October 2001 Archives

Getting back into the Perl thing
I just started working on a perl script to grab the changes.xml file from weblogs.com. The goal is to have a script that will grab that file and then insert all the data from it into a mySQL database. Then I can query against it to see if blogs I read have been updated in the last hour. In the end I'd like to have it show those up in bold. We'll see how well that all works. Hopefully I'll have some kind of prototype up tomorrow.

The one thing it makes me realize is that there are perl modules to do just about everything. It is really amazing. I use one module to pull down the file, another to rip the data out of the xml file, another to put it into the database. This is definitely one of the things which makes perl so great.

Midweek Flash Fun
Okay, this one is silly. I got it offa /usr/bin/punkin today. It's the Save the Goldfish game. It seems your roomie is a twisted bastard who likes taking your goldfish and tossing them into the frying pan. Your job is to save them and toss them back into their fishbowl. I got into the fourth round, but lost when he started throwing two and three in at a time. Bad roommate!

Vacation Plans
So I'm on vacation for the next six days and trying to figure out just what to do. I think I may head out of town for a day or two. But I also want to do a lot of little 'fun' projects that I've been meaning to do. For instance. I've been wanting to set up a kind of mp3 jukebox on my G3. That way I can either listen to music on it, but I could also be using my laptop and have the music stream to there. Or maybe I could control what is playing from my laptop.

At the very least I think I may drive down and stay at my parent's place for a day or two so that I can fully get away from things. It would also be a nice stepping off point for daytrips.

Sifl & Olly
Sometimes I love the net. I just found whole episodes of Sifl & Olly online, and of course have started to download what I can find. I truely think they were one of the only good things on MTV in the last 4 years or so. I still remember the first time I saw the show, and how much it messed with my head that day.

For more Sifl & Olly goodness, check out their website.

DVD Fun
So Philips is releasing a DVD Recorder. I'm wondering how much they are going to charge for this. Unless the price was significantly cheaper, I'd pick up a G4. Because all the models above the entry level one have a DVD burner in it. I'd think that gives you a lot more options. To record TV you would still need a video capture card, or maybe you could even use a digital camcorder.

Still, I can now see the day where the DVD recorder replaces the VCR. The prices will need to come down significantly before that happens, but it will. And I think it will probably be a good thing! Before I had my TiVo I was always taping things. Video tapes take up a lot of space. A lot more then just a CD/DVD does. The specs say that the disks have 4 hours of high quality video recording, though I wonder if that is variable.

Pretty Keen

BRRRR
I was hanging out waiting for a friend to pick me up after dinner and it was FREEZING out. I'm not sure that I'm ready for this.

My head is spinning
I've been reading up more on things to do with XML and working with it. Along similar lines, I've been reading up on XML-RPC. And I just keep seeing so many places to do interesting things, but I feel like I'm still not quite fully getting it all. I understand a lot of basic concepts, just not how they all fit together. Or at least not well enough to explain it all to someone. I have lots of neat ideas in my head for what to do with my site. I just need to learn more!

Yet more quizzes
Someone I know had a book about the quiz at http://www.colorquiz.com. I remember taking it while hanging out in a pub one night. At the time I thought it was quite cool, but a little eerie. I just took it again and it was just as eerie as to things it hit right on target.
Here's the results I got:

Your Existing Situation
Acts calmly, with the minimum of upset, in order to handle existing relationships. Likes to feel relaxed and at ease with his associates and those close to him.

Your Stress Sources
The existing situation is disagreeable. Feels lonely and uncertain as he has an unsatisfied need to ally himself with others whose standards are as high as his own, and wants to stand out from the rank and file. This sense of isolation magnifies the need into a compelling urge, all the more upsetting to his self-sufficiency because of the restraint he normally imposes on himself. Since he wants to demonstrate the unique quality of his own character, he tries to suppress this need for others and affects an attitude of unconcerned self-reliance to conceal his fear of inadequacy, treating those who criticize his behavior with contempt. However, beneath this assumption of indifference he really longs for the approval and esteem of others.

Your Restrained Characteristics
Circumstances are such that he feels forced to compromise for the time being if he is to avoid being cut off from affection or from full participation.
Trying to calm down and unwind after a period of over-agitation which has left him listless and devoid of energy. In need of peace and quiet; becomes irritable if this is denied him.

Your Desired Objective
Wants to make a favorable impression and be rewarded as a special personality. Is therefore constantly on the watch to see whether he is succeeding in this and how others are reacting to him; this makes him feel that he is in control. Uses tactics cleverly in order to obtain influence and special recognition. Susceptible to the esthetic or original.

