mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (Default)
  • 07:41 Mythbaby: "Mythbusters" Build Team member Kari Byron is pregnant! Congratulations! Guess she'll be missing some of the rougher stunts. #
  • 14:50 Walked to client and back, about 10 minutes each way. Great day for it, 70 degrees out. #
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mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (speed+time)
My exciting New Year's: no party, no fancy dinner. I didn't feel well, so we stayed home to watch the ball drop on one of the excruciating network New Year's shows. We waited for the countdown to start... and waited... and waited... and looked at the clock to notice that it had somehow become 12:22. Yes, we fell asleep waiting for New Year's. Such a hardcore life we lead, eh?

I repeat what I said last year: if I'm planning to party or otherwise celebrate late into the evening, I'm at a point in life where an afternoon nap would be a wise preparation - especially if I'd gotten up at 5:30am that day to go to work.

Slept until almost noon on the 1st, because I'm still exhausted from last weekend. (Possibly from all of December.) Starr had to work, so after lunch I headed to Bert and Meche's, where they got a game of Munchkin Quest going. I'm glad they have it, because I want to play it again, but this time I don't have to buy a copy. It looks like an average game might well be 4-5 hours, though we had some non-gamer types at the board, which slowed things down a touch.

I'm tempted to say that my New Year's Resolution is "1280 x 1024, 32-bit color at 60hz". But in fact, the personal-improvement things I hope to accomplish this year are to keep trying to lose some spare tire, improve my education and my earning power, and do more non-journally writing. I'm especially unhappy with my writing output in 2008; I've stared at a lot of empty text files this year. That will be changing.

Happy New Year to all!
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (speed+time)
Someday I will learn to keep a stash of ibuprofen at my desk.

Saturday I wanted to do anything but sit on the couch and stare at the DVR. Handily, there was plenty going on in the area, and we ended up catching a free blues festival at the 17th Street oceanfront. Less handily, we ended up parking at the 23rd Street oceanfront and I got my exercise for the weekend in 95-degree weather. I can't believe I'm not sunburned. But, the music was excellent.

Add in that walking to yesterday's five-hour cleaning spree in the apartment (2.5 rooms done, yay!) and I am an achy Borg today. Still, I'm pleased with the reasons I got that way, so I'm calling it a win.

Saturday night we ended up as guests of Starr's parents at a mildly pricey Italian restaurant. The kitchen messed up my order once, and delayed the second attempt; the manager finally comped me the dinner and I think overdid my dessert as apology. With two large cannoli on a plate before me that evening, I'm pretty thankful for all the unplanned exercise.

Today is my mom's birthday, At first, I was fretting over whether she'd even want to talk to me, but that's not the right attitude. I want to talk to her, and I'm still commmitted to getting this whole situation worked out in a way that gets her as much of what she wants as is sane.

Good news for today? I just found a bottle of ibuprofen in my glove compartment; and these 90-minute OS X Leopard installs give me lots of time to tap away at the Newton.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (flying_gif)
My "grown-up" moment for the week: not bidding on a Lego Mars Rover on eBay even though it came to $10 below retail. I just don't need to be spending $85 on Lego right now. But I thought about it for a second.

Worked on a shell script today which will automate and streamline installation and troubleshooting of our backup services. I keep forgetting how much I love writing code, especially the bit where it executes and everything works properly and I feel like Dr. Frankenstein shouting "It's alive!!" I caught the coding bug when the TRS-80s came out, and I've never gotten over it.

I headed in to work early today, to help install a glut of new monitors which arrived. Not my usual assignment, but I wanted to help out, and the monitors were the lightest of the equipment to be installed. On the other hand, that does mean a lot of crawling under desks, and even a 22-inch flatscreen isn't that light after you've lifted the tenth one onto a desk. I'm a little tired.

Going to try to get in touch with Mom again tonight.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (Default)
  • 07:51 Down from 38-inch waist to 36. The walking and Coca-Cola deprivation is accomplishing something! #
  • 10:46 It's amazing how motivated I can become from just a bit of kudos and recognition. #
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mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (flying_gif)
Things to do today, in random order:

1) Have large breakfast so I don't mope all day.
     Completed at 1:00 pm.

2) Call Mom and check up on her. Continue searching for home care.
     No answer at Jon Reid's. Left message on his phone.

3) Clean gerbil cage.
     Gerbils looking much happier. Cat still sad this is not a buffet.

4) Get badly needed haircut.
     This is being put off for a week-and-a-half due to time and budget issues.

5) Get lamp for spare bedroom.
     Lamp secure. Only been meaning to do this for months.

6) Do laundry.
     Third load in dryer. That's all I have energy for tonight.

