water...hoping it will help induce me to iron. Tired of being wrinkly. Came home...watched bits of Twister and Gladiator...ate leftover japanese pan noodles for dinner...and now, I'm going to crash. :) Go me. :)
Sunday, April 21, 2002
Things that turn TK on...
Based on historical evidence...
1. talking about computers
2. making a program compile
3. gaming...particularly going down on someone while they're gaming, but that's another story for another time
4. winning and/or kicking ass and/or conquering something (really all the same thing)
5. cars, fast ones with big engines
6. anything demonstrating eminent intelligence
7. frosted animal cookies with sprinkles
8. mountains
Damn, I'm a freak...but a cute one, and that makes all the difference. :)
Friday, April 19, 2002
Making up interesting stuff
1. What's your favorite TV show and why?
Um...probably Friends. Also Star Trek TNG, Highlander, MacGyver, Kids in the Hall, The Simpsons, and probably a million others that I've forgotten since I cancelled my cable back in December.
2. Who is your favorite television star?
Adrian Paul should get this title, but I think I'm going to give it to John Lithgow instead.
3. What was your favorite TV show as a child?
Transformers. GI Joe. My Little Pony (my only girlish obsession as a child...I have like forty of those little plastic ponies).
4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now?
The Real World. That was the beginning of the end of MTV being cool.
5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season?
Greg the bunny, even though I haven't seen it. Seth Green rules.
Quote of today:
"You sense my loneliness, my bitterness at being shut out of life. My bitterness that I am evil, that I don't deserve love and yet I need love hungrily. ... But these things don't stop me. As you said yourself once, I'm very good at being what I am. These things merely now and then make me suffer, that's all." (Lestat de Lioncourt, The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice)
I had this massive sex dream last night. It was pretty darned awesome actually. I had been hoping I'd have one for awhile, because sex dreams for me always rule. They never actually contain sex. It's like in the movies where it just fades to black right then, and there are clothes on the floor in the next scene. But nonetheless, they rule because it's like all the cool parts are there. And this one was a little odd...as I was with one person at the beginning and then actually ended up with another person in a weird "let's do it somewhere where someone might find us" moment for the fade to black...and it was strange as far as who the people were. There was also a part where I visited my grandmother's gravesite with my mom and she and I got into a fight...I think that was a previous dream actually. Really confusing trying to remember them all.
Thursday, April 18, 2002
Bad IE! No cookie!
IE 6 has a giant security hole in it. Found this out from lockergnome this morning. This should be on CNN, as it's huge and needs to be fixed ASAP.
http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/267561
Do you use the Back button in your browser? Of course you do. Run IE 6.0, by chance? Believe it or not, Microsoft found a way to screw even that function up. As it turns out, JavaScript code can be set to trigger when you hit the Back button, but the code will execute in the previous page's "domain". For example, if some pinhead puts a link on his website to a non-existent page, IE fires off a DNS error page that loads through the Local Security Zone. When you hit the back button, the page you were just at executes the JavaScript code within the security domain of the Local Security Zone, and virtually any application can be launched from there because there's no security to stop it. The site given above has created code to show how this works. This isn't a trick...a site could just as easily record any of the information it gets from this...or run a virus that it cached to your HD rather than running little simple things like I'm doing...or even run a text editor, create a virus, and run it on your system. There are tons of possibilities for wreaking havoc with this.
Owie
So I have my happy little train ride last night, and it was incredibly fun, and I will totally use the train again the next time I'm going downtown and it's convenient...and I arrive at the station (which is like a little mini-mall..very cool). I say to myself, hey, it's a nice day, I'm just going to walk down to the symphony center...it's only about 10-11 blocks from the station. I get two blocks down the road, and I'm looking up at the opera house and noticing how the sun reflects off of the glass...and the sign changes to walk, so I quickly step out into the street....
And pop! Crunch! OWWWWW! (and that Oww was mental as I've never said Ow for any reason except to garner sympathy and there was no one there to give it)
My toe went into a separation in the pavement, got caught, twisted my ankle, hence the pop/crunch noise. I'm quite familiar with that noise as that particular ankle has gotten nastily twisted about six times over the past four years. I twisted it really badly once in New Orleans while wearing platform sandals (something I will never ever do again...only did it that time on a lark because a friend thought they looked good on me), probably should have had it put into a cast or something, but instead I got solidly drunk afterward and played Silent Hill all night. Go me. Anyways, I quickly hobbled across the street so that the taxicabs wouldn't smush me and then proceeded to test out the ankle while holding onto a column for support. I could still walk on it, but it hurt...and I knew it would start swelling the minute I stopped walking for any lengthy period of time. There were no taxicabs nearby, and I wasn't sure of the bus routes, so I continued to walk for the remaining eight blocks to the symphony center. Took me a half hour. I can normally do that sort of distance in half that time. Fortunately, I had given myself an hour to get over there because I wanted time to find my seat and get settled. So...I proceeded up the elevator to the gallery to my sweet-ass seat (front row center balcony...awesome view). Grabbed a coke from the concession stand and sipped it while sitting in the windowsill. The best part about the gallery seats are that you get to look out over the city when the concert isn't happening.
