How about a li'l update from Adman?

Not a whole lot of news to report. Work for me is a little busier these days as a huge project is coming to a close. I popped into work on both Saturday and Sunday for a few hours total, which thankfully is rare. I got some good work done, though, which was good.

Friday night, we were invited to hang out with Norm and Teri, but I'm finding that by the time Friday night rolls around, especially after last week, I'm usually pretty wiped out (and I think Diana definitely is). I feel bad turning down the invitation (sorry Norm), but a night of vegitation and early bedtimes was just what the doctor ordered.

Saturday, I headed to work in the morning, and to my parents house for lunch, and back to work while Diana got her hairs cut. That evening we tried to reestablish contact with Norm and Teri, but as they were busy, called up Old Faithful Iwan for a trip up to Oceans 11 for some poker. That was really fun. We sat at a table with generally nice people, a couple maniacs who were giving away money, and no real jackasses. Sometimes you can find yourself next to someone who really is annoying or rude and it can be a not-fun experience, but everyone was pretty well behaved.

My biggest hand of the night was a K-high flush (made on the turn) against one of the maniacs. Won a nice big pot on that one. I like making flushes on the turn. Makes the river so much more pleasant, usually.

My favorite hand was my K-3 suited. I was in late position, and limped in (which was a mistake, but sometimes after winning a few pots I'll see almost anything). The flop totally missed me. I think A, Q, x. The first guy to act threw in his cards. The dealer reminded him he could check, so he took them back. The second guy (a real yard-sale) did the same thing… mucked his cards, but then grabbed them back and checked. I quick but $1, just on principle. The next guy called, and the first two folded (so it's now heads up). The turn came a J, I think. I have no flush draw and no pair with an ace on the board. But I was sort of mentally committed to my bluff, so I bet $2, and was slowly called. River came a blank, and I bet again. The guy looked at me while I stared into the middle. He thought for a long time, and showed me his pocket 6s (which was a terrible hand, given all the overcards on the board!) and folded. I told him he made a good fold with all the high cards out there, but neglected to tell him that he had me beat the whole way. Good stuff.

Anyhoo, we played until 11:45pm or so. I ended up +$26. Diana was +$34, and Iwan was down a little bit. Good times all around.

Sunday, I watched the Chargers win (woo hoo!) and watched my Fantasy Football team lose by just a few points. Stupid Mike Vick. He might not be on the Birdmen for very much longer. Headed back into work for a few more hours while Diana hung out with her parents. That evening, we watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" or whatever the damn hell it's called. It was a pretty decent movie, but I don't think I liked it as much as some. But I'm glad I saw it.

And that's about that.

So.

I have a secondary computer set up, which is about 10 feet away from my network hub. I have a couple of 7 foot network cables, so when needed, I can move the hub and computer a little closer and get it connected, but it's sort of messy. I figured They must sell some sort of female-female coupler that one could use to attach two network cables together to create a single, long cable.

We stopped into CompUSA, and I told the guy what I needed. He walked me over to the right spot, found the little doohickey, and handed it to me. I saw the price just as he said it out loud: "They're eight bucks." He even sounded a little surprised by it.

Eight bucks?! I know that's not a lot in the general scope of computer parts, but the thing is just a tiny piece of plastic with basically a phone-jack on either end. Probably costs less than a cent to produce. And they charge $8. So, we checked out the cables to see if just buying a longer cable was cheaper. $24 for a 15' cable. Unbe-freaking-lievable.

Came home, got online, and bought the coupler off eBay for $1 + $1.50 shipping. Even that is highway robbery, but still. Checked network cable prices on newegg.com, and found 14' of cable for $3 or $4. 50' was $7. 100' for $13.

I'm simply NOT going to CompUSA again. Maybe for games, but those are generally pretty standard priced. But enough is enough.

So, what's the news?

Friday night, Diana and I went out to dinner with Iwan and Sara at a new'ish sushi place near our pad, and I had some of THE BEST sushi rolls I've ever had. Seriously very delicious. I was fired up, and I don't usually get fired up over good food.

Over the weekend, we were able to get a good bit of work down around the house, including cleaning up the garage a bit, so that we can fit a car in there again. Good stuff.

My fantasy football boys whooped up, which is nice, since I'm sort of a perennial "underdog" and "bad coach". Hopefully my luck will continue. The Chargers also won, which was great. I don't have high expectations, but maybe they can keep up the good work. The do seem to be firing on all cylinders, which is great.

Work has been busy with a lot of stuff that's too hard to explain here. It's not too bad, but there's just a bit of a press which there usually isn't. Nothing to complain about, though, relatively speaking.

I bought Half Life 2 and Counterstrike:Source (CS using the new HL2 engine). The latter I can start playing right away, and the former I'll be able to play as soon as it comes out. CS:S is pretty sweet. It's more of the same, but the same is good stuff, so no complaints.

