Veritable Cacophony

Underslept and home from amok

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:16:45 GMT

Spend the last several days in Boston visiting little sis for her birthday. Had a lot of fun, incluing:
- buying books and perusing furniture
- (almost) pink shirt night and the awesome fries in cougarville
- Two bars, one for hobos
- Watching the British Office, and Arrested Development on a disabled DVD player
- driving and insanely nice weather
- planning stuff for yard enhancement and making soap

However, as I am severely underslept I have to go to bed now. I hung in there and pulled a double session for NaNo, so I'm up just over 8k words. Still a coupla days behind, but if I can pull doubles the next couple days I'll get caught up. Fortunately my ancient iBook still rocks after the DIY repair, (go starFlake!) and gives me the best of both worlds; more comfortable seating that at my desk, but a better keyboard and bigger screen than the netbook. Not fully portable, but enough for me to get into my favorite chair.

Peace out

And the excuses begin ...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:06:22 GMT

Things I did tonight INSTEAD of writing:
- made a big pot of soup
- exercised the hedge-pig
- repaired a rocking chair
- vegged out with Red
- rubbed dinner into my eyes and then complained when it hurt
- figured out how to move files onto and off the netbook
- practiced piano

Hopefully I can add "went to bed on time and got rested" to that list. But it's OK, I have time blocked out at the end of the week to take care of that. I hope. :\

Walking the long road

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:24:57 GMT

So I started NaNoWriMo today, and managed to hit the first goal despite my best efforts to procrastinate. On the plus side, I was able to spend hours running throwing a dinner party and running around looking for bits to make a hedgie palace AND still get my words in. On the down side, this was Sunday so I probably should have done double quota to make up for an upcoming busy week. Also, I have written everything that was already in my head. Also, skipped piano. ALSO, on daylight savings mindfuck and two consecutive nights of staying up way too late, so who knows how tomorrow morning will go.

Also, WTF does Facebook always freak out with the "let's post an update" box? Does this on my phone randomly, and the netbook randomly, and my DT randomly. Wuz up wit dat? The world wants to hear the minutia of my life, they really do. When I can't spit it out in a pithy line there, I have to write a whole PARAGRPH here. T3h h0rr0rZ.

Skills and the skilling skillers who skill them

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:44:21 GMT

So, yesterday I got to express two completely different set of skills.

First, a random dude at work needed a tie but didn't know how to tie it, so I did it. While he was wearing it, which I understand is more difficult than doing it on yourself. I realized that, aside from a few random facebook people, that is all I retain from 12 years of Catholic school.

Then, I went home and disassembled the dryer. Several times, from several different angles until I found the one that let me at the burn-y bits. I then cleaned things, put it back together, and discovered that it still works. Better, it produces heat everytime, instead of only 5%. This must be the essence of manly humanity; exacting physical change on the world around you through the application of skills, tools, and brute force.

Creepin up slowly

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:21:14 GMT

I was leaving Lowe's the other day (bastards didn't have any spray paint) and there was this woman standing in the middle of the parking lot, with her back to oncoming traffic, talking to her husband as he unloaded the car. I crept up slowly and stopped about a foot from her. Hubby straightens up and alerts her, and she turns around and doubletakes at how I magically appeared. Then laughs. Hubby waves, then facepalms. It's nice when people can have a sense of humour about being oblivious.

whoosh

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:58:08 GMT

Waaay too busy to put up everything that's going on. In short:
- still working on storming windows, the bedrooms are almost done and then on to the kitchen
- Materials have been acquired, a coldframe is in the works. Still no idea what I'll grow in it.
- Just had a birthday, for which I got a hedgehog. Supercute, cat-proof, just need to keep it warm and then build it a castle.
- rearranged the living room, now the piano needs tuned again but at least I'm practicing.
- cold much recently?

Somebody is the MAYOR

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:24:07 GMT

... of Crazytown.

Ever have one of those days that was so crazy busy you just had to start laughing? And people started staring at you like you were psycho? Yeah ... I was sitting in a meeting and bouncing up and down from being so hyped up and ADD, but I hadn't even had any caffeine yet.

Work is in crazy busy mode. School starts Monday, some of the classrooms are flaming craters, and my to-do list is longer than the layover at Godot.