Anyways, the concert was awesome. Brandenburg Concertos 1,2 and 6 followed by a dramatic presentation of the slightly humorous Soldier's Tale...with narration and actors and everything. I built a couple of decks during intermission...I'm going to try the "make aragorn friggin' huge and run like hell" method for a fellowship. Tried to make an Arwen-Legolas fellowship but couldn't justify it. Couldn't find a mechanic I'd enjoy playing with the two of them. Yeah, I can pull Aragorn out and do the whole site three elrond rules thing, but blah. I play against Roger's version of that enough that I don't want to do it myself.
Then the concert ended and I discovered that my ankle actually felt okay (I'd kept it elevated for most of the concert). So I go outside, and it's cool and nice...and there's a wait for a cab, so I decide to start walking and if I get tired or it starts hurting too much, I'll hail a cab. Made it all the way back to the station...just as the 10:30pm train was leaving. :) So I then got to sit for an hour at the station doing more deck construction. Part of my problem right now with deck construction is that I feel like it's all been done. But anyways, I finished up my book on the way home...yay. :) And I sat on the second floor of the train on the way back which was super cool. It was a fun evening, except for the Owie. Ankle is currently wrapped up and propped up on a chair here in my cube. I couldn't find my nifty ankle brace at home so I'm going to buy a new one from Tar-zhay today. La la la, all is well. :)
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Love is not a victory march
I've had a package at the post office since last Friday. Every time I tried to pick it up since then, the office has had an incredibly long line thanks to all of you tax procrastinators. Silly mortals. Anyways, I finally got to pick it up today. I thought it was my rebate offer from Canon arriving at long last (my digital camera carried a rebate of a 16MB flash card, a sling case, and a spare battery), but it turns out to have been a care package from my Aunt Carole. :) My Aunt Carole rocks. She sent me a bunch of humorous books and a newspaper article about an area of downtown Chicago that is supposed to be the new up-and-coming neighborhood...lots of little freaky stores and such. Will have to check it out. As for that list I made yesterday...let's see, I managed to accomplish one item from it...that being the remove the old grapes and milk from the fridge. Guess the rest will have to wait until the weekend. Tonight I am going downtown to go to the symphony...they're playing a few of the Brandenburg Concertos...one of my favorite pieces for the violin. Have I mentioned that I play the violin? It's been forever since I pulled it out of the case, but I can play it if I ever have the urge. Anyways, I get to ride the train. :) Not a big deal for most people around here, but it will be my first time taking the Metra to anywhere. Since I'm going to concerts on weeknights now, the schedule is such that I can just hop the train. Back when I was doing it on Saturday nights, the train didn't run often enough to make it worthwhile. I'm taking a book with me to read (not ASOIAF as ACOK is currently annoying me...does this guy know how to write a happy ending at all?), and I'm taking card lists for the purpose of making up decks. I decided that instead of buying individual cards, I'm going to get one more box, but this one is being bought off of ebay for cheap. I only have 10 rares to go, and if I buy a box, I can always sell the extra rares I get to get money to buy the ones I need...and there's always the chance that I'll get exactly what I need. I did pick up another Goblin Armory off of ebay...a shiny one...for cheap.
All of those thoughts are still flying around in my head, and I'm dying to write about them on here. But...I won't. At least not yet. I need to make a decision before I can write about it. Or maybe not. Heck, I don't know. There's a beautiful song on the Shrek soundtrack called Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright. I love singing with this song...he has a really deep voice that goes well with my range...anyways, the one line is flipping around in my head right now with all the thoughts. It's true you know...it's that moment...when you're helpless, fallen, tired of it all...and something inside you cries out...a cold, broken hallelujah. I guess I'm just tired of alot of things right now, and I'm happy and thrilled with so many others. Makes you wonder why you're putting up with the things that make you tired...that's at the heart of my ponderings. I've been extricating myself from alot of situations lately. I need to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. And I need to decide whether I really give a damn how I end up being referred to...I don't know. It's alot to think about. I don't know seems to be my mantra of late. Je ne sais pas. At least in French, it sounds a little more decisive.
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
Thieving Militant Squirrels
Well, I'm having a good day. Got alot done this morning, despite having screwed up my laptop's network logon and having to get the company IT people to fix it (they won't give us access to fix it else I could have fixed it myself). Went through a review for a pretty major document change without difficulty. Got sunburned from driving to/from the restaurant for our usual departmental lunch....we went to Olive Garden, which used to be my favorite restaurant. Discussion topics ranged from turduckens to drunken chickens to DVRs to Star Trek to cars. There are very few things cooler than being out to lunch with a bunch of engineers. Throwing alot around in my head right now. Nothing I currently want to share, but...perhaps I will share soon. I'm hoping the weather will be nice again this weekend so that I can go to the forest preserve for walking/bikeriding/picnicking. It's too bad I can't take Maggie with me for stuff like that. That's the only time I miss having a dog. Dogs like to go on walks. I've considered advertising myself as a dog-walker, but I don't think I'd enjoy it were I obligated to do it. Maybe someday I'll have a friend with a dog that I can borrow. :) Let's see...things I need to do tonight:
