May 30th, 2008

Apropos Of Nothing

I’ve come to realize another proof that blogging is social for me – I blog more when I have less contact with people. The more time I spend with people, the less I blog. You can go two ways with this: if you want me to blog more, ignore me. If you want me to blog less, hang out with me.

This summer is a big one for movies – Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and Indy IV already, with The Dark Knight and X-Files 2 coming up still. A dude could just geek right out if he was inclined to. And I am.

Speaking of Indy IV… I’m putting my thoughts behind a spoiler tag here so I don’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it. If you’re curious as to what my thoughts on it were, click and drag over the darkened area:First off, it was great to see Indy back in action. The age thing wasn’t even off-putting a little, and wouldn’t even have been noticeable if they hadn’t kept talking about it. Reuniting Indy with Marion was great, too, though it would have been nice for her to have more to do than just show up. I didn’t even mind Shia LaBeouf as much as I normally do. So what went wrong? Pretty much everything else. Indy didn’t really figure anything out on his own, aside from readin a language or two. He barely used his whip! The storyline… UGH. Aliens? Dumb. There were some great action sequences, but there was also a scene of Shia swinging through the jungle on vines. I give this movie 2.75 out of 5 stars, and that’s mostly just because Indy himself is awesome.

I’m headed to Wisconsin this weekend for my parents’ 40th anniversary. Forty years is a long time. Congrats, Mom and Dad!

Next weekend I’m headed to our nation’s capital to hang out with a friend and see the sites. That’s a lot of traveling in a short time for a guy who doesn’t like to travel much, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Some of you might remember my experiences with Maya. She was very helpful, but I didn’t stick with it for whatever reason, and now there’s no room on the entertainment center for the old Xbox. Last week WiiFit was released and I got it, thinking it might be a different angle on the same issue. It, too, has a person being led in exercise by on-screen avatars, but this one has a method of feedback in the form of a balance board. It’s slightly larger than a scale, and when a person stands on it, the program can sense the person’s balance and weight. There are several games in four categories (Aerobics, Balance, Strength, Yoga) that use the sensing to see how a person is doing. So far my favorite activities are Advanced Step and Jogging, the latter mostly because it’s fun to see the other Miis in my collection run past me and sometimes trip. I can’t get the hang of Boxing, and Hula Hoop makes me feel like a durn fool. We’ll see if WiiFit fares any better than Maya, who has shown great restraint in not writing me sad letters.

Most of you know I’ve been tired of apartment living for a while now. At the same time, the prospect of going through the process of buying a house is more than daunting to me. However, last week I talked to a lender which led to me talking to a realtor – mostly because there was a house I really wanted to buy. This led to me putting in an offer on said house this week. Things went a little quicker than I imagined they would because someone else put an offer on the house, too. Sadly, they accepted the counteroffer, which meant my offer didn’t even get a chance to be considered. I know most people play pretty close to the vest when going through the whole house-buying thing, but I don’t really know why. They talk of it in hushed tones and start with “Now, don’t tell anyone, but we’re looking to buy a house…” Meh. I don’t get it, so I probably won’t be like that. We’ll see what happens from here. My realtor has already assured me that he has plenty of other properties in mind like the one I didn’t get. I am not the least bit surprised.

The cats are doing well, thanks for asking.

Today’s my last day in my office for a month or two. We’re working in teams of techs this summer, so I will go help upgrade and replace computers in other schools, and then they will come to my school to help me. It’s a tiny bit nervewracking, but it will probably be fine.

Those following my Twitter feed know that I’ve been eating chicken soup for breakfast a lot lately. Let me tell you, it’s a great way to start your day. If we can eat pancakes for dinner (and we can), I say there’s nothing wrong with eating chicken soup for breakfast.

Be well, netizens.

June 22nd, 2007

Apropos Of Nothing

This week’s been a busy one at work for me. I had to upgrade the servers, which is always tricky business. People were warned that they needed to back up their stuff just in case, as it’s never a sure bet, even with a good backup. Three of my four servers are done now and it looks like nothing was lost. I had to copy a few things over manually after the fact, but it all seemed to work out fine. It’s funny, though, how a little thing like taking the servers offline for a week can make a person a lot less invisible. I instantly become the biggest jerk in the world because I have to do my job. Never mind that I warned people ahead of time, I must be mean and spiteful because I have to upgrade the servers. Argh.

I have a touchlamp by the side of my bed that has three levels of brightness. Nutmeg has learned she can turn it on by touching it with her nose. Now, if I don’t get out of bed soon enough for her liking, she’ll nose the touchlamp through a few cycles. It’s funny and annoying and cute all at the same time.

I’m doing a lot of traveling this summer! Illinois last weekend, Kentucky this weekend, Wisconsin soon… it’s crazy! But it’s with enjoyable people, so it’s all good. This weekend Jason, Jeannie, Melissa, and I are going to visit Josh and Gretchen. Should be a fun time!

