Insignifica

Happy Halloween, Meat Loaf, Mattress, Costume, Rocky Horror 1998

Happy Halloween, friends!

Picture of the day!

Halloween (Rocky Horror) 1998, with Sarah. This was taken 10 years ago today. Click for extra creepiness. Not all people can say "Hey, 10 years ago today, I was dressed VERY strangely, and did weird things on stage. Oh, and there are more pictures.

I'm actually dressed in my devil costume (same as in the pictures earlier this week) at work today. My costumes are rarely work appropriate, so it's nice to have one I can actually wear here.

We bought a mattress yesterday from Sit and Sleep. It was not FREEEEE, but it was cheaper than Costco and Sears. Color me surprised.

No word that tonight's Meat Loaf concert at Pechanga is canceled, so for now, it's on. I'm outta here early today to give myself time to get there - it's about 60 miles from here, by road. If I had a helicopter, it'd be closer to 30, but alas, there's a mountain in the way.

Have a fun, safe, happy Halloween - Boo!

That's That, 1.4 Miles, Anthrax, Job Stuff, Meat Loaf, Thursday

Happy Thursday, friends!

Picture of the day!

Kimberly and me from Halloween. I look a little creepier than I really was, it comes from the "hold the camera at arm's length" shot.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and I'm supposed to be seeing Meat Loaf in concert. So far, so good, but he canceled his last two shows (including one tonight in Arizona) due to illness. Get better, Meat...otherwise, I'll find a way to kick your ass.

Busy times at work. You might have heard about layoffs - I'm not in that group, but I'm pretty closely affected. More details as I know more. Worrisome relatives: I'm not in danger of losing my job.

Oh, and we also had an Anthrax scare here this morning (before I got in). Worrisome relatives: It was sugar.

I got my 1.4 miles in this morning (something I haven't been able to do, for various reasons, since last week). I'm thinking that I'm not going to make my weight loss goal (and not win the contest), but I'm still happy with what I've done. It's very possible I could be under 200lbs. by then, though. We'll see.

That's that. What's new with you?

What's New, D&D, Soda, More on Socialism, Hump

Hump Day!

Picture of the day!

Kelly (the crazy cat lady) puts one of her cats in bondage. Just another typical Halloween party.

I don't consider myself a "socialist", but I really hate how it's being used as an insult or to describe something evil and horrible. The socialist leaning countries of Europe have some of the highest standards of living anywhere. Not only that, but the US is a single country, with a lot of little parts. Every tax you pay is collected and "redistributed" (to use another demonized word of late), "for the common good". Even ignoring social programs, this pays for operation of the government. Roads. Police. The military. Public facilities. Parks. In other words, EVERYTHING not explicitly private. This isn't "socialism" - it's a necessary part of living in a country. For the Republican party to imply that anyone who "redistributes" wealth is worthy of contempt is absurd, insulting, and desperate.

I'm really noticing how much soda I'm drinking now that I'm collecting my cans at work to recycle. For those of you wondering, it's "too much". Well, I only consider it "too much" because of the number of cans. If I had a soda fountain or tap, and didn't have to waste as many resources, I wouldn't consider it an issue at all.

We've been playing D&D online for a couple weeks now, and I'm loving it. It's super nerdy - in addition to having the D&D nerd factor, we also "play by post" on a message board. This campaign is nice because we're using aspects of the game that seem kinda rudimentary, but add to the character development. And since it's online, everyone involved can play from where ever they are -- we're moving along at a nice clip. Geektastic!

That's all for today - this week is also moving along at a quick pace. What's new?

What's Happening, Bigots and Socialists, Meat Loaf, Recovered, Hello Friends

Hello friends!

Picture of the day!

Bill and Hillary sacrificing a smiling Sarah Palin at the Halloween party.

I think I've pretty much recovered from the party - my hands, feet and fingers no longer hurt, I've caught up on sleep, and I'm back on my regular diet. I did find myself wondering yesterday what I'm gonna do with all this "free time" I now have at lunch and after work, since I don't have little projects like I've had since September. I'm sure I'll find something to do.

Speaking of Halloween, we've got tickets to see Meat Loaf at Pechanga on Friday. It always seems like I'm doing something besides dressing up or handing out candy. That's fine - this will likely be the last time the guy tours. There's gonna be hell to pay, though, if he cancels again.