1. Vacuum.
2. Install virus scanner.
3. Put away laundry (this one has been being put off for nearly a week).
4. Dishes. Must gather, load, and start dishwasher.
5. Remove old grapes and old milk from fridge. Both are more than a week old and beginning to worry me.
6. Scrub counters and kitchen floor.
7. Make new LotR decks for thursday.
There...perhaps by writing it down in here, it will all actually happen. :) That's a priority order too...really want to make new LotR decks for use with the cool card gaming guys on Thursday but cleaning has priority. Oh awesome...one of the guys I met at the dept. lunch has a Replay TV DVR. So far, I've only seen a Tivo. He and I are going to have lunch on Thursday and talk DVRs. :) Very cool. You know, I bitch sometimes, but I really love where I work. My job is perfect for me. It's exactly what I ought to be doing. I'm not always happy to do it, but I am happy that I have something that fits my talents well. And that lets me work at home, and go out to lunch often, and meet really cool people...and even possibly someday travel to really cool places. It pays me well...I'm better off financially than most people my age for sure. I know, I'm obligated to bitch because raises weren't as high this year as normal...and because cubes are small and I have no windows, etc etc...but overall, I gotta say that I'm thankful for what I have. I think that's alot of my issue right now. Everything is going well. I'm not used to that.
Monday, April 15, 2002
Panicking again...
Okay, I looked up what could be causing the clicking noise I keep hearing, and there's several possibilities: the hard drive is about to fail (bad) or it's just switching heads (good). Either way, it's disconcerting and frightening. I have two options. I can go ahead and try to get the HD replaced, or I can make the assumption that the drive is fine...it's just making normal drive noises. I don't know. It'd be very odd for a drive to be bad right out of the box. But who knows. ::sigh:: And worrying over it is stopping me from getting the things I need to do done. Evil. I think I'm going to back everything up to the second drive before I go to sleep tonight...all of my important stuff at least. Just in case.
Now, why can't I find a guy like that?
I guess I need to become a sexologist. :) Are you wondering what the hell I'm talking about? I read an article on salon.com today called Too Sexy For Her Rocker about a relationship between a 72yo woman and a 25yo man. The woman is Betty Dodson, who I'd heard of before. She's kind of a legend in the NOW circles for the speech mentioned in the article. I've also read a couple of her books. I swear by her recommendations for vibrators and lubes. Anyways, they're in the type of relationship I want...open, sexual, but not entirely based on sex. In the article, the guy complains about women his age not being interested in that sort of thing, but darn it, here I be. ;-) Just like...I'm in the NoKidding club for people who don't currently want children...and I bitch in there all the time about how all the guys my age want kids and marriages and commitments...and I'm not much for any of those things. The whole idea that the state has to sanctify my union with another person kinda bugs me...but I like wedding registries. :) But then another guy in NK was bitching about the same thing on his end...he's 28. ::shrug:: Anyways...point being...good to know that guys my age exist that aren't into those things and that have a healthy respect for sex and experimentation and such. Just too bad that this one is in New York. :)
Summertime!
Well, not quite...but it is beautiful today. Wonderful day to be working at home, as I am doing. :) Just got back from taking Maggie to the vet. They're doing 3year rabies vaccines now because of the risk of the vaccine causing a cancerous lump. They are attempting to minimize the risk for the kitties. As I was leaving the vet though, a man came in and asked about the cost of putting a dog down. And I'm thinking, oh no...poor puppy...must be awfully sick...and the guy's wanting to do it because the dog bit him. Um, welcome to the real world, pal. Dogs bite. Did you not realize that when you saw its teeth? I'm sorry, but I don't care if a dog bites you. That dog is just doing what it knows, what its instincts are...and by having a dog, you accept both responsibility and risk. I don't know the history of the situation, but I was about ready to either scream at the guy or burst into tears. I could just see some little puppy who didn't know any better being sentenced to death for the crime of being a dog. That's just plain heartless. Before I'd put a dog to death, I'd at least try to work with him or give him to a no-kill shelter. Hell, I donate several hundred dollars each year to the Humane Society and to the ASPCA in the hopes of there being enough shelters that they're all no-kill...and to educate the public on the fact that pets do not exist for their convenience. A pet is a companion, not a piece of furniture to be trashed when it no longer matches the drapes. (but then I feel sorry for furniture that gets trashed, too...but I accept that as my own quirkiness...when you're talking about an obviously sentient being, it's a bit different). Grr. Poor dog. :(
Ah, much better now.
