So, Diana and I have been pretty busy these last couple days!

Wednesday night, we went to the ol' Del Mar Fair. We walked through some of the high school art exhibits. Saw people selling stuff. Walked through the fun zone. There was an actual carnie wearing an actual eye patch. I said to Diana "Dude, that guy's wearing an eyepatch!" Apparently he heard me, 'cause when she looked, she said he was looking right at us. Oops. Oh well. I figure if your a carnie and you wear an eyepatch, you have to be used to this sort of thing. We ate food (neglected to try the deep fried Twinkies), and we gave some love to the piggies and moocows.

On Thursday, I had a half day from work (thank you Mr. B!) Diana picked me up and we went down to the "minis" course and shot some golf. That's a frusterating course, but it's golf. We then headed down to Ikea and bought some furniture. (Side note, anytime I say "furniture", the lyrics from Eminem get in my head about Pam and Tommy burstin' in the door and throwing her over furniture. Go fig.) Anyhoo, we really wanted a high corner bookshelf for the living room. We saw something we liked online, and went and bought it. Then some dinner at Pizza Nova. By that time, we were pretty tuckered out.

Yesterday was the 4th of July. In the morning, we put together said bookshelves. They actually turned out pretty nice, and Diana and I actually put them together as a team without any fighting at all! Not that we fight often (or ever, really), but the two activities that probably bring forth the most arguments between couples are canoeing and building furniture. We were pretty pleased with the results. Then Iwan and Baditude came over with their respective girliefriends. We BBQ'd and hung out and bonded, which was really nice. Then down to see the fireworks, which I was quite pleased with this year. Last year, I remember, they just sort of petered out and the whole crowd was left standing there, wondering if they were actually done or not. This year there was quite a finale, and applause afterwards. Yay fireworks.

Today, we've been pulling out lots of dead shit from the yard. The kind of plants we have have a thin layer of green on top of about a foot of dead stuff underneat. So we've been thinning and pulling out all that stuff as much as we can. I can only take so much of it before quitting. Diana's quite a trooper, though, and is much better at it than I am. This afternoon, we've got some golf plans with Iwan at Lake San Marcos, which will be fun. Maybe I'll bring my camera and snap some shots!

One of my favorite parts of my job is when there is a problem. If it's a serious enough problem, anyone who knows anything about the system where the problem is drops what they're doing and does nothing but try to figure out what the problem is. It's really quite a bit like detective work, in that there are clues and puzzle pieces that can be put together can lead an intrepid sleuth to the answer. As a byproduct of lots of people working on the same problem (both together and seperately), it sort of turns into a race. The winner (in the case of yesterday and this morning, me) is rewarded with the satisfaction of solving the problem, being cleverer (or luckier) than other people working on the problem, and having his boss look him straight in the face and say "Great job!" Aaaaaand, it's the time of the year where we're supposed to brag about ourselves for our self-evaluations. Yay.

In other news. I was going to take a shower last night, and Diana told me she had noticed that water was leaking into the shower from around the shower head where it connects to the wall. Which means that there must have been a leak or drip or something inside the wall. I gently put some pressure on the 8" bent pipe that comes out of the wall (that the showerhead is attatched to), and it broke off in my hand. I looked in the hole in the wall, and could see the end of the pipe still threaded into the socket of the main pipes in the wall. I guess it got corroded enough and really weak and started leaking. I'm horrified to think how much water has leaked into that wall for the past however many years.

Anyways, we placed a call into our home insurance place, and they're going to send out a plumber to take a look. I'm really concerned about the general state of our plumbing. We already had one hot-water valve break on us. I can think of two more off the top of my head that are really sticky and hard to turn. I'm also really concerned about plumbers. The last two that we had out wanted to tear down the wall or charge huge amounts of money to replace a broken valve which I replaced myself for $30. DUMB!

When a young lady refers to her girlfriend, how am I supposed to know if if it's just a friend of hers, or a Girlfriend?! Enquiring minds want to know!

So. I killed a bird today. :(

This morning Diana and I woke up early to a crow somewhere pretty closeby caw'ing every so often. But it wasn't a normal caw. It had a little more of a shriek to it. But that happened a couple times, and then stopped.

A little later, Diana went outside to say hi to the neighborhood cat (which seems to come by on Sunday mornings to visit), and found the crow. It was just outside our bedroom door, and in bad shape. It was clearly aware, but it was sort of on its back, and ants were already going for it. The cat Diana was playing with was completely oblivious to it, which was a little weird. I got some gloves and inspected the damage. It's right wing was either broken or paralyzed, and it's right foot was floppy. Ants were gathering for the kill, and we decided the poor little guy wouldn't survive, and should be put out of it's misery. I put it in a trashbag and gently smashed it with a shovel a couple of times. Pool little guy. I feel bad, and can't help but wonder if we could have nursed the thing back to health or something (and then it would be my friend, and hop after me to work and stuff). But I doubt it would have lived, and that we did the right thing. Bummer.

Speaking of bummers, I've caught the cold that Diana had a couple days ago. I feel kind of crappy, but Diana only felt bad for a day, and I'm expecting the same, so whatever.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Diana and I met up with Norm and Teri and played golf at Lake San Marcos Executive. That's a fun little course. Challenging enough for me, but forgiving on the beginners of the group. Everyone actually golfed really well, and a good time was had by all. Afterwards, we went to Teri's parents beach house and met up with another friend of Norm's and his perspective girlfriend. We had some dinner and made a bonfire and had a grand old time.

Today, I've postponed by yardwork plans for a later date, and have been lazing around watching TV. "Back to the Future" was on, and it made me nostalgic for movies of the 80's. Movies today seem so much more about hype and special effects than actually telling an actually fun, interesting story. I'm sure there are examples, but I'm too weary to think about it much more right now. Our furniture for the living shows up sometime today, which is exciting. Diana's parents are also showing up sometime today for some hanging out and birthday celebrating, which will be fun.

"Bendy" and "pointy" are definitely in my top 5 list of favorite words.

Water, water, everywhere...

So. A little emergency. Luckily, nothing too serious. I got home to Diana
welcoming me with a handful of towels on her way to the guest bathroom.
Apparently she was cleaning in the other room, and turned off the water in
there, and heard something from the guest bathroom. Water was spraying out
of the metal tube that feeds water into the toilet (so, clean water,
thankfully). Since this is old had for experienced home-owners like
ourselves, she knew exactly where the water shut-off valve was, and was
mopping up the floor. It didn't look like it was too much water, and didn't
get the carpet wet or anything.

Anyways, we got that all dried up, and I checked out the damage. The little
bendy pipe that feeds water into the toilet had come loose. The cap that is
supposed to hold the thing tight against the toilet had broken, and it had
(probably as the household water pressure rose and fell) dislodged and was
spraying willy-nilly. Quick trip to Home Depot (thank you TrendWest for the
free gift certificates... (suckers!)) and it's good as new.

In a potentially related water problem: when we turn off the hot water in
our shower, the pipes make kind of a clunking, rattling sound for a second.
I read a little about "water hammer" (you have to know the cool terms if
you're ever going to be a home repair guy like me) online. It's pretty rad.
Water doesn't compress, so when you turn off water really quickly, it all
kind of backs up onto itself really suddenly, and creates a shockwave that
travels through the pipes. From a website: "These shockwaves travel faster
than the speed of sound and can exert very great instantaneous pressures".
Neat! So, if you're taking a shower in our shower, please turn off the hot
water slowly!

Swingers

Diana and I rented "Swingers" from our friend Baditude, and watched it
tonight. I really love that movie. I can honestly say that I don't think
I've ever seen a more realistic portrayal of a group of guy friends in a movie.
I'm not saying that I've gone through all the experiences those boys did
exactly (the hockey playing, though is frighteningly familiar), but it
certainly resonates with my own experiences with my own boys, past and
present. I know this isn't really the point of the movie, but that's what I
like most about it.

Dishes, then bed. G'night.

PS: Diana eats cake from a teacup, and I love it.

Woot!

I just got some serious programming done, and I love it. I love the feeling of just getting so into a project that time flies by and the rest of the world doesn't exist for those couple hours. And I love that doing Windows widgets are so much easier than they use to be. So, I'm pumped. What fun!

Diana got in bed to study, and ended up falling asleep without saying goodnight or anything. If I didn't have to pee, I could have been in here for hours!

So, off to bed for now. More later.

Weekend in review...

Well, this weekend was the big bachelor party extravaganza. Well, not really. But it was a great weekend fill with good times and good friends. Let's see.

Friday night we went to see the Hulk. I've got pretty mixed feelings about the movie. I really liked the style and presentation, but the story wasn't all that intriguing, and just turned sort of silly in the end. I more and more can't stand movie theaters. People seem to think now that it's ok to talk full-voiced to their buddies, or make comments on every little detail. Or feel it's sufficient that if their baby is crying, they can just stand in the back of the theater rather than leaving altogether. Frusterating. Anyhoo, after the movie, we went back to Baditude's pad and played some Munchkin, which was really fun.

Saturday, some of the boys went mountain biking. I went to my companies summer picnic, which was sort of bland. We got some lunch, hung around with some people, and left. I met up with the boys, and we all headed down to a computer gaming center and played some 3 on 3 Counterstrike. That was a lot of fun, in spite of the monitors having a 60 Hz refresh rate. The flickering really is bothersome to me, and that kind of flickering can cause migraines in some people, so I'm scared of it. It turned out not to be a problem for me, however some people complained of headaches later that night. Anyways, the gaming was fun, and everyone did pretty well, n00bs and l33t alike.

After the gaming, we headed out for dinner, then to a bar for a drink or two to kill some time. We played foosball and pool. And then to the ol' DJ spinoff. I was hoping for something a little more dynamic, but it was still fun. Basically, each DJ got about 15 minutes of doing their thing before the next guy got up. None of us are dancers, and it was too loud to talk, so we mostly just sat their and listened to the music and people-watched. Then back to Baditudes, then home to bed.

