Category: general

Did you know that according to Blogger, I’ve written 2641 posts?

And probably most of them are short and nigh pointless, like this one.

I’m heading to Kentucky. If all goes well, I’ll be there late afternoon/early evening. Unlike certain murder suspects, I don’t need to stop at a hotel.

(That story is so strange. Remind me to tell you about it when I have time.)

While eating lunch at Chick-Fil-A today I decided to experiment to see if any other parts of the mouth can sense taste. I gobbed ketchup onto the end of a piece of waffle fry and stuck it into my mouth, careful not to touch anything inside except the rear left side next to my teeth.

I didn’t taste anything, but I did drool all over myself.

Last night I had the kind of dream that morphs into a different dream while you’re still dreaming it. It started out as a Superman dream–because coworkers were discussing the movie yesterday, no doubt. In the dream I was watching the movie, but since I haven’t seen the movie, the story was based on my impression of the characters and not a little bit on Smallville.

Dream-Superman was a very bland, laid-back, unexciteable character, possibly based on Kuchiki Byakuya (I’ve been rewatching Bleach). In one scene, he was an old woman. Don’t ask me why. And he was telling Lois he could no longer be with her. She, of course, was seeing an old woman, so it took awhile for her to realize that it was actually Superman in there. The audience realized it right alongside her, as the director took a close shot of the old lady’s eyes, steeped in shadow but with a ray of light glowing just across them, and then dissolved it to the exact same shot of Superman’s eyes.

“They reproduced the scene!” I cried to whoever I was seeing the movie with, because in dream-reality this tearful moment was a throwback to another scene, in which Superman was still Superman, and in which he said the exact same things. I found this to be a brilliant allusion.

Lois from Smallville was also in the movie, but she wasn’t Lois. Eventually the movie turned into a cartoon version of Smallville, which was actually kind of cool.

And then, suddenly, Sean and I were at a home building site looking at floorplans, and I found a house I thought was awesome, so I said to the builder, “Yeah, let’s do it!” And so they started building a house for us.

Then I started wondering if I should have, you know, included Sean in that decision, and what we were going to do in two years (for various reasons, I’m expecting something interesting to happen in two years). But Sean didn’t seem to care; he was more concerned with something that was going on in Lineage II.

I think this is the first time Sean’s gaming has influenced my dreams. Also, for those of you who don’t know him, there is no way I could buy a house without him getting freaked out ;> You may think he doesn’t freak out at all, but he does. He just does it very quietly.

My dreams must have finished themselves up, because I actually awoke naturally this morning. I was feeling pretty good, too; I watched Ichigo disintegrate Byakuya’s senbonzakura in Bleach, and I ate some waffles. But I had a problem with the videos for the website at work, and that somehow completely destroyed my day. I was on the verge of tears for rather a long time.

That’s why I ended up at Chick-Fil-A. I hadn’t brought a lunch regardless, and I’d planned on walking somewhere and getting takeout, but I just wanted to escape, so I chose Chick-Fil-A (it’s right around the corner, essentially) and just ate in. (Their new “hand-spun” milkshakes are fantabulous.)

I think I’m feeling better now, but I wish I felt as good as I did this morning. I realize that one carries a certain measure of control over one’s state of mind, but I’m doing my best and this is as far as I’ve gotten.

And yes, I’ll admit it: I do have something else on my mind, and it does have something to do with that stupid post I made before. What can I say…I’m a moron.

Looks like a company is trying to bring Japanese “fast food” to America.

With already over 350 takeout stores in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Sase’s Gindaco chain is one of a barrage of fast-food companies bringing lowbrow Japanese chow to overseas markets. Its first U.S. store is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in 2007, and it hopes to open 20 stores in California by 2010.

I sincerely hope they don’t do this:

To woo octopus skeptics, U.S. stores may feature additional entertainment, says Yohei Miki, who heads the company’s overseas operations.

“We’re thinking of getting our cooks to chop the spring onions using Japanese swords,” Miki chuckled. “You know the Americans, they love attractions.”

Sure, those hibachi steakhouses are interesting the first few times, but I think just watching people make takoyaki the real way would be cool enough. I’d rather have a more authentic experience, myself.

Reuters: Saddam ends hunger strike after missing one meal

Saddam Hussein ended a brief hunger strike after missing just one meal in his U.S.-run prison, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday.

Awww. I guess it’s hard for spoiled tyrants to get a taste of their own medicine.

