blog blog blog...

it's been a few days, not overly eventful for me, but enuff that i spose i should catch things up.

monday night around 740, we lost power. in town. and neighboring town. i was washing a cover for my new ikea comforter when the lights in my bathroom went out (yes, by hand) and damned if 10 mins later (after alerting K&L) the pager went off. turns out, the timing of the problem was conincidental, but i called facilities just to make sure. (all was well, and it was an unrelated issue i was able to resolve later) power was restored 70 mins later, and there was no mention of it in the weekly paper that arrived today. chatted w/K for a few mins and we were glad that it was at least cool (yet muggy) when we lost power so it wasn't going to be a killer if we didn't get power back.

yesterday i felt like shit when i got home, and i think i managed to get something at the salad bar yesterday that didn't agree with me as i was fine in the morning, but as the afternoon wore on, i started feeling less well and by the time i got home, i was pretty much non-functional. i called M to postpone dinner, but she came over anyways. by the time she got here, i had managed to mix up a banana drink (banana + milk + ice + blender) that seemed to help settle things, so i was feeling better.

DH & i went up to visit our network helper/consultant to go over some impending upgrades to the network. reasonably productive meeting and a few interesting ideas came out as to how to handle the plethora (how's that for a word?) of wireless laptops we have that are fucking up our IP range. we'll see what happens, and we'll be talking on wednesday to go over some of the plans.

otherwise, work has been fairly quiet the last few days which can be viewed as good or bad. DH is off until after the 4th, so i get to hold the server fort down. rebuilt a server that was being uncooperative (it's nice to be able to say fuck you server and then nuke it. good thing it wasn't in production yet.)

work is work. i could bitch about the weather which has sucked of late, or how much it cost me to fix my morceau blanc de merde (way too fucking much). i thought about it, but fuck it. i need to think about going to bed.

night all.

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oh god oh god we're all gonna die?

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random shiznit

quote of the moment:
"i've been eating a lot of pine needles. i know they are high in vitamin C and chlorophyll."

backstory: there is a diseased pine tree that is on the property line between two homes. both neighbors agreed that the tree needed to come down. apparently, the people coming to remove the tree had arrived and this nutjob lady asked what was going to happen to the tree. someone says that it will be turned into firewood. so what does nutjob lady who agreed that the tree had to be removed do? she scampers up the tree and is now refusing to come out of it. what the fuck does she think they are going to use the tree for? building homes? that would sure inspire confidence for me to buy a house with a wooden beam made from a diseased tree. idiot...

• not quite as satisfying as the real thing, but it's still fun. virtual bubblewrap
  
• file under HOLY SHIT! (that's fucking cool as hell)
  
• WOO HOO!
  

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random shiznit

quote of the moment:
"i've been eating a lot of pine needles. i know they are high in vitamin C and chlorophyll."

backstory: there is a diseased pine tree that is on the property line between two homes. both neighbors agreed that the tree needed to come down. apparently, the people coming to remove the tree had arrived and this nutjob lady asked what was going to happen to the tree. someone says that it will be turned into firewood. so what does nutjob lady who agreed that the tree had to be removed do? she scampers up the tree and is now refusing to come out of it. what the fuck does she think they are going to use the tree for? building homes? that would sure inspire confidence for me to buy a house with a wooden beam made from a diseased tree. idiot...

• not quite as satisfying as the real thing, but it's still fun. virtual bubblewrap
  
• file under HOLY SHIT! (that's fucking cool as hell)
  
• WOO HOO!
  

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hee hee hee

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hangin' the eyeballs

finally got around to hanging these funny 12" black disc things on my wall. people seem to react strangely to them for some reason.

what is this "vinyl" you speak of?

now i need to get my floyd and zeppelin stuff framed up....i'll need a 2nd copy of Dark Side of the Moon...

and if i can get my hands on a copy of Diskomo/Goosebump, i'll move Eskimo over and find a new spot for Meet the Residents

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29 years ago tonight...

Led Zeppelin played what some people consider to be one of their finest performances at the LA Forum. widely bootlegged under the title "Listen to This Eddie", it is a wonderful recording of a very good performance (i personally prefer the one on the 25th), but as i'm thinking about it, and it is the first day of summer (as of 826am here) i figured i would mention it. definately worth a spin. i wonder where one of my 3 copies is...

thank you mr. millard for your excellent recording.

thank you robert, jimmy, john paul, and especially John Henry Bonham.

for those of you not fortunate enuff to have this show, but do own the DVD, put in the 2nd disc and on the promos submenu, you'll see some footage of them playing The Song Remains The Same. the footage is not from LA (i can't think of which show it is, but i did know at one point), but that version of the song is taking from this show. (even jimmy thought it was good enuff to include and he's a perfectionist...look here to see what i mean)

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i've had a little time to cool off now...

$2200 still hurts, but the good news is it isn't the end of the world for me financially. but i've had M comment to me twice today about the merits of buying a car that isn't made by an american automaker. (we can discuss the merits of american made toyotas another day) but i've expressed my displeasure towards my "the fucking white sinkhole", and jennkitty and i both seem to agree that neither of us plans on buying another ford (except for the Ford GT in my case, but that ain't happening unless i hit the lottery, and a GT40 is more realistic. mmmm....gt40....)

i currently have a black 2007 (c'mon, i don't want to see the next model year until the fall at the earliest...) ford freestyle. nothing overly fancy about it, altho it does have the CVT transmission which should be interesting tomorrow to drive with. i was asked if i had a preference (which i didn't) but i was having to move some servers tomorrow, so i needed something i could put them in, so that's what they gave me.