Sunday, we all kind of slept late, and met up around noon and eventually headed down to the beach. It was somewhat cloudy, but a little sun poked through. More solid hangout time, which was really nice. Then back to Baditudes for round two of Munchkin, and home.

I got home with a good bit of missing Diana, so hopefully we can get in some quality time this week. We've got some movies to watch and are thinking of going to the fair and so forth, so that will be good.

So that was my weekend. And now I'm starting to feel a cold coming on. :P

So, the next weekend of fun begins.

A friend is flying down from San Francisco for a bachelor party weekend. We're going out to dinner and seeing the Hulk and hanging out tonight. Tomorrow, people are going mountain biking, then gaming of some sort (LAN center or Lazertag), then to dinner and a DJ competition downtown. That should be a blast. Then Sunday, to the beach or other chill spot for some relaxing. I can't wait.

Last night Diana and I used up some gift certificates to Vigiluci's (spelling?) that she got as a tip for being such a great teacher. It was really good food, and we had a really nice time.

Not a lot of news. Work is going well. Diana's busy with school and teaching. I played some golf with Iwan on Torrey Pines South, and scored pretty well (for me). I got a bogey-par-par on three consecutive holes, so I'm happy with that. The rest weren't as good, but not too bad either.

Oops! The weekend is starting already!

This weekend was pretty good.

Friday, Diana and I went to a high school graduation party for one of her students. I had no idea what to expect. It turns out there were really only like two or three actual high school students there, and then a lot of friends and family. It was nice to meet people I'd heard a lot about, and probably for them to meet me.

Saturday, we did a little more furniture shopping. We found a big sofa at Lazy Boy (or however it's spelled) that we both like a lot. We have mostly the same taste, but definitely some individual desires, and I'm pretty pleased that we found one that we're both happy with. So we just need to pick a fabric (we're pretty close, I think), and order the puppy! After that, we golfed at a mini course with Norm and Teri, which was fun. Diana's getting a lot better with her lessons. That night, pooped from golfing, we just hung out and watched "Old School" with Iwan.

Fathers Day was Sunday. Diana and I went out with my parents to the park for a picnic lunch, and then saw a play, which was pretty good. Nice to spend some quality time with the fam. At least one son is. (Zing! :)

Work has been keeping me hopping lately, which is good. I had some downtime, but now things are picking up. I still find time to play foos, though. BUT, I've instituted a "no foos before noon" rule. That was a last resort before medication and physical restraining devices.

Last night while falling asleep I had a GREAT (well, I think so) idea for a play-by-email game. Actually coming up with an idea is easy. Actually finding the time and creating the game is the hard part, so don't get your hopes up yet. But I'm pretty excited about this. (It's obviously a secret for now).

That's about all for now.

Cellphone Manifesto.

Here's what I want:

I want a cellphone, but with these conditions. I want a cellphone that has full duplex communication, so that I can speak AND listen at the same time. I can't stand when both parties try to talk, and both phones cut out. I want one that is small and sleek. I don't need games. I don't need the internet. I don't need annoying fucking ringtones. I do need to store other peoples phone numbers. And I need vibrate mode.

I want a good cellphone plan. I don't want ANY monthly fee. I don't want to pay for minutes that I don't use. Instead, I want to pay ONLY for minutes that I DO use. I don't want a two-year commitment with substantial penalties for cancelling early. I don't need nationwide coverage. I don't need free long distance.

Maybe I'm living in a dreamworld, but that's what I want.

TrendWest

So. We just got back from our second TrendWest presentation. This is a timeshare company that bribes you to coming to hear their presentation with a free trip along with gift certificates and whatnot. Their hope is, of course, that you sign up for their product, which is a snazzy sounding timeshare deal. We saw a short group presentation, and a short film, and then talk individually with a salesperson who gives you all the info and tries to wrangle you in.

We went last year. We promised ourselves that we wouldn't sign up for anything, but we also wanted to keep an open mind. I won't speak for Diana, but I actually did keep an open mind, and by the end of the presentation, it really does sound like a good deal on the surface. You pay a one-time fee, and for that fee, you get 12,000 "credits". You get 12,000 credits every year, and they roll over for up to four years. You then use these credits to make reservations at vacation spots all over the world. You can also buy more credits for cheap, and you can sell them, will them to survivors, etc. Sounds almost like unlimited money.

Last year, what really turned us off to the idea was that we NEEDED to sign up that day. No time to think about it. No taking home papers and pouring over a cost analysis. The choices were to put down thousands of dollars on the spot (or sign up for a financing plan), or get the hell out. And they made us feel bad for saying no. Like we'd personally dissapointed them.

We ended up getting a gift certificate to the Cheesecake factory (where we went right afterwards), and a trip to Vegas which expired just a couple days ago. We really wanted to go, but just never got around to planning the trip (maybe if we had this timeshare thing, we wouldn't have had that problem! oh!)

Anyways, fast forward to two hours ago. Diana picks me up from work, and we show up. Sit through the presentation with a perky guy telling fun stories about how great it is to be a TrendWest owner and trying to get the crowd involved. Then watch a silly movie that I spaced out in during the whole time. Then we met with our sales lady, who actually was pretty nice (at first). She did a little survey, asking us about our vacation habits and what we like to do, etc.

She also noted that we'd been there before, and I think asked why we didn't sign up before. In any case, we were given the opportunity to explain that we are NOT impluse buyers. We simply do not conduct business like that on a conversation. We might be interested if we were given all the information on paper, so that we could run some cost analysis on it. She said something to the effec that they do NOT do pressure sales there, and she apoligized for whoever was helping is before. I was shocked (and said so) that she said that. The whole point of there operation is you NEED to sign up that moment. And they use bullshit tactics to make you feel personally guilty if you don't sign up. And that's not "pressure" sales? Anyways, about the need to sign up on the spot... she gave some bullshit answer about real estate deals and for some reason it HAS to be signed up for THAT day (regardless, apparently, of the fact that they run the operation all f'ing year and twice on weekends). Anyways, she could see that we weren't so hot on the idea, but we were obligated to stay there for another 15 minutes or so. She ran through the options and benefits which I half listened to, nodding when appropriate and answering her questions however she wanted.

The time came when she described the credits. Credits are $1.55 each, and you buy 12,000 of them. But you get 12,000 each year automatically for no extra charge (but there is a yearly "maintenance fee" of a couple hundred dollars). When given the opportunity, I asked why there was this abstraction between dollars and credits? Why aren't things just described in dollar amounts? She said she couldn't really answer that, but that lots of other timeshare places are converting to this sort of "credit" system.

Then I had a real stroke of brilliance. If you HAVE to sign up that day, and they don't let you take paperwork home with you, maybe we could have some paperwork so that NEXT YEAR when they call us back in, we'd have a more informed decision for them? This didn't go over so well. They simply do not give you the information in writing until you sign up. "But you're given three days to back out, if you wish." She also said that all this information is on the internet, and that I had a *whole year* to do the research, and basically I'm a sucker for not coming prepared. But she stilll flat out refused to give me any marketing materials.

So, we didn't sign up, obviously. She said "well folks, here we are..." in a this-is-the-big-moment sort of way. I said "You're a very nice person..." (which she seemed to be). She kind of was exasperated and said stuff basically like "well, if you're going to pass up an opportunity like this, I guess there's nothing I can do." I said, honestly, but with a smile "Don't take it personally, we just don't do business like this." to which she responded "I do take it personally." Oh for fucks sake, lady. Gimme a break.

She said thanks for coming, and we said thanks for the gifts. I thought that was our cue to leave, so turned and headed away. Apparently she stuck out her hand to shake mine, but I swear I didn't see it. Diana said I fully snubbed her, which I feel bad about (I don't feel bad about saying no, but rejecting a handshake is just rude). But I honestly didn't know. Anyways, Diana shook her hand, and we walked out of there.

Time spent, about two hours (which would have been spent in traffic, watching some TV, and maybe playing some computer games).
Profit: $50 in gift cards to Home Depot. $10 gift card to Shell gas stations. Plus a 4-day-3-night stay at some hotel in a variety of different cities. We still need to read the fine print on this one. But even without the trip, for $60 in almost-cash, I say we made out like bandits.

Oh yeah... when I mentioned something about "the next time we're here" or whatever, she said something like "Well, you probably won't be invited back" in a hurt, snotty sort of way. I kind of laughed and said to Diana "This well is tapped out!" We shall see.

I have no doubts that lots of people are satisfied with their TrendWest timeshare purchases. I don't mean to slander them or anything. I just can't believe the way they conduct business. There's a catch somewhere, and they don't give you enough information to figure it out before you sign up. That just feels wrong.

Links!

There are some links on the left side of the page now. These are blogs that I read on an almost daily basis. Let me explain:

1) Baditude. One of my best friends in the whole wide world. The world would be a better place if there were more hims around.
2) Eric Cheng. Eric is an old friend from high school, who is an extremely accomplished photographer, musician, programmer and journalist.
3) Tundrah. I don't know what "tundrah" means, but she's a rad chick who I've semi-known off an on through the years, and I like to read what she's up to.
4) Unsustained Focus: I stumbled across this blog in a random search, and have been reading daily since. Her name's Desiree. She's Canadian. She's funny, and writes well. That's about all I know.
5) WWDN: Wil Wheaton (best known from "Star Trek, The Next Generation" and "Stand By Me") is my new best friend (sorry Baditude). He seems like a good guy, and runs a very popular blog.

So, check'em all out!

Mornings.

Mornings are my least favorite time of the day. Literally. The moment I sit up and the covers fall off my body, that moment (hopefully and usually) is THE lowest point. I groan and mutter something about how I hate mornings, and Diana says something sweet and reassuring. I actually gain sentient consciousness sometime during my drive to work, and from then on, I'm golden. But man, that first five minutes of uprightness kills me.

