Category / general

ramblings 4 July, 2006 at 5:01 pm

spent yesterday at my parents. 60′ tree fell, clipped the house but luckily after it had lost a lot of momentum to the ground i guess. took them all day yesterday to get someone to come out and take it off the roof so the roofing people could come find out if there was a hole (there was)

so i sat around and chatted with them, we went to lunch at one point. only intended to stay for an hour or so, ended up staying flor closer to 8

been playing guildwars, but i seem to be running into content that gets harder to solo, which is a real PITA. having trouble focusing on anything lately too, which isn’t helping. managing to keep the “i’m bored” bits down, but tired all the time and well bored, tbh.

out of milk again :/ my conference starts downtown tomorrow. and it looks like it’s supposed to start storming any minute now, and last for days. that’ll make walking more fun obviously

dc monsoon 06 26 June, 2006 at 9:16 pm

well, ok, so it’s not really monsoon scale

but it’s b een raining since like thursday, pretty heavily, lotsa thunder & lightning. quite impressive really. apparently last night the dc area got more rain in like 3 hours than in may. all of may. combined :o

K’s been at the camp and overnight since friday. put him in initially b/c i had to go to the fofice to turn off the servers friday, which was annoying, and it was going to rain so figured he could run around all day. then i was going to have to come in on the weekend to turn the servers back on b/c OMG! NO! WE CANT BE OUT FOR A WHOLE WEEKEND!!!! (they’re probably annoyed that i turned off the servers 12 hours before the power was set to go out; but i wasn’t coming in at 5am to turn the damned things off)

in the end, another of the admins was going in saturday b/c he was going to be in the area and had foolishly volunteered to go in. said he’d flip mine back on for me too, yay. left K in though :) finished up the spare room (quarter-round along the edges; still ened to do the putty/patching bits but they’re not strictly necessary) yesterday, played a bunch of guildwars over the weekend.

the new dsl, while vastly cheaper, is a bit flaky. every time it thunders, it blinks. just long enough for guildwars to drop me like a bad habit. been doing it some from the rain this weekend, but that’s probably scale rather than anything else.

two weeks and i’m at my conference. in the beautiful scenic city of downtown … DC. oh, so i’m gonna be taking metro down and coming home every night :o

come to think of it, k’s been at camp for the weekend 3 times in the last month. and is going again in two weeks when i’m at my conference, since i won’t be ableto/interestedin taking him for his long walks to keep him entertained and run down. that gets expensive though. I’ve been talking about doing it once a month for a while, just so i have time for things around puppies.

but i feel guilty when i keep putting him in, b/c it feels like i’m trying to get rid of him. i love my puppy, but it’s nice to not have to work around him occasionally.

fathers day and not arguments 19 June, 2006 at 7:34 pm

went to my parents yesterday and took ‘em out to dinner. left k home so we could sit around and chat too

topics of conversation changed regularly as i bailed out of discussions to avoid arguments, since it was father’s day after all :)

there was the energy price increase (maryland deregulated in 98/99, cut the prices (the ones based from regulation and pretty rock-bottom in theory) by 5% or 10% or something, held the prices for 7 years. jul 1 the company we’re with was raising now that they could. 72%. my parents company was going up 39% or so). my dad looked at his new bill and the production cost (which is the only part that changed) went up 67%. so he was on a tear about the 38% being an utter fabrication and double books and shell games. i made a brief point about the fact that he has to pay the rest ANYWAY, so the overall is 38%. sure, its a little misleading, but the stuff i kept seeing was talking about total bill anyway.

then there was actual power consumption. b/c they have gas furnace, gas water heater, gas dryer, they have the gas price as the main in the winter more than energy. we’re all electric, so it’s pretty consistent. theirs was huge this last winter. my dad was on about the natural gas prices (which gas happens to be the same energy company as the electric) being a much higher rise than the electric. electrics only ~3c/kwh. of course, theres a lotta kwh’s in a month :o I think their bill was so high over the winter for the same reason their electric is relatively low in the summer. they like it warm. therm was set to 85 yesterday. i think it stays over 80 in the winter, too. we’re 78 summer, 72 winter i believe (with 75 just around bed, and sometimes 68 when no one’s home). so we’re pretty consistent. they use a lot more energy in the winter keeping it sauna warm :o

there ws of course some general abuse of my tendency for hellish long showers … sometimes two or three times a day :o when i went to college, the water co declared the meter broken, estimated based on past usage and charged that. b/c it went down like 75% or something :o what can i say, i like hot showers :)

discussed what they wanted to do for their 40th next year. i was thinking maybe taking them to broadway/nyc. turns out they have a wedding there in sept, but they’re staying in jersey the other side of the lincoln tunnel b/c the hotel in manhattan is 170$/night. and since they’re staying at a motel8 for 60$/night, they’re gonna make it a week trip and do same-day tickets to shows from the tkt booth. which works for them b/c they don’t really care what they see, whereas when we were there we had actual preferences :o so no idea what we’re doing for that at this point.

