Friends
May. 16th, 2008
05:03 pm - A review
This review of mine just went up on Armchairgeneral.com:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/here-i-s
B.
03:13 pm - got medium spoilers?
I missed like the last 10 minutes of the "Medium" finale the other night.
Can anybody tell me what happened?
02:58 pm
SWAP shop has a half-price deal on file cabinets. These are really nice heavy duty Steelbuilt 4 and 5 drawer file cabinests. An equivalent will easily cost over $100 new -- these are currently on sale for $20 and $25 dollars. I got one stuck in my car .. I'll need help getting it out (yes the thing is like 100 lbs empty).
I have an old wooden one which is kinda nice but it's starting to fall apart and once those things start falling apart they really aren't that good anymore.
They also have $25 in-the-window air conditioners if you think you need one of those.
I also rented a storage locker. I reserved one earlier this month but I finally actually rented it for real. Whenever I move I tend to get a storage locker and use it as 'buffer space' so I'm not trying to move everything at once. It currently has a few things I had been keeping in the shed.
I found out the laptop I had doesn't have an internal antenna so if I want to use the wireless card I have in it I'll need to buy and install an internal antenna. People have done it and such an antenna only costs about $10 on eBay but I'd still have to take the laptop apart into about 30 pieces in order to do it. Luckily there are web sites with step-by-step instructions for my particular model.
11:07 am - Press Release
As a member of the Clergy of the Apostolic Johannite Church, it makes me proud to post this:
It is with a healthy measure of relief and joy that the Apostolic
Johannite Church applauds the decision of the California Supreme Court
to overturn the ban on same-sex marriages.
Throughout its history, the Apostolic Johannite Church has remained
committed to the principles enshrined in both Canon Law and its
Statement of Principles- making no distinction between heterosexual and
homosexual marriages providing they represent sacramental vows of union.
Further to this, the Apostolic Johannite Church likewise recognizes the
need for and gives its support to civil ceremonies of marriage,
recognizing the freedom of choice of all human beings to engage in a
religious or secular life as they see fit, celebrating their lives
through civil, social and religious tradition.
It is our hope that other communities, religious denominations and
governments will look upon the example given anew by California, and
supported by such countries as the Netherlands, Canada and Spain, and
work to likewise outline and uphold the right of all their citizens and
adherents to the recognition of the value of their partnerships.
-Mar Iohannes IV, Patriarch of the Apostolic Johannite Church
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/frogs/happy.gif){kind=small}
ecstatic10:48 am - Birthday greetings
Happy birthday to the lovely, intelligent and talented ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
akirlu!
And many happy returns!
B.
08:21 am - Fancy Dress Party reminder for WisCon!
This is a special last-minute warning for the just-made-up-their-minds costume planners!
We will be hosting a Fancy Dress Party at WisCon 32 once again! As usual, the party will be on Sunday night. This year the theme will be "Academy of the Fantastic." Academic garb from your favorite books, comics, or fevered imagination is the theme. Would you teach at Hogwarts... or Starfleet Academy? On the Island of Roke? At PS 238? Whether you feel more at home in the Department of Subspace Theory or the Difference Engine Lab, figure out your "school uniform" and join us for a fantastical evening!
08:53 am - GE Restructuring
GE just broke Consumer and Industrial into 2 different businesses...
GE Appliances is the first. (<-- this is the one that they want to sell)
GE Lighting and Industrial is the second. (<-- this is where I work, effective 1 July.)
12:03 am - Book Log
53: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
I'd never read this, though I roughly knew the story. I enjoyed it, although the religious writing at the end made me gag. The copy I have was published in 1944 and has wonderful woodcuts and unusual two-column typography. And now I can read Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. Yay!
May. 15th, 2008
07:10 pm - $711.50
We have a 5 gallon water jug, the kind you see in an office water dispenser. We put our loose change into it. Last time it was emptied, it was about a third full, and there was about $400. That was two years ago, right around the time we got married. This time, it was between a third and half full. We poured all the money into a pile on the floor, and started wrapping it into money rolls. I bought these neat little stacking trays that made it super easy to keep count. Grand total- $711.50. Not bad. It'll pay for our Wiscon hotel and a few fun things for our trip.
