Weekend Update

So, yeah, I've been slacking. Shame on me. Actually, I haven't been slacking in the traditional "sitting around doing nothing"-sense of the word, or even in the less-traditional "wasting 14 hours a day within the fictional confines of a digitally represented world"-sense of the word. I've been busy with odds and ends, among those work (sort of a necessity for paying bills and eating) and house hunting (I actually have a real estate agent now). I've also had the basic components of a rudimentary social life (somewhat like vestigial gills that function but seem out of place on my species). I've been spending a lot of time working on my grandpa's project (11 pages down, I have no idea how many to go). So I haven't been entirely slacking. :P

I was sad to see the Olympics end, but I think it was a good presentation this year (and despite uncertainty about their preparedness, the Greeks managed to actually run an Olympics without running to Wal-Mart for extra plastic sheeting and duct tape). Did anyone see the women's hurdles? I watched the Canadian runner, heavily favored, wipe out on the first hurdle and take the Russian runner with her. The Russian runner was pissed (and I would be, too, if I trained for 4 years and then I was knocked out of the race in the first 6 seconds because the person next to me fell down and crashed into me). Ouch. I also saw some absolutely phenomenal gymnastics routines. Now I can sit back and wait for the figure skating . . .

Oh, and if you haven't seen "Hero" (the new Jet Li movie) yet, go do so now. Go on. Trust me. It's just gorgeous. :)

I Just Made a Watch List Somewhere . . .

I was stopped by a security guard at the Village Pointe Mall tonight (which is a collection of buildings connected by a quaint sidewalk of fountains and torches; not an indoor mall). I was taking some pictures at the time (outside) when the security guard approached me, asked me to put the camera away and informed me that photography was not allowed. He then went into an uninspired, obviously memorized speech about how terrorists often take pictures of buildings before an attack and he couldn't be sure I wasn't a terrorist, etc. It was very unconvincing; I was especially unimpressed with the "wink-wink-nudge-nudge we both know how dangerous terrorists are and we all have to do out part" bit. Using terrorism as a "reason" for prohibiting photography may make certain segments of the public feel safe, but it doesn't do a thing to stop terrorism. Another factor to consider is that, although they owned the sidewalk on which I was standing and could legally prohibit photography on their property, if I stepped off their sidewalk onto a public sidewalk I could legally take all the pictures I wanted. That's less feasible with an indoor mall, which you can't see from a public sidewalk, but this was an outdoor collection of buildings. So their "prohibition" is easily skirted. The point remains, though, that prohibiting photography for "terrorism" reasons infringes freedom without actually providing any benefit.

Mystery Solved! News at 11!

Thanks to some help with lyrics and the magic of the Internet (and a little boost from iTunes), the unknown song that's been haunting me (and a couple of other people) has been revealed! Behold! "Somebody," by Bonnie McKee. She even gives the .mp3 away on her site.

Seen in a Document


"We get all kinds of weird calls. People don't talk real good English."

-a witness complaining about the English spoken by a Chinese immigrant

Labels: proofreading

The Noise in my Head

I've heard a new song I like on the radio twice now, and both times I made a mental note to look it up in iTunes when I got home. The first time I made a note of the lyrics, and the second time I actually heard the artist's name (and thought "Oh, yeah, that will be easy to remember."). And guess what. I have no recollection of the lyrics or the artist's name. Gah! So if you know what song I'm talking about, tell me. ;)

Weekend Update

It's almost Tuesday, but you're going to have to live with a weekend update. Live with it. :P I worked 8 hours on Saturday (depositions for discrimination lawsuits; bleh), which pretty much killed the day. All of my friends were clubbing/sick/awol at the time I got off work, so they missed out on spending quality time with me (or they escaped the drudgery of an evening with me; take your pick).