The latest game I reviewed was Forza Motorsport 2 (EDIT: link to review), which allows people to decorate/paint their in-game cars however they want to. I am amazed by some of the designs people have come up with, as it took me twenty minutes to put my name and a penguin on a car. I can’t imagine how many hours it took them to create a likeness of Harlequin from Batman: The Animated Series. Crazy!

If you’re not looking at my Flickr and YouTube accounts regularly, then I’m afraid you’re missing out on at least half of the total MadMup experience. Add in my Twitter page and that’s fully three-fourths. Flickr’s great as a photo organizer, but I tend to use it as a random picture collector. I can send pictures to it from my cell phone, and I often do. YouTube gets my random videos, and Twitter is all the little mundane “what I’m doing” updates a person can handle.

Speaking of cell phones, I got a new one recently, a Samsung Blackjack. I’ve been a Nokia Guy for years now, and I’m fiercely brand-loyal, as many of you know. They didn’t have the Nokia I wanted, so I thought I’d try the Blackjack. It’s a SmartPhone, so it’s all Windows-y, and it’s got a full-QWERTY keypad on it, which helps with the grillion text messages I send a month. (Seriously, it’s like I’m a 14-year-old Japanese girl, with all the texting I do.) I’m really impressed with the phone and I’m happy I got it. It’s slim and light, and it does pretty much what I want it to do. Now if only I knew XML and could design my own start page for it…

Anyone need a futon? I’m thinking it’s time I sold mine. I’d let it go for a pretty good price.

I’m sure there are other significant bits of info people are dying to hear about, but none are springing to mind currently… You know how it is – you get old, you start forgetting things…

Enjoy the rest of your week, eh?

April 22nd, 2007

Apropos Of Nothing

At long last I’ve found an egg salad sandwich in town. This has been an ongoing search for several years now, so finally finding it is the realization of a dream. For a while, Aunt Orva’s Deli fit the bill, but they went out of business rather suddenly. Truth be told, Aunt Orva’s egg salad was good, but it still wasn’t perfect. Today’s find, though, was exactly how I like my egg salad – no extra junk (onions, celery, relish, etc.), and smooth and creamy. The winner: Shellie’s Cafe. I’m sure I’ll be having many an egg salad sandwich there. Kat was even impressed, and she’ll be veering from her normal Reuben to get an egg salad next time, too.

The game Gyruss was released on Xbox Live Arcade this week, and after playing the demo for about two minutes, I bought and downloaded the full version. I’m not so good at shooters, but Gyruss is a game I used to play in the gas station a block from church when I was a kid. Though the games changed every so often, this is one I remember, along with Tutankham. I doubt they’ll ever release Tutankham on XBLA, but Gyruss is bringing back some pleasant memories.

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I’ve had some things weighing heavily on my mind and I think that’s had an effect on me. A positive side effect is that I’ve gotten up earlier most days, been on time to work, and even treadmilled a bit here and there, so that’s good. The bad thing is that I haven’t felt rested all week, and I’ve had headaches. It all balances out, right?

I’ve been watching this new sitcom that’s all about pregnancy and babies and stuff. I’m not sure why. It’s humorous, but not hilarious. I sometimes think it might be nice to have a kid, though those thoughts are usually immediately followed by the “I’d make a lousy parent” thoughts, so, again: balance.

Oh, I sorta mentioned it up a paragraph or so ago, but I’ve started treadmilling a bit. I’m a long way off from being regular with it or anything, but it’s a start.

I went to The Cheesecake Factory for the first time last week. It was for Jeannie’s birthday and the food was good. Oddly enough, I didn’t actually have any cheesecake while there. Seems wrong some how. Of course, it also seems wrong that the restaurant didn’t actually look like any sort of factory. I wanted to see robots putting cheesecakes together.

I went to a fancy art showing with Kat on Thursday. It was at Westwood, which is where the president of Purdue lives. There were a few neat things about this particular art show. For one, Kat had a piece in it, and it was for sale… and it sold! To the Jischke’s daughter, even! For another, the president and his wife were there, and we ended up talking to Patty for quite some time. She’s a delightful person. For another thing, there were random fancy-dressed people wandering around handing out fancy finger foods. It was just like the movies, only I wasn’t wearing a tux. Also, I’m no good at hobnobbing. There are some pictures from the event on my Flickr page.

The last day of school is May 30. It’s funny to see how antsy the kids get, but the teachers also change around this time, too. I don’t hear as many reports of problems around this time, and I don’t think it’s because there are fewer problems. I’m pretty sure it’s because teachers don’t want to bother with it and just want to get through the end of the year.

My living room’s all crazy right now. I moved the futon downstairs to make room for the treadmill in my computer room, so now the couch and the futon are facing each other. It’s not ideal, but I want to get rid of the futon, so this is only temporary until it’s gone.

I’ve been thinking about buying a handheld vacuum cleaner – do people still call them “Dustbusters”? – and also maybe a house. I wish I could get them both at Target.

The cats are fine and they both say hi. Hope you’re doing well.