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Wednesday, January 31
The Write Stuff
According to Yahoo, copywriters are one of the top five jobs in demand in 2007, especially those who can integrate Web content. Who does that sound like? ;) Unfortunately I'm guessing their "starting salary of $63,000" applies primarily to larger metropolitan areas. Something to keep an eye on (or "on which to keep an eye," depending on your formality preference). Labels: amusement
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Tuesday, January 30
On Safari
Courtesy of Lisa, a live glimpse of Africa (a web cam set up at a watering hole). Enjoy the sights and sounds minus the bugs. :) Labels: amusement
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Monday, January 29
From the Playbook
At cocktail parties, it may be easy to open with the weather conditions or appetizer quality, but anytime men--strangers or friends--are grouped together, men turn to sports. It's the universal language that men can use until they find other common ground. Besides the fact that we spend so much time watching them, sports also acts as our way to bond with other guys--without having to worry about differences in culture, education, or careers. Sports is a way for naturally aggressive, instinctively protective men to soften each other up--using LeBron, Duke, and the point spread on the Bears/Colts game. That probably helps explain why I have few straight male friends. I tend to find sports meaningless and largely uninteresting, compounded by the irrationality involved in picking a team at random and then passionately arguing about its merits. Of course, the fact that the majority of the population does it likely means it activates my nonconformist gene, which means if the majority of the population switches to reading Shakespeare I might have an interesting dilemma. Labels: social commentary
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Sunday, January 28
New Toys
I spent most of the weekend with Lane and the twins. Lane is adoring the new iMac (which is essentially her own tv in her bedroom, although, alas, after the move it will be in the study/library/computer room instead). I was the big hero of the weekend due to my procurement of Blue's Clues plushies; the twins ask for that show by name, or some approximation thereof missing the "L" sounds, so it seemed appropriate. They carried the plushies around both days I was there, so I'd say they were warmly accepted. I nearly filled up my memory card with video. After editing and compressing, I narrowed it down to a select few. The "large" and "small" ones are the same video; select your size based on your bandwidth and patience. The Blue's Clues video is the grand unveiling of the plushies (and I'm even in it, *gasp*). The Happy Dance shows off Kyle's enthusiasm. Lane and the Twins is touching (although I'm sure Lane will give me the Eyes of Death(tm) the next time she sees me). The next one documents Kyle's new love affair with the orange (she'll eat two whole ones by herself if you let her). Finally, the last one showcases Kyle's new favorite phrase. Technically it's her first multi-word complete sentence, but I'm pretty sure she thinks "wherediditgo?" is all one word so I'm not sure it counts. But it's still very cute. :) Labels: lane, photography, twins
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Friday, January 26
Happy Birthday!
To the Admiral, who is most likely working out of town and won't receive my card for awhile. Labels: birthdays, family
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Thursday, January 25
Fire and Glass
I snapped some pictures of a sunset reflection from my office this afternoon. Enjoy. Labels: photography
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I Sense a Great Disturbance
(1) I received the new non-credit catalog from the local community college yesterday. It offers a three-hour class on how to use Google . . . (2) On my way to work today I heard a version of "Play That Funky Music." By the Chipmunks. With the word "chipmunk" replacing the words "white boy" throughout. I'm waiting for number 3. Labels: amusement, miscellany
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Tuesday, January 23
Tuesday Tidings
New on the buffet, pictures from the capitol building in Lincoln. We also have a preview of an upcoming episode of "Blue's Clues" (entitled "Blue finds the third clue and discovers the Necronomicon buried in the backyard . . ."). "Blue's Clues" is Kyle's new favorite show (she'll look longingly at the tv and say "Coos coos?"), so I bought the twins some plushies from the show. Lisa vetoed giving them a plush Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep. (The shoggoths are kind of cute, though. Maybe I can sneak one of those in.) This is one of the chairs that has been sitting outside my office for the last week (a candidate for replacement chairs for the secretaries, I think). I've never seen a chair that reminds me of lingerie before. And finally, courtesy of Lane, proof that America is destined to fall from its superpower status. In the words of Lane, Oh. My. God.Labels: cthulhu, funny, miscellany, photography, twins
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Saturday, January 20
*click*
I finally cleaned up some photos. Go me. :) Recent photos from the zoo. A hodgepodge of photos from the Omaha Botanical Garden, a series of macro shots of the frost that formed on my kitchen window during the incredibly cold snap (pretty fractals!) and some macros of a metal grille. Let me know what you think. Labels: photography