Your Actual Problem
Greatly impressed by the unique, by originality, and by individuals of outstanding characteristics. Tries to emulate the characteristics he admires and to display originality in his own personality.

Your Actual Problem #2
Disappointment and the fear that there is no point in formulating fresh goals have led to anxiety, and he is distressed by the lack of any close and understanding relationship. He attempts to escape into a substitute world in which things are more nearly as he desires them to be.

(Yikes! Sounds kinda depressing now that I read over it again)

BlogScript goodness
Tim Conner has released another version of his amazing tool BlogScript. This one will now ping weblogs.com after it does a post & publish. Now I just need to write some code to check for updated blogs to my blogrolling list (Anyone written any perl code to do this?).

Time Changes and other random mutterings
So when the time changes there are good and bad parts to it. The good parts. Waking up always seems so much nicer at first. It feels like I'm sleeping in, and in some ways I am! But the part about it that sucks is being at work when it gets dark out. I hate that part. It's getting dark before 5pm now and that just does not feel right. I end up feeling all out of sorts.

It was so hard to be motivated at work today for some reason. I felt like I was moving through molasses all day. At least I got through some of the really boring inane things I had to get done. I'll hopefully get to do more interesting things tomorrow.

Nimda Madness
Sheesh. In the past 4 days I've seen a huge increase in the number of nimda probes against this box. I wonder if it is on the prowl again.

On Hold
Waiting for a new lung is tiring. There's always a bit of something in the back of your head saying, "be careful, it could happen tonight. Make sure you are in pager range". It is always there, always a possibility. On top of it, work has just been exhausting lately. I haven't had any kind of real vacation in months, maybe even over a year. So I'm taking four days off this and next week to just relax. I don't even know what I'm doing yet, but if possible I'm going to try and get out of town. I'm not even sure where I'd go, but I want the option to just go and not have to worry about a thing. So I called the transplant office this morning and said, "don't call me from now until a week from wednesday.
Of course now the pressure is on for me to find something interesting to do. :)

More blogging
I added Evhead into my list of blogs. He's the person currently maintaining blogger.com and he has some fairly interesting things to say a lot of the time.

Need more fansubs!
Augh. I just finished watching all the episodes of Angelic Layer that have been subbed so far. Want more! Now I need to find something else to download until more of those are available.

D'oh
I just realized I haven't updated my brunch site in about two months. WIth everything going on in my life I just haven't had time. I think I need to find one or two editor types to help me out with reviewing places.

Those were the days
Adam Curry has started The MTV Chronicles. A growing list of stories about some of the bands and performers that he interacted with over the years.

That sleepy post nap feeling
I love that post nap feeling, when you've just woken up and everything is still kind of hazy. Time just kind of feels like it stops moving.

Crossing Over with Gregory Blake
'Crossing Over with John Edward' is, in my opinion, one of the most annoying shows out there. Anyone catch the SNL skit about it the other week? Well, there is going to be a special 'Crossing Over' on sometime soon.

I feel ill.

A world without MS
Could you work without Microsoft? Could you live without Microsoft? Living Without Microsoft tries to answer that question. It's an interesting question. I know that for me I've been quite happy since I moved to the mac (mmmm OS X). There are times though were I've had to go back to my PC (I have to admit I still really like MS Money).

Somone at work once said that I was 'anti-microsoft'. Thinking about it more I'm not anti-MS. It is just that so much of the time the problems we have with MS programs at work are things that I can't believe are issues. A lot of it has to do with how things like windows are designed. Not just at the code level, but at the level of how things work together and interact with the OS. Anyways, the site is interesting. I think I'll probably be checking back now and then to see what people are saying.

What a tangled web
So in the web world one of the big news items was MSN blocking users who weren't using the latest version of Internet Explorer. Fairly typical MS type stuff. Dan Gilmore posted an interview with Tim Berners-Lee on his ejournal that's quite interesting.

I particularly like how, despite Microsoft's claims, their site does not even use fully valid XHTML.

In a trance
The kitties are calling to me. Can't you hear their voices? I think they want tuna and catnip.

Biting Fish Heads
So Nari posted a link to the lyrics to the goldfish jingles. I always thought they were so strange sounding when I heard them on the radio but I loved the part about biting their heads off.

A decent ending to the day
I'm curled up on my couch, watching the second Tylor OVA. I just finished a pizza. Divx for OSX has a new version that works quite well. And I'm starting to feel kinda sleepy.

So maybe the day wasn't a complete waste.

