November 30th 4:50PM
Crack a Guinness, reflect, blog
Odd day today. I got all my stuff done, and I didn't have a burning desire to do any one thing, no particular project. So, I kidded around with some things I thought I should want to do: studied some French, read about special interest politics in my "Big Book About Government." It's not really called that, but that's what it is, a primer. And I read more from The Future of Freedom, by Zakaria. I also screwed around with my 3D title-maker program, Ulead's Cool3D. I finally got onto the Ulead website after 4 days of trying - seems their site was down for the last few days.
Anyway, all in all, not a bad day at all.
Snow Fall
Hey, Tony Snow is leaving Fox News Sunday - how the hell did that come about?! Well, it's done with now - but I liked his work, I'll miss him.
Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!
In other news, a local
man was spotted on top of a farm animal in a rural area yesterday. Sadly,
this was not the first time. No explanation was provided.
November 29th 7:50AM
Thanks to the "Dirty Mick"
Muchas gracias to el Chicano Blanco for the network advice he handed me in e-mail. I haven't tried it out yet, but it sure sounds right. And right or wrong, it's nice to know somebody's got the notion to help out a Smelly Frog like me once in a while. Merci, mon bon ami.
Household joys
Worked in my backyard a bit yesterday, cleaning up some things that needed cleaning up. My wife and I took our stir crazy dogs to the park, let them run around and slobber on each other. Tried out my new computer's DVD player, and it works pretty well. Watched the South Park movie, "Bigger, Longer and Uncut." Dirty, and funny.
Worked on an animation that uses my company's logo. I liked the way it turned out, and may even send a link to my boss, so he knows what a clever devil I am. Come to think of it, I made this one the day before. Just so you don't think I ain't been doin' nothin', y'all.
November 28th 6:10AM
Goin' shoppin'.
Yesterday was a good one - my wife and mother-in-law put together a great meal, and a good time was had by all. This morning, I've got a bug in my ass to go shopping at the craziest and most frugal time of year - The Morning After. There are some good deals out there, and I hate to miss out on a good deal, so I'm kicking my wife out of bed (there's a rare occurrence), and we're going.
Dude, I got me a Dell!
No, I haven't forgotten the Dell Dude. Screw these other young punks, I miss the Dell guy/dude/kid/punk. What's that have to do with anything? Nothing. What I mean to say is that my new computer is running fine, for the most part. I've even managed to get it networked to the old machine, and the majority of the data is transferred. Unfortunately, the new computer doesn't see the old computer on the network, but the reverse is not true, so I am managing. If anyone has an obvious fix for this, please e-mail me. Also unfortunately, I hooked up an old monitor last night, and it doesn't appear to function anymore... Boo hoo. I was hoping I could exploit the old PC while my wife hogs - oops, I mean uses the new one, but that fantasy's shot in the ass unless and until we get a new monitor, which is an expense we may not be able to afford. Then again...
November 25th 7:49AM
Didn't run a step
I got off my ass and went for a run yesterday. Cold as it was, it felt pretty good. I woke up a little early this morning with the same idea in mind, but I never made it out the door - my wife didn't have to work today, and the lovin' was just too good!
Enough bragging - among the other nice things she's
doing to for me today, she's taking my car in to the body shop and
picking up my rental, so I don't have to miss a minute of work. I wonder
if my boss appreciates that? Hmmm.
November 23rd 10:40AM
And another thing...
MCOPS officers and a Ripon cop shoved around a citizen, threatened his life, lied about it, and then got away with it. I'm a pro-cop kinda guy, but this stinks. You really owe it to yourself to read up on this.
Note the Ripon police chief's name: "Police Chief Richard Bull." Isn't that too perfect? "I'd like to introduce you to my second in command, Captain Screw, and tonight's Watch Commander will be Sergeant Donut McBacon."