7) Contact plumber who fixed kitchen sink at Kentland to make payment arrangements.
     Number not in phone. Left voicemail with neighbor contact.

8) Try for Azeroth Olympics tabard and pet.
     Got tabard. Pet looking unlikely.

9) Clean up living room. Empty dishwasher from last night.
     Dishwasher is empty and reloaded. Living room in progress. Vacuum cleaner belt is broken.

10) Make dinner.
     Seared then baked chicken randomly seasoned with garlic, lemon, cumin, and cilantro, with couscous on the side. An Iron Chef would be appalled, but it came out yummy.

11) Call local lifestyle group about demo they asked for on Tuesday.
     Done. No problem, they just need me to revise the entire presentation, that's all.

12) Buy new pantz to replace 1 holed pair and 2 pair falling off my hips (good thing, right?)
     This is being put off for a week-and-a-half due to time and budget issues.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (orbiting)
So who was I listening to in the car on the way to work today?

The Dresden Dolls and OreSkaBand. I would have liked to see OreSkaBand when they were here this week, but I couldn't exaclty take Tuesday off :(

I blame my musical taste on my mother, who tricked me into liking classical and folk in addition to the rock I got off the radio; and Tom Monaghan, who ate little more than ramen through his college years in order to acquire a huge and supremely eclectic CD collection.

When someone asks me what they're likely to find on my iPod, I answer "almost anything from a Bach symphony to Japanese bubblegum punk."

Walked a mile-and-a-half today. I really need to do this earlier in the morning before the mercury tops 80.

Travellers

Jul. 1st, 2008 09:40 am
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (teefive)
LiveJournal seems a little slow today. Wonder what their servers are dealing with.

Got a nice evening walk in last night, 1.66 miles according to the GMaps Pedometer, though I swear it felt like 2. Turned out that the exercise was a good thing; right after we got back, Dwight called, and invited us out for sushi and hibachi. Starr wore her new Questionable Content kitty shirt I got her. I told the story of the time that a bunch of us went to a hibachi place in Roanoke, and as we were served, we all eagerly grasped our chopsticks... except for the Japanese exchange student with us, who matter-of-factly picked up her fork.

You'd think that with all the exercise, I'd have slept great last night. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. While Starr said something this morning that cheered me, the weariness is still nibbling away at me. I think I may be naughty and pick up a Coke or two today.

This weekend we will be leaving Portsmouth around 7 or 8 p.m. and driving to Blacksburg. Saturday morning, we'll be catching up with some of Starr's family that will be in the general area, Saturday evening we'll visit my Mom, and then Sunday we'll be heading to my old house to survey what needs to be done to move Mom back in when she's ready. Then we'll drive back to Portsmouth. I may be pretty liberal with the caffeine this weekend as well.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (flying_gif)
If someone's Twitter profile page says that they are following 35,000 people, than I somehow doubt that their 'personalized' request for me to follow them back means much. It doesn't help that all their tweets are private. How do I know if you're interesting if I can't read your tweets / journal entries / etc.? This is also why I don't have a MySpace.

Spent all night last night trying to catch up on e-mail correspondence, and in the process, forgot to call my mom and check on her, which I am not especially proud of. I did get the gerbil cage cleaned, though, which I've been promising to do for a couple of weeks.

MikhailBorg at age 19 [livejournal.com profile] cynical_prophet sent me this picture of myself from 1988. I was kind of down that night, and the pic was a surprise, so I don't have the best expression. Starr had a fairly amusing reaction: "Is that you!?"

"Yes, it's me, about 20 years ago."

"Wait... you still have that shirt!"

"Not that it fits, it's a size medium or so."

"More like size Tiny!"

Temperatures are down a little, so I am walking again. Missed yesterday, but I aim for a mile today!

EDIT: Hokey smokes, they are sending my mom home from the hospital on Friday. Now that, boys and girls, is a solid recovery. I know she's going to love getting to see her kitty again!
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (Default)
  • 11:51 .67 miles again this am. Working my butt off. Also, found a pic of G.Lucas wearing a "Han Shot First" shirt. tinyurl.com/5ms88t #
  • 13:30 20 min. into lunch: not a good time to find that Quiznos no longer carries my favorite sub. Prime rib cheesesteak okay, but too much onions. #
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mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (cool-future)
First day in two weeks I've felt halfway decent. My sleep was restful, the little headache pulses are gone, and I even had the initiative to get back to walking today. (Only 2/3 of a mile, because it got cold out, and I didn't bring a jacket this morning.)

Tonight I will be catching up on housework and bills, and of course giving my Mom a call to see how she's doing.