Calm. :) Happy. :) Have so much space that I don't know what to do with it all. But...I am tired. Thankfully, considering it's midnight and I ought to be tired. I was afraid my all-nighter on sat. night would throw off my sleep schedule. Well, my dear readers, y'all now are in on another aspect of my psyche. Some people freak over world events. Some people freak over their families and friends. I freak over my computer. I was at a LAN party once with Josh and due to a bad uninstaller, I had a fatal error that wouldn't allow win98 to start. I was so freaked out that I was trembling. Ryan and I tried to put a new hard drive into Tigger (my old 300Mhz cpu) and in the process lost the ability to access the original hard drive (couldn't access the new hard drive either). I turned into a fairly good imitation of Bart Simpson clutching himself in his bed going "Can't sleep. Clown will eat me. Can't sleep. Clown will eat me." One thing I always have to give props to Ryan for...he's my technical support, and I don't mean as far as technical details go, because I am generally wise in the ways of bytes...but when something goes wrong, he will calm me down. Well, actually, he's not really good at calming me down. I usually end up going "Ryan! This is not a time to tell me a joke!" and getting pissed at him and then in a way, I calm down, but it's kinda weird. But he does re-assure me that yes, I'm doing the right thing...and I trust him implicitly with techie stuff because he's so incredibly awesome when it comes to computer knowledge. Anyways, the fact that I got through the entire installation process including when the ethernet card wouldn't work without having a freak attack is a sign that I'm improving. I just started hyperventilating once I realized how dumb I'd been in clearing out the old 15gig drive before I'd had a good bit of stability with the new drive. Still pissed at myself over that. I know better. But oh well...I am tired. Will probably go to bed soon. :) But oh look! Xnera just signed on...must chat with her for a bit. :) Working at home tomorrow (yay!). Taking Maggie to vet. :( Poor Maggie.
Sunday, April 14, 2002
So far, so good...
Well, I've installed my new hard drive, and so far so good (knock on fake desk wood). I'm having a couple of issues where explorer crashes when I'm accessing three or more partitions at once. And AIM doesn't seem to be signing on at startup like it ought to...it always fails on the first attempt. When I hit sign on, it has no problems. These seem like minor things, but I'm about to have a serious panic attack over them nonetheless. Scaring the crap out of me because I'm at the point of no return now...the 15gig drive is no longer bootable, so I can't just go back to my old config. That is because I am a dumbass who got slaphappy with the delete key. I should know better than to delete my perfectly working drive's system files, but as previously mentioned, I'm a dumbass. Please, please don't be a bad hard drive. Win98, please please be happy with your five some-odd partitions. I am so totally freaking right now. What if something's horribly wrong? I'll be screwed. Argh argh argh. Feel heart racing. Breathe, TK...breathe. Okay, let's remind me of everything that is working fine. The DVD player seems to be working great. Haven't tested the CDRW yet, but I have no reason to believe anything's wrong with it. The software installed just fine. For my first ever fresh install of an OS, I think I did alright. I have Quicken working again. I need to find my firewall and install that. Guess I better go do that now. And my antivirus. Okay, TK, calm down. Breathe. All will be well. You've done stuff like this a million times before. I can't believe I'm freaking out like this. I could cry at any minute. And everything is pretty much fine...the AIM problem is probably just a matter of it being on a separate partition from windows. I can always throw it on the main partition if I need to. And I have MS Office now and FrameMaker so I can do all sorts of nifty document and scheduling things. I'm accessing the internet. I mean heck, there have been times when I've freaked this bad because I couldn't get the cable modem working. Oh, good...someone just called, must vent to them. Talk to y'all later...
This site rules...
No, I'm not talking about how much I rule for having such a nifty site again... ;-) The author of the site linked below shares a pervy fancying of evil characters...including the ever-sexy Jareth from Labyrinth and Lestat de Lioncourt...this site is also the home of the quiz mentioned below...and besides, it's just so darned pretty!
![[moonrainstar.com]](http://www.moonrainstar.com/shared/mrs_banner4.jpg)
Still A Pervy Man Fancier...
Engaging In Five Rest Phases During Birdsong
It's a Magic Realm thing...you wouldn't understand. ;-) Point being, I can't believe I'm up this late. Well, I happily am beginning to feel at least a tiny bit good at Magic Realm. I won the second game played tonight. The first game went fairly well also, and it was my first time playing a magic user. Can't wait to get SEIV going. ::yawn:: Oh, and I have a furby now (gift from Rob). Furbies and tamagotchis are bad for me. I tend to assign human emotions to totally inanimate objects...give them a semblance of emotion and I turn into a total loon. I feel horribly guilty right now because I left the furby in the car. Bad TK. :( I'm neglectful. But I couldn't carry him and my keys and my cellphone safely. Oh crap. I just locked myself out of my garage. Oh well...I'll figure out a way to get in tomorrow....um, later today. Whatever. I'm going to have to do some serious drinking tomorrow night in order to not totally throw off my sleep schedule. More bad TK. No cookie. Especially since I had several chocolate oreos today at Rob's. And he made really good burgers and way way too much coffee. So very hyper. :)
Saturday, April 13, 2002
The Friday Five (on Saturday)
Well, it's still Friday night in my book. :) And darn it, the site was down all day.