November 23rd 10:15AM
Weak. So very weak.
or
Good one, Lord. Very funny.
or
(cursing tirade)
The title for this post is a tossup; let me tell you why. We set out for my father-in-law's place yesterday morning, 90-minute drive. We're motoring through that thrilling mecca of agriculture, Linden, California, when the loosely packed load of items from an oncoming Chevy pickup succumbs to the pressures of physics, and coughs up one of the cardboard boxes filled with something not quite heavy enough to keep it in the truck. I saw the box windsurf off the bed of the pickup add drift gently, as if a leaf on a breeze, into my one lane of the highway. I swerved to the right, making a snap decision between staying on the road or avoiding the box. I chose to stay on the road, and the cardboard cannonball crashed into my front-left fender, and swiped the side of my door (tearing clean off my sideview mirror) and back fender as it continued on its path of mindless destruction.
In short, a box flew off a truck and hit my car. Weak. So very weak.
Now you know why my high-school English teachers still wake up screaming into the night - I love to hear myself type. Anyway, my beautiful Honda Civic hybrid took a serious but superficial beating, dicking up a perfectly attractive car out of the blue and through no fault of my own. God just reached down and set into motion this chain of events, in my personal theory, because he thinks I'm hilarious and this stuff gives me a reason to dance for him. That's okay, because I agree - I'm funny as hell. But bashing in my car's fender and lights is not.
This post is meandering, but you get the idea. For those of you who need a moral to the story to tie everything together, try these:
- Nobody got hurt, that's what's important.
- People from Linden or other farming communities ought to know enough to tie a load down, especially when driving at highway speeds.
- My car was not meant to look nice. It apparently was meant to look like a raging hillbillymobile, where things are scratched and dented and rattle and squeak, and you have to turn off the radio for the air conditioner to work because of the time that cousin Billy Ray got all high on meth and "fixed" my turn signal.
November 21st-th-ish 7:55AM
The eCard application I originally had up as a kooky, look-what-I-can-do app on my personal website has been picked up by the company I work for. That, I've already mentioned. What's new is that I've reworked it to accept much more than animated GIF's like it originally did, and me and a couple of coworkers have put together some wacky content more befitting than the original junk I had up. It's coming along, and I'm working on one animation of my own.
November 20th 6:27AM
Thoughts, pooling in my head. Must let them out.
I miss Paris. There, I said it. When I first got back, I was just glad to be in a place where I could count on everybody speaking the same language - Spanish! No, just kidding. It's true that I longed for the familiarity of home - the language, the reliable schedule and tempo of my life, the comfort. Now that I'm back and revitalized, I miss the rich, strong coffee, the crazy, cobbled, narrow, sometimes-dog-poop-lined streets, the nice people (yes, I'm still talking about Paris, France - the people were great so check your preconceived notions), all the dogs out on the street walking their owners. I miss the advertisements, with their creativity and their indifference to simple nudity.
Things weren't perfect in France - our trip was also stressful, exhausting and difficult. If I can ever go back, I would hope to have done some other things in advance, including walking at near-marathon distances to steel my endurance to the pedestrian lifestyle, studying art history enough to appreciate the absolute treasure of the Louvre and other museums, learning the French language well enough and abandoning my timidity long enough to socialize with people from another country. I also regret having dental work done before I went, which impacted (although not severely) one of the best features of our trip, the food. I wish that I were able to munch, grind and savor the foods and drinks without irritation and discomfort as usual, and I wasn't. Damn shame.
And I would walk. One thing that hamstrung this urge was simple fatigue - after a few days in the city, my thighs and hips and back were jackhammered - I felt like the victim of a beating. Another was the urge to see all the sights - I couldn't imagine leaving the city and not seeing the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame and the other wonders of the city that I viewed in books and on the Web while daydreaming of actually being there. I'm glad I saw them, but the memories that are turning out to be the most important are between those places. Finally, it just wouldn't have been gentlemanly to leave my wife alone and go traipsing through the streets of France, so I didn't strike out on my own. Well, not right away, anyway. Towards the end of our trip, Michelle was just beat, and I woke up feeling less lame than her, so I let her sleep, and took off in search of coffee and a newspaper. I ended up a few blocks away at the Pantheon, of all places, which I'd had no idea was just around the corner from our hotel. I snapped photo after photo after photo after photo all around the place, and went back "home." I really enjoyed that walk, and wish I had taken more of them. I may have to rent a wheelchair or a bicycle, but I'd like to do more of it. I can see why Anthony Kielski does so much of it.
I really didn't crack open the blog this morning only to talk about Paris, but I'm now out of time. Crap! I guess I had a lot to say. Well, maybe next time. See ya.