Diana and I have talked about watching every Oscar winner for Best Picture since the beginning. We haven't actually made a good effort to do so, and I think that if we're going to do it, we should really do it right and do it in chronological order. That would be starting from "Wings" in 1927, I guess. Anyways, we borrowed "To Kill a Mockingbird" last night from her parents, and watched most of that. Good movie. In fact, up until this very moment, I thought someone told me it was a Best Picture winner, but indeed it was not. In 1963, the winner was "Tom Jones". Oh well. There goes my whole paragraph structure.

Ketchup

So, I haven't talked to you all for a while. Let's see what I've been up to.

Today, Diana left early for some work, and then we met up at her parents house, and headed down for some furniture shopping. We got some ideas of things that we liked, but nothing really popped out at us. We then watched "Bruce Almighty", which was fun, and went to her parents house for dinner, and just got home. Yay.

Yesterday, Diana was gone for much of the day teaching. I did some very serious software development beta testing work, and odd jobs around the house.

Friday night, I went out with Baditude and Iwan and associated lady friends, and met up with them out at dinner. We then all met up for a li'l bowling with Little Buhr and some Redlands crew, which was a lot of fun. I haven't been bowling in a long time, and it was a lot of fun.

So, that's what I did, but not a whole lot of interesting thoughts or conclusions. Sorry about that. More later.

Wednesday

The sun is shining, and I think Diana and I are golfing after work today at the mini's course again. That should be fun. I forgot how crappy the greens were there. Oh well.

Work is going well. We had meeting 4 (of 5) today presenting our architecture design for a certain project, and it was approved (after 4 cumulative hours of presentation). So that's nice. I think they're keeping the 5th hour blocked as a meeting, even though we're done, because lots of the folks go to too many meetings and will appreciate being able to ditch one. Now, we move on to the specific design, which will be challenging and fun.

That's about it for now. I slept in the guest room last night. Went to bed around 9:30pm and got up around 8, which felt good. I hate sleeping apart from Diana, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And what I needed to do was sleep on a different mattress. I know, I know, less complaining, more problem fixing.

Oh yeah, one more thing. To the jerkass on I5 south this morning... It's not cool to speed up to not let me change lanes in front of you, and then get pissed at ME for cutting you off. Just keep going the same speed, or (*gasp*) even slow down JUST a tidge, and you'll be much less likely to burst a blood vessal in a major organ.

I need some Geggy Tah. "All I want to do is to thank you, even though I don't know who you are..." That song rocks.

Oh yeah... another thing which Makes Adman Happy:

When birds are flying (just little sparrows or starlings or finches), and they stop flapping their wings and just turn into a little bullet for a second, then then continue flapping. I love that part!

Well, let's review the weekend.

Diana and I met up with Norm and Teri to see "Finding Nemo". I really enjoyed it, and was completely awestruck by the state of computer animation. It really looked incredible. And how they make a fish actually look like Ellen Degeneres, I'll never know. What really surprised me was how many legitamately scary parts there were in the movie. The mom in front of us was covering her kids eyes during some of the scenes. It's been a long time since I've been a little kid, so I'm not sure what's too scary and what's not, but it seemed a little much for really little ones at times.

On Friday, I may or may not have been accepted to beta test some Big Deal Software coming out sometime soon. If I was accepted, I probably would have signed some sort of agreement saying I wouldn't talk about it. And I probably would have spent a lot of time this weekend playing... I mean, TESTING this very important piece of software. Yay me.

Saturday, Diana and I did some gardening, paring back some overgrown stuff. I don't like gardening even one little bit. But it's definitely something that's got to be done. That night we watched "Unbreakable". I'd heard lots of good stuff about this movie, but didn't think it was all that great. Worth watching, I guess, but not really as good as I'd hoped.

Sunday, Diana had a friend in town come to visit, so they went for walks and lunch and talked about girl stuff. I did very important software testing for a major company. We went and golfed at the Minis Course, which was really a lot of fun. Diana has gotten MUCH better at golf in a very short period of time. She shot about double-bogey average, while I had about a bogey average, which, considering the crappy state of the greens on that course, isn't bad at all. We had a lot of fun and are going to try to head out there more often during the week after work. After golf, we went to my parents house for dinner, which was nice. It was neat to see the upgrades they've made to the house recently. It looks quite a bit different then the old days of the big orange wall and brown carpet!

And now, back to work. I have disturbing memories of being awake during the early morning hours and not being able to get back to sleep, and I'm sort of feeling it this morning. Bleah.

Foos.

We play foosball here at work sometimes. I've gotten pretty good at foosball. I just finished playing a doubles game where I was across from a guy who basically taught me how to play. And I was absolutely schooling him. It felt great. His final comment as I was firing shots on him was "It's like Luke beating Darth Vadar!" (Maybe not the correct Star Wars reference (for sure he meant Darth Vadar beating Obi-Wan ("The circle is now complete... when we first met, I was but the learner. Now I am the master! ("Only a master of eve-ial, Darth!")))).

One thing I really enjoy in life is being good at stuff. But maybe more than that, I like the feeling of tangibly, measureably getting better at stuff. I like stuff that WAS hard to do, but now is easier and easier through hours of practice. Juggling 5 balls used to be impossible to me, and now, while not easily, is very doable for 20 or 30 catches. I've been blessed with at least a fair share of coordination and ability, and have always picked up on stuff generally pretty easily (all modesty completely thrown out the window here). But, man, beating the guy who taught you the game... that's good stuff.

Just wanted to share.

Ouch!

Somehow this morning, while shaving, I sliced a nice little filet out of my left index finger. I didn't know at the time, but wondered why there was blood on the floor of the shower. Then it started stinging. Then I looked at the blade and saw a flap of skin hanging out. Gross.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually shave my fingers. I really have no idea how it happened, but I must have swung the razor next to that finger or something and caught a piece of it. It bled like a SOB, though, even though it's not very big.

Now all the skin underneath is fresh and new and tingly. I wonder if that's what your skin feels like when you're first born. No wonder babies cry so much.

Ugh.

Now I remember why I didn't play Ultima VII. If I wanted to read a novel, I'd read a novel. Geezies.

I'm in negotiations to see "Waiting for Nemo" tomorrow night with Norm and Teri. I'm looking forward to it. I've liked Pixar's stuff a lot over the years, and this looks pretty incredible.

Foos! On Slashdot there's a link to a foosball playing computer. Pretty neat. The submitter said that while it was good enough to play against average bar-type players, it didn't hold a candle to world class players. I have to think that it's only a matter of time, though...

That is all for now.

Metephors are like similies...

Here we are at another day at work. Work is going pretty well. I'm doing lots of fun "prototyping" development, which means lots of playing around and learning new stuff. I'm going to be writing a Windows service that monitors an MSMQ queue (I guess that's as redundant as "HIV virus") and does stuff with messages pulled off the queue. Fun.

Diana and I sing a lot. Not a lot of people know this about our relationship, but we sing silly songs to (and about) each other almost as much as having normal conversations. I finally found an appropriate two-syllable word to refer to my lovely wife which fits into songs very well. D'ster. As in "Go D'ster, it's your birthday" and so forth. And during these songs, I have to wonder: are we completely crazy, or are other couples like this? Either way, I wouldn't change a thing.

I started playing Ultima VII. This is probably one of the top role playing games of all time, and I've never played it. There is a program called Exult (search for it and you'll find it) that allows Ultima VII play under Windows XP, which is nice, since the original used some whack DOS memory stuff. So, go me. I remember playing this game a little bit on my friend Mattie's computer at college. We named the character "Bob", and got a good laugh at a high and mighty Avatar with a name like Bob. "But Bob! Thou art the Avatar!" they'd cry, when we stole something. Good times.

Well, off to home.

Well, the weekend turned out well.

Saturday was the poker tournament. Sunday we bought furniture for the living room. It's a little sketchy to buy expensive stuff ("expensive" meaning more than $100) and not know exactly how it's going to look in your house, and not have a return policy. But I think we made a good choice. And yesterday was pretty quiet, which was nice.

I thought of another Thing That Makes Adman Happy. Those big inflatable stick guys that they have at store openings and car lots and stuff. Where the blow air in from the bottom, and it's open at the top, so the guy is constantly falling over and standing back up again, like he's dancing. I *love* those things. They make me smile every time I see them. And pugs. But you already know that.

Short week this week! What fun.

The poker tournament!

The poker tournament was a huge success, I think. We had 11 players (8 boys and 3 girls). After some creativity to get a big enough table, enough chips to everyone, and every in the right position, we started playing. I guess we started around 3:30pm, and the winner was crowned about 4 hours later. The final three were Diana, H-Bomb and Little King. Good to see H-Bomb lasting so long, especially as this was her first time playing with us. She didn't last long in the final three, however, and it came down to Diana and John. Very soon after, they both went all in. The board was JJx, and Diana flipped over a pair of 10s. John has a pair of kings (how fitting), and after many shouts for a 10 to come up, that was how it ended. John personally knocked out 7 people, I think, and played an eclectic game which left everyone guessing (often incorrectly) if he was bluffing or playing it straight. He was a classy winner and played well. Congrats to that guy. He walked away with $125. Diana took away $50. Heather got her $20 back. And we got reiumbursed $25 for food.

Diana and I provided snacks and drinks. Baditude brought over music and gaming systems, so the losers had something to do. All in all, it was a great time, and I'm looking forward to round 2!

I can't believe I don't have pictures. Dammit!

Today, we're off to buy furniture! We're going to the factory store of a company that we like, and hopefully should actually make some purchases. I'm excited about it.

And no work tomorrow! What fun!

Adam

Diana makes me laugh.

We had this conversation recently as we were walking down the street. She passed a "lost dog" sign.