Finally met with the plumber today. It turns out that to fix the little leak in my basement, they're gonna need a wrench. And some pipe. And a BACKHOE, because the leak is actually in the ground somewhere and I need a whole new water service. That fun will commence probably next week.

Sis is moving to Boston this weekend. Saturday, in fact. What else is happening in Boston on Saturday? Featuring whom? Yeah, I realized that while driving to meet said plumber, and I said a Word. A bad Word. A very, very bad Word, in fact. At the top of my lungs. The freshmen moving in to the dorms looked at me funny. Oops.

To make it better, that shindig will be in the next neighborhood over. So if you see a clip on CNN of some dude getting pulled out of a UHaul by the Secret Service, that's me. I'm almost tempted to make a call and see what happens. "Hello, Secret Service? I'm trying to move my ... uh, stuff ... to Boston. Can you recommend a route that will provide the least hassle?" But no. That would be stupid. My hope is that the traffic from the morning funeral will be cleared out by the time we arrive in the evening.

THEN, after an hour of fruitlessly frantic driving around to make arrangements for Red's car, I got home, and got to re-attach my bumper. With epoxy. Here's hoping it'll be 80MPH epoxy ...

(or not, I got some on my arm. Oops ...) PS. Beer plus ayeem makes for a surprisingly good conversation with Dad ...

A bit of gravity

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:07:42 GMT

A monologue from one of the deleted scenes in Torchwood:

GWEN: You go to school. You go to work. You go to bed. You eat. You get kissed. You have sex. You fall in love or you don't. But it's work and bed and food and sleep, two weeks in Spain, and Christmas and birthdays and weekends, every single day until it stops. That's the world. That's the world I live in. That's all there is.

Stimulus and relief

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:41:08 GMT

So all kinds of people have been fussing about how the Cash for Clunkers was a bad idea, and how everybody would be using it to upgrade from one huge SUV to a slightly more efficient one. I did some searching and found the top 10 models of cars being bought under CARS:

Top 10 New Vehicles Purchased
Here is the data sent to us by the NHTSA on August 5, 2009 at 3:30 pm.
1. Toyota Corolla
2. Ford Focus FWD
3. Honda Civic
4. Toyota Prius
5. Toyota Camry
6. Hyundai Elantra
7. Ford Escape FWD
8. Dodge Caliber
9. Honda Fit
10. Chevrolet Cobalt
from: http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.com/20090805-top-10-cash-for-clunkers-models/

This looks like a lot of compacts and subcompacts to me; the only midsize is the Camry. The only thing SUV-like is the Escape, which is mostly a crossover, at worst a cute-ute. I will be fascinated to see what the final numbers come out to be ...

Marathon week - the unhappy half

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:36:36 GMT

So Tuesday night Auntie died. Spent the night making phone calls to get family in touch with family. Wednesday was driving Uncle around to make arrangements. Thursday family started arriving. Friday and Saturday alternated between keeping my house livable and attending the wake. (Did I mention that the one bedroom was under construction during this period, and therefore emptied into the other? Finding space was hard.) Sunday was the funeral. Lovely service, lovely lunch afterwards. The rain storm hit JUST at the burial as a kind of a crescendo, and then cleared for lunch and the drive back.

Today I had to go back to work and unbury. Also, empty out the house and try to regain sanity. It's an uphill struggle. Goal for the week ought to be to get the fiber room emptied back into the bedroom to make room for wedding guests. This weekend coming. Also, two weeks behind in piano practice. Grr.

Did I mention that between heat, and stress, and lack of sleep, that I am breaking out like a mofo? And that I'm getting all kinds of photographed this weekend coming? And that I hate cameras to start with?

Thought so.

Unending marathon: the happy half

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:39:36 GMT

The marathon starts last week. Let's say, Thursday?

Thursday was veg night. Made a spiffy dinner out of something. Worked on painting the bedroom. Freaked out a little about the coming business

Friday was Taco's bachelor party. It was lightly attended, but all who came had fun. Lots of good food, an open bar, and a bunch of cool people to play games with. When the restaurant kicked us out, we went back to my place to play Pit, the rollicking commodity trading game. (no, really). There was more open bar, and at some point I may or may not have misplaced my pants. The last person left at 5.