One week until the election. I'm very tired of the "Yes-on-8" bigots I'm seeing everywhere, not to mention the hardcore evangelical Christian smearing of Obama (via 503s and pulpit campaigns). Seriously, would this be how Jesus would have acted? And don't get me started on the "Socialist" thing - "Red" areas almost always draw money in from the surrounding areas (whether counties or states) in a very real and very necessary "redistribution" of wealth. Red states would shrivel up and die if the blue states didn't help them out, so how about we shut the hell up about the "evils" of wealth redistribution?

What's happening, friends?

Halloween Wrapup

Happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Satan and Santa at Halloween 2008, last Saturday. The whole set of pictures (with more to come) is available here.

So, Halloween! Overall, the party went very well. Everyone seemed to have a good time, there were people from a variety of my circles, and no one was killed or seriously injured. The debriefing:

What went right -- Most everything. Taking the day off before was very handy, and while I was still running around doing last-minute things, the clubhouse was presentable (if under decorated) an hour before the party started. We had the right amount of food, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn't running around thinking about something in the oven, or something food-related that needed to get done. We moved the beer/soda to the fridge (instead of buckets with ice), and was amazingly helpful. We keep the bar in the kitchen, which I didn't think would work -- but since you could get to it from both sides, there weren't any bottlenecks. We only had a net loss of two beers, since so many people brought some. The crowd was great and diverse (people I didn't know were coming came - that was fun). I was also pleasantly surprised by my costume, which came together nicely with the cape and horns. Sometimes simple is better.

What needed work -- Decorations. I thought the altar was awesome (if under Satanized - no pentagrams or upside-down crosses), and it certainly stood as a centerpiece. Due to time constraints, however, lots of other decorating didn't get done, and I didn't hear any "wows". Nothing looked bad, it just looked plain. Even with 30+ people there, the clubhouse feels too large. Of course, 30 people won't fit in my house comfortably, so we did pick the right option.

What went wrong -- I did too much work. As usual, things that took me dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars weren't very noticeable to the crowd, who would have been just as happy without them. More specifically, the reinforced sacrificial table and stand-up candles were absurdly time consuming for a moderate, at best, effect. They were also the reason why I didn't have time to paint a pentagram on the carpet.

The party itself, however, went off very well, with none of the issues associated with 2005. All in all, a solid "B" effort for me. I'm not nearly as disenchanted or exhausted as I was after the 2005 event, and will likely host again next year. Good times!

Comments, D&D, Halloween, Back at Work, Marcia Birthday

Happy Thursday, and happy birthday Marcia!

Picture of the day!

Me, Halloween 2003. Not sure what I'm up to.

I'm back at work today. Katie fell asleep yesterday at about 7pm (a good 3 hours before her usual bedtime, and following a long nap during the day), and she woke up happy and chatty at 4am. I humored her until 5, when I dumped her on her mother. But she was doing well enough to send her to daycare, so hopefully that was all. Hopefully also we don't get anything she may or may not have had...

Halloween work continues, even without getting much done yesterday. I know what needs to be done for just about everything except one little problem, but that should be solvable.

D&D is in full swing - all online, and I'm liking it way more than I thought I would. The pace is actually pretty fast, for online, but everyone seems to be able to play regularly, so it's nice. Having to figure things out for myself is teaching me a lot about the game, too - good times.

That's today for ya. Thanks for all the comments recently - I noticed that I have some on just about every post. Come say hello!

Oh Hai!

Sorry about no updates today, I'm home with Katie, who's got a bit of a tummy bug. Hopefully it doesn't spread to anyone else, or get worse with her. She was already better in the evening than this morning.

Picture of the day!

Katie and her momma on Halloween last year, in Monterey.

That's that. Happy Wednesday!

That's All, LAV, Shave and a Haircut, Nice Day, Hello!

Hello everyone!

Picture of the day!

Adam the lawn gnome and Chris as Beetlejuice, Halloween 2002.

It's a really nice day, but apparently it's gonna get warm and windy again. But weather for the weekend should be cooler - great for us guys wearing lots of layers in our costumes, but bad for the ladies in the sexy wear. My advice: Dance.