Diana: Oh no! Someone lost their pup!
Adam: Aww... what kind was it?
Diana: *pause* Brown.

Maybe it loses something in the translation, but I love that she can make me laugh, and that making me laugh makes her laugh.

It's a good cycle to get in.

Back to vacuuming. I changed the vacuum bag! Alert the media! The old one weight like 10 pounds. :P

Nethack...

                       ----------

                      /          \

                     /    REST    \

                    /      IN      \

                   /     PEACE      \

                  /                  \

                  |      Diana       |

                  |     18470 Au     |

                  |    killed by     |

                  |  brainlessness   |

                  |                  |

                  |                  |

                  |       2003       |

                 *|     *  *  *      | *

        _________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______





Farvel Diana the Valkyrie...



You died in Gehennom on dungeon level 39 with 1919457 points,

and 18470 pieces of gold, after 78564 moves.

You were level 24 with a maximum of 249 hit points when you died.

 

I was being attacked by a mind-flayer, which can suck away intelligence when
it attacks. You can get it back easily by applying a unicorn horn, so I
didn't really pay attention, just kept wacking on him. But apparently my
intelligence got too low, and I died. I had no idea that could happen. Oh
well.

Beh...

I'm so tired of rap music getting such a bad rap.

I just was in the lunchroom here at work, and there was some "Hardball" show on with lots of people yelling back and forth "debating" if rap was ruining our culture. There was a lot of noise, and not a lot of exchanging of thoughts, and no one could really get a word in edgewise. Are these shows really worth making?

Anyways, what was really frustrating was what appeared to be a complete lack of understanding from the anti-rap folks. One young woman asked another how she'd like it if some guy came up to her in class and grabbed her butt. Apparently she thought sexual assault was routinely shown in rap videos. Sure, there are house parties and people dancing, and *gasp* touching each other. But I can't think of a mainstream video that glorifies random sexual assults on women.

Another (old) guy wonders how songs about "cop killing" (I think it's safe to assume he's talking about Ice-T's "Cop Killer", 1992) and so forth are considered art, and even brings up Rodney King and so forth. It's stuff like this that really tips me off that they aren't really keeping up with the times or even trying to understand. They just read lyrics (probably out of context), and pick out words or phrases that are offensive.

I would never try to defend all rap music. Clearly there are (as there are in any artform) people that push the limits. Women making statues out of bloody tampons. People smearing feces on pictures of the pope or the flag. That famous guy (who's name eludes me) with his interracial homosexual photography. But, just as clearly, that isn't representitive of all paintings or photographs, and may also be there simply to shock or prove a point.

I guess my point is that it's just frustrating that people berate an entire class of music either based on misconceptions or on a fringe subset. I'm no fan of sexual assault or cop killing either, so if you're going to hate something, at least take the time to understand what you're hating. Otherwise, you just look rediculous.

That's all I have to say about that.

EDIT: s/frusterating/frustrating/g;

So. This weekend we went furniture shopping. I guess I didn't realize how expensive furniture can be! I think we found some things we liked, however, for not too much. We didn't buy anything, but Memorial Day sales might change that.

Diana had golf yesterday, and I went with her to the driving range. I hit poorly, but it was nice to be outside.

We've been watching "Shogun", which I eBay'd recently. It rocks in many ways. It stays pretty close to the books, which is great, but it also has great made-for-TV moments. Every 15 minutes or so there should be a commercial break (were this broadcast on TV), and so every 15 minutes there is sort of a mini-cliffhanger, complete with slow-zoom to closeup of someone's face accompanied by a jarring chord, and fade to black. It's awesome.

Diana the Valkerie continues to fare well through the dungeons of Nethack. She's made it to the mazes of Gehennom. With Mjollinir and the Orb of Fate (which halves all physical damage) and an AC of -37, she's faring quite well. Still left to do: Find Vlad's Tower and defeat him (to get the Candelabrum of Invocation) and find the Wizard and kill him (to get the Book of the Dead), find the vibrating square, enter Molochs Sanctum, kill the priest, get the amulet, and get the freak out of there! Funny that Nethack is one of the first games I've played, and after, what, 15 years, I've never beaten it. It will be a bigbig day when that happens.

The Matrix Reloaded

So I saw TMR last night. I didn't get it. And I don't go to movies just to turn my brain off and watch the fight scenes. I need to know the purpose of everything that's going on and so forth. What was frusterating is they explain everything in the movie, but I just couldn't process it fast enough in my little brain. So, I didn't really like it (and left feeling really grumpy, for some reason), but would like to see it again.

In the theater where we saw the movie, some couple brought their 2 year old, who babbled and cried through the thing. Occasionally they'd take it to the back of the theater, but it was really distracting. Maybe this has something to do with the grumpiness.

Today, Diana had tennis this morning. I continued a great game of Nethack. I've completed the mines, sokoban, AND the quest, and just found a co-aligned temple right before the quest level! This means I can go kill that nasty minetown priest, take all his money, and donate it my priest for more AC! Woo! :) (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to www.nethack.org. You'll be glad you did).

Now, we're going to think about furniture! Huzzah!

A Haiku:

Morning breaks
Dawn brings itching
Ants in bed

Went to the famous beach house last night to watch "The Matrix" in preparation for the sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't really like it the first time around, the second time I fell asleep, but I liked it this time around. I'm ready (with suitably low expectations) for the sequel. Go.

The house was nice. I'm not sure I'd really want a house right on the beach. I think, when it really comes down to it, the idea of it is cooler than ACTUALLY having it. But it would be nice to watch sunsets over the ocean every evening. But we can do that from our house, if we just walk a little bit!

I worked on some programming yesterday. The idea of programming a game is a lot more fun than actually doing it. It's hard, but I'm learning. More news as it breaks.

Baditude is gone for E3. Which is too bad, 'cause I can't wait for the new Hero Clix game!

Ahhhh...

I have such silly friends.

So.

Apparently there was some... unpleasantness... at the 5/805 merge today, and both freeways are closed and traffic is backed up. I just checked, and the online speed indicator at the 5 freeway exits between me and work say speeds are between 2 and 5 miles an hour. Ugh. I'm either going to call in sick, or wait for things to clear up.

Last night Diana and I watched "You Can't Take It With You", and old Jimmy Stewart movie. It was good, but dragged on a little too long. I was most interested in the anti-capitalist, Communist/anarchist themes that seemed to resonate through it. "Doing whatever you want to do" is great, but sometimes isn't the best way to create a productive society.

Still struggling with Nethack. I can't seem to get a good character going, in spite of some early game wishes. Baditude just started up another Hero Clix game. Me and Norm and pitted against Fwats and Fishboy, so that should be fun. Hopefully I'll have learned something from last games pitiful showing.

That's about all for now.

Teen Girl Squad!

God these are funny:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs3.html
http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs2.html
http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs1.html

Enjoy! (If you're on a dialup, I probably wouldn't even bother).

Well, the busy weekend is over. Here's a quick rundown.

Thursday night - dinner at D's parents, birthday pressies for Alicia.

Friday night - my parents and me and D at D's parents for dinner. Fun. Baditude's birthday afterwards.

Saturday - Balboa Park with my parents for lunch and a museum exhibit on early photography. Gulls game afterwards.

Sunday - Up to Palomar with D and D's parents. Iwan and Eryn came over afterwards for some Survivor and we played Munchkin after that, which was fun. I want to play more. Iwan brought Little Missy, who was cute. Unfortunately, an evening of exposure killed Diana's allergies, and she had a really hard time sleeping. We're going to need to take this into consideration if we're thinking of getting a dog.

I was listening to Dr. Laura as I drove around during lunch. I'm not a frequent listener, but sometimes will stop in to see what BS she's spouting at the moment. Today, a guy called and said he'd been dating a woman for 9 months. This woman works with her ex-boyfriend, but since their breakup, they hadn't talked. But now, he said, she's started talking to him again. Dr. Laura cut him off at that point, and asked why he was still going out with her. Her recommendation was that he immediately break up with her, simply for having contact with an ex. No further questions or explanation, that was it. What kind of view must you have of humanity to think that a reasonable speaking relationship can't exist between ex's. DUMB!

Shogun!

Ha! I just eBay'd Shogun on video. 4 tapes and about 9 hours of goodness. I can't wait to watch it! Hopefully Norm and Baditude will join me?

Off to the hockey game. San Diego hockey is a little bit of a joke, but it's fun. Tonight, hopefully, the Gulls will win the Taylor Cup! Go boys!

I'm such a geek.

Here's what I wrote (well, printed out and taped) in a work-boy's birthday card:

sub d {@a=@_;@b=();foreach $a(@a){push @b,chr($a);}return join "", @b; } $hm = 

"72-97-112-112-121-32-66-105-114-116-104-100-97-121-32-74-111-104-110-33-32-".

"32-89-111-117-39-114-101-32-116-104-101-32-99-111-111-108-101-115-116-33"; 

$pm = "80-97-114-116-121-32-111-118-101-114"; @hd=split /-/,$hm; @pd=split /-/

,$pm; $a1="\33[2J\33[10;0;f   ".d(@pd)." here!\n  /\n \\0\\"." "x49 .

"/0/\n  |      ".d(@hd)."    |"." "x11 ."\n //"." "x50 ."//"."\n"x8; $a2 = 

"\33[2J\33[10;0;f\n\n /0/"." "x49 ."\\0\\ - ".d(@pd)."\n  |      ".d(@hd).

"    |     there!\n \\\\"." "x50 ."\\\\"."\n"x8; while(1){print$a1;sleep(1);

print$a2;sleep(1);} 

When you run it, it displays some little dancing stick men (two frames of animation) and says a little Happy Birthday message. (Ah... I just learned some HTML):

   Party over here!

  /

 \0\                                                 /0/

  |      Happy Birthday John!  You're the coolest!    |

 //                                                  //

The second frame of animation, of course, has the guys arms and legs going the other way, and the second guy is saying "Party over there!" Good stuff.