On Sunday I did two loads of laundry, had dinner at Timberlodge with Lisa Marie and watched a bit of Olympics. I spent about 4 hours scanning old WWII photos of my grandpa's into my computer, although I started over after I did the first 20 because I discovered that if I change the scanning settings from 150 dpi to 600 dpi, I ended up with pictures of just phenomenal detail (even from little 2"x3" pictures). Unfortunately, my scanner started making funny noises by the end of the 4 hours. I'm thinking it didn't like scanning at maximum resolution for 4 hours with no breaks. All told, I scanned about 60 pictures. It took me longer than I'd planned and I didn't get to bed until almost an hour and a half past my bedtime. Oops.

On the way to work today I spotted no fewer than three cars with personalized plates: "LIKAROK," which I'm assuming is a reference to the make of the truck (Chevy) and not an indicator of some odd salivation directed at the Republic of Korea; "DRTH MOM" on an SUV, which was amusing; and one that said "AREOLA" that seemed rather odd. Those are in addition to "TIME LRD," which I saw last week on a Cadillac driven by a gentleman in his fifties (Jeff is sure he's an old Dr. Who fan from the sixties).

Today was my grandmother's birthday, too. Happy Birthday, Grandma. :)

Gold Medals and Graphic Design

Quick post before I crash (I'm up an hour past my bedtime . . .). For those of you who missed the women's all-around gymnastic competition tonight, shame on you. Congratulations to Carly Patterson on winning the event (the second American woman to do it, after Mary Lou Retton). She was my favorite in this year's competitions, so I was glad to see her win.

I'm up late because I just spent the last 2 hours working on a picture of my grandfather's WWII infantry regiment (which was taken sixty years ago and is in pretty rough shape). This is the original scanned image. This is the "healed" version. It's still not perfect, but it's better than it was. I'm probably going to crop the image to cut out the discolorations and creases at the top and sides. What do you think?

This and That

Little tidbits here and there today. The annoyances seem to rise to the top, sort of like oil floating in a cup of water. I had a slight disagreement with the human resources department at my company this week. Or rather, they dictated some terms that have irritated me (I don't really have any say in it). I had my lack of faith in humanity reaffirmed during a trip to McDonald's, where outside we saw a woman cheering on her son as he threw garbage out the window of a car and inside I watched a completely unenthused employee drop not one, not two, but seven empty ice cream cones while trying to fill the dispenser and then casually throw them away (along with the three cups she dropped). And the squirrel finally succeeded in breaking one of my bird feeders. :P

In the middle of the cup, hovering in a layer of density just below apathy, or at least near "polite disinterest," is the electronic time sheet training I had at work today. Say goodbye to your paper time sheets. Say hello to another program that half the building isn't going to be able to use for the next 6 months. We were also quite busy at work today (I did Deltaview comparisons on 36 documents tonight, which isn't going to mean anything except to Lisa and Gary, but it sounds impressive . . .).

Sunk to the bottom of the cup, like the chocolate nugget nestled in the tip of a Drumstick, are the fun things from the day. I wore the infamous white shirt from last week and prevailed in my quest not to spill soup on it again. I watched three hours of the Olympics tonight and got to see Paul Hamm win the gold in the men's all-around gymnastics competition after falling down on the vault (his final event was near-perfect, which put him in first place, although he was certainly "helped" by the fact that every other competitor there screwed something up, too; it was like some sort of cursed gymnasium). Mull reminded me that Myst 4 is coming out next month (yay!). That's all I can think of at the moment. I guess it's not quite as exciting as the chocolate nugget. Maybe I'll get a Drumstick tomorrow . . .

Amazement With a Half-Twist

I've lost track of how many hours of Olympics I've watched, but I'd say it's in the thirties or forties, anyway. I watched the men's gymnastics team competition two nights ago and I felt so bad for this poor Romanian guy. The Romanian team was in the lead and all he needed was a decent score on the high bar to keep them in the lead and win the gold. And he fell off the bar entirely (and landed flat on his back on the mat). Then, to add insult to injury, after knowing he just cost his team the medal, he had to get up off the mat and start over (talk about a confidence shaker). He'll be thinking of that for the next 10 years. The Romanians ended up getting third.