I got a haircut and trimmed my beard. It's all part of the prep, and two things off the checklist. Today's other work involves buying wood, spray paint, and 50 or so square feet of low pile carpet. Oh, and Woolite.

Liberal Atheist Vegetarian today: Election 2008: Proposition 2 story and poll.

That's all I got today - lots to do. What's happening?

That's it, Internet Librarian, Beard, Halloween, Stiff and Sore, Monday

Good day, and happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Marek as Darth Mexican, Halloween 2004.

I'm stiff and sore this morning - started feeling it yesterday, but didn't do a whole lot other than home stuff, cleaning, and baby lifting this weekend. Who knows.

The Halloween party is quickly approaching, and I'm beginning to get into "panic" mode, at least in terms of everything I still have to do. Construction won't be too difficult, but still needs doing, as well as the small projects, a few large purchases (in terms of both price and size), and food and drink prep. Alas, I love it - it's always a great event.

I'm glad I'm doing some work on my beard this weekend, because I noticed today that it's rather lopsided. I mean, it grows lopsided, but it needs work.

If things were different, I'd be starting the 2008 Internet Librarian conference this week in Monterey. Alas, I'm still at home. It's a good time, but not conducive to Halloween planning, or tight work budgets. Nocal folks, we'll come see you soon anyway.

That's it for the day. Hello!

The Haps, Vegan Donuts, Dinosaur Comics, Bigots and Assholes, Routine, Halloween Mysteries, Friday Birthdays

Happy Friday! Happy birthday to Mike and Evan today!

Picture of the day!

Chris' tribal "tattoo", Halloween 2006.

I was looking for a picture of Mike from the 2005 party (as it's his birthday), but he didn't make it into a single picture, even though he was all over that party. And several people were there that I don't remember being there. Very strange.

1.4 miles this morning. It's a routine now - that's the strangest thing about all this.

I wrote about the racist "Obama Bucks" ad yesterday, but as usual, the post at Total Buzz has way more comments, and they're nasty - people are either in denial, or are honestly bigots and assholes. I'm betting on the latter.

Today's edition of Dinosaur Comics is written by Randall Munroe of XKCD fame. I find it entertaining!

Don't steal my idea, but it's high time for an organic/vegan donut shop, possibly "hip", in the greater Los Angeles area. I keep checking, and I'm still amazed there's not a single one around here. It could easily support itself. If not for debt, a job I like, and no real experience in food service, I'd start it myself!

That's all for the week, my friends. What's the haps?

What's Up, Ubuntu Issues, HFCS, Flickr, Exercise, Thursday Birthdays

Hello and good day! And a very happy birthday to Tolga, and half-birthday to me!

Picture of the day!

Lisa, Marek and Togla, Halloween 2005.

Feelin' fine this morning. Got my 1.4 miles in, did some toning stuff, but really feeling like I'm missing out on a lot of more detailed/specific exercises by not having access to a gym. But I'm holding my own.

Finally uploaded some more pics to Flickr, including Katie at Disneyland.

Only one response to yesterday's High Fructose Corn Syrup query? Come on!

Ubuntu had a kernel update yesterday that made my wireless card "disappear". Since that was the only issue I had out of the box, it worried me greatly. Luckily I was able to revert to the older version, but seriously, you guy - I wasn't the only person with this issue. Let's not push things out till these kinds of bugs are taken care of.

What's up?

That's that, Halloween shopping, HFCS Debate, Serial Comma, McCain Story, Ides of October

Happy Wednesday, but beware the ides of October!

Picture of the day!

Chris and the demon vampire bride's head, Halloween 2002. That same prop is still being sold today. I wish I still had the wedding dress I bought to go with her - it'd come in very handy this year.

Interesting story here, basically saying that McCain's personal standards are the reason why his campaign isn't further pursuing any Jeremiah Wright connection to Obama. While I disagree with his politics, I think McCain's one of the Republicans that really wants a fair fight out there, and won't use the Rove playbook in many cases. I think he's also being carried down the river by racist and extremist supporters, as evidenced by recent campaign rallies. It's almost enough to make me feel sorry for him.