1. What is your favorite restaurant and why?
For dinner...probably Your Choice or Kate's Thai Kitchen (both are Thai places), because I keep craving Thai food...it's so good. Sweet and spicy. Like me. :) For lunch, I have to go with Kosta's or Fuddrucker's (mm...blue coconut shakes...mm). I miss Ashley's seafood in Charleston, and I miss the Red Steer steakhouse in New Orleans.
2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to?
Well, I'm glad I didn't say a fast food place above, 'cause then this question would have been silly. :) I prefer Wendy's out of the burger joints, but out of everything with a drivethrough, I tend to lean toward KFC or Arby's. I go to Mickey D's alot though because they have speedpass.
3. What are your standards and rules for tipping?
If my drink is ever empty long enough for me to notice it (and there's no good excuse like me being with a group of 20 people or something), that's a big huge minus on the tip. If the waiter or waitress is a hottie and flirts, they get a bonus. Otherwise, I bump the decimal over one spot, double it and then try to round out to an even tab.
4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert?
Not usually. Not often that hungry. But if I get a dessert, I eat it first. :) Not because life is short...I do it because I don't like to have a sweet taste left in my mouth.
5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant?
Iced tea. Coke. If I feel like getting something alcoholic, Midori Sour or whatever pretty mixed drink the place has. Total girly drink drunk.
In other news, SEIV game starting up soon! yay!!! I just finished making and uploading my empire file. The Kiki shall kick ass again! :) And I had alot of fun playing pool and euchre with Mike tonight. :) Mike rules. He's a great Euchre partner too, which is awesome because those are hard to find. Anyways...I need to shower and crash so I can be a nice-smelling happy person at Rob's house tomorrow. :)
Friday, April 12, 2002
Bad bill! Bad, bad bill! No cookie.
Regular readers may remember me going off on here around March 29th about a bill Senator Hollings was introducing that would, in an attempt to prevent digital copyright fraud, significantly impair the technology industry. Well, it seems that I'm not the only one who took issue with the bill. According to a quote from Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Mimi Devlin in "Digital-copyright bill sparks flurry of criticism" (Reuters), the bill has gotten a ton of negative feedback via e-mail and no support. It seems that the only ones supporting it are the Hollywood moguls. Now it's just a matter of seeing whether Congress decides to respect the people who put them in office or the lobbyists' bribes...
Thursday, April 11, 2002
Flashlight Reveries
I was stressed as hell when I left work yesterday. Someone asked me how I was and I said "Argh. My emotional state is Argh." But then I went over to Josh's to pick up my new hard drive, and I left totally relaxed and happy. Unfortunately, the downside of relaxation is that you get horribly sleepy, so when I got home last night, I ate dinner and crashed abruptly at 9:30pm. As you can probably tell from some of the timestamps on my blogs and forum entries, that is very odd for me. I'm usually up until like 1-2am. So I got like 10 hours of sleep before my alarm went off this morning, and I *still* hit snooze like five times before I got out of bed. ::shrug:: Anyways, then I got to work and fixed the problem that had me totally stressed out. Happyjoy! I actually said WOOHOO from within my cube. And I've cleared like four Outlook flags today. :) I flag all of my things using outlook so that I remember that I have things to do, and then when I do them, I get to click "flag complete" and it makes me happy. :) Go me! :) Looking v. forward to going to gaming tonight and kicking great amounts of ass. Hopefully will have time to put together a watcher-in-the-water deck. I really want to make a deck that does nothing for three sites and then just wails on you for 4,5, and 6. :) Hey, wait...is it wails or whales? That's a slang thing...I don't know its origin so I'm not sure how to spell it. Maybe even wales. Heh. Wales. Like the prince. Hmm...quick run to merriam webster...nope, no luck there...okay...searching yahoo...nope...no luck...but I did find a British Slang Dictionary that has things like wanker and wag off in it. :) Oh well, point being, I plan on kicking ass tonight. With a vengeance. And cherries. :)
AND WHY ARE YOU INSIDE??? It's a beautiful day out there! I'm stuck inside working in my windowless office. Why aren't you outside? Go outside! Now!
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
Drinking Gin and Mello Yello in my Bungalow
Wheeee! I'm listening to MP3s and getting alot of work done...yay! I always get more done when I have MP3s or CDs going. Today I have a random mix of TK's favorites...System of a Down's Toxicity, Chop Suey, Sugar; Barenaked Ladies' One Week, If I Had $1,000,000; Hoku's Perfect Day; the GHV2 Megamix (of course); Blink 182's All The Small Things; Britney Spears' Oops I Did It Again; Caviar's Tangerine Speedo; Mr. Mindworks' Ring True, Ring Clear; Rob Zombie's Dragula; U2's Beautiful Day; a bunch of songs by Cake; and of course, Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection....just to name a few. The full list is about 40-50 songs long. :) Yay! Poing!