Today, I took it to the bank. As I laboriously dragged two very heavy tote bags to the door, a man on the sidewalk said "are those coin rolls?" I said yeah. "That looks like a lot!" I said it was two years worth. He said "wow, congratulations!" I thought that was pretty funny...
I quit the job on Monday. I went in to talk to boss guy first thing in the morning. He told me he could tell I wasn't happy, and it was bringing the rest of the crew down. The unfriendly, unhelpful, insular crew. I asked him not to mention it to people who didn't need to know, as I didn't want anyone asking me questions about it. He said, "of course I won't say anything", and I told him I'd finish out the day, since they were still really short handed. I went upstairs to do a run of delivering charts, and when I returned, everybody knew and was asking me questions. Gee thanks, boss. I was happy to turn in my badge at the end of the day.
I'm scared out of my mind for the future, but I'm relieved not to have to go back to that miserable, toxic place. It felt so good to leave, I made a cake the next day to celebrate!
Yesterday I cleaned and tidied all day, because we had dirtylibrarian over for dinner. Twas lovely. I made two quiches that turned out pretty darn good. Afterward, we walked down to the ship canal. Everything is in bloom, and the air smelled wonderful. dirtylibrarian - please send us that photo you took!
No photos from me tonight, Luke has the printer plugged into his computer in order to print out the LJ icon stickers for ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
wiscon. I've been running errands during these last few work-free days. Bank today, post office tomorrow, to mail a box of clothes to my parent's house in Madison. We do this every year, we'll be stopping off at my folks before Wiscon starts, and I also borrow their big coolers for the LJ party. We have this whole Wiscon thing down to a science. The only thing that sucks about it is the terrifying airplane ride.
04:19 pm - Speed Racer Movie
Yup... I finally saw it. Like the movie 'Sin City' it is essentially the cartoon dropped into the real world. They 'did it right' and kept all the silly stuff that made Speed Racer (the cartoon) fun -- including one of those goofy rally races where in the middle everyone gets out of their cars so they can have a big fight scene.
Plusses+ They kept all the buttons on the Mach 5 the same.
Minusses- No 'Mammoth Car' (some people said it was going to be in there)
Also: OMG FLASHY COLOURS!
If you were/are a fan of the cartoon then I recommend it. If you never saw or never liked the cartoon -- then it's a bit like seeing a Star Trek movie if you were never a fan of the Star Trek series... why the fuck are you seeing it in the first place. It's a cartoon-movie with cartoon-like acting and dialog -- If you want high art go to an art theater for movies like "The Life Before her Eyes" or something involving gay cowboys eating pudding.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/twotone/hamsters/backflip_hammy.gif)
bouncy04:13 pm - "look on my works, and despair"
From a technical list I'm on:
[product name] was not stable, but is better now as it was sold off to a company that pretty much stopped development , which did make it more stable.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/happy.gif){kind=small}
amused03:57 pm - And here's what I look like today
02:34 pm - Top Gun - Recut
I've seen a bunch of these: The Shining, Mary Poppins, etc.
This was hilarious!
amused11:57 am - Gay Marriage in California...
The California Supreme Court has decided: Separate is not equal. Two people of the same gender can marry.
Here's all of my comments about the decision:
It's about time. Two states down, forty-eight states and the Federal government to go.
Take care, all.
01:37 pm - Victory in California
Tears of joy as same-sex marriage advocates get the word
My first thoughts were an old Violet Blue column from the SF Chronicle:
Pundits and politicians want to scare people with San Francisco values because they don't fundamentally believe sex is healthy. They're the dinosaurs, and we're the meteor.
ecstatic01:13 pm - Bio!
I have this crazy urge to write a new bio for LJ.
So, I'm soliciting the help of you, my friends.
I'd like you all to leave a comment, with the following:
1) one smart ass comment about me (You know you want to)
2) something you think people should know about me (positive or negative, and no smart assery, that's what #1 is for)
3) something you wish you knew about me.
I'll take these and compile them into a more interesting bio. You can read my current bio if you want to see the depths of uninteresting to which I have sunk.