Your term of the day: Serial Comma. It's not something I use, but I'm coming around to the occasional grammatical need for it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I almost don't want to get into this debate, but I'm curious what everyone thinks. You've likely seen the pro-High Fructose Corn Syrup commercials out there, where one person questions another's use of HFCS, only to be asked what's wrong with it, and not be able to give an answer. Just about all my LAV-style friends hate the commercials, but I'm finding a very real element of truth there. I realize that HFCS is in many things, and while it's not "hidden" (it's on the list of ingredients), it's often unexpected. And while too much of any sugar isn't good for you, I'm still not sure why HFCS is considered worse than other sugars. Same calorie content, similar taste effect, but more widely used for its chemical properties in food and American's ability to produce it cheaply (sugar cane is impossible to grow in most of the US, but corn grows almost everywhere). There are no end of websites touting the evils, but are there any good arguments why HFCS is worse than sugar, and the real issue is too much sugar in our food?

More Halloween shopping happened yesterday. I'm pretty happy about it, and I've been able to stay almost entirely American made. Awesome.

That's that. I'm looking forward to your comments!

Stuff, LAV, No Running, Lunch, Costume, Flickr, 2,222.

Hello friends! A very happy Tuesday to all of you! This is my 2,222nd entry.

Picture of the day!

Me as strongman - one of my favorite costumes ever. Lisa and Togla look on, from Halloween 2006.

I'm in the process of finding a good way to upload new pics to Flickr - the best tools are windows-based, and the uploader I like isn't playing well with Wine (though the app database there says it should). More pictures coming soon!

I'm still feeling conflicted about my costume this year. I like the idea of my first choice - but no one's gonna know what it is without me telling them, and it's so simple I feel like I'm cheating my guests. On the other hand, and more in-depth, makeup-heavy costume would be really annoying, even if it looked better. I'm having trouble finding a costume in the middle ground. I still have a few days to decide, so we'll see.

Let's do lunch. Name the place and time.

No running for me this morning. Not a fan of the air quality.

LAV today: What the heck is proposition 7 all about?

That's today's stuff. I hope you enjoyed it.

Monday, Halloween Cupcakes, Computer, Wind

Happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Me, pouring some goo, setting up for Halloween 2002.

Man, it's windy out. Trees were down and blocking the street on my way to work. My car was shaking at intersections. There's a fine layer of dirt flying through the air, and I'm getting shocked touching everything. Let's hope for no fires.

Computer stuff! I finally got Ubuntu installed on the upstairs desktop machine, and it's after a few tweaks (including removing old hardware), it's working pretty well. I also bought more RAM to take it up to the 2gig max, so that should be nice too - it's been able to handle everything I've thrown at it. The main issue now is that it's got an insanely loud fan, so that's my next purchase.

Made cupcakes. They're great, but I'm still looking for a way to make cakes/cupcakes like we used to have with school lunches - chocolate, amazingly dense, a little oily, and awesome. Anyone else remember those?

I've got a LOT of Halloween stuff to do, and just one weekend left to do major stuff (plus a day off on the Friday before it happens). Can't sell myself short this year!

How's your Monday?

Free Evening, LAV, Computer, Exercise, Birthday

It's Friday! Happy Birthday to Gary tomorrow!

Picture of the day!

Ryan and Gary, Halloween 2005. This is as dressed up as I've ever seen Gary for the holiday of holidays. It's the picture right before one of the most unflattering pictures of me ever.

Walked/Ran my 1.4 miles today, and feel pretty good. I also believe I can do sit-ups again, following a couple days of "uuuhgggg" from overexertion.

I tried to use the "recovery" disks to reinstall windows on my desktop machine yesterday, but they're not working. Meanwhile, I used Wine to install mIRC on my laptop, as there are no good irc clients for Linux. Between both events, I'm pretty sure now I'll forgo installing Windows again at all, and run Ubuntu alone on that machine. That's kinda scary for me!

LAV - Weekend Events.

I have tomorrow evening free - what should I do? I'm leaving it up to you, fine readers!

Be Well, Exercise, Yosemite Rockslide, Electrical Geekery, Thursday

A very good Thursday to you!

Picture of the day!