I watched the women's gymnastics team competition last night (or the "women's medley" or something like that) and found myself completely amazed. I was watching the balance beam competition and I saw a Russian competitor start to do a back handspring on the beam, then twist in mid-air so that by the time her hands hit she was facing the opposite direction (it happened so fast I thought at first I'd imagined it). Then I saw one of the American competitors do almost the same thing, except instead of a back handspring she did a complete backflip, twisting in mid-air to land facing the opposite direction. Holy cow. Defy gravity much?

The commentators also paused briefly on one of the coaches whose name sounded really familiar, even though I didn't recognize her. I had to go look her up on the Internet, and it turns out she was my favorite Olympic gymnast when I was in high school. I'd forgotten all about it. She's my age, so she looks a little different than she did 12 years ago. Ah, memories.

Weekend Update

The weekend went by too fast, although it was an enjoyable "too fast" rather than an unpleasant one, so complaints will be kept to a minimum. I had company to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games, and I've been very dutifully following said games on NBC and its affiliate channels (I think I've watched 14 hours so far, although I watch it at my computer, so it's not like I'm sitting raptly, eyes glued to the TV screen). The opening ceremonies were very cool, between the sweeping vistas of Greece and the history of the ancient Olympics in parade format (as well as the always-colorful parade of nations). My only complaint was the music NBC chose as its "inspiring" accompaniment during its lead-in from commercials. Rather than compose original music, NBC recycled music from a variety of movies (and there is no doubt that those pieces are very inspiring; they won awards for a reason). But I identify the themes to "Braveheart" and "Jurassic Park" with, well, "Braveheart" and "Jurassic Park." I felt the music was out of place and would have been better served with original pieces. Other than that, though, NBC has done a good job of covering the Olympics. I've watched large chunks of the volleyball and swimming events and even a smattering of lesser-known events (rowing, cycling), and, of course, my personal favorite, gymnastics (I really should have been a gymnast). I enjoy the "Olympic spirit," the "coming together" of nations, something on which the world can focus that doesn't involve tragedy. I guess I'm an idealist. :)

In between Olympic viewing I've been out and about. Lisa Marie introduced me to the new Village Pointe shopping center (we stopped for ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery) on Saturday night.

On Sunday Lane and I picked up our boarding passes for a voyage on the Titanic exhibit at the Omaha Children's Museum. We both enjoyed the exhibit (which had a large collection of artifacts from the Titanic itself, as well as recreations of some of the rooms and video from the submarines that have explored it). We received mock "boarding passes" with the names of real passengers from the Titanic's voyage, and Lane was amused that she got to be a first-class passenger, while I was relegated to second-class (ironically, I was a preacher). The exhibit was packed, but it was still a lot of fun. Photography was not allowed inside the exhibit, so the next picture jumps to our visit to Delice for desert (Lane had a double-dipped chocolate strawberry; I opted for the chocolate peanut-butter cup). After that we wandered around the Old Market for awhile, making stops at the Zodiac Garden and the Antiquarium before playing hide-and-seek around her house for half-an-hour. Much fun was had.

Oh, yeah, and there was some laundry in there, somewhere. And a birthday call to my sister. And some Neverwinter Nights. Now I'm ready for a vacation. :)

Happy Birthday, Linde!

Everyone wish my cute, charming, happy, friendly, sometimes-slightly-annoyed, fun-to-tease elder-younger sister a happy 25th birthday. :) (I gave her a book I think she'll enjoy. My brother had my other sister pick up a gift certificate . . . I'd encourage suitable cyber-chastisement, but I'm giving him a pass this month due to his abdominal unfortunateness.)

Labels: birthdays

*cough* *hack*

Okay, I'm neither coughing nor hacking. I have been sick, though. I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday napping on the couch (or playing video games; shame on me). I called in sick for, hrm, let's see, the second time ever (and the first time was the day after I had my first seizure and didn't know why I couldn't move). My supervisor, after I told her I needed a sick day, said "That's great! Well, not that you're sick. That you're using up some of your vacation time." Anyway, so I'm still not at 100%, but I did make it to work today (where everyone told me to go home; I know they're concerned about me). Tea and soup. Baby steps.