Saturday was "don't sleep in 'cause the cats need fed" day. Family brekky, then a wedding on Lake Ontario. (Congrats Megan!) The some exploration of the cute little park, which was just down the road from my Aunt's lake house that we used to spend summers at. Then a nerd-tastic reception, including a photo-guestbook, guitar hero, and the tastiest wedding cake ever. Topped with bride-and-groom Mudkips.

Sunday was a spiffy brunch with family, including really tasty blueberry pancakes. So tasty that no syrup was even wanted, let alone needed. Then the start of the bad half, then another spiffy group for dinner. I was gonna make Lion's Head, but instead we did hot dogs. And salad, and chickpeas aubergine. mmm.

Monday was "I'm supposed to go to work but I haven't started painting the bedroom yet so I'll stay home and paint day".

And that was the fun part of my marathon week. I'll post the unfun part once I get some sleep.

Three stickers, one message

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:52:55 GMT

"Fix Or Repair Daily"
"Friends don't let friends drive Ford"
"This vehicle is a 2002 Ford Turd"

All three bumpers stickers seen on the back of the same Ford Explorer. Something tells me the owner was not happy with his purchase.

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Transformed. Maybe.

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:16:27 GMT

Just got out of the new Transformers movie. The explosions were pretty, and most of the actors weren't bad either. But the dialog was crap, the plot was terrible, there were things happening that made absolutely no sense, and characters kept spouting these awful cheesy voiceovers. Also, the very cool fight scenes moved a little too fast for me to follow everything. Soundtrack was good, and I only caught the cgi when they were stomping humans; never when the robots were involved. Oh, and jar jar was there, in chris-Tucker-annoying twins of some low end Aveo clone. Fucking JarJar.

Overall, it's eye candy.

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grinding through

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:42:37 GMT

The fiber room is SO. CLOSE. to almost being done. I need another pass at the trim in the closet, then I can put the hardware and shelves back in, and repack. Then I can paint the trim in the rest of the room. No luck on finding replacement floor yet, but I haven't been looking that hard either. With massive luck this weekend I can declare fiber done and empty the bedroom into it. Then start on the bedroom, which should be loads more easier. Crosses fingers.

Also grinding through, I am in the middle of Ahab's Wife or, The Stargazer. It is an enveloping book, very very dense, with hundreds of bitty chapters. I think they average about 4 pages each. It's dense, I'll say it again, in that you can read and read and only be a few pages on, but you felt like you've read for hours. In a good way. I would highly recommend it as summer reading, even before I finish it, because by the time I finish it the time for summer reading will be over.

Also, been spending way too much time playing Majora's Mask. I'm trying to get all the masks so I can unlock Fierce Deity Link. If I ever do cosplay again, that's what I'm going after. Maybe someone will come up with a Hot Adult Midna costume and join me in awesome obscurity.

Really, that's it. I lead a boring life.

Wet happens

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:38:06 GMT

SOMEBODY had the brilliant idea to bike to work today. Not that the ride IN was bad, cool and easy as usual. It's just that the weather decided to rain this afternoon. It was raining, then clear for a bit, and stupid me decided to work late and finish some stuff rather than leave early. It was only misting as I left so I thought I'd be fine, but before I made it off campus the heavens opened up. Puddles grew, the curbs on the hills turned into rivers rather than pathways, and I continued to get pounded relentlessly from above. After the first mile there was not a square inch of me that wasn't soaked. I prefer to think of it more as bicycle assisted swimming than cycling.

Strangely, after the first five minutes I attained a zen peace. It's amazing how happy you can be when you give up preconceptions of comfort. As I (now) say, wet happens.

After that, dinner with the EEs and top gear, then feeding the lonely cat and hanging with the hench. And not hitting a skunk on a lonley back road. Important, that.

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Moon (and not the rhetorical one)

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:09:08 GMT

Just got home from seeing Moon. Great science fiction, manages to stay taut with only one real actor. In the age old tradition of "background technology, foreground technology that explores a social concept," this movie was set against a backdrop of helium3 mining, and examined whether clones are people too. The more I think of it, the worse the science was, but it was a great science fiction STORY.

Also, you know your an adult when you invite a former teacher over and have a blast.

And, homemade fudge is the bomb and not as scarey as one might think. As is Moroccan tea.

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Hugh crimes

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:15:11 GMT

I got to see the seamy side if Amherst yesterday; one pasty faced teenager buying cigarettes for a 12 year old. The scandal!

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I live in interesting times

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:23:37 GMT

I feel surprisingly calm, considering the day I've had.