Pancho, George Michael, and Fidel Castro, Halloween 2007. Click through for costume detail goodness.

In my years of geekery, I've rarely fiddled with working on electrical issues - it's dangerous stuff. But this year's Halloween party calls for some props that need building, so I'm on it, doing wiring for them. Yesterday's test went well (and was accomplished easily), so I'm feeling pretty good about it now. As long as I don't burn the party down or shock anyone, we'll be fine.

This summer, we stayed at Curry Village at Yosemite - it's huge, loud, crowded, and often the only place left with space. But it gets the job done - unless you're crushed by rocks. Jeez.

Walk/ran my 1.4 miles today, but it's kinda smoky out from a fire down at Camp Pendleton. Between that and my lingering cold/allergies, breathing is getting annoying sometimes. BUt I think I'll keep on it.

Off to work. Be well!

Whoops, Halloween, OCA, Mail, Exercise, Beautiful Day, Hump

Happy Hump Day!

Picture of the day!

Pimp Vader and Flapper DeeDee, Halloween 2004.

It's a beautiful day out - nice weather, clear air (I can see the hills and mountains and textures, instead of a hazy block of land). Of course, it's just now 10am, so it's gonna get hotter, but still - nice dry October weather.

Got my 1.4 miles plus some sit ups and crunches in this morning. I need some more "core" work - I'm feeling pretty good otherwise.

I think I got all my mail uploaded - it's hard to know, because while I uploaded in the area of 70,000 emails, gmail puts them into "conversations", and lists each conversation as a "message", so my count only went up by 3,000 or so. I'll do some spot checking today, and see what I can determine.

Orange County Atheists meet tomorrow. Come by and say hello!

I don't want Halloween to be expensive, and even though I'm doing a lot of construction myself, there's gonna be some costs. Hopefully I have enough effects/props in storage to get that side of things done without many problems.

Update: It's now 4pm, and I just realized I forgot to post. Whoops! Have a good day!

Hanging, Roomba, Angels, Reload, Email, Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Also Halloween 2003 (just like yesterday), but this is the part at my house the weekend before. That's my brother as Spongebob.

Hopefully, as we speak, the last 70,000 or so email messages from home are being uploaded from my laptop (where I moved my mail files yesterday) to gmail. Using Thunderbird in Ubuntu gave me the same errors, so I'm using the process described here - hopefully mailsync really does keep track of what needs to be uploaded, and resumes rather than uploads everything again, should it time out or fail part way through. We'll see.

Having finally gotten everything necessary moved to the new HD (and now having that email backed up all over the place), I'm ready to wipe the drive on the main machine and reload it. Also, still need some SDRAM (2 gigs, if you got it). Inquire within.

Sorry you didn't win, Angels. You were tied or within a run going into the 9th every game, though - that's something. You just got the short end of the stick. Next time, try leaving fewer runners on base, though.

Roomba's back in the game, vacuuming like crazy, all cleaned up, and working right. Feelin' fine!

How's it hanging?

What's New, Sick, Halloween!, Computer and Gmail, Tshirt Hell Juniors, Monday

Happy Monday! Unless you're heavily invested in the stock market, I guess...

Picture of the day!

Halloween 2003, in Vegas. Every time we passed other clergy, we all took pictures together.

T-shirt Hell now has a "Juniors" section. NSFW - most of those shirts would get you sent home from school. Good news: they have them in adult sizes too!

I'm just about done with my computer cleanup - all necessary files have been moved. The last thing I'm doing is moving most of my archived pop3 email (from 2000 through September, 2007) to gmail. It's a slow, annoying, error-filled process, but it's getting done. When I'm finished, I'll be able to use the gmail interface to see all of it, and search it (it's even automatically putting it into "conversations" for me, which is neato). After that's done (maybe before, if I get inpatient and work with a copy), I'll be able to wipe that HD, reinstall XP, and duel boot with Ubuntu. I also found out that machine only has 640 megs of RAM (it can hold 2 gigs), so I might have to do something about that. Anyone got any used memory for sale?

Halloween! It's coming up. We did some research at Home Depot yesterday, and I have a pretty good idea how I can get this done. I need to buckle down, though - this upcoming weekend is already filling up.