I did this for him last year (albeit with a much simpler script) and he got a kick out of decoding it. This is pretty straightforward, but obfuscated enough to hide it from a casual glance.

Happy Friday!

My fans demand to know what's going on!

... or at least my mom does.

But alas, there's not so much to tell. It's been a quiet week, as in "quiet before the storm". This weekend is going to be busy. Last night Diana and I went to her parents house for dinner and to celebrate her sisters birthday. It was a lot of fun. Diana and I gave Alicia a gift certificate and the movie "Waterbabies", which apparently is a family classic, and she totally screamed when she got it. It was quite fun to see.

Tonight, it's round 2, where my parents and Diana and I are going to Diana's parents again for dinner and fun. Tonight is also a birthday celebration for my bestest buddy Baditude. Stop by and wish him well! We're missing his birthday dinner, but hopefully can meet up afterwards for fun.

Tomorrow, it's Mom's day part 1 with my folks, and then Sunday it's part II with D's folks. That's a lot of parental stimuli, but it will all be good.

Latest search engine hit to this page: "Lasik took my life away". Ouch. That sucks, dude.

.... aaaand... I'm out.

Just a note. Life is better. Thanks for your concern. :)

You know who sucks? CompUSA. Why must they insist on searching me and verifying my purchases when I leave. Obviously, I know the answer, but it still makes me feel like a criminal every time I leave. They have a sign up saying that they "reserve the right to verify purchases" or something. What the hell does that mean? Can I then "reserve the right" to refuse being searched? It's all very dumb.

ARGH

I'm so frusterated. The stuff that I'm supposed to be working on is really complicated and not very intuitive. I met with someone to figure out how to do what I want to do, but that requires a workaround that's going to be really ugly. During all this, everyone and their mothers has been asking me questions and advice on stuff, most of which are things I don't know (and am not expected to know) about anyways.

Meanwhile, we're getting our asses handed to us in HeroClix, and between not knowing every single rule, not having very good (in my opinion) figures, not having very good communication with my partner (trying to email back and forth from work between meetings, etc), and not having very good vision of what I'm supposed to be doing, it's making for a very frusterating game. I just want this one to be over and start fresh, but I have a feeling it's going to drag on.

Have you ever just had one of those days where you just want to sit at home and cry? I swear my period must be coming...

Weekends go by so fast!

Friday night, we invited peeps over and watched X-men and made dinner. It was lots o' fun.

Saturday, Diana and I did some shopping. I bought a card game called "Munchkin" that looks really fun and I want to try it out with more peeps. On sort of a whim, we called up Iwan and went to see X-men 2. It was crazy busy, but Diana and I were able to get there early enough to wait in line and get good seats. Iwan, on par, showed up during the previews, after I'd already given up on the guy. But, no harm done, and a good movie was enjoyed by all.

Today, Diana was up early and out teaching and taking her first golf lesson! I'm excited that she might get interested and join me out on the links. I spent the morning playing Dungeon Siege, which I re-loaded on a whim. Fun game! Basically, I'm just treading water until Star Wars Galaxies rolls around. And that should keep me busy until Doom III and Half-Life 2 appear.

Iwan and I golfed this afternoon at Lake San Marcos. It was horribly frusterating, as I couldn't putt for shit. But bad golf is still golf, and that's fine by me. Iwan came over after work, and we played a little Munchkin, just to get a taste of it. It's fun, but definitely more fun with more than 2 people, the way the dynamic is set up. Maybe I'll arrange a games night sometime this week.

And that was my weekend! Lots of fun stuff. Yay.

More to tell, but eyes... drooping. Bed... calling.

Bad news and good news...

The bad news is that the hummingbird nest I found is now all melty and abandoned.

The good news is that I found another one, or perhaps the same one relocated? Could a hummingbird carry its eggs to a new nest?

"It could grip it by the husk!"
"It's not a matter of where it *grips* it. It's a simple question of weight ratios!"

Ahh funny funny Monty Python quotes.

PS: Can someone please comment and teach me the proper usage of it's and its? Thanks.
PPS: Survivor, even after all these years, still rocks.

Flonase.

Who are the wizards who came up with this name? It's for "multi-symptom allergy relief", if you couldn't guess already. This wins top prize for creative product naming.

Honorable mention goes to "ManDelay", which I saw near the condoms in a drugstore.

Things that Make Adman Happy:

Big straws. Lots of straws are too narrow, but sometimes they are nice and big and let lots of liquid go through. This pleases me.

Unwrapping Cadbury Cream Eggs without tearing the wrapper. I'm not much of a food guy, but there's something about the unwrappy, anticipitory pleasure of the unwrapping ritual.

Eating ice cream straight from the container, and keeping the level of the ice cream that's left completely flat. I don't know why, but I've always done this.

Cracking the top of creame brulee. Just like in Amelie.

When you open a fresh bottle of wine, and begin to pour it, the "glug glug glug" sound starts BEFORE any wine comes out. It's like magic! I love that part!

Just thought you should know.

Sleep!

Man, two nights ago, I woke up at 3:33am. Last night at 4:24am. No one should be awake at those hours. Least of all, me. Then, of course, I lie there and *try* to go back to sleep. That doesn't work so well. Muh.

I'm going to give the ol' mattress a flip and twist. Maybe having a hill in the middle of the bed will be better than the pit we have now. :)

More

More Google/Yahoo searches that landed people on this page:

"funny quotes from A Mighty Wind"
"Benedryl half life"
"HOW TO GET A BETTER LIFE" (yes, all in quotes)
"puppy when does get better"

Letsee if I can handle these. I'd hate to dissapoint my readers:

Funny Quotes from "A Mighty Wind"
Hrm... I've only seen the movie once, and don't remember many funny quotes (per se) off the top of my head. Basically anything Harry Shearer says is funny, especially since he sounds so much like Princpal Skinner.

Benedryl and Half Life
Benedryl, as far as I know, is NOT radioactive. Therefore, I can only assume the querier was searching for information about playing Half Life while taking Benedryl. I would not reccomend this. When I was first having eye problems, I took the first anti-allergy stuff I found at the supermarket. I'm not an allergy guy, so didn't know much about the medicine. I took two Benedryl. 15 minutes later, my computer screen was getting all fuzzy and stuff. I'm not quite sure how I drove home.... If you're going to play Half Life, drink caffeine and stay up all night! It's best played in the dark with headphones.

HOW TO GET A BETTER LIFE
Man, isn't this The Question. If only the answer actually were posted on a webpage somewhere, as apparently our poor, unhappy soul thought it might. Well, I have a pretty good life. I'm not saying it's better than yours, but you don't see me searching for stuff like that. First, have good parents who don't have their heads up their collective asses and are any of alcoholics/druggies/abusive/deadbeats/etc. That will provide you with a good start.

However, rereading your query, you already have a pretty bad life, or at least want a better one. So what can you do from this day forward?

Find good friends, like mine, who you can rely on, have fun with, and be able to depend on when you really need it.
Find a person who you're attracted to, with whom you can share your innermost secrets and who will provide you with love and attention and affection in a way that typical friends can't and shouldn't. If you are so inclined, marry that person.
Work. Work provides both money and a feeling of accomplishment.
Play computer games. They are fun and safe way to escape the drudgeries of real life.

puppy when does get better
I'm afraid I'm at a loss with this one. Answer depends highly on the problem. Be nice to your vet. Love your puppy. All will be well.

Any more questions?

Well, let's see here...

Friday we had a "teambuilding" event at work, which was a lot of fun. We had a nice lunch down at Mission Bay, and then participated in a boat building contest. We were given supplies to build a boat, and we were judged on design, presentation, and a race around a buoy. As you can imagine, there was lots of wackiness and lots of fun. Our team, in spite of coming in second in the race, took first overall in the competition. We got a trophy and everything.

Here's me and some boys...




Friday night, a group of us went out to see "Identity". It was a little weird, but it still scared me. I don't think I like scary movies. I don't like being scared, and I don't like the lingering creepy feeling they leave me with. It doesn't even have to be high-brow, cerebral scaryness, either. All it takes is a woman walking backwards in the rain, with some scary violin music playing. But it was fun to go out with the peeps.

Saturday was a lazy day. Diana and I got in the jacuzzi and sat in the sun and she read the rest of "The Two Towers". That afternoon, I golfed with Iwan, which was fun. I played really well for myself, shooting a 70 on a par 58. Iwan, who usually beats me by 6 or 8 strokes, got a 69. I was very pleased. That night, he came over and we barbequed some burgers for dinner. Yummy.

Yesterday, Diana worked in the morning, and I hung out and did some programming and played some Nethack. That afternoon, I met her at her parents house, and we watched the end of the Timberwolves game (who lost, boo), and went for a nice walk on the beach. We had some discounts and gift certificates for SoupPlantation, so we went there for dinner, which was nice. They had all my favorite bits. Then to bed early, and we watched "Never Cry Wolf", which she had borrowed from her parents. I'd seen it before, but it's a nice, quiet, introspective sort of movie which was enjoyably sleep-inducing.

I've officially started a new programming project. I'm starting to write a sort of general-purpose scrolling tile-based 2d graphics engine. I'm sure a million have been written before, but not by me. So I wrote some stub classes last night, and I've got some good ideas, I think, so that will be fun to work on. Hopefully, when it's done, it should be general purpose enough to use in the game people are planning on writing at work, as well as work for some other ideas I've had. I'd love to do a sort of Gauntlet clone, or a side-scroller like Super Mario Bros, or a top scroller like Ikari Warriors or Heavy Barrel. We'll see, I guess, how it goes.

I got a screenshot of my GTA self. I need to take matching pictures and I'll post 'em here for comparison. It still cracks me up to watch "myself" run around in the gang-ridden world of Grand Theft Auto wearing my comfy clothes.