I didn't do much during the two days I was out. Lots of napping. I get 63-some-odd channels and still couldn't find much to watch, so I finished up the main campaign of Neverwinter Nights and bought the two expansion packs (with which I have yet to be impressed; I want to keep using my old character, dammit). I also bought some plastic tubs for my birdseed (to help prevent thieves that leave the cracked sunflower seed shells lying around). I pretty much ignored everyone. I owe a couple of people e-mails. I chatted with my brother for about 40 minutes on Tuesday (he was on the couch, too, although his is from his appendectomy). He had surgery last week and still went boating over the weekend (he bought a new boat; he couldn't get in the water, but they let him drive). Apparently my dad pulled a hamstring in the process of water skiing, so I don't know who is doing the work now. I hear anecdotally that my brother's girlfriend was ready for him to be discharged (something about nurses flirting with him or somesuch). My brother did say to thank everyone for the well wishes.

I did get a couple of packages while I was home (one advantage to being home, I guess). I got a Sarah McLachlan promotional poster I bought on a whim (and I have no place to put it, so I guess it's going into storage until I get a house). I also got a Riven dagger plaque I won off eBay last week. Unfortunately, I got stung on this one (that's sting number four out of 159 auctions, so I guess that's not bad). The plaque isn't nearly as cool as it is in the picture (it's made out of styrofoam instead of plaster, the way it looks in the pictures), and one of the corners is broken. I don't want to jump to conclusions or lay blame, but I do find it interesting to note that one of the four corners doesn't appear in the picture online (the picture is at an angle and one of the corners is cut off), and coincidentally that's the corner that's broken. The auction is very explicit about not giving refunds and not being responsible for damage (unless you buy shipping insurance, which no one ever does), so I guess I'm stuck with it (maybe I can round off the corner and repaint it). That was kind of a bummer. (Don't let this scare you away from eBay, mom. This was a rare occurrence.)

I made myself go to work today. I even shaved (for the first time in three days). My ironing board cover was annoying me today (it was hanging down farther on one side), so genius me decided to take the cover off and realign it while the iron is heating up and I'm getting ready for work. Some advice to the audience. Do not take the cover off an ironing board. Gah! Once the cover was off I couldn't get the cover back on without moving the foam pad underneath, just enough that everything lined up wrong. I finally got out the tape and taped the foam pad down, then put the cover back on, then removed the tape. The final result? Ten minutes of frustration later, the cover is in exactly the same place it was before. I'll live with it.

Work has been slow (in contrast to last night, when the department got buried while I was away). The big excitement of the night came when I managed to splash a sizeable amount of the vegetable soup Lisa so kindly picked up for me onto the front of my white shirt and down my pants (I was trying to break a cracker apart inside the bowl; let's just say that putting pressure on things inside a soup bowl is probably not a good idea). And when I say "splashed," I'm talking about from my right shoulder all the way down to mid-thigh. So my not-so-white work shirt is soaking in a container in the kitchen and I'm wearing my gym shirt (a very stylish grey Spider-Man t-shirt my mom gave me for Christmas last year), which goes very well with my khakis. So it's been a fun day all around.

Tomorrow is Friday, which usually is a good day anyway, but this Friday should be an even better Friday. On top of my Stargate episodes, tomorrow evening is the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games (and I'm a big Olympic Games fan). I need to plot out the schedules for the gymnastics and fencing competitions. Yay!

The View From the Window

I took some pictures yesterday (I know, I know, I can hear you saying "Jay? Take pictures? No way!" But I did. Really.), mostly of the sky. There was a neat cloud bank rolling in early in the evening, although it was too low to the horizon for me to get any good shots. I was also up way too late again (shame on me), but it afforded me the opportunity to take some pretty shots of the sunrise against the clouds. Enjoy.

There's also a video of a squirrel who has figured out how to get to my birdfeeders (I guess it was only a matter of time). I wouldn't be quite so annoyed except that part of the squirrel's plan involves jumping into my impatiens. :P Poor flowers. If it continues I'll have to move the birdfeeder or the impatiens (or both).