Denied!
I had such a craving for wings tonight and the place I get them from usually is CLOSED. That sucks.

Not Right
Things are just not right today. Everywhere I turn something isn't working right. First I ask for a glazed and a chocolate glazed donut this morning and that gets screwed up. Then I buy the wrong size batteries. I definitely need to just go back to bed.

maybe
I should just go back to bed.

One of my friends
My friend Michelle just put up her web site. She's a singer and her music is really amazing. It's great seeing her doing things.

Damn, my dog got again
When playing nethack your pet dog (or cat) ends up getting killed by some random monster or by stupidly walking into a pit. But while it's alive it can be one of your best friends. Zannah posted a great link to A Guided Tour of Nethack.

Who says you need flashy graphics.

FLCL
Oooooo, the press release for FLCL. What's FLCL? Probably one of the most bizzare anime shows I've ever seen. Here's a brief description of the series:
Naota wants to be normal. But with a talented brother leaving Japan for the US to play baseball, everyone now looks at him a bit differently. His brother's girlfriend is acting strange and now there's an even stranger girl hitting on him.

Literally.

With a bass guitar.

Oh, did I mention the robots that keep springing from his head?

Badtz Maru Madness
I hadn't looked at the Sanrio site in ages. Now there are things I want. There's a cool little Badtz Maru Boom Box that would be perfect to have at work or in my bedroom. And I still think they need to make a Badtz version of this toaster.

It's raining... leaves
I just looked outside and for a good minute leaves were falling and swirling around, almost looking like big huge yellow and red snowflakes.

Stuck
I have the power girls singing "love love love love love. makes the world go round" stuck in my head. The episode where they sing it was on over the weekend and I happened upon it. I wonder if there's a recording of it online anywhere.

Perfect Evenings
I just realized that the nights where I can sit out on my doorstep are slowly disappearing as fall and winter come. It's kind of depressing actually. I've really grown to like taking the laptop out to the doorstep of my building and sitting there under the stars.

I am so spoiled.

Burnt out
Bah. Today has been a hellish day at work. I haven't even had time to get away from my desk for lunch.

iPod uPod!
So Apple announced its new little gadget today: the iPod. My first thought was that it was a bit pricey at $399. But then as I thought about it more, it actually isn't that bad in the scale of other products out there. First, it has firewire. This rocks because it means you'll be able to download music to it pretty quickly. Second, it's got a 5 gig hard drive in it that stores songs and can also be used as a portable hard drive. Third, It's got great battery life. Fourth, if you look at devices that have similar form factors, the higher level Rio costs $250 and only has 125MB in it. There are devices that have larger hard drives in them, but none of them are at the size of the iPod. So the question remains, would I buy one? If I had $400 sitting around, I might think about it, but I don't, so probably won't get one.

I just wanted to add that there's something else that I think makes this different then other mp3 players out there. It seems to be targetted at the person who isn't a big computer type user. It's set up to integrate with itunes, the mp3 program that comes with the mac. You can basicly plug it in and go. While that's been true of other devices, I don't think their target audience was computer users in general. It was still much more of a kind of 'geek toy'.

Seek and you shall find
Yesterday I read about something called letterboxing. No, not as in how movies are letterboxed on television, this is a kind of global puzzle game. The idea is that there are these boxes hidden all over the world, you just have to figure out the clues to find them. Once you find one you stamp the log book in it with your rubber stamp, and then stamp your own log book with the stamp from the letterbox. Sometimes you'll find things like clues on where to find another letterbox. One reason this appealed to me is that it is similar to Geocaching, something I've read about a few times and have always wanted to try out.

I think I need a new alarm clock
I have this problem these days where I have to set my clock a good hour to hour and a half before I really want to get up because I'll start hitting the snooze button. If I'm in a deep enough sleep I'll hit the button continuously for a good 45 minutes before I even realize that I'm doing it.

Part of my training for this came in college. Nobody in my suite would want to wake up, so they'd just hit the snooze button. None of us thought to turn off the alarm. That would mean we'd never wake up.

This morning I decided my clock has two flaws. The first is that when hitting the snooze bar it is too easy to turn on the radio. By doing this the alarm is reset, and will never go off again until. Not good. The other is that the alarm reset button is just above the snooze button. There has been more than one occasion where I've just turned off my alarm, only to wake up 2 hours later in a panic.

Anyone have any good alarm clock suggestions?

Did I really just do that?
I guess there's a first time for everything. (Yes, I'm being unnecessarily cryptic).

"Cool" link
The Gallary of "Misused" Quotation Marks.