Was thinking more about the high-tech Captain Nemo today. If you dropped today's MacBook Pro in his workroom, I suspect that he'd figure out how to turn it on, and even use some of the software if there wasn't a login password. I expect he'd work out what the battery was, and might even be able to recharge it using the technology of his time. I'm sure he could work out the basic concept of the motherboard, and I'll even grant that he could reverse-engineer the simpler peripheral protocols with enough brute force, time, and care.

I'm fairly confident, though, that the LCD screen, integrated circuits, memory, and hard disk would be completely beyond him. At his technology level, any of them would have to be ripped apart and destroyed to achieve even a basic understanding of the principles involved. A magnetic storage medium might be within his imagination, but the ability to build another one just wouldn't exist yet.

(A few of the TNG and DS9 episodes annoyed me in this fashion, showing the heroes taking apart communicators and tricorders with utterly primitive tools. I'm convinced that one couldn't even crack the cases with less than highly specialized tools, and if one did, the contents would be largely integrated into a few non-user-serviceable bits. But that's just me.)

Perhaps Nemo could accomplish much with "black box" parts delivered by a mysterious supplier, much as the scientist-heroes of This Island Earth did. But could our justly-paranoid sea captain trust the source?
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (TARDIS42)
Finished my 10th mile of the new mile-a-workday program. At this rate, I should reach Rivendell by Christmas :) Yesterday and today were beautiful walking days - 70 degrees, light breeze, cloudless skies. I notice that I'm slightly less overheated and winded than I was two weeks ago, though much progress remains to be made.

With the removal of two 200-calorie Cokes from my day, and a 200-calorie walk in addition, I'm hoping I see even a tiny bit of body difference in a month or two. I mean, I figure my diet beforehand was in the 2,200 - 2,400 calorie per day range, so that's a fairly big cut.

After around 20-years, I have reconnected with [livejournal.com profile] cynical_prophet. He and I used to be thick as thieves in the Pathfinder days, but we had a falling out. That water's long passed under that bridge, and I found him through clicking random LJ links - it's good to hear from him again. Hard to write a short letter about "here's what I've been up to for the last two decades", though.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (flying_gif)
Last night I had my first taste of lobster in decades. I'd been putting a lot of energy into taking care of Starr lately, with her overwork issues and such; she decided it was my turn, and set up a lovely lobster and shrimp dinner for me.

Those things are hard to stare down - I've always been a bit wary of food that's looking back at me. Luckily, lobsters look evil enough that I can tell myself that it would gladly eat me if our roles were reversed, and start dismembering the thing. (Cows are the same way. Don't trust 'em, that's all I'll tell you.)

Very tasty; in fact, it tasted better with lemon juice than melted butter, to my surprise. I think that crab legs are still the shellfish win for me, but this is not a complaint I'm registering. I greatly appreciated the effort and expense!

Saturday was fun, but hectic and busy. A local crafter's group pow-wow led into an unsuccesful Korean food run which preceeded a graduation party which turned into an unexpected late night hot-tubbing which became an overnight stay which included brunch the next morning with our host's parents. I may not have gotten my explicit mileage in, but given the amount of time I spent on my feet, I'm calling it an exercise win.

Sunday mostly involved the couch, the kitten, and a lot of Discovery Network.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (flying_gif)
Hey there! I need opinions from the wise folk of LiveJournal.

So, I'm getting about a mile of walking in per day, but after a week, I'm still a bit winded and overheated when I finish.

[Poll #1185211]
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (speed+time)
Cyberpunk decker, from Rising Star something-something New favorite bookmark - Gmaps Pedometer. Turns out that the round trip here at work that I've been estimating at 1.25 miles is actually 1.11, and I burned ~190 calories making the trip (or most of one 20oz Coke).

I'm really tired of my spare tire. Not only is it forcing me to get rid of perfectly decent clothes, but a couple weeks ago I was winded just coming up a flight of stairs. This is unacceptable! I am now trying to get at least a mile of walking in every day. I think it's time to try Diet Coke again, as well.

This old convention photo shows how I was built back in the late 80s. Many people these days don't believe this is a picture of me! I think the hair will stay a memory, and my shoulders are permanently broadened by the crutches, but I'd like my chin back, and the ability to see my belt buckle. I really feel that I can do this.

Hmmm, the pedometer says that walking from my apartment to the nearby dog groomer and back is a mile. Think I'll be doing that one on weekends.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (magical)
Starr showed me YouTube footage last night of several Discovery Channel stars singing the Boom-de-ah-dah song live at some promotional event. I was tickled by the Alaskan ship captains jumping in, and am more convinced than ever that Mike Rowe is insane in a wonderful way.

We had multiple friends ask us out last weekend, and politely demurred every time; this was our first unscheduled time in months, and we were determined to enjoy it quietly at home, with no stressors, expenses, or travel. So, of course, we ended up at Busch Gardens.