Should we make it a meme?
amused12:02 pm - *BIG* Company news
So, GE hired Goldman Sachs to auction off Appliances, reported yesterday by the WSJ.
This is serious and big news.
Want gossip?
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/05/15/g
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/busine
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12108299
For those interested, Lighting and Appliances are in the same business -- GE Consumer and Industrial. Compared to Appl, Lighting is just a tiny slice of the pie. This could mean big and serious shakeups for me.
Mostly, selling Appl is a huge brand -thing-, since when average consumer thinks 'ge' they imagine bulbs and fridges. Stay tuned.
10:24 am - Man's Best Friend
I love my dog, Brandy, more than any other pet I've ever had. She's getting up there in age now. We rescued her from the animal shelter 12 years ago. The only way we had to tell what her age might have been at the time was by her teeth. The vet at the shelter said he estimated she was about a year old. So that would make her 13 years old now. For the most part she's doing pretty well. She still has her wonderful personality. She still enjoys going for walks, although she can't walk very far these days, and she still greets me with glee when I come home from work at night. The dogs we've had in our family have always lived long, healthy, lives (except the one who just couldn't resist the urge to chase cars, don't think I need to tell you how that ended). I believe our dogs lived so long because we always fed them mostly dry dog food. Every once in a while I'll give Brandy some pizza crust, she also loves fortune cookies and she somehow knows when Chinese food gets delivered to the house that there's a treat in it for her. If I don't give her her fortune cookie when I'm done eating she'll look at me with this face that just seems to say, "hey, you had Chinese food, I know there's a fortune cookie waiting for me, now give it up." But for the most part its strictly dog food for her. I remember my grandma's dog, Pudge. My grandma and grandpa gave that dog everything they ate. Whenever they ate anything, even ice cream, they always saved the last bite for Pudge. That dog was always at the vets office, he always had health problems and he died at a young age. I think we helped our dogs live much longer lives by not giving them all the shit we human beings put into our bodies.
Over the last year Brandy has been having problems walking and it's not getting any better. I've taken her to the vet and they took some x-rays and told me that some of the cartilage between her vertebra has been worn away. They also told me there was nothing I could have done to prevent this, and not much I can do to make it better. I have her on glucosemine and that has made a little improvement, but she's still not walking like her old self. I know it's unreasonable for me to think that she ever will again. Some days are better than others. On the good days I think she could be with me for another year, maybe even longer. On the bad days I think it might be any day that I'll have to make the decision to put her down.
As long as she's still herself I know I won't have to make that decision. I think I'll know when that time comes and I'm pretty sure I'll have the strength to end her suffering when she has lost her dignity and will to live. That time is not at hand yet, but I know it's getting nearer and nearer. So, I've taken to spoiling her as much as I can. I take her for longer walks; even though she can't go very far, I just let her roam wherever she wants, for as long as she wants. I still don't give her a lot of people food, but she's been getting more of her favorite raw hide treats than what she would usually get. It used to be only one a day, now she gets at least two, and on some days I've actually given her three. I cherish every moment I can spend with her, because I know at her age her days are very limited. I try to let her know how much I love her every chance I get. I know pets can feel the love we have for them.
I hope I won't ever have to make the painful decision to put her down. I would much rather she dies a natural death, sparing me the painful decision to have to end her life. But I'm afraid it's not going to play out that way. So far my life has been relatively untouched by death. Both of my parents are still alive and I've had very few people I know die on me. I'm afraid that Karma is going to catch up to me at some point and I'll have to deal with death much more than I have had to up until now. If I do have to make the terrible decision some day, I want to hold her in my arms and tell her I love her and that I'm ending her suffering for her, because I love her too much to see her suffer when nothing more can be done for her.
So, it's day to day. I'm trying to spend as much time with her as I can. I'm looking at the positive side. She's still herself, I still have her, and she still seems to enjoy life. I'm trying not to think about what inevitably lies ahead. She's the best dog I've ever had and I don't know what I'm going to do when she's gone. I just have to try to enjoy every day I still have her. That horrible day could be over a year away, or it could come very suddenly. I don't know which way it's going to go. I just hope she knows how much I love her.
Navigate: (Previous 20 Friends)