You've "seen" them.
Maybe on a sign at the "grocery" store, maybe in an ad in your "local" newspaper. Perhaps even in a "memo" that circulated throughout your company.

I AM 55% GEEK.

Nerd, Freak, Geek, Dweeb. Sound familiar?
That's okay, cause I will be the richest
person at my 15th year high-school reunion.
If a "con" isn't happening that weekend.

I'm not really sure what I think of this.

I want...
This game for the PS2: Devil May Cry

Frustration
I wasn't sure if I was going to post about this, but decided to because I think I need to let it out instead of keeping it bottled up inside. I got a call for a lung last night. Once again, I didn't go in, but this one was kind of an odd situation.

The call came right around midnight (how come they always call late at night?). The doctor said they had a potential lung for me, but there were some details they had to let me know about. My understanding of it all is that the doner was a heavy drug user. Due to this, they pay extra attention to results for things like HIV. While they didn't say if the doner was a needle user, the implication was there. In cases like this, they are required to let the patient know. The doctor indicated that while the tests came up negative, there was always a chance of something not showing up. The decision was mine and I decided to wait this one out. If I am going to be getting a lung I want it to be one with the smallest amount of risk.

Once again though, it felt like being thrown into an ice cold pond. I'm still a bit numb from the whole thing. I don't feel scared like I did last time. More apprehensive. At least this time I can sleep.

Yay!
So I thought I'd missed the alum stuff for my high school at the head of the charles. It ends up they set up their booth this morning. So I got to go down for a bit and meet up with some folks. It's kind of cool. I wish I got out to more NMH-Boston events.

On the other hand, I overdid it a bit so spent a good half hour coughing afterwards. I need to be careful about that.

Grumpy
Augh. I just realized that I missed the Head of the Charles today. I know it goes on tomorrow also, but today was the day my high school usually has an alum tent set up.

Animated Goodness
I just downloaded the first few episodes of Angelic Layer. So far I have to say it's quite cool. Kinda cute, but note overly cute. And just enough hints of an interesting story. Of course, now I'll have to track down the rest of the first 16 or so episodes.

Now I'm off to watch a few episodes of NieA_7.

Applescript XML-RPC thoughts
I've been thinking about blogscript, and how it's so amazingly simple and useful. And of course, then I start thinking about other things I'd love a blogger client to do. I use Live Journal just a little bit. Mostly to keep up with my friends. One thing that is quite strong about LJ is that they have clients for many different operating systems. Some of them have some amazing features. For instance, there's one that will query winamp to find out what song you have playing at the moment.

Now, my knowledge of applescript is still fairly immature, but I believe you could do much of the same thing in a client for blogger. Imagine having a small app where you could choose a template for how you want your post to appear. This would be different from the standard Blogger template. This would more control things in a normal post that Blogger doesn't handle. Maybe you want to include what music you are playing. In my case I've started giving posts titles. Wouldn't it be handy if you could define things that were in the actual post a bit more at the client side?

Apple is coming out with something called Applescript Studio that sounds quite interesting. It will enable you to make applescript apps that have the look and feel of OS X apps. I think once that comes out I may start looking into doing a nice little application like that. Of course that means I need to learn about XML-RPC a bit more. I wonder if that would mean I also have to learn more about XML?

Sometimes...
I wonders if my neighbors can hear me coughing. If so they must think I'm just about dying or something. It sounds worse then it feels much of the time.

Brownies Help
To make me feel better. Behold, the power of chocolate.

Bah
I so can't wait for my next vacation. Today was a really hard day. I'm not really sure why at the moment. I was really depressed most of the day. I felt like I was right on the edge of crying almost all day. It was hellish.

I'm not used to feeling like that. I felt so out of control and I don't like feeling out of control (at least when it isn't buy choice). I don't think I'm overtired at this point. I may just need a good nights sleep where I don't have to wake up first thing.

Sorry for being a bit whiney today folks. I think I just need to get it out of my system. Tomorrow I hope to be back to my regular happy, bouncy self.

I hate phones
I have a user I support who lives in the seattle area and has a cable modem. She's been having some issues with it and asked if we could call them since we understand the technical stuff more then she does. So I call the number she gives me at first and it seems to be a general information number for AT&T at home. When I call I get a recording that basicly says 'Hello there. Currently AT&T at home is not available in your area. If you go to our web site you can sign up to be notified by email when it is available. Thank you. Goodbye' and the phone hangs up. This has got to be one of the most obnoxious things I have ever experienced on the phone. Luckily, I was able to call the user and get a more direct number for customer support.