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Friday, January 19
Aural Activism
I broke down and bought a Nickelback song on iTunes yesterday. Not so much because I like Nickelback, but because I liked the song itself. The video is reminiscent of my favorite Sarah video, which still makes me teary when I watch it. Oh, look, my humanist tendencies are showing again. Labels: humanism, music
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Thursday, January 18
That Is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie
I chanced across an article on Wikipedia about a strange acoustical phenomenon recorded by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the summer of 1997 and never identified. It matches the sound patterns of an organic source (rather than mechanical or tectonic) and is vaguely similar to a blue whale, but given the tonal range and the distance it traveled would have to be produced by an animal much larger than any known species. The NOAA put sound files of it up on their Web site and chalked it up to an unsolved mystery since the sounds never repeated after that summer. The Wikipedia page, however, notes that the origin of the sound is uncannily and eerily close to the coordinates that H.P. Lovecraft set as the location of the fictional city of R'lyeh, the underwater resting place of Cthulhu. The real-time clip of it on this site is very creepy. Labels: cthulhu
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Tuesday, January 16
All Work and No Play
As I'm sure my mother has noticed, I've been lax about updating here in the last week. Not to fear, all is well. We've had some snow, and now some bitter cold. I spent about a day suffering from what I'm assuming is mild food poisoning (that's one of those "wow, I'm tempted to just curl up and die" maladies), but I seem to have passed through it sometime during the night last night (which meant I could actually eat this morning for the first time in 32 hours). I've taken some photos lately, but I haven't downloaded them yet (soon, I hope). I'm thinking of buying a snowblower (shoveling sucks). I'm jealous that Lane made it to the Apple Store in Omaha before I did (and the fact that I haven't heard from her in several days has nothing, I'm sure, to do with the fact that she found a copy of Neverwinter Nights for the Mac there . . .). I hope everyone else is well. Labels: miscellany
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Friday, January 12
Happy Birthday!
To the Redneck Ninja(tm), who turns 24 today. :) Labels: family, jeff
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Thursday, January 11
Letters From Home
It's a been a long week, although not due to any particular mishaps. Just good old-fashioned "lots of work" and "miscellaneous items." I was chastised by my car place for not checking my oil more often. I watched 15 minutes of "All in the Family" for the first time (due to sharing the waiting room with an older couple who was there first), which gave way to me hearing certain pejorative terms on a scripted television show for the first time (I'm shocked they can still replay those episodes). I was nearly in an accident tonight because of the brilliant driver who turned the wrong way onto my one-way street, panicked and tried to pull a U-turn across four lanes of traffic. Two of my siblings, independent of each other, asked me to help them find new computers today. I bought a 5-lb. bag of frozen mangoes at Sam's Club for smoothies. We're supposed to get a foot of snow and highs in the low teens over the weekend. Labels: miscellany
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Tuesday, January 9
Audio Visual Technician
I finally finished editing and uploading the remaining pictures from my Christmas trip. Of note, I had my dad commissioned as an honorary admiral by the governor's office for his birthday. I also compiled a video of the twins from last weekend. (If you have a high-speed connection and feel like waiting, you can download the higher-res version, but be warned it's 30mb.) If you watch all the way to the end you get to see Kyle's happy dance. Labels: family, holiday, twins
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Monday, January 8
News Fit To Print
My hometown paper noted my introduction in the last edition's weekly foray into the archives. Directly next to it on the same page was a really disturbing ad. I'm not sure "fleshing" was ever meant to be used as a verb outside Hellraiser movies . . . Labels: amusement, me
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Saturday, January 6
Bits and Pieces
A grand gathering of friends helped me mourn my 30th birthday this evening. Thanks to everyone for showing up. :) My mom sent me a link to this site, which has pictures from the fantastic ice storm that crippled some of the counties in central Nebraska last week. I drove that route just a few days earlier, so I'm glad I missed it (although the pictures would have been cool). From Cris comes random Star Wars humor. :) Labels: amusement, friends, miscellany
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Friday, January 5
Trophy Hunting
I think my brother needs one of these. ;) Labels: family
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Thursday, January 4
How Not To Buy Furniture
