Omphaloskepsis  -

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶On New Year's Adam

(Well, it's the day before New Year's Eve, and Adam existed before Eve, so I like this name better than "New Year's Eve Eve". :-) )

So I decided to stay up, and accompany Dad on his trip to Elgin. It was an interesting day; here are some random snippets. . . (more)

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Abducted by Geeks

So Wednesday evening, Joel O. and a gaggle of girls (specifically, Psi Phi'ers Amy, Becky, Julie, and Kate) randomly showed up at my doorstep and asked if they could borrow the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which they needed in order to have a trilogy marathon. They asked nicely enough, so I ran downstairs and got it.

Then they asked if they could borrow the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring too, because they only had the theatrical version of that, and apparently hadn't realized it before I left the first time. So I ran downstairs and got that, too.

Then they asked if they could see the Lego Star Wars Blockade Runner. Which was also downstairs. So I ran... well, walked... downstairs and showed it off, to oohs and aahs.

As they were preparing to leave, they asked if I would like to join them. It was nearly 10pm, but given that I went to bed around 7am Wednesday morning and got up around 5pm, that wasn't really be a problem. I changed into my <geek> misprint T-shirt and left. We went out to Julie's apartment in the tremendously thick fog (I can't recall ever being in fog quite that thick, let alone driving in it), and we ended up watching TROTK first, because some people who hadn't seen that yet were going to be leaving afterward. I decided to join that group, since by 3am I was getting a bit tired myself. Which is probably not a good sign for my sleep schedule getting back to somewhat normal by the time I go back to work next Monday.

Anyway, after the movie, I decided to stop by the new mega-Wal*Mart, which recently opened up at the North end of town, since I was up that general way anyway, and they're open 24 hours. I picked up a few choice selections to try out on my new griddle (some bacon and sausage... probably should've gotten some eggs as well, but oh well), as well as a few staple foods (such as pepperoni pizza :-) ).

When I got home, I managed to get all the cold stuff squeezed into the fridge or freezer, as appropriate, then came downstairs to discover that Dad is going up to Elgin in the morning to see relatives. (That's the possible Chicago trip I mentioned in My Upcoming Week.) He wrote to me at midnight, he's leaving B-N around 8am, and it's currently (as I write this) 5am. Hmm...

I guess I will see how I'm feeling in about an hour. If I'm still awake enough to drive to Bloomington, then I'll take a shower, fix some of my new breakfast meat, and go on over, then try to sleep while Dad drives up there. I suppose an extra-long waking period could help me to get to bed at a more natural time (say, late evening instead of mid-morning) Thursday night. On the other hand, if I don't think I'm quite alert enough to get to Dad's place safely, then I'll just sit this one out. Or sleep it out, I suppose. :-)

davidh
----
Update 7:07am: I'm headed out right now. Didn't cook the meat, as (a) the griddle needs to be washed before its first use, but I don't have time for that right now, and (b) the griddle has a non-stick surface and requires plastic cookware, but I only have metal (other than the Foreman grill goofy-shaped thingie), so I'm going to stop at McDonald's instead. I'll be back sometime tonight.

davidh

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶My Life as a Sim

Sim's Name: David Henderson
Aspiration: Knowledge
Current Wants: Buy a bookcase (§500), Buy a telescope (§500), Get a job in the Medicine Career (§1000), and Get a job in the Science Career (§1000)
Current Fears: Fire! (-§2000), Get sick (-§1000), Have a party (-§1000)

Personality Traits:

Sloppy

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Neat

Shy

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Outgoing

Lazy

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Active

Serious

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Playful

Grouchy

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Nice

I selected the aspiration and traits myself; the game selected appropriate wants and fears. I am amused that "Have a party" can be a fear. :-)

I also designed the appearance of the character, but I'm not very good with the appearance tool yet, and there was only one "full beard" option. Once I download some enhancements, I may be able to create a better likeness.

davidh

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶2004 Year in Review, part 4: April

Here's the things that happened in April, 2004...