I Hate People
I hate people today. Everyone who talks to me at work annoys me. I sometimes cannot believe the things I have to explain to people.

More flash game fun
I'm assuming it is flash at least. This one is quite simple but kind of entrancing.

New blog to read
My friend Ethan has recently done a 'reboot' of his blog and so I thought I'd add it to my list of blogs. Go over and give it a read!

Bake Off!
I made brownies... and they are YUMMY!

Look, up in the sky!
Nasa provides a cool tracking service for its satellites. It is particularly cute right now though.

In the 'I want one' category
When Sony and Toyota team up, who knows what might happen.

Feelin' like Ass
I should have just gone home and gone to sleep after my massage last night. I've had a mild headache since about 10pm last night. It almost feels kind of like a sinus headache. I also feel really achey all over. Sounds like the flu to me. I'm really hoping I'm just a bit overtired or something. Getting sick right now scares the crap out of me. It also means that if they call for the transplant I probably can't go in.

I'm probably going to head home early today. I have a 2:30 meeting off site, so I could escape right after that.

Fight! Fight! Fight!
codergurl reminded me of sissyfight. This is quite fun little multiperson shockwave game. I highly recommend it.

Stuck in the MUD
I've been playing with TinyMUSH a little bit lately (yes, again). I sometimes marvel that what this thing that started out as a quick and dirty hack of TinyMUD has become. In some ways it horrifies me. Anyways, I have a very barebones world up for anyone who'd like to come by. The address is www.ezoons.com 6250. You can log in as guest or you can just email me and I'll create a character.

For those of you who aren't familiar with TinyMUSH. It is a type of MUD. MUDs are multi-user environments, kind of like a mutli-person text adventure. Some of them are more combat oriented, some of them are more social and role playing oriented. Some people will tell you that TinyMUSH isn't a MUD, most probably they are a newbie who just doesn't know the real truth. So what kinda place is my world? Well, it doesn't have combat, beyond that it is kind of an experiment. I've created a few rooms and am going to let people who go there help turn it into something. It'll probably flop, but it will be neat to give it a try.

(If you have questions on how to connect feel free to drop me an email and I'll help however I can).

Blog thoughts
I do truely love Blogger. I like how I can type things and they all get published to my machine. It means there is always a backup of all my data. Recently though, I've been looking at other people's blogs and wanting to be able to do more interesting things. For instance, Adam Curry is always doing interesting things with his. Today he posted about a macro that lets you easily make a dictionary link for a word that sends the user to dictionary.com. The macro stuff is part of the blog software he uses I believe and it just seems quite cool.

So the big question mark for me is. What to do. I could roll my own blog software. But when I look at all the different options out there I just can't really justify it. There is some really slick stuff out there like graymatter. Anyone have any recommendations?

Decisions Decisions
For the first time since I moved into my apartment I have a working oven. Yes, the oven in my apartment never worked. But the stovetop did and I never really do any baking so I didn't care that much. I complained about it twice and my landlord never did a thing about it.

My big decision now is what to bake in my oven tonight. I was thinking about making some lasagne, but I want to bake something sweet. So I am thinking that maybe I'll make cookies or an apple pie or brownies. Any of those would make my apartment smell really good.

R2 Madness
I just got Totoro on DVD from CD Japan. I'm so psyched. I've wanted to own this for ages and I'm happy to see that it finally came out!

I feel gassy
Well, the gas guy finally came. It took two tries, but it was taken care of. I'm making some hot chocolate now before bed.

On the plus side
The guy came by to hook up my new stove today. I didn't even know that he'd be coming over (though he would have been able to get into my apartment anyway). The reason it was good I was home is that my gas doesn't seem to be working at all, even with a new stove. I called the gas company and they are able to have someone out this afternoon. So, I guess there are good parts to being sick.

I'm feeling a bit better now too, but just very drained. I keep taking small naps.

More Rain
Well, it's raining out more today. I feel kind of crappy. I'm not sure if I'm fighting off some kind of illness or if the wet weather just makes me feel worse. I have a feeling that it is a combination of both. Last night I woke up twice with coughing fits. When this happens I usually have to go and sit on my couch and read for a little bit while I relax. If I try and lay right back down I seem to start coughing all over again.
So this happened twice last night. In the past when it happens (which is about once every other month), it would only ever happen once. So on top of feeling like I may be fighting something I'm exhausted. I don't really call into work sick often, but I felt just crappy enough to do it today. I think I just need to take it a little easy because it feels like everything I do sets off a coughing fit. I hope I'm not getting sick.