Another illness going around? It's more likely than you think. As long as I don't get the USC virus, I won't complain much. We all had something just like it in January 2007 - nasty stuff.

What's new, my friends?

Family and Friends, Computer Cleanup, Roomba Battery, Palin Debate, Great Run, Salt, Lindsey Birthday

Happy Friday! Happy birthday to Lindsey on Sunday!

Picture of the day!

Me and Lindsey. I look creepy.

I'm a salt addict. I'm glad my blood pressure is low, and I'm generally healthy otherwise, cause man - I'd go hardcore vegan before giving up salty snacks.

Had a great run this morning, about 1.6 miles (with about half running, half walking). The scale says I'm up (could be related to my intake of delicious, delicious salt), but I'm not worried.

So, that debate last night - I thought Palin did OK, but the bar was so low that as long as she didn't stop talking for 30 seconds, it would be OK. My favorite part was her saying "I may not answer the questions the way you or the moderator want to hear, but I 'm going to talk to the American people". Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what you're not supposed to do, but she came off like a 4 year being cute when she breaks the rules.

New Roomba battery on the way. I'm hoping for hardcore cleaning action this weekend.

Speaking of cleaning, I began the slow process of organizing and sorting files on my 3 1/2 year old computer. It's served me well, but it's super bloated and slow (especially with the latest version of AVG and several other pieces of software). Combine that with the general accumulation that happens, and it's not very effective anymore. So I'm taking all the "keeper" files (docs, pics, music and settings), moving them to the other drive in the machine, and either duel booting or running just Ubuntu (depends if I still have my XP disks that came with it). The move process means going through just about every program folder to find anything I don't want to delete, as well as organizing things as they come off. I expect to be at it for a while.

Family and Friends stuff happening this weekend. What's new with you?

Thanks, Twitter, Zen and the Art of the Internet, Google 2001, Chupacabra, Halloween Pics, Thursday

Happy Thursday!

Picture of the day!

Halloween 2005 prep. Click through for added details and neat lighting affects. As it's October, I'll be featuring more Halloween pictures. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I haven't uploaded it yet, but I got a picture of my backyard's chupacabra (possum) last night. Dude wasn't scared by the flashlight, or the camera flash, or me opening the door. He doesn't look mean, but I still don't like him living in my backyard.

This is awesome - Google's put up an interface to search their January 2001 index - Barack Obama is largely unknown, there are no LOL Cats, and the Department of Homeland Security doesn't exist yet. It also reminded me that their search algorithm kinda sucked - sometimes phrases weren't found when they existed. But still, a nice blast from the past.

Speaking of Internets past, we're moving things around here in the office, and we found a book called "Zen and the Art of the Internet", from January 1992. It's awesome - not nearly as outdated as you'd imagine for a book written before the web. It'd a fantastic primer for the technologically inclined, without the dumbing down of most books of its type.

I'm realizing that I'm using Twitter to maintain relationships and have conversations - it really is useful! Thanks, much maligned web app! If you use it, come find me!

That's today's insignifica post. Thanks for reading!

Rock and Roll, Exercise, Roomba Update, Baseball, Hot, October

Happy October!

Picture of the day!

The Girlfriend and a certain very bald baby, taken on this day in 2006.

It's hot. Seriously, we were spoiled all summer with mild days, and two humid, nasty days come our way, and we're all complaining. Luckily it'll cool down for the weekend, but yuck.

Speaking of October, it's baseball playoffs season! Two sets of nearby teams are playing this year (Cubs/White Sox and Dodgers/Angels). Should be interesting!

I took Roomba apart Monday - all the way apart - 14 screws, removed face plates, disconnected wires - just to see I could improve efficiency. I was amazed at the collected dust and hair in there that is unreachable without this procedure, and I'm frightened of my regular vacuum that I don't clean once a week like I do Roomba. Even better than taking it apart was that I successfully put it back together again. That said, my issue seems to be battery related, so I had to make a China purchase and get a new one from the manufacturer. Roomba's worth it.

Got my 1.4 miles in today, but walked most of it - it'll be nice to having mornings that are cooler (hopefully) for most of the next few weeks. I'd also like to get an evening routine in, but with a baby that goes to bed at 10:30, that's not easy.

That's that for today. Rock and roll.