Holy Writings of the Blessed Angel
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "drangelo" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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01:14 pm
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Graph Jam
My buddy Tim is back in town, so I am jubilant. Already, in the last two days, I have had lunch with him twice, dinner with him once, and sat next to him while gaming. During that last bit, he showed me a page that I believe to occasionally be brilliant. Possibly I am late to the party, and the whole world already knows of it, but if not, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you - Graph Jam!
http://graphjam.com/
Current Mood:  jubilant
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08:50 am
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this car is Hot Hot Hot!
Pulled in to the parking lot this morning and noticed steam or smoke coming from under the hood. Hmm, thought I, that's not good. And hey, why is my temperature gauge suddenly reading all the way to H? Popped the hood and saw much hotness and what had obviously been a spray of now dried and odd colored liquid on various hot parts of my engine.
I went up to my office to let it cool for a few minutes while I looked up the number of a nearby repair shop. Brought it in for them to look at, and got a ride back to work. Now I'm just hoping they can find out what's wrong and fix it by the end of the day today, so I can have a car over the weekend and not have to worry about this on Monday.
OK, weird. Why does LJ's spell checker not recognize the word gauge?
UPDATE: Cracked radiator. Between that and the hoses and the oil change I really need, it's gonna set me back about $700. At least they say they can get it done today, so that's good news. And like my wife said, better this happen today than next week.
Current Mood:  worried
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10:28 pm
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and We're Living Here in Allentown
Well, more like Bethlehem, but here I am at Lehigh University, and although the signal is very weak and it took me some effort, I have sporadic wireless access at last.
The first day of the course has been pretty good, although not amazing. The food was plentiful during the day, albeit somewhat lacking in quality and selection. I prepaid for the shared meals, so I wouldn't have to go off campus and so that I could eat with everyone else. But of course that means I'm stuck with whatever they supply. Which means little more than a decent continental breakfast (at least they have cereal and fruit), leftovers from breakfast for a morning snack, a selection of either beef BBQ or turkey BBQ sandwich (plus salad, pita, hummus, and dessert) for lunch. and popcorn for an afternoon snack. We ate dinner in the faculty dining room, which was fairly fancy looking, so I expected the food to be better. I was wrong. Dinner was soup, bread, and chicken Caesar salad. I was actually looking past the salad to see what the entree was going to be before I realized that the salad was the entree.
The course itself has mostly been good. The lectures have been good, if somewhat rushed at times. The lab demos have been uneven. Our morning demo was pretty poor. The operator had gotten in late and had had 4 hours sleep, and he had some issues with the scope. The first afternoon session was with the same instructor and operator, and although the demo topic was interesting, it wasn't that well presented, and neither the operator nor the instructor had actually done that particular technique before. Plus, they couldn't answer a couple of my questions to make me understand, so I was a little disappointed. The second afternoon lab demo went much better, including answering the question I had from the previous session. And although we didn't do much more than repeat much of the morning demo, it went much better this time, on a different scope with different operator and instructor.
The night lab demo (after dinner) went quite well. It was a "bring a sample, solve a problem" session, and we got to see some cool samples, although neither problem was completely solved. But to be fair, one woman was asking for quite a lot from the instrument in the time we had.
Anyway, it's been a full day. Up at 6:00, breakfast at 7:15 and classes going through until 9:00 pm. After that it was a social hour in a nearby pizza place with beer and snacks provided, plus a slice donated by a generous soul. And now it's almost midnight and I have to get some sleep, since the alarm goes off again tomorrow morning at 6. Good night all.
Current Mood:  drained
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10:10 am
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Conflict Avoidance
I am generally not a confrontational person. Last week I proved that literally.
I was visiting a friend in a nearby apartment complex, and as I was pulling into his parking lot area, a large pick-up truck was exiting the same lot. The entrance/exit from this lot is divided by a small median, and the "exit" side is narrower and much straighter than the "entrance" side. I must admit that neither side is marked "enter" or "exit", but I sort of assume (dangerous, I know) that when such an area is divided, traffic should go to the right side.
Anyway, what happened is that this truck was exiting the lot via the wider, left-hand "entrance" side, which naturally I was using to enter the lot. We didn't hit each other, but as we passed very close to one another I said something like "wrong fucking side, dude". I said this in my car, with the windows up, and I didn't make any rude gestures or anything. I just said it, sort of laughing in amazement, and continued driving. And when I looked back in my rear-view mirror, I saw that the truck was backing up, back into the lot.
Huh, I thought, I wonder what's going on there.
And as I continued into the fairly long and winding parking lot, looking for an open Visitor space, I noticed that the truck was now following me back into the lot.
Now, this lot curves around for a bit, leading to covered parking for residents, and basically dead-ending. I usually drive all the way to the end hoping for an open visitor space close in, and then when I don't find one, I pull into a covered space and turn around, to go find an open space further back. But this time when I pulled in to the covered space to turn around, the pick up truck pulled up behind me, blocking me in, and stopped so I couldn't get out.