Work is slow. I'm updating a document, taking frequent breaks to practice/play in our departments foosball tournament. I'm not good at foos, but getting better. Baditude is keeping the email wires hot with his online version of the Hero Clix game.

Tonight is a happy hour in honor of my old friend and co-worker who's back in town for the time being. It will be fun to see her again. Tomorrow is a "team building" event with co-workers. It's something about a competition to build and/or race boats. Should be fun. Or at least more fun than sitting around here all day.

As I sit and think, I kind of realize my life isn't really so dynamic as it used to be. I'm in a solid routine, which is good and bad. It's a good routine and I'm happy and satisfied, but it's still the same old routine. And I'm not quite sure what can be done about it. Or if anything needs to be done about it.

Diana and I have been walking more in the fields behind our house. There are bee-boxes back there. We crept up to 'em the other evening and watched the little guys go in and out. It's a good walk, especially right around sunset. I'm happy for the excercise, since I haven't played official sports in quite a long time.

Speaking of sports, I'm hoping to golf more. It's staying light a lot later these days, so after-work golf is certainly an option. Golf is an expensive hobby, though.

Random ramblings from me.

Nethack

In rec.games.nethack, there is a Nethack Haiku contest. I've written two entries (the first of which was complimented by someone else, which is nice). I realize these will probably only make sense to someone (Norm) who has played the game, but I offer them to you, dear readers, nevertheless:


"Come buy my pretty trinkets!"
Pakka-Pakka calls.
The giant mimic tenses.
(I realize I screwed up the 5-7-5 syllable structure here...)

and...

A cool, sweet fountain
Lifegiving water to quaff
Streams of snakes pour forth.

Haikus are fun. Someone suggested that English haiku should only have 3-5-3 syllables, as English has more expressive words in fewer syllables than Japanese does. The above might then turn into:

Cool fountain
Lifegiving water
Snakes pour forth

Sounds more like a haiku that way, says me.

I played a little Grand Theft Auto today, but my heart just isn't in it like it used to be. I'm still pretty pleased with my skinning of the model. I should take a screenshot and a real life picture and compare the two... Hmmm.....

Boys Don't Cry

Diana picked out this movie from the library yesterday. It was a pretty good watch. Really the weirdest thing about it was how similiar I look to Hilary Swank's character at some points. I'll have to find some representitive screenshots or something when I get home. Otherwise, it was a depressing look into a bleak world filled with angry, unlikeable characters, but it was enlightening all the same.

There's some talk of people here at work developing a game. Apparently one guy already has an idea and design all set out. I recruited myself to help with coding, and I got Baditude involved to do some (as much or as little as he wants) artwork. I've worked in projects like this before, and it's always easy to start and hard to follow through, but the experience should be fun.

That is all.

Aww...

I was just reviewing my past hits to this page. I can see what computers connect, and where they came from. In rare cases, a search engine will pull up this page, and I'm able to see the URL of the page that generated a link to this page. In that URL is the phrase that the person was searching for.

Two notable instances are there:

"Does marriage get better" (this page is link #5 from Yahoo)
and
"Why does it hurt so bad to get dumped"? (this page is link #7 from Yahoo)

Both of these questions are a little heartbreaking in their own ways. However, this one just came through:

"fish shocker schematic"

That brightened up my day. :)

Anyways, a little tip, people. Put "quotes" around your search queries to search for that exact phrase. Otherwise, you get pages that have any of those words in them at all, and for pages with a lot of text (like mine), that's quite a few.

Back to work...

Sunday turned out to be a pretty quiet day. Diana gave me an easter basket with some of my favorite candies, which was very nice of her. We had some breakfast and went for a walk on the beach. I hadn't been to the beach in so long! It was a lot of fun. I can't remember the last time I've been swimming in the ocean. I'll have to do more of that this summer. After our walk, neither of us had any any of what to do with our day, so we went home and made smoothies! They were good and good for us. :)

Diana's sister called that afternoon, and came over to visit and show us pictures from her 3-month foray to New Zealand. She's been backpacking around, staying in hostels and meeting other world travellers and it sounds like really having a great time. Aside from family and friends, it didn't sound like she had much attatchment to living in the U.S. at all, and if not for those reasons, would have been perfectly happy staying in New Zealand for a long time.

We made dinner. Alicia (a vegetarian) learned what rennet was. I'd only learned recently (from Baditude and H-Bomb) what it was, but was a little surprised that she didn't know. I don't know if it was an awkward moment or not, but I can't help but wonder what was going through her mind at that moment. We watched "What's Up, Doc" with Barbara Streisand, which was a childhood favorite of Diana and Alicia. It was silly and fun. I'm conflicted on whether old-school Babs was pretty or not.

Anyhoo, then to bed, and now to work!

Letsee...

I had Friday off. Diana and I saw "A Mighty Wind", which was fun, but I think I liked "Best In Show" better. Then we got pizza for dinner, which was very yummy. Today we pulled weeds in the morning, and then basically crashed out all afternoon. I went to the San Diego Riptide arena football game with Iwan and Eryn, which was fun. They are going to see Convoy tonight, but I decided I wasn't interested in staying out that late tonight. And the show is probably sold out anyways.

No plans for tomorrow. I like three day weekends. :)

Phone Booth

Who would have thought that A Mighty Wind would have sold out on a Wednesday night? I guess it was opening night, but still. Oh well. I ended up seeing "Phone Booth" with Diana and Iwan across the street. I liked the movie. It was a little contrived (well, I guess a LOT contrived), but it was entertaining and engaging, which is more than I can say for most movies I see.

Before the movie, we had some time to kill, and I played a few games of the drum game (I don't remember what it's called). Think Dance Dance Revolution but with drums. It's a lot of fun, and really challenging.

Today is Thursday, and we have tomorrow off from work. I'm hoping to sleep in. Diana and I aren't sleeping well. It might have something to do with the big chasm in the middle of our bed. Maybe mattress/bed shopping should be a priority this weekend.

Eryn's online Hero Clix game is in full force. See the link in my previous post for the play by play.

Diana's back!

Letseee... it rained really hard two nights ago. Our most recent gutters worked like charms, so I think I'm done worrying about them for now. Yesterday, Diana and I went along the same walk that I discovered on Sunday, and that was really ice. Nice ocean view from there, and we stayed to watch the sunset. I'm glad she's back.

Tonight, I think we're going to go see "The Mighty Wind", which will be fun. I don't think I'm as big a fan of those movies as the next person, but it'll be good to go out. This Saturday, the San Diego Riptide is playing, AND Convoy is going to be in town, so I'm hoping I can go to at least one of those.

In other news, Eryn has set up a little test online version of the Hero Clix game to play via email. It looks like a lot of fun! You can watch the game from his page in the Features section. (I hope he doesn't mind me posting that, but it's not really hidden).

Well...

My love has been gone for the weekend, which means I've reverted back to my bachelor self. Which has it's good and bad points. I've played a lot of freaking Nethack, I'll tell you what. Last night I talked to Diana on the phone, and went to my parents for dinner, so I had some interaction with people. Today has been one of those surreal "quiet days" where I haven't actually said that much out loud.

I went for a walk today to enjoy the sun. I found a nice little protected habitat place and followed my nose to the big chasm that seperates the two halves of Carlsbad. There was a really steep, rocky trail leading down to a creek in the middle, so I traversed down it. It was really neat down there. There were two old cars down there, and when I saw the first one, I was thinking I was going to be "a hiker" in the headline "body of missing San Diego woman found by a hiker". But they were old and no bodies to be found. I wondered if there were fish in that there stream, though. Anyways, as I was thinking these things, I heard a buzzing, and a bee flew by. Then another. Then I heard more buzzing and saw about a dozen bees heading my way. I did NOT want to get swarmed. The only way to go was almost straight up. The trail I'd come down was really (more than 45 degrees) steep. Nevertheless, I hightailed it (literally... I was using my hands and feet) up as fast as I could go. That got my heart going pretty quick. I made it up about 1/3 of the way before I had to stop, and there were no bees around, so that was good. Kind of scary, though.

I just went out and opened an account at Hollywood video, and rented "Blade Runner" on DVD. The first time I tried to see it (at the Campus Cinema at Davis) I got a migraine.

I have demo code for doing DirectX stuff in .NET. Now I just need to come up with an idea of a simple game (Breakout, Bejeweled, Tetris, etc). I have lots of idea fragments, but nothing that is a complete game. (For those of you who read this and have game ideas, keep them SIMPLE).

Ok, movie time.

Eggs! Eggs it is!

Last year, I think probably almost exactly a year ago, I discovered a hummingbird nest outside the front doors of my work. I was standing out there, enjoying the sun, and a little hummer flew right up to me and chirped angrily at me, and then flew into the tree. I found him sitting on a little nest, about the size of a little egg cup. It was very cute.

Well, I was just out doing the same thing, and in a nearby tree I heard the same sort of chirping. "I know that sound!" I thought. A couple seconds later, a little hummingbird flew out of the tree and away. It only took a few seconds to find the nest. I used my glasses as a mirror and saw two little eggs in the nest! It's all very exciting to me. The whole "circle of life" thing right before my eyes. It'll be fun to keep an eye on 'em, and watch the little guys hatch like last year.

Ahhh spring. :)

Foos.

I've been playing foosball at work. We have a table set up in the server room, hidden amongst the racks of servers. We have some REALLY good foosball players here. Players that I've seen before who I thought were REALLY good were only pretty good compared to these guys. So, of course, a couple foos tournaments have been set up, and I (a self-proclaimed "advanced beginner") and a pretty intermediate guy have partnered up. We actually won our first game, but got smoked our second game. But it's a double elim tourney, so we still have another game to play at least. Foos is fun. It's something new that I'm not good at, but I like the feeling of getting better.