cajun for dinner, which was decent. i couldn’t taste any black pepper, but everyone else said the food, including the shared appetizer, was nice and spicy. so i’m thinking my tastebuds are broken ;o

but, i was succesful in not getting into one of my usual big arguments with my dad. largely b/c i kept bailing instead of going forward like i might. but whatever works :)

new digicam 18 June, 2006 at 8:14 am

last weekend at the wedding, the small digicam (b/c i wasn’t hauling the slr around for a couple pics) was in use. it was an indoor thing, and kiir took some pics beforehand (me in a tux and a couple family shots i believe). the flash took a while to recharge, i’d guess ~10s, but she said closer to 30

so yesterday we went out to look at a new digicam. looked at a few models, timed the flashes. 4s, 5s, 7s. we tried ours, and it was 7s. don’t know if the flash does variant light (as in, flashes harder in darker) or if it really was only taking 7s last weekend. talked about it some, and she decided she wanted the new one, even though it doesn’t have an eye-viewer like she wanted.

so now we have a new digicam. and the old digicam. and the slr. and some film cams. oi.

this psychoses is temporarily out of order 25 May, 2006 at 11:44 am

had my psych appointment last week …

doc feels i don’t have adhd. b/c i was never expelled for knifing a teacher in kindergarten or somethign.

according to the stuff i’ve read, apparently adult adhd “symptoms must have been present since age 7 or earlier” for a diagnosis in an adult. it also says “the fact that you’ve not been diagnosed until adulthood … a compliment to your ability to cope/hide the symptoms” …

so the fact that i didn’t get diagnosed means i don’t have it b/c if i did have it i would have been diagnosed, unless i hid it and didn’t get diagnosed, and do have it except i can’t have it b/c i didn’t. or don’t. or something.

fuck.

and i can’t really figure out how taking amphetamines is supposed to help me concentrate and be less restless …

not that doc’ll give them to me. damnit.

*sigh*

am i gonna need a new psych?

blah blah blah 15 May, 2006 at 10:34 am

missed krav thursday. storm giving me a headache. bleah

went saturday, though. except they were throwing multiple punches and elbows and bryan was instructing … i’ve only learned one punch to date, and jeff was supposed to be running the level 1 course … so i decided that i had somehow ended up entirely in the wrong time slot (bryan was supposed to be teching the kids all day, so not sure how the time would matter, offhand, but i got nothing else going here) and left.

decided over the weekend that ‘m probably going to sell my car (probably ~6k for it at carmax; 8-10 if i sold it in the classifieds but that seems like it’d be so much more work; may still look into it) the money’d pay off a credit card and provide enough to cover the year’s worth of krav dues

pysch said this morning that i probably don’t have adhd. “it’s extremely unusual to develop adhd as an adult if you didn’t have it as a child” … well, i don’t know. i MIGHT HAVE, not like i have ever been tested. and, offhand, i’d say it’s more than ‘extremely’ unlikely to develop an allergy/reaction to meat … but i seem to have nailed that one. want me to talk to my parents see if maybe i was hyper as a child and always moving (duh; i was a kid, hello?) apparently being in the gifted program and not getting weekly detentions for trying to knife a teacher means i can’t be adhd.

ordered a krav book and a lockpicking book over the weekend, as well as picks. near as i can understand md law, it seems i’m ok as long as i own without intent. posession with intent to use or allow to be used in an illegal manner, that’s illegal (intent is illegal what? thought police!) but since i don’t , i should be ok

she’s got exams today. we skipped mother’s day at my folks yesterday so she could study (or sleep, depending on which part of the day; she hasn’t been sleeping well at night lately); today and tomorrow. i think she said …

may hit krav tonight. may go tomorrow after her last exam

apparently her mom’s coming this weekend, i’d forgotten. i’m disinclined to clean, ince i spent 3 weeks last time non stop cleaning, and both of htem said “wow, this place really needs cleaning” … it’s like in school. i can spend forever working and get a C. or i can spend 30 seconds and get a C. screw the work.