I'm sure I'll receive flak for buying furniture at Wal-Mart. I know, I know. But I like the style and even though it's cheap it will last until I can afford nicer furniture. Now, on with the show. 9:30 p.m.: Borrow Lisa's Jeep with a promise to return it by the time she gets off work at 11 p.m. 9:50 p.m.: Arrive at the biggest Wal-Mart in the area. Discover they're not even carrying that line of furniture anymore. 10:15 p.m.: Arrive at the next closest Wal-Mart. Note that you now have 45 minutes and you're all the way across town. 10:20 p.m.: Discover this Wal-Mart has all the pieces except the desk. Ask the guy at the electronics counter for help buying four pieces (including a dresser). Listen to him page for help. 10:30 p.m.: Ask him to page again. 10:35 p.m.: Decide to skip it because you're running out of time, but note that the dresser is on sale and decide to buy that piece without help. Retrieve a shopping cart. Buy the dresser and a nightstand. 10:40 p.m.: Decide since you've already purchased two pieces to make a second trip for the other two. Wait an extra three minutes because the checker closes the cash drawer without giving you your change, necessitating a call for a manager. 10:45 p.m.: Get challenged by two different Wal-Mart employees on your way out because they're suspicious that they've just seen you leave with a similar shopping cart of items (sure, *now* you notice me). Not only produce the receipt to the somewhat hostile second one, but spend a minute explaining why you're making a second trip. ("Well, you see, it's like this. You guys are incompetent.") 11:03 p.m.: Arrive back at the firm to give Lisa her Jeep, still full of furniture. Follower her back to her house so you can "re-borrow" the Jeep. 11:30 p.m.: Arrive at a *third* Wal-Mart. Find the desk (and, in fact, all of the other pieces; I should have just gone there first). Buy the desk. 11:50 p.m.: Arrive home. Realize some of the pieces are *really* heavy. Manage to unload everything by yourself. 12:30 a.m.: Return Lisa's Jeep. Retrieve your car. 1 a.m.: Arrive home. Finally eat supper. All of the pieces are still in boxes in the basement, and are likely to remain so for awhile. Since they're "engineered wood" (read: wood fibers and glue, aka cheap furniture), they offgas formaldehyde, which is not only toxic but also permeates your clothing. I've read you can seal them with a good sealant to encapsulate the gasses, but to do that I need some nice weather so I can lay all the pieces outside to dry. Labels: annoyance, house
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Wednesday, January 3
Hearing Voices
Pat Robertson has predicted some sort of mass killing in the U.S. in 2007, passing on the latest word he has received from God. He also noted that he has "a relatively good track record" and only "sometimes" misses (such as predicting a tsunami hitting the coast of the U.S. in 2006). Here's the problem. If you're getting your info directly from God, and you're *still* not hitting 100%, either you're not really listening to God or he's messing with you. I'm not sure which I would prefer. Labels: religion and atheism
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Happy Anniversary!
To my immediate ancestors, who celebrate their 31st today. Hope it's a good one, mom and dad. :) Labels: family
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Tuesday, January 2
Would You Like Fries With That?
I caught the last half of " Supersize Me" on MSNBC the other night in some sort of half-sleep fog, but apparently that was enough on a conscious or subconscious level; my grocery cart last night contained apples, bananas, 100% juice, V8, dried mangoes, frozen berries and frozen broccoli. Now if only I could maintain that level of diet all the time . . . On a related note, I was eating dinner with Kyle on my lap last night and she was reaching for the fries (she's not allowed to have fries or soda, only bites of the chicken sandwich); when I leaned forward to slide them away she lunged like a cobra, grabbed a fry and had it in her mouth before I realized she'd done it (in fact I still wasn't sure she'd done it until I saw her chewing). That's the fastest I've seen her move. But she chased it down with yogurt, so I don't think one fry is going to hurt her. Labels: social commentary
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Friendly Banter
Presented for your entertainment, an exchange from Wal-Mart tonight: Checker (guy in his twenties): "So how about this snow, huh?" Me: "Yeah. But it's supposed to be back up to 50 by Thursday." Checker: "I didn't watch the forecast on Monday and I was supposed to go pick someone up. Obviously that didn't happen. They weren't very happy." Me: "That's too bad. But you can't control the weather." Checker: "Then she was like 'This is a sign we're not supposed to be together!' Hippie." Me: . . . Checker: "So, foam or gel?" Me: "What?" Checker: "For shaving." Me: "Um, you just rang up the replacement cleaning cartridges for my electric razor." Checker: "Yeah. I tried one of those once. It made my entire neck red." Me: "That's too bad. Have a good night." Checker: "Have a good day!" Labels: amusement
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Monday, January 1
Happy New Year!
(Nudity warning) Hope it was fantastic. You're expecting more here, I know. Eh, maybe next year. ;) Labels: holiday
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