I should interject at this moment to remind those of you who don't see me every day that I am not a big guy. I'm 5'10", and not particularly muscular. And again, I'm not very confrontational. And at this point, my wife is still in Singapore, and the last thing I want is for her to return home to find me dead, or in a hospital somewhere.
Anyway, the guy is just sitting in the truck behind me, so I open my door and lean out to see what he wants. He yells out the open window to me, "Do you have an issue you want to discuss?" And I have to admit, at that moment I found that particular wording to be really amusing. I mean, I don't want to fight this guy, especially over something this stupid. And for all I know the guy may have a weapon, so I *really* have no interest in a confrontation. But the way he asked the question made my inner smart ass really want to come back. But as is usually the case, the practical and non-confrontational side of me won out, and I replied, "No. I just said you were using the wrong side, that's all."
He seemed to accept this well enough, and neither of us pushed the issue. I got back in my car, and he pulled away and left, while I went back and found an open space. And maybe a little part of me felt like a wimp for not telling the guy off more. But in the end, I'm alive and well, and in one piece to take care of my sick wife. So if my ego and manhood is a little bruised, I guess I can live with that.
Current Mood:  contemplative
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04:41 pm
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I'm so dizzy, my head is spinning...
No, really. I've been dizzy all day today. I suspect it's allergy related. The weather is doing weird things, and I switched over to a new allergy med a little more than a week ago, and this new one works differently. I may or may not end up staying with it, but right now I'm dizzy.
Current Mood:  drunk
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09:26 am
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The Hill
The Hill. I is over it.
Current Mood:  working
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05:26 pm
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Airlines
I need to book a flight in the near future, and apparently Continental does not go where I want them to go, at least not without either paying an arm and a leg, or making one leg of the journey by bus!
My seemingly best option is to go US Airways, but upon looking closer the flights by US Airways appear to actually be by a number of smaller outfits all operating as US Airways, specifically in this case Mesa Airlines and PSA Airlines.
Can anyone tell me if I should be avoiding either or both of these outfits like the proverbial plague?
Current Mood: busy
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01:07 pm
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an expensive lunch?
Pulling out of the really crappy parking lot across from Barnaby's today, I hit the rear right bumper of a parked car, and left a scrape on it. Of course I immediately pulled forward a bit and stopped the car, then got out to look at the damage, and saw the owner of said car coming across the street. She had seen me backing out, and knowing how horrible the lot is, had been looking to see if her car would be hit, just in case, and sure enough it was.
Turns out she was very friendly about it. She was a Rice Alumnus, and saw my Rice Faculty / Staff sticker, and so she was inclined to be nice. I apologized profusely, assured her I would have left a note if she had not come out to me, and gave her a bunch of my info. She may or may not have it looked at, and it may or may not be easy to fix. Either way, I'll take care of it; unless it's a LOT of money I'll likely not go through insurance. So as much as I like Barnaby's, this may turn out to be one of my more expensive lunches.
Current Mood:  embarrassed
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01:42 pm
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You take the good, you take the bad
You know what sucks? The combination of work stress and allergies. They are making me feel crappy and crabby.
You know what's awesome? My wife. I know that sometimes our friends get sick of us hanging on each other, but just having her in my life makes me feel better. So although I'm still feeling crabby and crappy, it's much more tolerable because she's there.
Thanks.
Current Mood:  loved
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03:11 pm
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Mal
Malinor Thrush (Mal) - my Warlock in Mason's about to end D&D campaign - can now use a Quickened, Maximized, Empowered Eldritch Blast. If I was insane and blew 5 of the 10 charges I have left in my Warlock's Sceptre on a single blast, I would do 72 + (12d6 / 2) points of damage. As a Free Action. That is all.
Current Mood:  geeky
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01:04 pm
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Thank you - thank you very much
Today is apparently Elvis' birthday. I'm not that big an Elvis fan, so I would not have known this, except that we happened to choose Chuy's for lunch today, and Chuy's is all about The King, baby.
Today and today only they are having some Elvis themed specials, and if you dress up like Elvis or Priscilla, you eat for free. Of course, with no foreknowledge we didn't dress up, but we did take a look at the specials menu.
I should probably say right now that I had a salad for lunch, with very little dressing. Because after lunch, when the waiter told us the Elvis specials were only available today, we ordered the Elvis PB&B for dessert. mmmm
Peanut butter and banana inside an egg-roll sized fried tortilla with cinnamon and caramel, served with vanilla ice cream. For those who like such things, I must say it was damned yummy. I only had half of one of the rolls, but mmmm. Long live the King, baby.
Current Mood:  full
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10:35 am
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Attend the Tale of Sweeny Todd - no spoliers
At least that's the way it was spelled on the marquee last night. But quibbling over a spare "e" aside, yes, we went to see Sweeney Todd last night.