Sundaze
It was a nice day today overall, despite it being overcast and drizzly. The day started out with me getting coffee and having a massive coughing fit while in the car. I think it might have something to do with it being so wet out. The coughing part sucked, really sucked. I climbed back into my apartment and curled up for a bit and caught up on some TiVo'd shows.

The better part of the day was when I went out to Harvard Square and did some shopping. I got the second Lenore book, the new DBZ book, a Tim Powers book, two CDs (PWEI and PIL. Rock!), and the first Wanderers DVD. All in all it was pretty cool. I didn't cough too much while shopping too, so that was good. And now I'm just unwinding a bit before bed. I think I'm gonna try to start reading a bit every night before bed. I've got a small queue of books I want to make it through sometime soon.

I need to pick up some ice cream tomorrow though, because I keep having big cravings for it.

Dock Madness
From Adam Curry's blog, place a picture of your systray/dock on your blog.

Yay!
My friend Bree was nice enough to bring me buffalo tenders for dinner.

Neat PS2 game
I got this cool game for my PS2 called ICO. It's definitely one of the most innovative games I've ever played. So far I give it a thumbs up.

Family Overload
So last night I hung out with my cousins Jessica and Jennifer. We went out to a pub by where they live. It was kinda fun. It wasn't necessarily the kind of place I'd go to usually, but it was fun to hang with my cousins. They're really cool.

Then today, I had lunch with my parents and my uncle, which was cool. But I was kind of tired and out of it from last night. They were all heading off to a wedding and pestering me to go, but I just wasn't up for it. I ended up feeling bad because I think they all really wanted me to go.

Cooking with fire
Well, I hope I will be soon at least. The oven has arrived! Of course now the guy needs to show up to hook it up. I'm hoping that will be today too. I'd just assumed that it would, but now I'm not quite sure. (And of course I left my landlord's number at work).

Lack of Buzzer
So I just realized that my oven is due to be delivered today, but the buzzer for my apartment isn't working. Hrm. I guess I could just sit outside with my laptop for a while. Wireless rules!

Lazy Days
Today feels like it is going to be a wonderfully lazy day. And if all goes well, I'll be able to bake tonight!

404
MS always annoys me with their '404' page that the browsers throw up. Here's a fun one.

You can call me...
Asuka Kurosawa -san. That is my Ninja Name.

Shamelessly stolen from codergurl, who got it from /usr/bin/girl

Things I need to learn more about
So I need to learn to learn more about Applescript. It looks like it can be quite powerful for an Apple user and OS X.1 has it. The other thing I need to learn more about is XML-RPC. Blogscript is so completely rocking my work right now.

With Blogscript I can type up a quick blog entry in a stickynote. I then hilite the whole thing and choose Blogscript from my Apple ScriptMenu and tell it to post & publish. Moments later it shows up on the site. Now I just need to figure it all out.

What am I doing up?
Again at 3:30am. I just woke up again in the middle of the night. Which was odd because I turned off alert pages so that I could finally get a night of sleep. I'd get them even if I wasn't on call, which means that most nights I didn't get through the night without being woken up by my phone beeping.

Maybe I'm just expecting something to happen. I'm sure I'll be able to crawl back into bed in a moment and go back to sleep.

Oh My God! He really IS evil!
Okay, at first I thought this image must be a hoax. But as I looked around there was another image of Bert in the poster up on Yahoo. Someone on a mailing list I'm on pointed me at This site which documents sightings of it and thoughts on how it came to be.

See, Bert IS Evil!

Cooking with fire
So I finally got off my ass and called my landlord yesterday to complain about not having a working stove, to fix the hole they left in my bathroom ceiling, and to fix the buzzer to my apartment. They called back today and had fixed the ceiling, were getting me a new oven, and were going ot look at the buzzer.

I got a call about an hour later from the oven place and they'll be delivering it on Friday. I think I may try and make cookies this weekend. Yay!

Trying out blogscript again
There's a new version out and I'm giving it a try. Hopefully it will work pretty well. I'm still really new to how all this works.

So here goes the test.

Ever wonder why
Ever wonder why certain songs get stuck in your head. Well, here's the reason why! Now I have every song they mentioned stuck in my head.

I hate...
When I can't figure out how something works. I've been trying to figure out some old old code at work and it is just such a mess and there's no real good documentation on it that I've been able to find. I feel so frustrated.

And what was the real lesson?
Don't leave things in the fridge.

