Brief updates
- 08:14 Parking a block farther from the office building to make myself get more walking in. #
- 08:44 We are role-playing a flame war on a discussion forum. “I cast Straw Man!” “I cast Ad Hominem!” #
- 09:15 Three-week-old kitten having breakfast: tinyurl.com/6grpcq #
- 12:34 “Keep Track Of Equipment” poster has picture of Space Shuttle Main Engines. Are we misplacing those often? #
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Getting the hang of Tuesday
Rough start to the day.
Didn’t sleep well – under-hydrated, I think. 200 spam messages from last night in my inbox: the Russian spammers are trying some new tricks. I can’t even read most of the e-mails. More idiots driving 45 in the passing lane, then shifting right and doing 70 in the slow lane; and to top it off, my morning podcast glitched out halfway into the drive.
On the other hand, I was greeted again this morning by friendly ducks on the way out to my car. Last night was great, with pizza and WoW provided by Starr and a remarkably clean apartment she’d spent her “lazy day” scrubbing. And this morning I heard that my longtime partner-in-crime Tom Monaghan, one of the few Starfleeters to hold officer posts on USS Heimdal, Pathfinder, McKay, Yeager, and Ma’at, signed his first fiction book contract! Awesome!
So karma balances, and if the rain lets up at all I’ll get some more walking in today. Into the fray!
Go to 110% on the reactor
Some of the interesting points of the weekend…
Friday night I got to see Carbon Leaf! Or hear them, at least… outdoor concerts are fine until the sky clouds over, the sun goes down, and it’s suddenly 50 degrees. I was huddled under a blanket for most of their set.
Saturday night I played Star Munchkin in a dark, smoky coffeehouse with three complete strangers until 2 am. For some reason, this strikes me as the opening to the all-geek version of “Faust”.
Sunday our friend Laura was with me on the way to pick Rain up for lunch when we happened upon a nasty two-SUV accident that had happened seconds before. Laura has some medical training and hopped right out to see if there was any useful first aid she could supply, while I made myself useful by calling 911. Response arrived within seconds it seemed, and while we can’t say for sure, it looks like everyone escaped with treatable minor injuries, even the three whose vehicle rolled a few times.
And, this morning I’ve done my King Kong impression again by climbing up on a building’s roof to mess with the antennas. I need to get a doctor’s note excusing me from that, or something.
Hup, 2, 3, 4
Today I have:
Climbed to the roof of our building to help check a wi-fi link (I am not doing that again, I had no idea the last part would be a 30′ foot wall-mounted ladder. I don’t like heights and I don’t need to break the remaining organic bits of my left leg. They can find someone else next time.) Climbed back down.
Walked 4 blocks to the boss man’s loft to check the other end of the link, then back.
Walked 4 blocks to the local mall for lunch (I ran out of frozen stuff to microwave and eat at my desk), then back.
Headed up and down 3 flights of stairs all day servicing machines.
Walked 4 blocks to the boss man’s loft to re-install the hardware we uninstalled the first time.
Walked 5 blocks to the bank from there.
Walked 4 blocks back to work.
Much more of this and I won’t miss the gym membership I left back in Roanoke. At least it’s only 85 and breezy out, as opposed to yesterday’s 103 degrees.
Bowling for Chocobos
Dug out the sketchpad Wednesday night, and worked on that character some more.
There’s an Eddie Izzard joke where he drops into the role of the young Hitler in painting class, muttering to himself, “I can’t get this tree to look right… wait… dammit… fine! I’ll just have to kill everybody!”
That gives you an idea of how well the drawing was going.
Saturday night was a birthday party at the bowling alley for one of Rain’s work friends. I knew a bunch of people there from her work, including the one guy who begged off and just played Final Fantasy Tactics all evening. I bowled well… which is not to say I got a high score, but that I actually hit pins most of the time and got the rare spare and strike. Next time we go for ourselves, I think we’re putting the bumpers up. We had them for one game because of a youngster’s presence, and the score sheet’s a lot less embarrassing when there’s no gutter balls.
Back to the gym today, finally. (The holidays played hell with our gym schedule.) I was hoping the new mini iPod would be a lot cheaper, because it’d make an excellent gym companion, but no joy.