Tuesday, April 09, 2002
Happy happy joy joy
I got a raise! Yay! Go me! :) And I got assigned to an elite group of operatives working on a highly critical project. Heh. That was my manager's funny way of telling me I'm now doing something where I'll have to work late on Fridays once every 2 months. But it's cool, because I got assigned to it along with alot of people who have been here longer than me, and we're assigned to it because we're trustworthy and responsible. Oh, and we get to raid the company's archive of software. Woohoo! Superhappyjoy! :)
Monday, April 08, 2002
And apparently I'm not the only bored person today...
as one of my colleagues just sent me this link to the strange tale of a very weird neighbor. Quite amusing. I wouldn't believe it if it weren't for the pictures.
Oh and by the way...
The song of the day is Deeper and Deeper by Madonna, and I'm linking to the GHV2 collection for this because it's the little snippet from the Thunderpuss GHV2 Megamix that keeps playing in my head. And you know what? There's too much cool stuff in the world. I've been window shopping on and off all day. I so want the Star Trek: The Next Generation DVDs, and the awesome THX certified Logitech speakers...and the Billy/Benno shelving combination from Ikea...and a full set of Lord of the Rings TCG first set, especially a bloody Aragorn's Bow!!! And a Handspring Visor Edge, and yes, in all honesty, I also want a Titanium PowerBook G4. (Gasp! TK wants a Mac???) And...and...I want a .22 pistol and one of those nifty SKSs like I used on Saturday. And a sundae. With hot fudge. And cherries. :) But...I have to have priorities. First priority is a new hard drive, because I really need to re-install win98se, and I promised myself that my next re-install would be done right...i.e. get a big-ass hard drive, make two partitions...give win98 a 4 gig partition of its very own, install everything else on the other partition. That way in the future, if win98 is being slow or crappy or whatever, I just wipe the primary partition and re-install. No having to deal with possible loss of programs in the process. And I should be getting the new HD this week sometime. And then I can try to prioritize everything listed above. And yeah, yeah, I know...I'm just Egypt whining about my people dying while I have 9 cities again (Adv Civ joke), but still...it never matters how good you actually have it. The things that make you fret are the things that make you fret. And we all have to bitch about something. And I'm only happy when it rains. :)
Such a Quiz Whore I Am
And just minutes later...
"Congratulations! You are "Weather of the Heart" Draco by Lady of Shalott. You are handsome, very controlling, and horny as hell. While you are known for your snarkiness you also have a tender side which you show only to your boyfriend, Harry Potter. You are eminently quotable, dead-sexy, and something of a cult classic.
And you can just stop smirking."
Take theWhat Fanfic Draco are YOU? test and find out!
How did the quiz know I was smirking? :)
Whoa! Awesome!
Okay, so I'm avoiding doing work, and I'm doing my usual afternoon check of the forums, and I notice that hey, how come the community chest for my forum is suddenly empty?
And I look, and guess what??? Someone anonymously put in money sometime around 11am this morning! So now we have an ad-free forum for the next six months!!!!!! Yay! Go us!
Now, go forth and post! Yay!
There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design cellular systems are under considerable economic stress at this period in history. And thus, we gather our change and go on a most sacred quest for bills. And Saint TsuKata raised the change on high and said "Oh Lady of the Motorola Employee Credit Union, bless this thy fifteen dollars of change with the counting, so that I mayst have mine holy bills for the purchasing of food and beverage without annoyance." And the Lady did smirk and with exasperation moaned "Thou must put'st thy change in rolls!" In obeisance, the Saint TsuKata realized this was a test from her almighty Lady, and thus bowed and became penitent. "But my Lady, I have no rolls for the change as thou hast requested." And thus, the Lady did garner rolls for her change and gave them to TsuKata thusly. And thusly, the Saint did go to her desk and place the change within the rolls as specified, and as she had ten dollars in quarters, all was well, but as she only had $1.30 in nickels and $3.70 in dimes, her rolls were partially filled. And the Saint TsuKata didst mark the rolls with the amounts contained within, and returned to the most holy Motorola Employee Credit Union.
But a quest can never be too simple, nay, nor too easy for the plot then will be found lacking and the writing, being naughty in the sight of the Critics, shall snuff it. And thus did the Lady of the Motorola Employee Credit Union shriek again at the poor bewildered TsuKata, and she didst say "Thou canst not make partial rolls!" And TsuKata did whimper "But thou didst tell me to put the almighty change in thy holy rolls for the counting!" And the Lady, accepting this logic, took the rolls and handed them back to the supplicant and told her to unroll them. And the Lady didst then count the change manually, as the Lady should have most righteously done in the first place. And upon finishing the counting of the nickels and the dimes, the Lady then accused the supplicant of shorting the quarter roll at which point the supplicant lost patience (being only human) and spake thusly "Yes! Yes! You found me out! I am a Engineer who makes her riches by stealing quarters from banks through fradulent quarter rolls!" And the Lady did chide the supplicant for being snippity as she handed her the fifteen dollars. And thus, the battle was won, the dragon vanquished, and the bills blessed.
In other news...I have set out the wards around my cube so that no one may enter. That being what happens when my socks get wet and I have to hang them to dry.