Yesterday Brooke and I went for a nice long walk at the Greeneway. While I was waiting for her to arrive, I got some pictures, including some fairly close shots of a little lizard. At first it was hanging around on a fence post:

But then, as I continued to take its picture, it got skittish and jumped into the green plants beyond the fence:

He totally changed color! That is rad.

Just found out via Slashdot that the admin password on Freenode was compromised. As you may know, the AMRN uses Freenode for its chatroom. (They should probably go somewhere else, eh?)

This comment on Slashdot’s article was kind of scary:

In #bantown we have two EFnet server operators. As we sat there ruining freenet they were amazed how we had managed to get that far. On EFnet, oper blocks are for one specific host and all oper hosts are spoofed so you have to figure out the box that a given oper is on and root it before getting any further. lilo’s host was bound to *@*, leaving his network ripe for our taking. EFnet, despite being what lilo calls a “normal IRC experience” is thousands of times safer and more stable than Freenode. The man should learn to run an IRC network before he asks people to pay him for it.

PS, lilo: I still have root on a server that’s on the same switch as one of your precious Freenode servers. Next we’ll be arpmitm’ing and spoofing the C/N lines to link in a hacked server. I’ll let you have fun running around trying to guess which one that server is.

You have three days to post “I have been trolled by Bantown” on global notice.

Reminds me of the days of channel wars. (Do people still have those?)

But this comment was hilarious:

o noes, If someone got a hold of lilo’s password, they could start spamming the users with useless server-wide notices nobody cares about!!1!

XD

In any case, if you were using your Freenode password for other things online, go change those account passwords now.

So I was emptying the dishwasher yesterday (as I’m wont to do) and I found a fork that doesn’t match my flatware.

And I have no idea where it came from.

There are forks at work, but the only time I’ve used them is when I’ve forgotten my lunchbox…and if I didn’t have my lunchbox, I wouldn’t carry a fork home.

Sean says they don’t have forks at his work.

It’s a mystery!

I joked to Robert today that it was left by a burglar as a warning. “Next time…I’ll leave a cup!“

“I’m going to Kentucky next weekend,” I told Sean last night, figuring he should probably know.

“Next weekend…is that the Fourth of July weekend?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, good,” he said, “because…I won’t be here!”

“Oh really?”

“Yep. I’m going to Aaron Heffner’s.”

“I’m glad we tell each other these things!”

Two Democratic candidates for Georgia governor, Lt. Governor Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, have been slinging mud full force lately as we approach the Georgia primary on July 18. Ah, how I long for the days when their campaign ads simply tooted their own horns, and didn’t have anything to do with tearing each other down. Alas.

Working in TV news, not only do I have to see these ads multiple times a day, but I also receive numerous emails from both campaigns with shocking revelations about Taylor’s “looking out for the other Big Guys” and Cox’s “lies”.

Fortunately, I have a solution! It’s called, “You’re Both So Annoying, I Won’t Vote for Either One of You.”

What does the image on Stupid Goth Girl‘s video game screen portend?

Is the whole story a game?

Is SGG playing a dating sim? Is she controlling Piro?

Is her existence in the story simply her own attempt to make the game more difficult, a greater challenge for herself?

Okay, that doesn’t even make sense.

So why is Nanasawa in her video game?

UBC Engineers Create Vehicle that Travels from Vancouver to Halifax on a Gallon of Gas (via Slashdot)

“We achieved this level of efficiency by optimizing many aspects of the vehicle design, including: aerodynamics, light-weight construction, a small displacement engine (54 cc), and conservative driving habits,” says Team Captain Kevin Li.

The UBC design, which required the driver to lie down while navigating it, achieved 3,145 miles per US gallon (0.074 litres/100 km) — equivalent of Vancouver to Halifax on a gallon (3.79 litres) of gas — costing less than $5 at the pump.

I don’t see anywhere in the article, or on the Supermileage website, how fast the car goes, though. I’m guessing 5 mph…

This ridiculous number reminds me of another ridiculous number I heard the other day–Mom sent me this article:

Researchers Say New Chip Breaks Speed Record

The researchers, using a cryogenic test station, achieved the speed milestone by “freezing” the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, using liquid helium. That temperature, normally found only in outer space, is just nine degrees above absolute zero, or the temperature at which all movement is thought to cease.

At 500 gigahertz, the technology is 250 times faster than chips in today’s cellphones, which operate at 2 gigahertz. At room temperature, the chips operate at 350 gigahertz, far faster than other chips in commercial use today.

Apparently another member of the Hussein defense team has been killed. It makes me wonder if we will ever be “successful” there.

To have peace, enough people in Iraq need to want it. I know there are people who do. But are they enough? If the people on the “good” side assassinate people on the “bad” side, are they really good?