krav maga 8 May, 2006 at 9:51 pm

went to the intro session for krav maga today (Wikipedia entry)

it’s a heck of a workout, that’s for sure. And i figure it’ll give me a chance to maybe burn off some agression. and energy. and fat. and agression

it’s been suggested that i have anger issues …

and if nothing else, i’ll get a lot of exercise and learn how to kill someone with my bare hands :o

(well, actually, i think they teach primarily the self-defense component; but I’m thinking a lot of self-defense could be recycled. a huge ass kick to the groin, for instance :o)

we signed up for the year, we’ll see how it goes. hope it works out better than the gym. we still have a year and a half on the gym, and i’m only making it an average of once a week lately. maybe a little less, even, than that :/

body: all, me: none 25 April, 2006 at 4:02 pm

in the past I’ve been to the quack (“you’re lactose intolerant” “but it’s turkey that makes me sick. i can eat a lb of cheese no prob” “you’re lactose intolerant”)

I’ve been to the gastroenterologist (“it’s not bread or anything? try eating some whole grain for a few days, maybe that’ll make you sick” “nope” “hrrm. OK, lets take a look” “well, you’re perfectly fine and healthy. Except that whole meat thing”)

The new doc (“Huh. Well, OK. I guess as long as you’re not eating meat and that solves the problem, that’s fine”)

So today we finished the series and hit the allergist. After talking, he declared that it was HIGHLY unlikely that i happened to be allergic to 4 seperate thigns (it is?) (FOUR? wha 4?). And if it were a meat thing i should trigger off peanuts (where’s teh beef dude!)

But we ran the food allergy tests. My arm itched a lot, and i think i had some red spots, but only the positive test came up “positive” (and htey never told me what the rest of hte plugs were; i know one was a negative, but dunno which)

So, his verdict? Other than the fact i can’t eat meat, there’s nothing wrong with me!

Well, no. To be honest he acknowledged that I have what they refer to as a “adverse reaction” or something. Meat bad. But that doesn’t make any sense, have I tried organic meat?

Many dr’s later: I’m perfectly fine, except I can’t eat meat. Or I shouldn’t eat meat. Or I shouldn’t eat part of the meat. Or something.

Meanwhile, back to the fish :p

cycling points 4 April, 2006 at 11:18 pm

slowly moving the rest of the systems to the new server

this blog and kitchendragons should both be transferred now, yay.

that just leaves the low boards to flip, as the only other active site. then transferring the very limited mail on accounts (limited, that is, except for me :o)

of course, got an email today from verizon saying that the installation has been cancelled. when i called the # to find out why, it’s an automated system.

an automated system that responds to voice commands, and thus you can’t even not dial to get to the real people. gonna try to break through to people tomorrow. but the automated system assured me that no one could give me any more info than it had. of course, it also said everything wsa proceeding to schedule, so either (a) it’s lying and stupid, or (b) “installation cancelled” just means they cancelled the techs since they sent me a self-isntall kit

i’m guessing (a), b/c (b) would actually not be bad :o gonna keep flipping things over an’ such, even if it doesn’t go through. but god i hope i can cut this dsl bill SOMEWHERE

so far this week … 30 March, 2006 at 11:18 pm

Been cleaning hte hell out of the house his week.

so far I’ve tossed 6 boxes of old damned textbooks (50 or so) b/c no one will take them apparently

i’ve tossed 3 boxes of miscellaneous crap and “mixed paper’

i’ve thrown 5 computers and a box of parts

Tomorrow i have to take another loda to the recyc b/c i have:

2 boxes of misc cables and bits

4 computers

4 laptops

a monitor

half a dozen keyboards

handful of mice

a box of old vhs that i recorded shit off hte air

two boxes of miscellaneous crap

a box or so of books

a box or so of miscellaneous paper

and this weekend i’ll end up with, that i already know of:

two boxes of shredded paper/receipts/etc

a tree

half a dozen dead azaleas

and donating/selling:

two boxes of clothes

a big box of xmas ornaments

two boxes of bought vhs tapes that i don’t watch :o had to hook up the vcr to figure out what was on the 30 unlabelled tapes i had as it was :o

tonight i made a big mess out of a small mess. go me :) but i think i’m starting to run down on things to toss. then it’s putting the house back together :o

tired now :o