And finally, Joe-bi-wan would like for me to share with you his own story of bathroom horror, not too much unlike my own story of having my bum wettened by an aberrant toilet flushing mechanism that was not made for people of heights at or below five feet. And so speaketh Joe: "The auto urinal flush started while I was debarking and started spraying water on my shoes, eww. But for fear of moving while the zipper was being operated I had to stand there and take the water haha" Heh. :)
I have to wait until December?!?!?!?!?
How evil. Saw the Two Towers trailer tonight. Aragorn's still not king. Legolas is still na anvayna, and Gandalf is luminescent. Overall, I must say...sweeeet. :) And on second viewing, I gotta say that if Aragorn always opened doors like he opens those double doors...mmm...yummy. ::drool:: And when he looks all determined and king-like... ::drool:: Okay, I have to go to bed. Right now!
Sunday, April 07, 2002
Even Blogger knows what time it is!!!!
Ackum. Here I was thinking I was sleeping in until the reasonable hour of 10:30, when I was really sleeping in until 11:30. Time bites. Stupid time.
Pandas Everywhere (again)
So I used Panda Antivirus on my system, and then I got on Panda Egg and played Go for awhile. If y'all want to see how badly I suck ass at this game right now, check this out: go-20020406.ugf (right click on the link and click "save target as..."; you'll need a UGF reader to view it...PandaEgg rules!). And guess what? Ryan got a kitty. :) He's so cute. His name is junior. :) wanna see him? well, you can't. :) Ha ha ha. Okay, well, maybe I'll let you see a little bit. :)
Isn't he cute???? And guess what else? I got to go to the range with Joe today! Yay! I got to fire a Russian SKS for most of the day, and then an M1 Garand. Want to see pictures? I knew you would! ;-) So I made a page for you, because I rule like that. :)
TK's Day at the Range!
Check it out. I totally rule. I'd take a picture of my targets for you, but they're still in Joe's car. Suffice it to say I could definitely take out an evildoer at 100meters with an SKS. :) I totally need to get myself a rifle so I can go up to the range and practice more though. I do okay, but I could be alot better. But first, I have to satisfy Illinois' doofy Firearm Owner ID qualifications, which means I have to arrange to have a picture of myself that is a certain size that is *not* passport photo size (because that would be easy). The photo is the hard part. Joe's going to take some of me at various distances so we can get one the right size.
Editor's Note: Okay, I had to re-post this puppy because blogger was being weird and sticking it in the future area rather than the current area, and it wouldn't let me fix it.
Friday, April 05, 2002
It seems to me that maybe pretty much always means no
Song of today: Flake, by Jack Johnson (lyrics).
And now, your moment of zen...
And more survey whoring...
Commonly known as SexGod!Draco, you are usually bisexual. You are horny as hell, and gorgeous as heaven, and you take advantage of both of these things to have sex with ten different people in one chapter of one fic. You are cheerful and very open about your lust. It is rare that a threatening Voldemort-type plotline will come into your story. And...did I say you were horny?
Find out which Draco you are.
And with that, I'm headed for a long, hot, steamy bubbly happy bath. :) Anyone care to join me? ;-)
Thursday, April 04, 2002
URLs, the other white meat...
This is friggin' awesome...new technology rules. I'm such a sucker for it. Was telling a friend the other night that if I won the lottery that I would probably end up blowing most of it on gadgetry. :) And this is this great art site where all the art has to be 250x250 pixels. Itty bitty art! :)
Also a Survey Whore
If Cassie Claire jumps off a bridge, apparently, I jump too. ;-) And I so love the drawing on her HP journal (the blood brothers scene from Draco Dormiens ...my favorite scene, too. :) And that made me go over to Sidhe's live journal so I could look at her other art...particularly like the drawing of the heirs. Ooh...getting all squidgey over Draco again...cold blooded piece of toast that he is. :) Anyways, here's my survey results. I don't know about being constantly center of attention...maybe. What do y'all think?
Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amazing, practical, and always interesting.
someone who is constantly the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head.
They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding,
someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.