November 19th 7:49AM
Am I not a rich man?
Today, I am again but a peasant, but last night, I was a king. I had a nice long conversation with my wife that reaffirmed how funny, beautiful and sharp she is. I put down a fat wad of cash for a beefy new computer system (that I, uh, think we can afford), had a leisurely meal. Slept like a rock.
Beyond that, it's not all roses, but I don't think there's many people I'd trade with. I need to start jogging again, I haven't been out for a run since my dental work laid me low. Then I caught a cold, and now . . . well, now I'm running low on excuses. Gotta get out there.
I don't feel safe all of a sudden
Manteca Police officers hired an expert to testify that tossing a handcuffed "suspect" around, pointing a gun at his head and threatening to kill him is quite acceptable conduct. I wonder what the housing market is doing in Stockton. By the way, the suspect was just sitting around in his place, and the cops apparently busted in without announcing themselves (constitutionally required for a good search), and then a Ripon cop who was part of the crew on the scene lied about it
November 17th 6:12AM
Time management
Yesterday, late morning/early afternoon was a great period of time - I had all my "have-to's" behind me, and the rest of the practical day was my oyster. I had planned a rigorous schedule including things I really wanted to do: one hour of reading Zakaria's book (I never can quite remember the title, so I refer to it in this shorthand), a half hour of reading the local newspapers, another hour of French, and maybe research motherboards and other computer shit, because I'm hoping to punch Santa in the kidneys and extort a new machine from him.
Well, I ended up spending around 3 hours checking out motherboards and a few peripherals, and then hitting the bottle with my saintly mother-in-law. It wasn't quite the bender I make it out to be - we had some Brie cheese, some red wine my wife picked out for me, and then a fantastic dinner my wife put together. I had rack of lamb, and ate nearly the whole damn rack.
Knocking wood
I think I'm just about done being sick. Luckily, I never got to feeling thoroughly miserable.
Politics
George Will zinged Democratic Prez candidate Richard Gephardt with a great question on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." on ABC. I wanted to copy the question from ABC's crappy website, but after barely getting it to load, I can't easily find transcripts. Anyway, Will started out by noting that Gephardt has been persistently urging that the Bush administration has not been multilateralist enough in its foreign affairs, and noting that Gephardt is backed by steel workers' unions, which are supportive of the steel tariff America has in place that many other countries of the world condemn. Will's question boiled down to this: Should we be more multilateralist and do away with the steel tariffs (and thereby booty-hump a powerful sector of your constituency), or should we continue with the tariffs and snub the world community you have been urging us to embrace?
Gephardt's initial answer consisted of the rhetorical equivalent of waving your arms and barking like a dog to distract attention from the fact that his answer was non-responsive. After a lengthy speech that traced careful steps around the question without actually (ick) touching it, George Will was tenacious and unfazed, and asked the candidate (paraphrasing, no transcript available): 'So, does that mean you do or do not embrace the steel tariffs?' Gephardt reluctantly admitted he backed the tariffs.
George Will is a bad motherfucker.
November 16th 9:42AM
Feeling a bit better
Still not 100%, but I cannot complain.
Big promises demand big results
Arnold Schwarzenegger blew in on a wave of promises of reform (with my vote) - tomorrow he'll be elevated to a position that allows him to start making hay out of those promises. One of them is the wholesale snubbing of special interests, a factor of American politics that has enmeshed itself so deeply and thoroughly that it will be interesting to see how an honest attempt at un-weaving it will play out. If I have any tenacity, I will go crack open my power-in-American-politics text book (can't seem to find it just now), learn everything it offers on special interests, and then watch closely as this progresses. We'll see.
Reading a little further into his website and more of his promises, I see he has promised to invest in and back private alternative-fuel transportation as part of a plan to protect and restore California's environment. Alternative fuels are an obvious solution whose time has been too long in coming. I'm very excited to see someone take the lead on this issue. Steps like this will carry us into a future that should already be the present, addressing both environmental needs and energy challenges in the same motion. Further, his promises to "Promote Solar and Renewables," retrofit buildings with solar panels and other energy-saving technologies, and increase the state's own use of renewable energy sources make my dick hard, and stirs within me of some of the wonder I felt when I took a Natural Resources class and questioned "why aren't we doing more?" Maybe now we will...