What a Weekend for a Fair

The Garden County Fair, that is, an even of great magnitude and importance within the domain of my home county. My hometown paper had much to say about it, including articles on my father's company finishing construction on one of the buildings and my youngest sister guest announcing at the fair. I haven't actually been to the fair in over a decade, so I really don't know what it's like anymore. But I'm sure it's a good time for all.

Building a Better Mousetrap

I finally caught the thief that was raiding my birdseed bags (or one of the thieves, anyway; I'll reset the trap and see if I catch another). Yes, it's still alive. I use live traps and release them at a nearby park. I don't like killing things. Go ahead, make fun of me.

Ouch, Updated

My brother is out of the hospital and home sleeping on the couch. No complications. In fact, he thinks he's going boating this weekend. I hear second-hand that he complained about the liquid diet so much while he was in the hospital that the nurses broke down and let his girlfriend go buy him a sandwich from Arby's. I wanted to send him flowers (or a cute, fuzzy-wuzzy little stuffed animal), but my mom vetoed it. She said a card would be fine. My coworkers suggested beer.

Hi From the Zoo!

Picture courtesy of Lisa.

Ouch

My brother has appendicitis. He came through surgery fine and is recovering. Everyone wish him well.

Storm Off the Port Bow

We had a lovely little storm on Tuesday evening (right around the time I was due to go pick up food, of course). Flash flood warnings, tornado watches, downed trees, water pooling on the street. We lost part of the network at work, which made finishing projects a lot of fun. Wednesday morning (or what passes as Wednesday morning for me) illuminated the debris-strewn remains of the storm (no downed trees in my area; just a lot of broken branches). I heard that power was still out in parts of the area as of Wednesday afternoon. (This was all caused, of course, because one of my coworkers just bought a new car. I'm sure of it.) I thought that Wednesday was going to be a repeat based on the pretty grey sky, but it turned out to be a nice day.

Elven-eyed Lane spotted a bat hanging out in the parking garage yesterday. Go Lane.

Weekend Update

Hi. How are you doing? Did you miss me?

Things are finally settling back down and I can make my first real blog post in a blue moon (actually, the blue moon was last month, but I'm close). I've been slightly busier than usual for the last week. My sensationally peachy mother rode down to Omaha with some of my other relatives on a spur-of-the-moment trip and stayed with me most of the week. It was a nice layer-cake of a visit, filled with alternating strata of shopping and eating (and shopping and eating). Did I mention the shopping and eating?

The shopping was a Mission: Impossible-style quest for sales, due to the limited trunk space my mother had available (riding with two other people in a sedan is something of a contrast, in terms of cubic space, with driving your own Durango). We looked exclusively for the "80% off" racks and the "Buy One Get One Free" tables, and actually didn't do too bad. My mom came away with some curtains and other sundry items for my brother's new house, and a set of pans from a Younker's 12-Hour Sale that seemed to be the trophy. I didn't buy much, except for $30 worth of Halloween decorations at Gordman's (I love Halloween!) and a new kind of tea (since I can't have my grapefruit tea anymore). My mom had me pick out some shirts that I've conveniently "forgotten" about (until I get them for Christmas). ;) I've forgotten, mom. Really.

We made the tour of Omaha's restaurants, stopping for repast at Olive Garden (my uncle's treat), Panera Bread, Chili's, La Mesa and Applebee's, among others. Lisa Marie joined us at Applebee's, where she and my mother discussed people they knew in common (very few of whom I knew) while I stewed about the fact that Applebee's dropped my favorite item from the menu (gah!). We had lots of leftovers.

We saw "The Terminal" on Thursday afternoon, which was very good (slightly long, but still very good). I'm used to showing up on Saturday afternoon or evening and waiting in line for 15 minutes before walking to a semi-packed-to-packed theater, and based on this experience I slightly overestimated our required time buffer. So we sat in a theater all by ourselves at 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon for almost half an hour before 4 more people showed up and the movie started . . .

It was a good visit. I got caught up with family news and spent some quality time with my mom. This week it's back to work. It's been busy so far. I think I need a week off to recharge . . .

Excuses, Excuses

New post coming tomorrow. Promise. I need some sleep right now.