nosce te ipsum
I managed to oversleep this morning. I haven't done that in awhile. Well, I mean, I haven't *accidentally* overslept in awhile. I sleep past when I mean to all the time, but it's intentional...I hit snooze, I reset the alarm, whatever. This morning, at some point I must have hit the OFF button rather than the SNOOZE button, which is pretty darned difficult considering that the off button is hard to reach and the snooze is a giant bar on the front. For some reason, after the point around 7:30am when I hit snooze, and went back to a dream I wanted to finish (something about deposits and chocolate chips and gambling and underwear and demons), something told the alarm clock not to go off anymore, and the next thing I know, it's 9:30am. Oh well. So much for getting a good parking space at work. ;-) And now I'm here and I'm trying to decide what to have for breakfast. Probably apple juice. Dunno. Gosh, that tempura was good last night. I mean, it wasn't the best tempura I've had, but it was good because it was tempura. :) Oh, and in other news, I won again at Go last night. Finally beat Roger at it...granted I had a 5 stone handicap on a 9x9 board, but still...what had been driving me crazy was that I knew I could do it if I just applied myself. ;-) Well, I said that jokingly but seriously...half the time I don't even really try at stuff like that...I get experimental, I get careless, I get too aggressive, whatever. It's like...I will always do better on a real test than a practice test, or in a competition rather than just playing for fun. ::shrug:: Just part of my nature. Thanks to the advice of someone nifty, I've been realizing that there are alot of things that I do that are just part of my nature, and I shouldn't be upset over them or let other people upset me because of them. It doesn't change that I'm constantly trying to be niftier, but it does change how I go about doing it. One of the writing exercises that I did once was to write your own self-portrait...describe yourself as if you were outlining a character. It's interesting to see what you emphasize and what you don't...like there were some people in my writing class whose first lines went into physical description, and there were some people who never included a physical description at all. Anyways, once I install the new HD, and install Framemaker at home...I think I'll make that my first writing exercise. After the pervy stories, of course. :)
I still think I could make money off of nakedtechsupport.com :)
Wednesday, April 03, 2002
Cheese Fetishes
Okay, so we're all sitting in the Rat...we being the crew: Sam, Andrew, Paul, Ryan, and me. Jon may have been there too...not sure. And the Rat being the little pub in the basement of the student center at Tulane. And we're watching the Daily Show, which is what we always did over lunchtime in the Rat, at least until they replaced the ever-awesome Craig Kilborn with Jon Stewart. During a commercial break, there's an advertisement from the dairy farmers of America for "the real cheese"...and they show all these pictures of cheeses, including one of a hunk of parmesan crumbling. Ryan, being his usual self, says "You know, that's not really a very *attractive* cheese. They could have picked other more attractive cheeses to use." And Paul and I crack up laughing...Paul's like "Since when did cheese become attractive?" And thus began the legend of Ryan's Cheese Fetish.
But don't be disheartened...Dilbert's a cheese fetishist too. A couple of years after this incident, I came across this cartoon:
(No copyright infringement is intended by this reproduction of Scott Adams' awesome work. Dilbert cartoons can be viewed at dilbert.com.
Be excellent to each other...
...and party on, dude! :)
Sorry, just had to channel Bill & Ted for a second. It has so far been an absolutely amazing day. I mean heck, it started somewhere around midnight with me winning a game of Go for the first time (granted, they hadn't played as much as I have, so it really wasn't a fair victory...I did refer them to some resources for learning the game when I got done, and I didn't jump around going woohoo! like I wanted to, 'cause I'm nicer than that...really.), and it pretty much only got better from there. And it's only 11am. Wild how that happens sometimes. Anyways, I'm totally bouncy today, so I have to say that the song of the day is "Perfect Day" by Hoku. Need to put that one on a CD and bring it into work with me. Plus, I'm going to have Japanese food tonight, and I'm going to play more Go, and, um...yeah, things pretty much rule right now. :) Oh yeah, and I found out yesterday that we are getting raises...yay. :) They may not be much, but they are in existence at least. Oh and a box of LotR boosters is waiting for me at Games Plus (Scott rules), and my new hard drive should arrive on either Friday or Monday (which means I will either spend part of this weekend or next weekend setting it up with a fresh copy of 98se, and either way, I'll spend part of this weekend downloading drivers and burning them all to a CD). Oh and Walgreens had a sale on Arizona Tea, so I have a fridge full of Green Tea. :) Good thing because I've been v. lazy and haven't made any iced tea since I returned from Florida. Considering I normally go through about 2-3 quarts of iced tea a day, that means that I've been consuming alot of soda and other substitutes instead of tea. Much prefer tea.
Tuesday, April 02, 2002
WARNING! This blog may be addictive!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar02/31536.asp
An upcoming case against Sony Online Entertainment may force the creators of games to post a label on game boxes warning that games may be addictive. This article in particular delves into the ever-popular EverCrack.
Do I even need to explain how stupid this is? *Life* is addictive. So's oxygen. And water. And Coca-cola, for pete's sake. And coffee. Are we so dumb that we need to start labelling those too? Grr.
And by the way, the song of the day is "Let the River Run" by Carly Simon (from the Working Girl: Original Soundtrack Album).
Whose browser is it anyways?
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=main&id=3756
If you thought web sites had a strangle hold on your browser as it is, with pop-ups, intrusive DHTML ads floating across the window while you're trying to read the news and enough cookies baked to feed a starving elementary school for a week, standby; you ain't seen nothin' yet. New software available to web developers will not only impede on the content, but it will actually replace other elements of your browser, such as buttons, menus and toolbar backgrounds. Expectedly, the developer tries to pass it off as trying to help the surfer by providing more useful content, but they must really think we're stupid. The Weather Channel is apparently on the cusp of introducing such behavior, so we'll see how bad this really is soon enough.
Content of this blog entry is quoted from LockerGnome's Tech Specialist newsletter, edited by Randy Nieland.