The situation is feeling more and more like Israel vs. Palestine, a conflict I feel the U.S. would do well to just avoid.

But I feel for the Iraqis who were so happy when Saddam was toppled, who are hurting now with power outages and explosions and shootings all around. They, to me, are the “real” Iraqis, the victims, the ones who are just trying to live their lives. Is there anything they can do for themselves? Is there anything we can really do to help them?

Edit: There’s also the allegation that Iraqi troops murdered American soldiers, and the news that over 80 Iraqis have apparently been abducted, to further brighten the general Iraq outlook.

Edit Again: According to papers released by the military, the Iraq branch of Al-Qaeda is worried.

In one of the newly released documents, an unidentified member of the group wrote that the cells in Baghdad are capable of only “hit and run” operations, leading the public to conclude that “the Shiites are stronger in Baghdad and nearer to controlling it,” while the mujahedeen “are not considered more than a daily annoyance to the Shiite government.”

[…]

The writer says that the American and Iraqi government forces “were able to absorb our painful blows,” enlist new recruits and “take control of Baghdad as well as other areas, one after the other.”

Rush Limbaugh further quotes the document as saying:

“There’s a clear absence of organization among the groups of brothers in Baghdad, the terrorists, insurgents, whether at the leadership level in Baghdad, the brigade leaders, or their groups therein. The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center.”

Limbaugh’s take is, “Al-Qaeda Says They’re Losing, Media Ignores“. This information has been available since May 8; Limbaugh posted his piece on May 10.

I dreamed about meeting someone. I was searching an online listing–for blogs, MySpace accounts, something–and I found one that I could tell had had its listing changed several times to avoid being “TOSed” (as they say on AOL), but to still appeal to people who are attracted to women. It was a young woman’s personal site, and it featured a diary and pictures of her. The listing was supposed to entice people to contact her, and it did; I called her up, excited to see what the conversation would be like.

At first she made small talk about what a beautiful day it was where she was, and then, unexpectedly, she said, “You know what would be sexy? If you traced your foot with your pinky finger onto a piece of paper, and measured it. I really like stuff like that.”

That seemed weird to me. I looked around frantically and said, “That would be great, but I don’t have a ruler.”

“Oh. Never mind then. It was nice talking to you…” she said.

I was disappointed and was about to hang up, when suddenly I decided that I hadn’t gotten the proper experience, and I wanted to. “So wait, that’s it?” I asked.

She changed her tune then, and though we didn’t talk about “sexy” things anymore, we did talk a lot about her current project–normally she was her own photographer, but at the moment she was working with a gentleman she’d just met, whose work she was very interested in. For some reason in the dream I was embarrassed that I was having the conversation, so I tried to avoid letting Sean hear who I was on the phone with.

Later, I ended up visiting her at the home of the photographer with a group of her fans. I was the first to introduce myself to her, and this was thrilling beyond belief. After that Mari (who was there for some reason) and I hung out with the photographer, admiring his house. He had all hardwood floors, and the style was something like a lake house. I have the impression that it was on the water, but I don’t recall actually seeing that in the dream. The photographer told us that he was “practically on a mortgage” even though the people he was renting the place from kept refusing to sell it to him. He’d just moved in, so the place was pretty sparse; I remember a tall green piece of furniture that could have either been a mod chair or a lamp.

And that was really about it. I never had the experience advertised in the online listing, but I was excited because I felt like I was going to eventually be the girl’s friend, and that seemed even better.

Part of this dream, I think, was inspired by the latest Megatokyo storyline, which has been very intriguing. I was wondering how Gallagher was going to deal with the “fanboy” issue–if he was going to deal with it at all. And he certainly is dealing with it! So I think the online listing comes from that, and I was the fangirl.

I had an idea earlier about where the photographer and his lake house came from, but now I’ve forgotten :>

So stupid and embarrassing, in fact, that I’m not including the images in the post.

The test instructions clearly said that it didn’t matter if one of the lines crossing the other line was lighter than the other, and it included a picture of a very faint line. So, I looked at this and saw a line.

You don’t, though, right? So I took a photo and edited it. Here it is all contrasty, and here it is with the line circled. You can kind of see something there.

Maybe.

If you’re insane.

I don’t think I was hallucinating, but I doubt the line was the kind of line I was looking for. If anything it was probably just the area where there would have been a line. A ready track, if you will, waiting for the proper hormone to change its color.

Which did not happen.

Not not not.

It seems like I’ve been going out to eat a lot the past few weeks. I really need to cut down on that so we can actually save some money. But it sure has been nice.