Purple?
So I was watching tv and saw a commercial for Heinz Ketchup. They've had green ketchup for a while and I think I've started to get used to the idea of it, even if I think it is a little disturbing. Now they have... funky purple ketchup. It just looks gross. I just couldn't see eating anything with it.

L33T Classics
This went around a while ago. My friend Jeff pointed me at it and I laughed quite a bit while watching it. Recently, friends of mine online found it and have been enjoying it greatly. So here is Tales for the L33T. (Requires shockwave).

A Hint of Winter
On the way into work this morning I look outside and see this white stuff falling down. It was snowing! Well, just spitting snow really, but still SNOW! I'm really not sure how ready I am for this right now, but it still was cool.

Cute and Dead
Today I was in the comic store and saw a Lenore comic. I think zannah mentioned it at one point so I picked it up. I just got done reading a bunch of it, and it rules. I find myself reading it and then cackling evilly.

Random Thoughts
After looking for a few different web sites out there I think I really need to do a redesign. I'm not sure what I'm going to do though. Part of it is going to require me working on some of my style sheets and cleaning them up.

One of the sites I've been checking out some is codergurl's. She mentioned my site a bunch in one post on her site. I had added her to my other blogs list a week or so ago with no real mention of doing it, so now I am.

I saw Serendipity tonight. I thought it was actually pretty good. I'm a sucker for movies like that though.

Spinning Round and Round
So afer not spinning much for the past few weeks I've spun a bunch in the last few days. For the past few weeks every time I'd get in front of my turntables I'd just get frustrated. Mixes wouldn't work, songs just wouldn't go together. And on Friday it just happened. I was able to spin for a few hours.

My personal theory is that work had been affecting me too much in off times. I let myself get much too stressed about things and it has been affecting the rest of my life. I need to find better ways to keep the two seperated.

Also, now that I've been spinning more at home I'm starting to get the urge to get some gigs out in front of people again. I haven't done anything since I spun at the Phoenix Landing a few months ago. After the response I got then I really should just work on getting more bookings. I guess it might be time to work on another CD soon.

(For those of you who haven't heard any of my mixes I recommend checking out some of the ones on my DJ page. Unfortunately the realaudio ones are lost right now. I'll have to find a way to re-encode them. I personally recommend 'Spring', 'I, Gregory', and 'Sunrise 2001'.)

Huh?
So I just finished watching Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie. I loved watching it, but I'm not sure I get it. I've only seen about half of the TV series, so I'm not sure if if seeing the rest of that will help. I plan on getting the rest of the show from a friend of mine so I can see it soon I hope.

Inspired
So last night I first ended up going to Deli Haus to watch Pete spin. First off, since remodeling, Deli Haus is no longer Deli Haus. It is now called Underground, which is lame. I mean, anyone who has lived in Boston for a while will always call it Deli Haus even if it has a different sign on the front. Inside it feels almost the same, just no more breakfast (bah). Talked with Sara a bunch while I was there and she's gonna help promote me a bit.
Then I went to this party for old skool raver types. It was thrown at this local club by this amazing guy who has run an info line in town for years. I saw some good friends of mine there, but most of the people there were from before my time in Boston. My friend Domenic was there, which helped remind me that we are supposed to spin this afternoon. Which is quite cool (I'll talk about spinning lately in a post later today). I didn't stay real late because it started getting smokey, but it was great to get out for a bit.

Feast or Famine
So after weeks of never having much to do on Saturday nights. Tonight a whole bunch of things suddenly appear. A friend of mine is spinning at this restaurant that was recently remodeled into a bar (Deli Haus for those of you in Boston), and then there are two private party type things going on. I kind of want to find a way to hit all of them actually. We'll see how it goes.

I think at the very least I'll make it to Deli Haus for a bit, that way it can be an early evening.

Wow. I'm not completely inept
So a few weeks ago the bulb in my right headlight went out. It was on my list of things to replace, but in typical form I've been quite lazy about it. Then, about a week ago, I noticed that the OTHER headlight also went out (though the high beams worked). So yesterday I went down to the dealer to get some bulbs and they said that they could install them for me, but it would cost over $100 dollars. On the plus side, they told me just how easy it was to put them in (I just had to make sure I didn't touch the bulb part).

So this morning I head out to my car to get some breakfast. I notice that it looks like it is going to get a bit dark and rainy soon. Looks like the perfect time to try out replacing them. It wasn't too hard actually. I now feel like I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to cars (just mostly an idiot).

Why am I up so early?
I think I need to find some food so that it will put me to sleep again. Still Tired.