In the last week, I’ve read Diane Duane, Frank Herbert, Tom Clancy, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke, among others. That, and madwriter‘s posts have reawakened my writing urge. We’ll see if it goes anywhere… the nice thing about 15 years of abandoned projects is that I have a lot of source material to mine 🙂
Playing Catch-up Today
Much too long since I’ve posted anything of substance here. I need to slow down my life a bit, take the time to catch a breath and write about what’s in my head… that was one of the big things I’d planned to do with the Newton, and I’m not taking the opportunities I might with it.
This weekend I played the first game of Dungeons & Dragons that I’ve played in what I think is 20 years. Kinda funny, too, since (due to slightly confused, over-experienced players and GM) at any given moment a roll might be decided by a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd edition rule; and, since most of the players knew more about Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies than they did about D&D, we tended to be playing our elves and dwarves Tolkien-style instead of TSR-style. I had a good time though, and the other people in the group seemed to also.
Last weekend I raised my heart rate by playing Laser Tag in an arena in Salem with raininva, rhaps, and shrewlet. We wanted to play against each other, but ended up on the same team with about 8 kids against about 12 other kids. My laser tag gun was doing terribly at range, so after a while I hunkered down and ambushed the opposition repeatedly until they learned what I was up to… then I moved to the other end of the field and kept doing it. Still, I wasn’t that happy with the game until we got out; then the scoring computer reported that I was the top scorer for both teams. Rhaps was heard to remark, “Old age and treachery over youth and vigor, every time.” 🙂
I’ve found an exercise machine at the gym that gives me natural movements (protecting my Borg hip) while giving me a real workout. Three-quarters of a mile in 10 minutes burns about 130 calories; I’m down to 188 pounds now. Now if some of what remains will just move to more asthetic locations… on the other hand, a girl in a passing car shouted that I had a “nice ass, there” yesterday, so I suppose I’m not doing too badly.
Shrewlet and I are going to DC this weekend to spend time with a good friend. I only wish I had time to drop in on some of the VTSFFC people I know up there!
Demoralizing
I was feeling really good about the 17 miles I’ve walked this month, until I looked up a reference in the Atlas of Middle-Earth.
In one month’s travel from Bag End to Rivendell, Frodo & Co. walked 450 miles!!!
Okay, they walked all day everyday, and were motivated by Black Riders on their tail. But still… I’m not quite so proud of myself.
ouchie
First time we went to the gym, I walked a mile, felt fine, was pretty proud of myself.
Second time (today), I walked two miles to prove to myself I could. Now my feet hurt and I’m sore all over. However, the massaging foot bath I bought Rain helped with the first bit, and ibuprofen will knock out the second, so I’m still pretty proud of myself.
Gonna stay at two miles until I’m comfy with it, though. I can’t wait until I can do five comfortably.
Notes from a weekend
Rain and I finally joined a gym. I think that the benefits of the place, for me, are 1) an air-conditioned, level track to do laps on and 2) a whirlpool jacuzzis to relax in afterwards. I might look into some of the classes too, but thanks to my Borg parts I need to avoid unnaturally repetitive motion and shocks to my hip. So a lot of the exercise equipment is out, and I probably won’t be doing jump-rope or step aerobics. 🙂 That’s okay; the only things I’m really looking for right now are more stamina for walking / hiking and a smaller waistband.
Went ahead and got “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” this weekend. Pretty game… would probably look better if I had the processor and video card that the game lists as “minimum requirements”. That’s okay, proper frame-rate is for the weak and helpless *grin*
Got a lot done on a “Star Wars” opening for Sean and Leisa’s wedding video this weekend. I think they’ll plotz when they see it. Hopefully, I can finish it tonight so we can get back to the actual editing, though I’ve already captured all the footage to hard drive, so a major chunk is already done. Thank you, meiran, for forcing us to finally get that big HD. 🙂
I always expect my list of digital media (games, CDs, DVDs) I’m saving for to be huge… but this weekend I compiled my list of books I’ve been meaning to get. It’s ugly, over a hundred dollars, and that’s just for the top six books… the posthumous Douglas Adams, an illustrated book on gnomes that I loved as a kid, a book on Cold War espionage equipment, and more. Great Ghu, I love to read.
The earliest appointment I can make to get my car inspected is Wednesday at 4:00 pm. The good news is, I’ll be off work by that time. The bad news is, I hope I don’t get pulled over for a expired May sticker today or tomorrow…