We've been on a little bit of a Star Wars kick at our house. I watched Episode II over the past two nights, and we started Episode IV last night. What a great movie that is. I really can't wait to see Episode III, as I'm really hoping it fills in the gaps and begins to look more like the Star Wars we're all used to. I really can't help but wonder exactly how much of Eps I, II, and III Lucas had in mind when he worked on IV, V, and VI.

Anyhoo, not much to report, but there you have it.

At work today, I balanced two nickles on my desk, end to end.

My workboy took a picture:

I don't know why, but I've been in a great mood all day.

Work is going pretty well. I've been put in charge of a pretty important side-project that's going pretty well.

In addition, I was called into my boss's office today, along with my supervisor and project lead, which was really scary. My first thought was that I'd done something seriously wrong, even though I had no idea what it was. Turns out there is a contracting company that is having a really hard time with their stuff, and needed a "perl expert" to help 'em out. And they wanted me. Rawk. I met with the guy, and they needed like the easiest perl script ever. He told me about the requirements, and asked how long it would take (because he needed to report back at an official meeting). I said "unofficially, this will take about 20 minutes. Offically, give me until the end of the day." He thought this was the coolest ever. I think I really saved his butt.

I wrote the script (in 20 minutes, thank you), and handed it over, and we tested it. When it worked, he got a HUGE smile on his face and said "Yes! Now we're cookin' with GAS!" I made a mental note to remember this phrase and use it more often. Anyways, it felt really good.

I got my ass handed to me in chess again. We set up a chess ladder at work, with the worst players on top and best at the bottom, so I'm getting fading fast as the good guys below me rise up. But it's fun.

Tonight, Diana brought home my most favorite clam chowder ever, and we watched "Spellbound", which I thought would be better, but was still fun to watch.

And there was my day.

*UPDATE*

I just went in to the bedroom, and Diana was watching a show on plastic surgery on the Oxygen network (basic cable). They were showing the "after" pictures. I was expecting the typical blurred out bits, but they were showing the whole thing. Full breastal nudity, right there on my TV, and I didn't even have to pay for it. What a day. :)

Friday was the first day of the big Breast Cancer 3-day walk here in San Diego. I had a couple co-workers walking in it, and the walk when right by our building, so a big group of us went down to cheer them on as they passed. We ended up heading down there about half an hour before our walkers showed up, but we cheered for all the walkers as they came by. It was a really neat thing. It was a tiny thing to clap for people as they walked by, but everyone was so geniunely happy and thankful that we were there. So that was really nice. I'm pretty sure that we, the spectators, were the real heros that day.

Friday night, Diana and I headed over to the ol' high school football game. It was a lot of fun. I loved going to football games when I was in high school, but I barely remember actually watching any of the games themselves. Diana gave her students a point of extra credit on their homework (which is basically nothing) if they came up and said hi to her at the game. A few did, and we even saw one or two literally walking around, scanning the crowd looking for her. It was only after a couple students came running up excitedly that I realized what a clever plan it was. Some seed of an idea of "seeing their teacher is a positive experience that you should look forward to" is now planted in their heads, and I don't think the importance of that could be overestimated. Clever girl.

Saturday, we took my parents to the airport, and then did a little shopping. I'm dismayed at how few stores interest me at UTC. EBGames barely has any PC games anymore. No bookstores. No Gamekeeper/WotC. Not even a Radio Shack. That place is pretty much cut, as far as I'm concerned.

We finished watching Eryn's "Freaks and Geeks" DVDs this weekend. What a great show. I throroughly enjoyed every episode, and am pretty bummed it was cancelled. We also rented "Spellbound", and "Searching for Bobby Fischer", the latter of which we watched with Diana's parents Sunday evening (haven't watched "Spellbound" yet). SfBF was a really good movie. Kinda cheeseball, but I liked it a lot. The main kid (character, not actor) in the movie, Josh Waitzkin, is the guy who teaches via Chessmaster 10 (he does substantial dictated, animated, annotated lessons in the game), so it was neat to see it from that perspective as well.

My Fantasy Football boys won over the undefeated Brown Trout. I was down by just a couple points going into the Monday Night Football game, and had Baltimore defense. No problem, I figured, but then KC started scoring tons of points, and I was getting no defensive points at all. I was completely saved by a punt return for a touchdown, which I didn't realize at the time counted for my defense (it's a non-standard setting, I believe). So, it was a squeeker.

Last night, I had a workboy softball game, where we played a team that has been undefeated for the past two seasons. They beat some other team in our league something like 40-4. They are a bunch of 30+ folks, all of whom, you can tell, were ex-highschool or college baseball and softball players. The women on the team were better than our boys, and their boys were really good. Basically, one of those teams that just has no business playing in a B-league, for-fun softball league.

Which leads me to this. I like to think that I'm not a quitter. But I also believe in choosing your battles, which implies quitting. In spite of what others might think, I really don't mind losing. I really don't. But I've got better things to do then run after softballs while watching the other round the bases at will. That's just not fun. So, our team struggled through it, and really the game ended when the other team decided to stop playing seriously. It really left me kind of bummed. I left a nice warm house and cozy wife on the sofa for this?! Bleah. I'm interested in your comments on situations like this…