(more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Dec. 27, 2004-Jan. 2, 2005

Monday-Sunday

No work

Lazing about the house

Possible trip to Chicago area

Possible trip to Iowa

Playing The Sims 2

Cleaning

Watching DVDs

Eating leftover turkey

Possible trip to see National Treasure and/or Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Friday night to Saturday morning

New year crossover -- plans TBA

Sunday

Church

Joel O. moves back in for a couple weeks

This list is 100% complete, except where it's not.

davidh

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶The Nieces, the Loot, and the Leftovers

I left Peoria shortly before 10am and went over to Dad's, where he was finishing up with the turkey. After figuring out a way to get the turkey into the car without making a mess, we went over to Doug and Misty's place, where Mom and Dan had already arrived. I got to see Alayna for the first time, and of course I got to see Zoey again! Yay, nieces! :-)

We had turkey, ham, potatoes, green beans, corn, cinnamon biscuits, pumpkin pie, and Dutch apple pie; I had some of everything except the ham. The cinnamon biscuits were made from the flaky Grands biscuits that I brought, but before they're cooked, adding some butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar to the top, a recipe that Dan suggested. We left them in the oven a couple minutes too long, but they still turned out pretty tasty.

• A subscription to Guideposts magazine
• A nice picture frame
• The Lord of the Rings Risk (Trilogy Edition)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Board Game
• Rival Electric Griddle, so that I can cook bacon, eggs, and sausage in the morning (now I just need to buy bacon, eggs, and sausage :-) )
• A new wallet, to replace my current one which has been falling apart for a while
• The Sims 2 -- DVD Edition, which I've been playing most of last night and today :-)
• A used microwave, since my current one is somewhat malfunctiony
• $50 in gift certificates to Culver's
• $20 in gift certificates to my bank (i.e. a check)

I've also got stuff coming from at least three other people coming in the next week or two.

After leaving Doug's place, Dan, Dad, and I went back to Dad's, and we talked for a while. We also tried to figure out how to divide up the leftover turkey... since I'm the only one in the family that likes dark meat, I got all of that... and since I'm much better at getting meat off the bone than anyone else (I'm often shocked at how much meat Dad leaves on chicken at KFC, just because it's "hard to get to"), Dad took off the largest portions and gave me the rest of the carcass. (Mmm, turkey carcass. :-) )

By the time I left Dad's, it had started snowing. Yay, white Christmas! Actually, this is something that Bloomington shared with the south of Texas, New Orleans, Mobile, and portions of Florida--many of which had their first white Christmases in recorded history, due to an odd convergence of weather patterns.When I talked to Aaron a few days ago, he said that Mobile was supposed to have "a few flakes of snow" on Christmas day... I thougth he was just kidding. Apparently not.

I dropped Dan off at home, then stopped in at Kevin's for a while. I returned The Callahan Touch and got Callahan's Lady, and Kevin gave me a CD of some offbeat music and spoofs that he'd mentioned recently. He showed me some of the books for Traveller, which is an RPG that I'll probably be joining next month, and lent me the main book for the version we'll be playing.

The drive home was a bit more perilous than the drive over, with some snow on the ground making them somewhat slick. I drove about 2-5 miles under the speed limit for the first half of the drive, then once I got to a clearer part of the road, went back to 65. Fortunately, traffic was very light, so I made it home with no problems.

davidh

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Twice an uncle

I am an uncle for a second time! Yay!

With everything going on at work today, I almost forgot to mention this here. On Wendesday, I became an uncle for the second time, when Doug and Misty welcomed their second child into the world.

Alayna, born December 22, 2004, at 1:38pm, 7 pounds, 2 ounces, 20.5".

davidh

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶How soak new to enter into the peace correctly?

It appears that I have recently been added to a Russian spam mailing list (subscribers@list.ru). It's kind of weird seeing a lot of Cyrillic subject lines in Gmail's spam folder, so I decided to see what some of it says...

(more)

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶A conversation

At the end of a talk, after my supervisor had some trouble reaching me about a problem, while I was out at lunch. I'm paraphrasing, since I don't recall the exact words. (Note: "Supervisor" is the guy I report to at the client's office, not my employer.)

Supervisor: "I heard you got a bonus. Congratulations."
Me: "Thanks."
Supervisor: "I think that's great, and it's not enough [money]."
Me: :-)
Supervisor: (turning to leave, Columbo-like) "Oh, do you have an aversion to cell phones?"
Me: (wondering) "Well, yeah, kinda."
Supervisor: "Do you like money?"
Me: (suspicious) "Hmm... I suppose so."
Supervisor: "Maybe that can balance things out."
[Supervisor departs]

Eep.

(In other news, I got a bonus from my employer.)

davidh

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Unrelated updates: Norton and spam

Two updates:

1) The Norton software is no longer available.