On Friday I went to lunch with Wes at Boll Weevil. I had forgotten how totally awesome Boll Weevil is. Wow. Of course, not only did I have a delicious sandwich (thick honey bread with turkey and lettuce and jalapenos) and seafood bisque, but I also indulged in sweet tea and chocolate chip banana cake. And I wonder why I’ve gained weight lately…:P

I think if I’m ever asked to make a restaurant recommendation to someone coming from out of town, I will say Boll Weevil.

On Friday night, Sean and I met up with Mari and Brooke and David at TakoSushi in Surrey Center. (They don’t appear to have a website, but read a review from December here.) They serve Southwestern and Asian cuisine.

I tried their guacamole (quite good) and a shrimp/cheese quesadilla that Brooke ordered, and then David shared a little dumpling and Mari shared an egg roll and edamame…my meal was just sushi, though, some unagi and sake nigiri and something called a “Crazy Roll”. The nigiri wasn’t that great, to be perfectly honest. The rice looked kind of clumpy, and the fish lacked flavor and texture. Sean said he thought he saw the sushi chef who worked at Kurama before it burned down working at TakoSushi. If that’s the case, either he must not have made my nigiri, or he didn’t have much to work with.

The Crazy Roll, on the other hand, was awesome. It didn’t taste like sushi at all. It was rice rolled around a piece of fried shrimp, then rolled up with crab meat and avocado, and then drizzled with a special sauce. It really reminded me of something, but I couldn’t think of what it was. Mari tried it and she can’t think of it either. Whatever it is, it’s good.

The quesadilla was great too, so I think if I go back to TakoSushi I’ll stick to the Southwestern menu and the Crazy Rolls.

On Saturday, Brooke asked me to ride along as she drove David to the airport for his trip back to England. This involved a lot of sitting in the car and standing in lines, but it was still fun ;) We tried out the Edy’s in the big circular food court at Hartsfield-Jackson.

After the lovebirds parted (they’ll see each other again in August), Brooke and I made a brief stop in a $10 luxury/fashion store (“Everything’s $10!”) where I almost bought an earring/necklace set, but restrained myself. Then we headed back to the car and out of town.

As we pulled onto I-20 from 75 I had a perfect shot of the golden dome of the capitol building, but I didn’t have my camera out. Alas.

Someday I will get a picture of that thing.

We were fairly full from Edy’s (I’d had a raspberry smoothie made with Sprite, and it was yummy!), so we were quite a ways out of Atlanta before we decided to start looking for a place to have dinner. “Quick, pick something on that sign,” Brooke said. We both looked it over. “Country Pride!” Brooke read.

“That sounds better than all that fast food,” I said.

So we pulled off and discovered that Country Pride was a Denny’s-esque restaurant at a truck stop.

The food was marginal. I had steak and scampi, which is not something I’ll ever order again at a truck stop. The shrimp was fine, but the steak was crappy. Fortunately the green beans and baked potato were good. After the meal I indulged in a root beer float, because my subconscious apparently thinks I’m not fat enough. It was good ;P

The first half hour or so of our meal, our conversation was limited to things involving the phrase “Country Pride!” and giggling. We got very, very slap-happy :> As time went on, though, we found ourselves more and more interested in the NASCAR race that happened to be playing (they were at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. I didn’t know we had a Sparta in Kentucky!). There were two pretty serious accidents while we watched, and they did a replay on one of them about five gazillion times. Hopefully Jeff Fuller is okay. Apparently he’s in fair condition at UK Hospital. He’s in good hands there :)

I let Brooke finish up the ice cream in my float and then we were off. (I tipped less than 10%, and Brooke gave about a 50% tip. I guess that evens out. I thought our waitress was batty, but whatever. Here’s hoping none of that money makes it into the hands of whoever microwaved that steak.)

We gassed up and then I had Brooke spin around so I could get the above shot of Country Pride. And then it was just driving the rest of the way back to Augusta.

Towards the end we started listening to a really cool CD by a group called the Scissor Sisters. I had never heard their stuff or heard of them at all, but they’re really good! Also on the trip I heard some good Depeche Mode and Orbital and the Lost in Translation soundtrack.

So it’s been something of a full, crazy weekend. Today Brooke and I are going to look at fabric for drapes for my bedroom, because it gets too bright in there in the mornings, and Brooke the master seamstress offered to sew something up. I have a pretty good idea of how I want them to look, so it’ll just be a matter of finding the right fabric. After that, hopefully we’ll get to see The Lakehouse–I saw a trailer for it Friday night and wanted to see it immediately. It looks neat :)