First off, I love the original musical, even though I don't think I've ever seen it live. But I've seen it in an HBO special from a long time ago, and I've listened to the score a bunch. And so I have developed a certain sense of how I think it should be. And to the extent that I was not thrilled with the movie, it's most likely due to that.
Anyway, the short report is that in general I liked the movie, but even though I thought it was a great choice for Tim Burton, I have to say that when it became "Burtonized" it lost something for me. It was too dark. Most of the characters were too one-dimensional, especially the leads. And frankly, even though I know they had to edit it down due to time constraints, it really could have used an extra 20 minutes or so. For instance, they left in the best song (IMHO) but shortened it a lot, removing much of what made it so good in the first place.
Still, it's a decent movie. If I had never heard the original, I would have liked it (I think) but if you have only seen the movie and you liked it, you owe it to yourself to pick up the original and give it a listen.
Current Mood:  lazy
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10:29 am
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Shameless Plug
We have a dear friend who, amongst all her other talents, makes beautiful tiny little crocheted things. We have long had some of her work (little crocheted doilies) out in our house.
She has finally begun to sell her wares online, at http://mccordworks.etsy.com. No pressure, but if you're looking for some really neat earrings or a classy ornament for yourself or as a gift, you might give it a look-see. Like most hand-made art, they're not cheap, but they are amazing and beautiful, IMHO.
Current Mood: busy
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11:01 am
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A meme from many
( Read more... )
Current Mood: amused
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12:46 pm
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Random Gripe of the Day
I have issues with the term "white trash". I find it offensive and racist. To me, having to qualify a particular piece of trash as being white implies that normal trash is not white, which in turn sort of implies that not white = trash. I am aware of the logical fallacy, so please don't bother to point that out. I am also aware that perhaps I am being overly sensitive or PC in this regard, and that most everyone else I've mentioned this to in person has reacted as if I am a crazy person. Nevertheless, it always makes me cringe.
Current Mood: lazy
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09:32 am
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a nice surprise
I got home last night after gaming to find a woman in my house. She's asleep in my bed even as we speak. But it's OK, because my wife doesn't get home until tonight.
Current Mood:  mischievous
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10:18 am
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Wombat!
Those who know me know that one of my best friends is ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) paracoon. Those who know him know that he has a penchant for animals, both the real and the anthropomorphic kind. And while I would by no means consider myself a "furry", I have on occasion read some of his comics or looked at some of his art. One day he pointed me toward a somewhat furry online comic called Digger, and when I checked it out I immediately loved it.
Sadly, the site is a pay site that only allows you to read the most recent comic for free. When he first pointed me to it they were allowing you to go back and read all the archives, which I did, but now if you went there the story would be pretty far along, and it wouldn't make much sense. But for those who know comics, it has a kind of Bone feel to it.
This all brings me to the point of this post. If you have in the past heard me speak of Digger and if you were interested but lamented the fact that the site would not allow you to read the archives, and if you are also in the Houston area, then you are in luck. For I am now the proud owner of the first three collected volumes of Digger, and if you ask me nicely I would be willing to loan them out.
And if my lovely wife was planning to buy them for me for Christmas, then I apologize.
Current Mood: happy
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10:20 pm
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It's beginning to look a lot like... wait, what?
On the way home tonight I saw that one of the houses in our neighborhood *already* has a full set of Christmas lights up, including on the trees and front walk. Is it me, or is this just too early? I mean, I guess I can see stores wanting to get a jump on early sales promotions, but lights up already? Really?
Current Mood:  confused
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02:40 pm
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Doh!
So, for what I believe is the second time in five years at this job, I have made the mistake of scheduling people for training without actually reserving the instrument time to train them. About 30 minutes into the 2 hour session another user comes up and politely asks if I'm going to be much longer on the instrument. This leads to the standard exchange of "I believe I have this until 3:30" - "No, I think I have it reserved" - "OK, lets check the calendar". In almost every other instance, the result of this check is that I am correct, and I have the time reserved while the other user has made a scheduling error. But apparently this time I somehow forgot to actually book the time online.
I apologized up and down to the trainees, but I still feel like a moron.
Vacation - hurry up!
Current Mood:  ditzy
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10:24 am
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The cost of a 10-year old car
One of the downsides of driving a car until it dies is that to keep it running, you have to feed it regularly on a diet of plastic, mostly in the form of my credit card.
Don't get me wrong. I am very pleased with my car, and it has in general been very dependable. But nothing lasts forever, and parts do wear out.
So here I sit in the Honda dealership, prepared to replace my front brakes, front struts, and quite possibly all four tires. Ouch. Cheaper than buying a new car, though, and I expect to get at least a few more years of service out of this one. 133,000 miles and counting, so I guess I have no cause for complaint. At least the dealership has free wireless. :{)}
Current Mood: complacent
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