Andrew's answers
Andrew Phelps has a nice explanation of misconceptions about digital and film cameras.
November 14th 7:54AM
I don't feel so good
But I went to work anyway. I considered calling in sick to spare my coworkers the likelihood of catching what I've got, but it probably wouldn't be taken as a gesture of good will. Plus, I'm just healthy enough to do the job - if I was really lain low, I would've called in, no matter how it's perceived.
The e-Card function we've put up is about to get some fresh content - the projects I and my coworkers have been working on are almost ready, but need some polish. Soon...
November 13th 12:49PM
I haven't blogged all week, dammit.
The hell of it is, I don't know what to say. It's been a busy week, a week of old interests rejoined. After months of neglect, I picked up Fareed Zakaria's book, the one I mentioned in my last post. I completely abandoned French since I got back from my vacation, I picked that up again, too. I've been plugging away at learning MySQL & PHP during all my free time at work, and making some progress. I wish I could show off my headway, but the server this website is on doesn't do databases. I heard somewhere that there are ways to cop free accounts for newbie-level database learning. I'll have to look that up. I've been working a little bit with Ulead's Cool 3D, a 3D animation program with multiple uses. Since giving it another look, I'm finding that it's more powerful than I previously thought, but still not a cakewalk to use. The online tutorials posted by its users have been a big help. Heck, I even made this.
I happened to talk to my dad on the phone, and was more pleasant to him than I intended to be. Our relationship is so screwed up, and will never be what it ought to have been.
I feel like I'm coming down with a head cold, and have been pumping fluids through my system to cheat the germs of another victim. Happily, my goddamn teeth have stopped being the only thing I can think about. I found that this anti-inflammatory medication I've been taking helps more than Vicodin. Thank God I have something that works.
Talk to you (hopefully) soon.
November 9th 3:35PM
Take me drunk, I'm home again
I have had a great day, no doubt about it. Let me tell you: I went to sleep feeling like I'd been rinsed out and hung out to dry. I woke up feeling the downhill side of an uphill battle. Maybe I was fighting off a cold and didn't know it, but I was a mess. Today is hugely better! I felt great all day, and had the drive but not the inspiration to do something great. So, I begun reading anew "The Future of Freedom," by Fareed Zakaria, a gift from a good friend. I was smack in the middle of enjoying it and 2.5 Heineken beers, when my wife's friend came over and gave me some busywork to do.
So naturally, I blew that off and kept reading my book, which I'm enjoying quite a lot. The rain has quit for what is forecast to be the rest of the week, and I've been pacing and reading out in front of my home trying to get onboard with Fareed's wisdom. I love him in Newsweek, which I'm finding has fewer and fewer redeeming features.
Uh, shit. I don't know what else to tell you. I had it in me to do something really great today, but I couldn't get excited about anything, so I just walked around in circles until I got full of beer and calmed down.
This song is incredible. And that's all I have to say about that. Oh, and John Bizarre is a gifted, talented funny bastard. Read his stuff, or you'll regret it.
November 8th 9:00AM
Good company
Went to a buddy's house for dinner last night, had a great time. He showed me around his home out in the boonies, ticking off a list of indoor and outdoor remodeling chores he's performed that made my back hurt. This guy's put blood and sweat into the place, and it looks great. Makes me feel like a real pecker for putting off cleaning out the gutters.
More socializing today
I've got a wedding, a reception and a baptism to attend today. What a full dance card we have lately. Some friends of my wife, really good people, are gettin' all hitched up. We wish them the best.
November 7th 7:49AM
Must . . . stop . . . the PAIN
Oh, my face. The pain in my jaw withered yesterday morning and raged back over the course of the day. I thought I was gonna have to jump off the roof. Then, I made a new friend. His name is Vicodin.
Every time I've mentioned Vicodin around any of my associates who've had some kind of chronic pain in the past, their eyes roll back and glaze over a bit, so I was a little hesitant to take this narcotic. I'm happy to report that I didn't get high, but the throbbing nugget of agony in my mandible receded to an almost pleasant pulse of discomfort. I was able to open my mouth, eat dinner and sleep. No hallucination, no dramatic surge of nausea or incontinence, just less pain. I can live with that.