2) Since the keywords post, only one piece of spam has had any of the keywords; in this case, "strawberry". Since this is an actual word, unlike most of the others, I consider this to be a coincidence.

davidh

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶2004 Year in Review, part 3: March

Here's the things that happened in March, 2004...

(more)

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Dec. 20-26

Monday

Work -- go in early

No particular TV plans

Tuesday

Work

Father of the Pride: "Rehabilitation"

Wednesday

Work -- maybe go in early

Lost: "Walkabout", "White Rabbit" (two hours, repeats)

The West Wing: "Abu el Banat" (tape delay) (repeat from last season, not previously shown on Bravo)

Thursday

Work

The O.C. (two episodes: one repeat, one new)

Friday

Christmas Eve!

First of ten days off work

A Christmas Carol: The Musical, on NBC (Kelsey Grammer, Jason Alexander, and some actors who weren't Star Trek captains)

Saturday

Christmas!

Go to Bloomington-Normal

(probably) A Christmas Story marathon on TBS

Sunday

Church

No particular TV plans

Writing further monthly recaps is not included in the list.

davidh

+ 0 - 4 | § ¶2004 Year in Review, part 2: February

Here's the things that happened in February, 2004...

(more)

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶2004 Year in Review, part 1: January

Here's the things that happened in January, 2004...

(more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶AIM woe [UPDATED]

AIM has been acting up a lot recently. For the past few days, it's been kicking me off briefly every few minutes (which means I lose the train of conversations, and am constantly cutting and pasting to let my chatters-with know what I typed since I disconnected (except I don't know exactly when I disconnect, because it still shows me as connected until two or three seconds before it reconnects, so sometimes I copy too much and end up repeating myself)). For the past hour, I haven't logged on completely, getting the message "You are attempting to sign on again too soon." Too soon? 45 minutes since I was kicked off is too soon to log back in?

I tried using a backup username, and I got a message that the account has been suspended. Two friends of mine recently suffered a similar fate... one was finally able to log in again a couple days ago; the other is still locked out.

Another friend of mine has to send each line twice in order for it to go through once (except sometimes it also sends twice).

What is wrong with AIM?

(Hmm, just successfully logged back in... but how long will it last?)

davidh

----
Update 12/15:

It appears that it is not specifically AIM that is causing my disconnection problems, but rather my cable modem that is flaking out. About once every two to fifteen minutes (it varies), the cable modem resets itself and takes a while to allow connections again. However, the suspension problems and the double sending problem still appear to be AIM's fault.

Until this gets fixed, I will probably not be able to log into AIM from home at night... or at least not reliably.

davidh

+ 0 - 4 | § ¶Spammers seeking keywords?

I mentioned a particular business in a blog entry a few days ago. Today, I received a piece of spam with that business's name in the subject line. (The message itself had nothing to do with the company; it was just random filler.) Which leads me to wonder if spammers are automatically taking words from my blog in an attempt to get past the Human spam filter... i.e. before I delete anything from my spam folder, I scan the senders and the subject lines to see if anything got in there by mistake, so if I see some important keyword there, I'm more likely to stop and check out the message, just to make sure it's not legitimate.

To test this theory, I am going to place a few unique words here to see if any spammers send me messages that include any of these terms. Tesseracting Coach, Xenoxerography, Phloxypoxynihilipilification, Strawberry Jambalaya, Quintuplicator.

Results if and when they occur. If this post is never followed up on, that means that either I never got spam with any of those words, or I forgot to check. :-)

davidh

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Dec. 13-19

Monday

Work

Earthsea (part 1)

CSI: Miami: "Addiction"

Tuesday

Work

NCIS: "Chained"

Earthsea (part 2)

Wednesday

Work

Lost: "Pilot" (two hours, repeat)

The West Wing: "Impact Winter" (tape delay)

CSI: NY: "Night, Mother"

Thursday

Work

The O.C.

Friday

Work

JAG: "The Four Percent Solution"

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Church

No particular TV plans

This sentence intentionally left blank.

davidh

+ 0 - 4 | § ¶For Sale: Norton SystemWorks 2005

I bought a copy of Norton SystemWorks 2005 at Circuit City last weekend, since it included Norton Disk Doctor. Old versions of NDD were able to read and recover data from damaged hard drives, even when the operating system was unable to find a working file system, but apparently the newer versions no longer have this capability. But since Circuit City has a no-returns-on-opened-software policy, even though I have uninstalled the software from my hard drive, I am unable to return it and get my money back. So I'm offering it for sale here.