Sometimes I think too much
So I realized today that if I get 'the call' from about today until January 1st I'll end up missing some kind of special event. November has my birthday on the 2nd and Thanksgiving. Then December has Christmas and New Years. Being stuck in the hospital on Thanksgiving or Christmas would just plain SUCK.

I was so hoping I was going to get called last month. But, knowing how my life goes, I won't get called in at a convienient time. ;)

What robot am I?

Dancing Fools
I so wish I was able to be more active, and that I had a Japanese PS2. Because then I could play Para Para Paradise on it.

Blog Links
This is a kind of cool site where people can link blogs to other blogs that are similar.

(After a bit of searching, I found my site on there. I think the site needs a search page!)

Geeky OS X.1 Stuff
So I finally figured out how come ssh wasn't working quite right. It didn't seem to be using my key for authenticating. So I peeked around a bit more and found out that ssh was using ssh2, so I had to generate new keys for that. Now I'm back to normal!

I want a new rug
So my parents are coming up today so that I can get a rug for my front room. I've wanted to get one for a while, it just hasn't really happened yet.

Now I just need to get the room all cleaned up before my parents get here.

Vacation Day 1
Well, today wasn't bad. Hung out at Au Bon Pain and had a coffee and croissant first thing in the morning. Then wandered around a bit and zoomed up by work to pick up my oxygen tanks. Then had some sushi for dinner and swung by Tokyo Kid to find out that the Utena Movie is out already. And they threw in a poster with it!

Tomorrow my parents are coming by to visit and help me get a rug.

Feeling Restless
Ya know, the thing with taking time off without exact plans is that you tend to spend too much time trying to think of things to do. I had wanted to drive out to western MA, but I just don't really have the energy. I still need to decompress from work. I'm thinking I'm also going to take a few days off around my birthday.

I should see if I can find anyone to have lunch with then maybe go wandering around Boston. I think that might help me relax a bit.

Testing... 1..2..3..
So I found two cool tools for OS X tonight. The first is this menu app, and the other is an applescript app that uses XML-RPC for posting to my blog. I'm trying it out now.

Uhhh. No Comment
Well here's an interesting new accessory for your Handspring Visor.

Free at last
I'm on a few days vacation. I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I am going to try and NOT think about work at all.

Annoyed at work
So I've been stressing about work way too much lately, and finally told my boss I need a few days off. I feel like I am so close to snapping. I can't seem to work for more then 15 minutes without getting interrupted by someone who needs my help for something. And I'm scared that even though I'll be taking two days off this week, I will be called at least two or three times each day.

This is the part of work I hate.

This is the day...
I get to start my vacation. It starts today at noon. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. It's only really half a week.

I'm thinking about seeing if I can talk some random friend into taking a day off and driving to western MA with me I kind of want to go to Amherst and do some record shopping at Growroom Records. I also would love to head up to my old High School and just check out the campus. It's been forever since I've been up there. I just remember there always being something very centering about being there. I also want to be able to go and get a new sweatshirt from there.

Getting back to normal... slowly
Well, today was still a bit hectic, but things are getting better. I do still feel like everytime we fix something, something else breaks. Today it was our phone lines to the outside world. They just kept going down for no reason, and AT&T couldn't really explain it so they were going to send out a tech.

Nimda reared it's ugly head again today. An employee who'd been out all last week turned on her computer and it started trying to infect people. It was one of the few systems we hadn't upgraded virus scanning on. The cool part was that Norton kept it from infecting any new computers, and notified us as soon as it started to happen.

The Buffy season premiere is tonight and I'm kinda psyched for it. I'm thinking it might be a night for some pizza while watching it.

Overwhelmed Again
Is it too much to ask to just have one day at work where everything isn't falling apart? This is driving me crazy. I have hardware failing all around me, machines needing to be rebuilt, people out sick, my pager seems to be gone (I need to try and find the number for it and page it to see if I get a response), too much to do, my apartment is a wreck, I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day.

I hate continually bitching on my blog, but right now it feels like this is the one place where I can just let stuff out. I'm just pissed off at the world in general right now. Probably a bit overtired. I haven't slept soundly in days because the pager on my phone keeps going off with machines dying at work.

On the plus side, my boss said that I could take half the week off this week. I so need it.

Lazy
Today just ended up being fairly lazy. I wanted to try and track some people down to hang out with, but just couldn't get myself motivated. I've been cleaning up around my apartment finally. It's looking better now. Still cluttered, but cluttered moving towards something.

So now it's 12:15am and I've got the munchies. I have a craving for a tuna fish sandwich, but no bread. Bah. Time to finish watching this episode of bebop and then I'll go to bed.