Got up with the birds at the ass crack of dawn. Some mixture of bright sunshine and insistently hungry cats makes sleeping in difficult. Did the morning thing, went to work.

While sorting through my morning email, noticed that my laptop wasn't sitting straight on the stand. Kept trying to find what had rolled under it when I noticed that the battery was swelling and ABOUT TO EXPLODE. Took that to get repaired; apparently the laptop warranty is 3 years but the battery warranty is only 1. Feh. Work has to buy me a battery.

Instead of chinese for lunch, the usual crew detoured to an unnamed restaurant for an upscale meal. Nearing the end, I stirred the remains of my lettuce and noticed a dead moth. Oops. The manager kept saying "I'm so sorry" over and over until I accepted her apology. Ended up with a free lunch, and a card for free dinner. All for NOT eating a bug.

Auntie is back in the hospital, slightly more serious this time.

Piano was a flop, largely because I didn't practice. And I can't read music. And my ring fingers are gimpy-weak. And I didn't practice.

Also, it's 80-thousand degrees in here, and with the pissy cat blocking the door I can't set up my magic air flow cooling system. AAND with the front windows getting redone later I'm not sure it's worth setting up the AC in the front of the house. Back to a hammock in the basement? I've never slept next to a table saw before ...

Summer sundays

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:37:27 GMT

I had to fetch the bees out again, but at least now the lawn is presentable and I was able to wash the worst of the leprechaun off my feet. On the plus side, I noticed that the strawberry bed was burgeoning, so now I have plenty of nummy berries to eat.

Spent yesterday at the Sonnenberg Estate, out in Canandaigua. It was like Casa Loma in Toronto, only 100 times more money. A 20 acre estate, all immaculately groomed and full of fun buildings. For example, the peacock house (for housing the peacocks, of course) is bigger than my garage. Must be nice ...

Saturday was supposed to be painting in the morning, but that got rained out. So instead I played with my table saw which, if i may say, is a terrifying piece of machinery. I can cut through wood and not tell when I'm done, because there is no discernible difference between "saw cutting nothing" and "saw cutting your wimpy ass board, try something beefer next time nancy-boy". Voof!

Other than that, putter and play. Go summer!

The bees, man!

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:43:17 GMT

So, I really thought I posted this up already, it apparently not. LJ really needs to get with the program and become more iPhone friendly. All of my spare cycles are going into updating facebook
status! ( is it a bad sign when you start mentally narrating your days' activities in pithy quips?)

So a while back I inherited an electric lawnmower from the friend of an aunt of a parent of a friend. I have used an electric lawnmower before, and it sounded more like a vacuum cleaner. Nothing like hoovering the lawn on a nice sunny day ... (don't laugh, there are people that actually do that.)

This one, instead of using a spinning blade it uses two of those whipcord things that spin really fast. So instead of making a rushing (vaccing) noise it makes a high pitched drone. Twice. Hence, the angry bees. The solar charging roomba-mower is still on the list, but there are a few things I have to take care of before I can build that.

So I have had to resign some of my hippy-aura, but the lawn gets cut (fairly) regularly and it looks better. With less cursing and sweating, and still no local burning of hydrocarbons.

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dangerous chemicals

Tue, 26 May 2009 01:38:11 GMT

Got to play with the nasties today. Bleached out the papasan cushion from the basement, and rinsed several times, and set in the sun to dry. Papasan will replace rocking chair, and hopefully cats will not pee on it. Again.

Went to the hardware store and bought varnish stripper. Curious stuff. Terribly solvent, that it melts varnish, and evaporates so quickly there's only about 10 seconds between when the varnish melts and you can wipe it off, and when it hardens again. FIlled the basement with fumes, but (an upsoide of being solventy) they dissipated again very quickly. Now I just need to find time to rub a couple coats of finish into it and I'll have a real desk. Then the dresser. And a round of furniture shuffle, 'cause I may be inheiriting some sentimental furniture.I need a bigger house.

And sleep. I have begun waking up at 5:30 for the last most of a week. Every day. No matter what time I go to bed. I realized driving home that the timing roughly coincides with kicking the coke habint. I wonder ...

catchup.

Thu, 21 May 2009 22:57:47 GMT

Whole lot of random stuff going on.