The package includes: (1) Norton Antivirus , (2) Norton Utilities, (3) Norton GoBack, (4) CheckIt Diagnostics, and (5) System Optomizer. It is said to work on Windows 98, ME, 2000 Pro, XP Pro, and XP Home. The package is completely new. It was installed once, never activated, and uninstalled. The package comes with the original instriction booklet, CD-ROM, rebate form (see below for details), and notice slip about activation.

This is available at Amazon.com for $65.00; I'm offering my copy for $55.00, or best offer. If you live in Peoria or close enough that I can drop it off or you can pick it up, there will be no shipping costs. Otherwise, shipping will be added to the price.

Rebate offer: If you own a copy of System Mechanic or V-Com SystemSuite that wasn't installed on your computer when you bought it, or any previous version of any Norton or Symantec product regardless of whether ot came pre-installed, there is a mail-in rebate form (see example here at Amazon.com) included in the package, where you can get $30 back. I will include a copy of the original sales receipt, which is required for the rebate, if you request it.

Restriction on bidders: I must know you somehow. Being in Psi Phi, being an at least semi-frequent poster at the Psi Phi discussion boards, or being on my LiveJournal friends list would count, as, of course, would me knowing you personally.

Do not post bids here! E-mail me at one of my usual addresses (they all end up the same place) with the subject line "Norton bid", and include the price you're offering as well as whether I would need to ship it or you could pick it up. I will leave the bidding open for about a week or so, though if I receive a $55.00 offer, that bidder will win. I will accept PayPal, personal checks, or cold hard cash (cash option only available with in-person pick-up or delivery).

davidh

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶That's Incredible!

I saw The Incredibles this afternoon. I loved it! For some reason, Edna was my favorite character, but really, they were all good. I was even able to forget that Mr. Incredible was "Coach". I don't want to get into spoilers here, but suffice it to say that this is a great movie, and I recommend it to everyone in Psi Phi, as well as any fans of superhero or animated movies. Which is nearly anybody reading this... so THIS MEANS YOU. :-)

Before the movie, there were trailers for Racing Stripes, Star Wars III, and Cars. The Episode III trailer I've seen on-line, but it's even goosebump-inspiringier on the big screen. :-) Cars looks like a good one to be on the lookout for. There was also a special animated short, Boundin', which was a fun little diversion.

After the movie, I stopped at Monical's Pizza (which is right next to the Willow Knolls theater). There was a half-hour wait for pick-up, so I drove over to Borders, and rearranged their Star Trek books section while I was waiting. Now all of the S.C.E. paperbacks are together; the Stargazer books are together, the A Time To... books are together (and in the proper order), and a few of the recent books are out-faced.

davidh

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Party time, excellent!

My employer had an End Of The Year Party tonight. A good time was had by all. . . (more)

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Ich bin sehr müde

Last night, starting around 7pm, was the Psi Phi End of the Semester party. . . (more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶Psi Phi Elections for Spring 2005, with Instant Runoff Results

Here are the results for the Psi Phi Officers for Spring 2005. . . (more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Dec. 6-12

Monday

Work

No particular TV plans

Tuesday

Work

NCIS: "Forced Entry" (tape delay)

Psi Phi End of the Semester Party (Tuesday night through Wednesday morning)

Wednesday

Last Psi Phi meeting of the semester (midnight-ish)

Elections

Sleep

Work

Lost: "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"

The West Wing: "In the Room"

CSI: NY: "Blink"

Thursday

Work

Christmas "End of the year" Dinner for work

Survivor (tape delay)

CSI: CSI: "No Humans Involved" (tape delay)

Friday

Work

Joan of Arcadia: "Dive"

JAG: "The Man on the Bridge"

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Church

Survivor finale

This schedule tentative and subject to change.

davidh

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶First post from the new machine...

So I got a new computer today, with instruction and assistance by Joe. (Okay, to be fair, Joe did most of the assembling, but I watched and made decisions! :-) ) Woo!

The total cost for all supplies (case, motherboard, processor, hard drive, memory, video card, DVD drive, etc.) was $1358.61. Seems like a lot, but here's what I got for it...

(more)

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Wednesday, pre- and post-dream

Early Wednesday morning (more commonly called "late Tuesday night"), I was (more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶Dream: Celebrity stalking, getting home, and a rude awakening

Another odd dream last night, which ended painfully. . . (more)