Diana's going away this weekend. Up to Santa Cruz with her friends. She should have a good time. I'll try to keep myself busy with Nethack and hopefully working on the fish with my dad.

Not much news to report.

I like daylight savings time. It's nice that Diana gets home when it's still light out. We took a walk to our secret sunset spot last night, which was nice.

I played some good Nethack the other day. I'm still pretty much a novice, but getting better. The game is really challenging, which is nice. I think a lot of computer games aren't really hard enough, or hard enough in the right sort of way. Anyways, I've had some good adventures, and it's fun that Norm is playing as well. He sometimes provides me with much-needed game updates during my workday, and I like having someone to lament my latest death to. Good stuff.

Tonight is the first game of the WCD playoffs. Baditude is hosting, and we're all going to go watch the computer play itself in football. I still can't get over how geeky that sounds (is?). Oh well.

Letsee...

Friday night, Diana and I went out to dinner and saw "Bend it like Beckham". It was enjoyable. Nothing too special, but fun to watch and worth seeing.

Saturday, I finally finished "Shogun". Great book. I'm now searching for a cheap way to get ahold of the miniseries that was on TV in the 80's. It's for sale new for about $250. I found a copy on eBay for $25. I'd rather just rent it from somewhere, but haven't found anything. Saturday afternoon, I got my car smog-checked, which left me wandering Encinitas for a couple hours. I had lunch, and cruised around browsing several stores. Diana was off doing her own errands, so it was sort of a lonely day. That afternoon we did our taxes, which was fun. Looking over my last years taxes, I found a big math error I'd committed that had me paying too much in tax. Which explains why they sent me back a refund for most of what I'd paid, which was nice of them.

Sunday, we went down to the Encintas street fair and walked around, which was fun. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to take a walk in the sun and look at the booths and watch the people and soak in the atmosphere. Baditude called right before we left, and said that he and some other folks were going to see "Bend it like Beckham" that night, and did we want to go? Diana said that we'd already seen it, and that we were going to the street fair. Baditude said that that's where HE was yesterday. It seems we probably could have worked our weekends out a little better.

Speaking of working weekends out: there is a little movement to have a winner-takes-all poker tournament. It's always a pain in the butt to try to get everyone together at the same time, but I think a tournament would be a lot of fun. I've never played poker for more than a couple hours straight, and I have no idea how long it would take a group of eight to get cut down to one winner, but it seems like it's worth finding out. Just have to find a date that suits everyone.

Cruisin'

Still getting over being sick. Still sniffing and blowing my nose a lot. Feeling mostly normal, but still a little fuzzy at times. This week has gone without a whole lot of excitement. Wake up, go to work, come back from work, have dinner with Diana, watch some TV, read some Shogun (100 pages left!), play some Nethack.

Sweet. Tonight is Survivor, and a new ER. Woo hoo!

The fact that I'm actually excited and looking forward to that is a little sad. I look forward to having more energy and getting out more. Diana and I found a pretty good sunset-watching spot up behind our house. We can see the lagoon and the ocean from there, so hopefully we can make use of that more in the future. Unfortunately, there's a house full of pellet-gun toting teenagers who don't seem to be afraid of pulling the trigger at each other (we saw one shoot the another), so we sort of need to hide out a little.

Hello.

Tusday night. Not so much is going on. Diana pleasantly surprised me by being home by the time I got home, which was nice. We spent a silly night eating pizza and I had a beer (woo hoo!). Pizza, beer, salad, fruit, and a Cadbury Creme Egg. Not too shabby. I'm in a good mood, in spite of the fact that I'm still pretty beat by this cold. It's getting better every day, but by about 5pm I'm just drag-ass tired.

Tomorrow is a congratulations lunch for the group of folks that worked on the project that I was a part of for the last year and a half or so. That should be fun. I'm really happy that it's all up and running without (m)any problems.

I played more nethack yesterday, and have been reading the spoiler files. Apparently backing up your save games and reloading 'em when you die (which I'm doing), is about the most reviled thing you can do, according to the nethack community at large. So I'll either stop doing it, or not tell anyone about it. You take your pick. :)

Tonight's the Real World season finale. It's crazy how quickly you get to "know" people on TV, and how fast they're forgotten about when they're not on TV every week. I can hardly remember who was on last seasons Real World or Survivor or whatever.

You know what's a good move? Carrying something in your left hand, and trying to get your car keys out of your left pants pocket with your right hand.

Man weekends go by so fast!

Friday night, Diana and I had dinner at her parents house. It was good fun to see them and just hang out.

Saturday morning, Diana and I went to find a geocache that had eluded us when we went with Baditude and H-bomb. It's a 4-part one, where each part leads to the next. We verified part 1, and finally found part 2. We searched for part 3, but never found it. We did bring a backup cache location nearby which was easy to find, but not all was lost. It turned into a 3 mile hike in the hot sun, and I was pretty beat afterwards. That afternoon my dad and I went to Radio Shack and picked up the pieces we needed for our fish project. We have all but one piece, and are basically ready to get started. It's very exciting. That night, Diana picked me up, and we went to see the San DIego Riptide, our arena football team, play it's home opener. I'd never seen arena football before, and it was a lot of fun. Diana's not that big of a football fan, but it would be a great thing to do with the boys. I'm definitely going back for long-sleeve shirt night.

Today has been pretty lazy. Diana worked in the morning, and I did some chores around here and played some Nethack and GTA3. It's really hot, and I'm still getting over my cold, so I've been pretty lethargic (yesterday probably took a lot out of me). When she got home, and joined forces and cleaned the house.

I'm not ready to go back to work! Busy weekends go by too fast.

HaloScan sucks ass.

I've switched to a new comment system! Give it a try and lemme know how it works.

It's going to be a beautiful weekend. Diana's been working hard, and I've been so sick that we're ready to spend some time outside in the sun. I'd like to try to get that geocache that we missed last time. We're having dinner with her parents tonight, and there might be some Scabble involved, so that should be fun. And we need to do our taxes. :P

I'm feeling much better today. I'm so happy to be back in the game. It was a really disconcerting feeling to feel so out of it. And now that I'm back in the game, it's the weekend! Woo hoo!

Back to work for me!

I think I'm over the hump, and on the road to recovery. I just have to evactuate my sinuses every three minutes. And if only my right ear would clear, all would be right with the world.

I got my eBay Billy Bass. I cracked the puppy open, and the internals do NOT match the schematics that I downloaded. So now I'm not quite sure what to do. I think we had a good shot at putting everything all together if all the plans matched exactly to what we had, but I'm not as convinced about our ability to understand everything enough to sort of go it on our own. Nothing to lose, I guess, except some time and money. :) I emailed the guy who made the original plans, but haven't heard back yet.

So, other than that, not much to report. I haven't done much over the past couple days except hang out and watch TV. I actually watched a Celebrity Profile that chronicaled the thrilling career of Hollywood powerhouse Scott Baio. And Maury Povich interviewed 14 year old girls who wanted to get preggers and have babies. A couple hours actually spending time with real live babies cured that right quick. Good old Maury. Is he married to Connie Chung? It strikes me as weird that she's a respected news reporter, and his show is so trashy.

And I actually played some GTA3 yesterday, which was fun. I haven't played computer games in a long time.

Bah.

I woke up this morning and had a temperature of 102. I took some ibuprofen and by midmorning it was back to normal. I laid in bed and sweated it out a little, though. I'm feeling a bit better this afternoon, which is good. I'm tired of being sick, though.

Better, yet worse.

I'm feeling a bit better today, mentally. It was pretty frusterating to me that I wasn't feeling really altogether there, but didn't really know why. I think I now know why. I've caught The Cold that everyone and their mothers have had. My coworkers had it. Iwan had it at Mammoth, and now I've got it. I went to bed last night a little sneezy and sniffly, and woke up with a full fledged gnarly sore throat and stuffed up. So I'm going to chalk up the last week or so of feeling weird to this thing brewing in my system somewhere, and now it's burst forth. So in spite of feeling worse, I do feel a bit better. Everyone's told me that this thing lasts for 2 weeks or so, so I have that to look forward to.

A group of us went out for diner last night, and then watched Baditudes WCD football season. I think I referred to it before, but Eryn has set up a full season of football for a team he created with all of us as players. He then sets the computer to control both sides, and we just sit back at watch the computer play itself. Sounds lame, but it's really a lot of fun.

Discostup stayed over at our house last night. Our first official houseguest! It was neat to have our guestroom used.

So, here I am, back at work. Go Adman!

Oh! Baditude jumped on the bandwagon (I'm no longer the last one one) and started a blog. You can find it off his website. Nice work, buddy!

Well, I don't know what's been wrong with me.

Last week, I started feeling pretty crumby, sort of all of a sudden. I just sort of woke up feeling really tired and naseous (dry heaved a little bit). I called in sick and went back to bed, and slept for like another 3 hours. For the next couple days, I just felt really lousy without many real physical symptoms. But mentally, I wasn't really able to concentrate, and I just felt totally disconnected and out of it. As I've said before, I felt like I had sort of "perception blind spots" in that my brain wasn't really processing everything that I was seeing. That's how it felt, at least. I tried coming to work, but wasn't really able to do much or think clearly. And this was sort of scary to me, so I get anxious and stress myself out which doesn't help much.

I was able to go to Mammoth this weekend, and that generally went ok. In spite of still feeling a little out of it, I was able to hang out and have fun and snowboard and so forth. A big group of us went, and we all got along really well and had a lot of fun together. My friend Mike was there and is in town tonight, and it's good to see him. As he's busy being a new doctor, I'm guessing it's probably pretty nice for him to get away from that rat race too.

I went to the doctors this morning and after doing a quick neurological test and checking my eyes and ears, they did a blood test and urine test. Everything came back "all ok". I felt a little stupid for not really having any concrete symptoms and apoligized to the doctor, and he said not to worry about it, and I was clearly there for some reason. I was discharged with a sheet that I had "undiagnosed weakness". Sweet. By the time I got to my car, I was pretty hungry, so cracked into the lunch that my lovely wife made for me.