November 6th 6:30AM
Long time, no blog
Has it only been two days? Seems like more.
Had some more tooth drilling last night. It was about the same experience as last time, but later in the evening I had some awful pain in that area. I tend to believe that it's due to ongoing irritation of the still-healing gaps where my wisdom teeth were removed 6 weeks ago, but it may have been due to the drilling and scraping of yesterday evening.
Nothing in my life is simple and clear.
The result is that I lost sleep due to discomfort, and although I feel better-but-still-tender this morning, I didn't go for my run. The gods of physical fitness will just have to cut me some slack. Instead, I'm making coffee and blogging. Blogging burns calories, right? No? Aw, screw it anyway.
The big nothing
Wow, that was the most boring blog entry I may have ever written. What a vacuous, cardboard cutout of an entry. It has almost no substance at all! I'm amazed the words don't simply blow off the screen with each gentle gust of air from the ventilation system.
The other voice in my head says it's not so bad - it's factual, it's personal.
The rebuttal: yeah, but it's boring as beige wallpaper. They should use repeated readings of that last post to calm excitable mental patients. When I started blogging I had thoughts that seemed important, that begged for a forum. And I come up with this? Pleah. A trip to the dentist is a great experience for producing funny or interesting points of view - comedians do it all the time. Me, I come back with a blog entry that reads like a bicycle assembly manual.
I think I'm just grouchy from last night. The feeling that someone's pounded your jaw with a 2.5 pound sledgehammer can do that to you. I can't wait to go to work with this attitude folded under my arm like the morning newspaper and slap an unsuspecting coworker across the face with it.
On the brighter side
Due to a relentless pursuit, my PHP and MySQL programming is slowly coming along. That makes me feel good.
And that's it for now. Thanks for reading.
November 4th 7:49AM
Whispers, furtive glances
I am tempted to worry about other peoples' business in -ahem- some aspects of my life. I am compelled to jealously crane my neck hoping for a better view of what other people have or might be getting that I am not, chiefly because I have seen hints of a sour, deceitful underbelly when the curtains aren't drawn closed quickly enough. The only sane path is to ignore these distractions, and work towards my own goals. Chasing other peoples' shadows would be the tip-in to madness my psyche's been beggin' for, and God knows it doesn't need the help. So, let the turned backs hack away at their work to chisel a better deal for themselves. I've got shit to do.
I'm kind of a dipshit sometimes
Yesterday I went and shoved October's blog into a new file for the archives from home, and then didn't bother to upload it. Hee hee, jackass. Many thanks to the eagle-eyed and helpful Joe Crawford at artlung.com for pointing out this ridiculous goof before it got too old. I'm glad he's on our side.
November 2nd 10:43AM
New month, new blog
It's been a few days. These days haven't seemed blog-worthy, so I've been quiet. If you're a stalker who's too lazy to actually watch me, let me help you catch up.
Friday night we went to a "bring your own booze" Halloween party where I'm the only attendee who brought his own booze. I don't mind much, I guess, but that's how it was. I still had a good time, and discuss non-violence with a 15 year old kid who I liked right from the start. I eventually bored him, but I kept entertained for most of the night, and managed not to say anything too stupid.
Saturday was a good day. A little work, a little play. The evening was different. I stayed home doing laundry while my wife did the unheard of - she went out and had a good time with her friends, as one of them was having a very mild bachelorette party (or so I've been told). It wasn't as oppressively FemiNazi as it sounds. I keep her (and me) under a rock socially, so I felt good about her getting out and having a good time. Plus, I had work clothes to bang the wrinkles out of, and it keeps me busy. I watched "Castaway" with Tom Hanks, and enjoyed it a lot. Great movie.
Speaking of movies, there's a film festival here in Manteca on November 8th. They have an inexpensive workshop I was hoping to attend, but it appears we have prior commitments, so that's out. I'm disappointed, but I'll get over it.
That brings us to today, which has started out well. I got to watch some favorite programs of mine, made my wife (and later myself) breakfast, and am now walking around in circles thinking about what to do with the rest of the day. On the list: grocery shopping, The Simpson's Halloween Special, and miscellaneous BS.