From the "weirdest communication path", there was a problem at work and the guys didn't know what to do. They called the number on the order, but no response. So they flagged me down on my way out. I recognized the name, but didn't have a different number. He WAS a facebook friend, though, so I checked his profile. Included his AIM, which wasn't logged in. But it WAS set to forward to cell phone, so I IMed that he call the office number. And all was resolved. That's, what, paper to person to Facebook to AIM to cell phone/text to landline? Oh Brave New World ...

Biked to work today, first time in ... a year? Two? Good idea, biking downhill to work when it's cool out. Bad idea, biking uphill home from work, with a headwind, while it's hot. Also, we can add bikes to the list of things that fuck up my wrist. :P

Read a book yesterday, all in one go. Sidddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Simple, fast read, a kind of amble through development of Eastern spirituality. Whereas Instance was all about dreary people doing dark things, this was about happy people seeking enlightenment. One can almost close one's eyes and imagine attaining enlightenment too, until the subtle corruption of the world starts to creep back in. Aided and abetted by watching American Idol.

Monday, watched movies on Netflix streaming while doing laundry. Resident Evil: Exctinction was another fine entry in Milla's HCKA genre, with enough internal consistency to be a fun rollick but divorced from reality (and science) enough that one doesn't hold it to too high a standard. Then Falling Down, which I had seen part of once. An interesting commentary on the inevitable slide from "taking matters into one's own hands" to vigilante to bad guy. Finally Brilliant, the Demi Moore / Michael Kaine film about a 50's diamond heist. Aside the fact that I figured out how he did it hours before she did, it was verry well done. In fact, brilliantly so.

Remembrances of shopping trips and Chinese appetizers gone awry will have to wait. Peace out.

it's a hot one today

Wed, 20 May 2009 02:36:01 GMT

Ran errands on the way home. Drove by Best Buy. Had to stop and send Red in to talk to the manager while I stood outside and stomped. BECAUSE THE LANDSCAPING WAS ON FIRE. It was just a smolder and a lot of smoke at first, but by the time I looped the car around there were flames visible. Apparently this happens every couple of months at that location, where a lit cigarette ignites the mulch around the trees. Fuck littering smokers and their arsonist tendencies.

Now my car smells like woodsmoke.

Book - An Instance of the Fingerpost

Sat, 16 May 2009 13:04:00 GMT

I did it! It took months of soldiering through, but I finally finished what is considered to be Iain Pears' masterpiece work. Set in 1600's England, it's a four-part tale centering around the murder of a doctor at Oxford, and the subsequent trial and conviction of a woman for the crime. Most of the dramatis personae are notables from English history; there's a glossary in the back for those of us that slept through that class in high school. Pears is brilliant for his ability to weave multiple points of view together, offering two or three of four views of the same event, each character describing, convincingly, why their impressions are the only ones possible, until at the end it is all laid out from above and the narratives revealed as the dim meanderings of so many ants.

Reading the book was a bit like walking through one of those Soviet era apartments; a massive affair, sturdily made but without hopeful ornament, slightly foreign and rather depressing, a dingy world inhabited by grubby people. And when in the end one emerges from the musty twisting passages of this edifice into a small garden of sun-scrubbed cabbages, one is able to look back and see the base humanity that underlies all of it and be comforted.

I would recommend to others, although be prepared that much of the book concerns nasty people doing nasty things to each other, and is thus rather a downer until enough narrative mass has been built to begin appreciating the patterns and interplay. Pears' other work of a similar style, The Dream of Scipio, remains one of my top favorites.

Wed, 13 May 2009 02:19:28 GMT

What does it say that the most compelling thing on the TiVo right now is a 15 minute show of some video camera pointed at a random body of water? That the TiVo recommended to us thinking it was Yoga practice?

Spend the evening cleaning out my room. I was able to Roger at least some of it, and now the dust bunnies will no longer haunt my dreams. LOTS of paper going out to the recycle. Also, The Vincent Black Shadow is much better on album. When we say them opening for Bif Naked I thought they were terrible; at this rate they will become one of the car CD's.

Also, I have been stashing my big plants outside days and warm nights. They are so shiny and green! Who would have thought that plants like being outside so much? Maybe they are inspired by the spiffiness of my well-tended shade garden.

There are not enough hours in a day. Not been sleeping (well) enough. Piano practice is suffering. As is block club. And house-rebuilding. Argh!