At this point, it occurred to me that I was probably just dehydrated and/or low-blood-sugar-ish (although if this was on the blood test, they didn't say anything to me). In fact, I think I've felt this way before, and I think that was the advice my dad gave me at that point. You'd think I would have thought of this earlier, and I'm sure Diana probably said something along those lines, but for whatever reason, there I was.

So I'm making a big effort this afternoon to basically constantly drink water. And I'm feeling actually pretty OK. Before I started feeling bad, I don't feel like my eating habits were any different than usual (I wasn't on a deserted island or anything), but I've been able to sit at my desk and actually get work done, which is more than I can say for the last couple days.

Norm said it best, that I've had a little run of stupid little semi-sicknesses that have just sort of kept me under 100%. So here's looking forward to a run of 100% health!

I just finished my third 16 oz. bottle of water in 2 hours. It occurs to me this may be as much water as I used to drink in a day. Maybe that should tell me something. And I put in my lubricating eyedrops. Huzzah!

I had a pretty good weekend! Friday night, Diana and I lazed around and watched a movie (The Bone Collector) which wasn't very good. But it was nice to stay in while the rains started. Saturday we hung around during the day, and went to see the San Diego Sockers that night with some friends from my work. That was a lot of fun. It's funny how different a crowd shows up for Sockers games than Gulls games. Lots of kids and families there, and good clean fun all the way around (except our boys lost, but oh well).

Sunday, Diana and I conquered the last remaining water-flow problem via a couple of trips to Home Depot. We got all the tubes and connectors we needed, and redirected the downspout flow from the courtyard all the way along the front walk and out onto the walkway at the top of the front yard. We were quite pleased with ourselves, and actually DARED it to rain. But it probably won't rain again for another year. Oh well. It's a little ugly, but it's a perma-temporary solution until we do something more interested with the courtyard.

Little Buhr is in town, and we met up with a group of people out at dinner, which was a lot of fun. Good to see LB again. And with him in town, interest has been sparked in playing some poker, which will happen tonight! Woo hoo!

Friday already?

This week has just been crusing right along. Not a whole lot of news to report.

Last night I went to Eryn's house to watch the latest game in our WCD football season. For those not in the know, Eryn created a team using a bunch of his friends as models for the players (including renaming the players to our names, etc) and just let the computer play out a full season, controlling every team. So we literally just set the computer to play the next game in the season, and watch the AI play itself. In spite of how dumb that sounds, it really is sort of exciting. EA did such a good job making it actually LOOK like a live football game that it's not that hard to get into the swing of things and cheer for big plays and so forth. Anyways, we kept notes to be reported back to our Yahoo group.

I rushed home for Survivor, which was interesting as usual. Also on that night was MTV's "True Life: I'm a Gamer" which we watched. It was pretty interesting. Those guys gaming habits (8-12 hours a day) made me feel a lot better about my own gaming addiction.

Not a whole lot of plans for the weekend, except rain is expected. I know for a fact that the damn rain gutter is sloping the wrong way, so I'll probably go out and try to fix that tonight. Tommorow night a small group of work-peeps are going to see the Sockers play, which will be fun. That's about it!

My hypochondria has passed. I'm fine now.

"I'm afraid I might be a hypochrondiac." <---- That's comedy.

Diana and I watched "Office Space" on TV last night. That is a GREAT movie. I also read an hours worth of Shogun. Good stuff.

I've been using my Visine every day, when I first wake up and before I go to bed and a couple times in between, and have had no eye problems. So, so far so good!

So my friends girlfriend has been having neurological problems for a couple years, and was just diagnosed as having Lyme's disease. A friend at work was having a wierd visual problem that she thought was related to her recent Lasik eye surgery, but it turns out that she had pressure on her optic nerve due to intracranial pressure. She had an MRI done that afternoon which ruled out things like tumors and bleeding, which is good. She now has to have a spinal tap to measure the fluid pressure in her central nervous system or something.

I'm so scared of getting some serious disease or something that just sort of all of a sudden comes up. Maybe that's how all diseases are, I guess. But I've heard stories of people who just sort of one day start not feeling well, and it turns out they have cancer of the (whatever) and have 6 months to live. That idea is so scary to me. I'm turning into a total hypochondriac.

Well, maybe not unreasonably so, but it's still something I think about every so often.

This weekend went by quickly. Diana and I put up some curtains. They look better on the floor than on the wall, I think, but they might just need to be gotten used to. I worked more on the rain gutter, and got it much more stable. The problem is that the roof is sloped one way, and I want the water to flow the other way. So even though I sloped it slightly downhill, because the roof is sloped even more the other way, the water partially flows the wrong way and collects at the non-drain end. It's frusterating.

Diana and I worked on a "skin" for my Grand Theft Auto III character, which was a lot of fun. The game makers provide a file that is used to paint the model in the game. There are samples provided, and we took some digital pictures of me in my comfy clothes, and with a little effort, we were able to make some not-too-bad skins. It's so funny now that in the game I'm wearing scrubs pants and my mexican pancho sweatshirt thing. We tried to do my Spongebob shirt, but the graphics on the front doesn't fit very well.

My dad and I also worked on the fish project. It turns out we had the Christmas edition of the Billy Bass, which didn't fit into the schematic that we had for the normal Billy Bass, so it was a lot of tracing and learning, which was fun. We decided that we actually need a Billy Bass proper, but once we get one, we should have a good head start on exactly what we need to do.

WOW!

Norm had some extra tickets to go see STOMP at the Civic Theater, and was kind enough to invite me and Diana. What an AWESOME show that was. It was just incredible. I had a smile on my face the whole time. The most amazing part was the pure skill and creativity they had creating music with totally rudmentary objects. Anyways, too much to even begin to type out, but I'm really glad we were given the opportunity to go. Thanks Norm and Teri!

Dry eyes.

Two nights ago, I was in the jacuzzi for a littel pre-bedtime soak. Not unusual. When getting out of the jacuzzi, I rubbed my eyes a little bit and found that my left eye was slightly swollen at the inner corner of my eye. Within a few minutes, the upper, inner corner of my left eye was really swelled up so that it covered the lid. I took some anti-allergy stuff, which didn't help any. When I woke up the next morning, my whole eye was swollen, almost completely shut.

I called in sick, and made a doctors appointment for that afternoon. It's the third time I've seen him for eye problems, either with redness, itchiness, or swelling. He's not really sure what's going on. He thought it was either the start of a bacterial infection, or an allergic reaction to something, and, not knowing, gave me meds for both. Great.

I talked to my brother and dad a little bit. They don't have much of a better idea, but agreed with what I've been thinking for a little while, that I have chronicly dry eyes. I did some reading about chronic eye dryness (are your eyes drying up just reading this?), and at least a few web pages said that computer users can be particularly susceptible since we don't blink as much. I can TOTALLY see myself doing this.

So, I'm going to self-diagnose, er... myself.

I'm going to say that I don't blink enough (I just read computer users may blink 7 times a minutes, compared to 22 times per minute average), and can become tear-deficient. This can cause dry spots on my eyes, or a buildup of junk in my eyes, which can block ducts and generally cause irritation and inflammation.

So, to fight that, I'm going to take more computer breaks, and try to concentrate on blinking more (probably impossible). Further, I'm going to have a healthy supply of artificial tears onhand, both at work and at home, to be used multiple times a day, particularly before bed and in the morning. And the next time I have a significant problem (swelling, etc), I'm going to insist on seeing an eye-doc.

There. Let's try that for a couple weeks and see how things go, right?

Now, I guess I continue with the regimen of antibiotic eyedrops and anti-histimines as perscribed? I don't see why I should except that I was instructed to do so.

Weekends are never long enough.

Saturday was a baby shower for the wife of a co-worker of mine. The ladies got together and did baby stuff (which Diana seemed to have fun observing more than actually taking part in), and the gents played golf. Iwan was able to join us, which made things a lot more fun, as I didn't really know anyone else except my co-worker. I would have loved to break 100, but I got a 103. Oh well.

Saturday night was Gabe's birthday. A select group went to Bucca de Beppo for dinner. I've only been there twice, and thought the food was generally mediocre, but the atmosphere certainly makes up for it. It's a lively place, and we had a good time. Afterwards, we went to some little bar. Diana and Sara and Eryn and I left around midnight, which was a little early for some people at the party, but not a bad time to make an exit. Gabe seemed really touched we were all able to make it, which was nice.

Sunday was a little more relaxing. Diana tutored in the morning, and I slept LATE, which was nice. We then went to the Home and Garden show at the fairgrounds, which was sort of overwhelming. I'm not sure how much we learned about what we want to do with our yard, but it was neat to see the exhibits. We came home in the afternoon pretty pooped, and just sort of lazed for the rest of the evening, which was nice. I got the spa clean and sparkling again. It turns out some measurements are in half-teaspoons, and some are in teaspoons, and some are in ounces (6 teaspoons to an ounce, I think Mom said). I have half-teaspoon sitting out by the jacuzzi. And I think I haven't been putting in enough stuff sometimes, thinking that I was putting in *teaspoons* when it actually was *half teaspoons*. Especially when I'm supposed to put in an ounce of something, that's 12 halves, and I think I've been putting in 6 halves. Anyways, it's all good now.

A skiing trip to Mammoth is being planned, which should be fun. Diana and I were really on the fence about it, because we're not that big into skiing or snowboarding (her less than me), and it's a long drive just to hang out with friends that we see all the time around here. But on the other hand, it WILL be fun to go on vacation with all those peeps, and Mick is going, who I never get to see, so that made the decision easier. I'm not looking forward to the long drive, though.

So... that's about it for now. Oh! I bought Grand Theft Auto III. Now to see what all the fuss is about.