anyways, i know i've talked with TK about this, and i was mentioning to jennkitty that it'd be nice to have something similar to what is in Minority Report where you get in your car and it drives you where you wanted to go. the only difference is that my idea is more of a taxi-like concept where you'd order a car (have pre-defined preferences for non-smoking, baby seats, etc) and then off you'd go. all auto-drive, and that headache of the Daily Display of Human Idiocy (tm) would go away because the traffic would all be computer controlled. you arrive at work, get out and off it goes to the next person. (really good for cities)

shopping gets a little more complicated because you'll want to have the same car if you goto multiple locations, but then you tell it to park and it parks itself and you have a little remote that you use to call it when you are ready to load your bags into it. program next stop and off you go. the auto-valet.

it would be good for kids too. your kid has a soccer game to get to and you are running late. order up a car, they get in and it takes them to the game, either directly (if so desired) or by way of teammates homes.

for longer trips, you order up a different type of car, but it works on a similar concept. you keep it for the duration of the trip. plus you can have some manual control over the driving so you aren't entirely emasculated (sorry, don't know the feminine synonym).

anyways, off to do more stuff...or attempt to at any rate.

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fucking car

thru my own stupidity, i managed to kill my rear brakes a little while ago. i've had problems with them ever since i owned a car, and had to get them fixed several times when i had the jeep, and once already with the explorer. so i got in the habit of leaving them off. and i was even in the habit for a while of checking the e-brake pedal before i started to roll in the off chance i actually used them.

well, that habit fell by the wayside and the one time i use them, i completely forgot. e-brakes only work on the rear wheels, and having an SUV w/rear wheel drive and a big motor, and driving up an incline, it didn't occur to me that i had the e-brakes on until i killed them.

so i took today off with the intention of getting them fixed and having them look at a few other things. i just got the estimate for the entire job.

$3300

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck....

turns out there were MORE problems with my rear brakes in addition to my doings that have to be fixed as well. the good news (such that there is) is that those repairs are due to age (109k miles) rather than my fucking them up. that isn't to say that my fucking them up didn't help the process along, but i take minor relief in that.

not really, but i'll pretend i do. it will make me feel better.

the other major fix (again age related, and shitty road related) is on my front suspension, and a good portion of that needs to be fixed. it wasn't 100% critical to get it done today, but would need to be done sooner or later, and i know for fact would fail my car inspection. (i've had it 5 years, and it failed twice, once due to the ball joints)

things i'm not getting fixed: the 4x4 control motor, the rear wiper and the exhaust.

the 4x4 control motor is what handles the shifting of 2wd into 4wd. again, age related, not critical as i don't go off-roading in this, and i only really use the 4x4 in the winter. i'll fix that this fall.

rear wiper - i've lived w/o it for 3 1/2+ years. figured it would be an easy fix. costs too much in light of the brake situation.

exhaust - i'll take it to midas and get a better deal there. i won't sit on it too long, but i'm willing to bet it would cost 1/2 as much there.

shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck....

looking at $2200 in repairs. so much for all that money i supposedly was saving by not having car payments....that pretty much covers EVERYTHING i had managed to save from that...

M decreed the other day that we needed (more I needed than she needed) to cut back on the frufru drinks i'm so fond of. i was thinking once in a while i might indulge. that is WAAAAAAY out the window and i'm glad i've started brewing my own coffee for ice coffees. there's a little more saved...that 5.84 i spent on the jumbo tub (w/flavor seal) of folgers made ice coffee a lot more affordable.

fuck fuck fuck...

and to think, i was figuring i'd just hold on to this thing until it ran into the ground. fucking thing did that and didn't bother to tell me.

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stoopit weather

a little while ago there was a nice line of thunderstorms winding their way eastward and what happens?

they fell apart so i was left with nothing.

no thunderstorm.

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this is something i could use.

the only thing that would make it cooler is if it has a little low res webcam to use for aiming it.

UPDATE! now with video goodness!

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CRandall's Fucktard of the Week

this is just plain disturbing. i'm all for making cover songs unique, but this is ranking up there in the pantheon of 'what the fuck were you thinking?'

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that was rude...

M & i went looking at suits yesterday for the wedding i'm in and it was a rather rude awakening when it came to my sizing. most notably, it's a higher number than i thought. the good news is that our shopping experience at Men's Warehouse was vastly superior to K&G. unfortunately, K&G has the better prices. regardless, it ain't that cheap, and i'm wondering about the cost of JennKitty's bits that are being made because that could be adding to the cost of the suit.

i've commented with M about how women's sizing is just completely screwed up. a size 6 in one store is a size 4 in another, and a size 8 in yet another. there seems to be no consistancy in the sizing, which could help explain why it is women love shopping. they have to try every size on to find the one that fits which has now mutated into the love of shopping. hmmm...that's always been a mystery to most men, but that may be it. at least in part.

men's clothes tend to be more consistant in the sizing. however, as we discovered yesterday, even those are off. i've never bothered to measure my waist with a tape measure, using what my pant size is when i buy pants for work, jeans, etc. well, those numbers are lower than what it actually is which suprised both of us. the reason we were given was those fabrics will stretch, while suit pants aren't meant to. go figure. at it turned out, the pants that were what my waist was measured at actually did fit pretty well, but with a little effort, the size down will be a better fit (and require a lot less pricey tailoring) so off to the gym i must go.

so, that's where things are for the moment. today is sposed to be hot as hell. well, not Hell, that's prolly mighty toasty and i'm sure that there are places that are a little hotter than it will be here, but that's neither here nor there. not sure what i want to do today. have to call dad later. prolly get some answers to questions i asked the other day. at least things are beginning to move. literally.

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we all feed on tragedy
just like night to a vampire
-mjk

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quick update

time for bed, but i figured i'd look to see.

1285 minutes since the 'cuda last scanned a message.

not good...not good...

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