Insignifica

Thursday!

Picture of the day!

Magic plants in our backyard.

Your question for today: What do Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Mark Twain, and Jesus Christ have in common? There may be multiple things, but I'm looking for a specific answer.

No gym, again, but I walked my 1.4 mile route. And Frosted Flakes were on sale at the store as I walked by, so I got some. Frosted Flakes, while simple, are really only done well by Kellogg. The imitators can't figure out the crunch factor.

Dude, look at this all black penguin. Extra melanin is rare enough, but to cover ALL the white feathers is absurdly rare. Also, penguins are pretty cool.

iPhone users: What are your favorite apps? Are there any paid apps worth my time and money? I use my iPhone more than my desktop computer, but I feel like I can be doing more.

Okay, I think that's enough randomness from me today. Have a fantastic Thursday!

Wednesday!

Picture of the day!

The girlfriend's view from the slopes last week.

No gym this morning. Bought pants instead. Goodwill requires a little lookin', but there's some nice stuff out there, and it's the right price.

So, my TV. I decided when I bought my flat screen that I wanted to mount it on the wall. Took me forever to find a non-China-made mount, but I found a company in Corona that sold them. Great, except very pricey (almost as much as the TV, for what I wanted). Randomly looking around at Fry's last month, I found one made in Israel, and it was super cheap ($60 instead of $260). We finally got it all installed this weekend, and while I had to wrestle off the TV's base, it's up and looks great.

Related, when I unplugged the cable box to move the TV, it stopped working right, so Time Warner had someone come out yesterday. Nice guy, gave me a new box, updated some wiring, and accidentally broke the spigot off my outside hose faucet. It wasn't his fault - the thing had rusted through and would have snapped off at some point anyway. It's capped and waiting for the $6 fix (which requires we turn off the neighbor's water, so we have to wait until we can talk to them about it). All in all, glad to have both problems solved.

OC Atheists meet tonight. More info here. Come say hello!

There are probably millions of people out there who don't realize that you can "undo" with CTRL-Z, for times when you accidentally delete a large block of text, or copy/paste something wrong, or any number of other everyday annoyances. And they probably swear, retype whatever it is they were working on, and blame the computer. Poor bastards.

There's a busy day ahead, so I'm off to get it going. Be well!

Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Katie at Mardi Gras 2008. Yes, two years ago. Yikes, she wasn't even 2 yet there.

I must be under slept: songs are sticking in my head more than usual. The theme to the 1980s "It's Gary Shandling's Show" has been on rotation since I woke up. I'm blaming the new Ironman 2 trailer.

I'm almost halfway finished, How do you like it so far?

Got back to the gym this morning, surprising myself a bit. Feelin' pretty darn good.

Hotel booked for Phoenix - pretty cheap, too, thanks to William Shatner. I also got booked in the same hotel as the friends I'm going with, so that'll be fun.

How are you all today, my friends? Please include at least one palindrome in your response (words or phrases are both ok). Party boobytrap!

Happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Katie and the fountain at The District.

Feelin' good. Got a lot of little things done this weekend, including hanging up my TV mount and getting the TV placed on the wall. It still looks a little funny floating there, though. Only two problems to report. First, the stands on my model TV (Olevia 537H) don't seem to want to be removed, no matter what we do. Second, apparently unplugging and re-plugging in the cable box causes it to no longer show television. It's still recording stuff fine (and I can set it to record the next thing on, then watch that), but I can't watch anything "live". Weirdo technology.

Speaking of technology, I've been bringing my work laptop home and have discovered that it's handy having two laptops downstairs - that's how much our two-adult household uses computers. I kinda wish I had room for my main desktop machine in the living room, but that's unlikely to happen.

My library smells of glue, or paint, or some sort of industrial chemical today. Not really a fan.

No exercising this morning - Mondays are like that.

My assistant here is out today, meaning I've got his work to do. Enjoy your day!

Oh, hello. Happy Friday!

Picture of the day!

Prelude to D&D geekery. Apparently also my iPhone takes pictures at 604x453. What the hell is that?

Taking a day off to make sure I don't get sick - things are going around. But I love you all enough to update the site.

No gym today, but I walked my 1.4 mile route. Beautiful day out there.

Speaking of beautiful days, spring is only 2 weeks away. I'm ready, baby. With that, I leave you. Enjoy your weekend, do something awesome, and kick some figurative ass. Seeya!

Happy Thursday!

Picture of the day!

Rainbow at my mom's house on Saturday. Look closely and you can see that it was a double.

You know what starts today? Angels Spring Training. I've missed baseball this off-season - it's good to have it back.