Yeah, that plan worked out great, didn't it?

But it was a gorgeous Saturday, and I've been trying to visit the park since moving to Hampton Roads. We'd purchased Virginia resident Fun Cards earlier, and the Old Country was calling our name, so out we went! The weather might have been a bit too gorgeous, actually, since we left the sunscreen in the car and Starr got a bit roasted. There were also a couple of lines where we were minutes away from abandoning our place and running for the nearest air-conditioning.

But we had a great time. The DarKastle ride may be our new favorite - the 3-D is quite effective, if artificial. I rode the Battering Ram for the first time, which was a mix of fun and "ohcrap ohcrap I am falllinnnngg!" Seriously... rides where I fall make my internal organs shift positions and are an exercise in endurance for me, not entertainment. I don't know why.

The Big Bad Wolf, on the other hand, didn't have too much falling for a roller coaster, and a lot of swooping. I love swooping :) It was almost dark by the time we got to that one, which added a dimension. The turkey sandwich I ate at the Festhall was pretty yummy, if overpriced, and I made sure to eat it in small, well-chewed bites, in hopes of avoiding motion sickness later. The Corkscrew Hill 3-D simulator nearly defeated that strategy, however.

We also got to see live wolves and huge bald eagles in a predator show, and a pretty good Irish music and dance show. So, even with sunburn, exhaustion, and expense, I'm chalking it up as a success. On the other hand, Sunday was quiet, lazy, and cheap after all. It kind of needed to be.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (Default)
  • 08:14 Parking a block farther from the office building to make myself get more walking in. #
  • 08:44 We are role-playing a flame war on a discussion forum. "I cast Straw Man!" "I cast Ad Hominem!" #
  • 09:15 Three-week-old kitten having breakfast: tinyurl.com/6grpcq #
  • 12:34 "Keep Track Of Equipment" poster has picture of Space Shuttle Main Engines. Are we misplacing those often? #
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mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (yeager)
Rough start to the day.

Didn't sleep well - under-hydrated, I think. 200 spam messages from last night in my inbox: the Russian spammers are trying some new tricks. I can't even read most of the e-mails. More idiots driving 45 in the passing lane, then shifting right and doing 70 in the slow lane; and to top it off, my morning podcast glitched out halfway into the drive.

On the other hand, I was greeted again this morning by friendly ducks on the way out to my car. Last night was great, with pizza and WoW provided by Starr and a remarkably clean apartment she'd spent her "lazy day" scrubbing. And this morning I heard that my longtime partner-in-crime Tom Monaghan, one of the few Starfleeters to hold officer posts on USS Heimdal, Pathfinder, McKay, Yeager, and Ma'at, signed his first fiction book contract! Awesome!

So karma balances, and if the rain lets up at all I'll get some more walking in today. Into the fray!
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (passing)
Some of the interesting points of the weekend...

Friday night I got to see Carbon Leaf! Or hear them, at least... outdoor concerts are fine until the sky clouds over, the sun goes down, and it's suddenly 50 degrees. I was huddled under a blanket for most of their set.

Saturday night I played Star Munchkin in a dark, smoky coffeehouse with three complete strangers until 2 am. For some reason, this strikes me as the opening to the all-geek version of "Faust".

Sunday our friend Laura was with me on the way to pick Rain up for lunch when we happened upon a nasty two-SUV accident that had happened seconds before. Laura has some medical training and hopped right out to see if there was any useful first aid she could supply, while I made myself useful by calling 911. Response arrived within seconds it seemed, and while we can't say for sure, it looks like everyone escaped with treatable minor injuries, even the three whose vehicle rolled a few times.

And, this morning I've done my King Kong impression again by climbing up on a building's roof to mess with the antennas. I need to get a doctor's note excusing me from that, or something.
mikailborg: I can't even remember what event I was attending, but I must have been taking it seriously. (cartoon)
Today I have:

Climbed to the roof of our building to help check a wi-fi link (I am not doing that again, I had no idea the last part would be a 30' foot wall-mounted ladder. I don't like heights and I don't need to break the remaining organic bits of my left leg. They can find someone else next time.) Climbed back down.

Walked 4 blocks to the boss man's loft to check the other end of the link, then back.

Walked 4 blocks to the local mall for lunch (I ran out of frozen stuff to microwave and eat at my desk), then back.

Headed up and down 3 flights of stairs all day servicing machines.

Walked 4 blocks to the boss man's loft to re-install the hardware we uninstalled the first time.

Walked 5 blocks to the bank from there.

Walked 4 blocks back to work.

Much more of this and I won't miss the gym membership I left back in Roanoke. At least it's only 85 and breezy out, as opposed to yesterday's 103 degrees.

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