When I lost my office to my daughter, I put a lot of my books (the vast majority of them, in fact) into storage (in the garage) - seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I'm starting to dig them out, and finding stuff I didn't know I still had. Now, I just need more bookshelves than I've ever owned before to put them all on display.

Speaking of my daughter, I've started letting Katie play with my iPhone. There are actually some nice apps for 3-year-olds out there, and I (likely unwisely) taught her this week how to unlock the phone. Scrolling and button pushing aren't an issue for her at all. She'll never know a time without handy touch interfaces on personal handheld computers. That's pretty awesome.

Feelin' really good today. I got enough sleep, woke up to a sunny morning after a night of rain, and rode 5 miles at the gym. Let's keep it going. Have a great day!

Wednesday!

Picture of the day!

Wonton soup from Loving Hut. Good stuff.

Went to the gym this morning, and Foursquare let me know it was my tenth visit in a month. I'm pretty happy with this.

Talking about Thai food today with friends, and coming to the conclusion that it (and many other types of Asian food) are amazingly fatty and calorie-laden. I love going to small restaurant chains (or single-location places), but I hate that they don't have to post nutritional info. I don't buy all the "small businesses can't afford it" crap. They probably can't "afford" to keep all the bugs out and have hot water, but those are required.

Speaking to a coworker's class tonight about my job and using the internet for news gathering. While public speaking doesn't freak me out, I usually get a bit nervous. This one, though, I'm really looking forward to. The difference, I'm sure, is that I'm very prepared for it. Always worked in school.

Anyone have recommendations for hotels to stay at in Phoenix? Downtown or surrounding area preferred.

I've rediscovered asparagus, roasted with olive olive, salt, pepper, & rosemary. It's as close as I get to describing something as "divine". I'm not sure why it was so good, but I can't stop thinking about it. With that, I'm outta here. Enjoy Wednesday!

Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

My fish army from this weekend.

Gym, feeling good, etc.

I'm getting excited about my Phoenix trip. There aren't a lot of major cities within a half day's drive that I haven't been to. Other than dinner and possibly a baseball game, I don't have plans yet. But I'm sure I'll find something to do.

I'm looking for a March project. It's probably a good time to break out and revamp the Fairy Hunter costume. There's a lot of little improvements to be made.

Speaking of projects, I'm re-energized and excited about getting things done around here. I've realized (again) that all the little things I've been putting off really don't take a lot of time - I've spent more time thinking about them than it would have taken to actually do them. Time to get started.

Since de-coupling twitter and facebook, I've been happier, and I've totally been ignoring the service. I still like it; I just prefer my posts to be more directed.

In honor of the California Legislature wasting their time passing laws declaring this "no cussing week", please cuss often and well. Do it for your freedoms. Have a good day!

Happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Katie at the beach yesterday.

Wow. It's March already?

Great, relaxing weekend. Spent Sunday out and about, including an inpromptu beach trip (not too cold, not too crowded - perfect) and a pizza dinner at home. Good times. Lots of internet catching up to do this morning, though.

No gym this morning, but I got about a 1.5 mile walk in, plus got some errands done.

Just so you know, a M4-.7 screw will fit into a 8/32nds fitting pretty well, but the reverse is not true. Also, the Wikipedia page on the ISO metric screw thread is pretty darn interesting. All of this is related to mounting my television, which could happen today.

I'm a huge Veggie Grill fan, but I wish they'd just list the nutritional info of their meals instead of the fine job dodging the issue they do on their website. Quotes like "Nutritionists agree that it is the quality of the calories you eat on which you should focus, not the quantity" pretty much confirm my suspicions that the burgers, while vegan, certainly aren't low-fat.

Diet Shasta tastes way sweeter than most other diet sodas. Weird.

My tummy's a rumblin', so I'm off for foodz. Have a great day!

Happy Friday!

Picture of the day!

Why I'm not a fan of lorikeets - they steal your hat, dude.

It's the end of the work week, and I just realized that this is the first weekend in a while that I'm neither sick nor busy (or both). Too bad it'll be raining for some of it.

Hit the gym again this morning, but took it easy - it usually takes about 30 hours for me to really feel a workout, so yesterday's won't hit me until this afternoon. I can tell you that my calves were not particularly happy with my choice to cycle this morning.

In an apparent throwback to being 16, I cut my face all over the place shaving today. Weird. I also have a new pimple to round out the effect.

I'm sure it's happened slowly over the last few years, but a quick-service lunch (the step between fast food and table service) now runs between $7 and $10. That's really too much, I think.

Still no state tax refund. Bastards.

Anyway, that's all I got on this beautiful Friday. Keep reaching for the stars!