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Archive for December, 2004

December 21st, 2004 1 comment

Two more days of work, then I’m off on a very much needed vacation. 12 hour days 5 days a week for a month is not what I signed on for. It’s not as if I get paid for the overtime. yay salary. Since last week I feel like I’ve been starting to burn out progressively. Can’t keep this schedule up.

Things will defintely be a little different when I get back from the break. If I didn’t have this time off coming up, I don’t know what I’d do. No biggie though. Just today and tomorrow. I can rock it.

In other news, I heart Dieselsweeties

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December 20th, 2004 4 comments

Snow. Snow is funny stuff.

Snow appears harmless enough when blanketing the scenery in peaceful whiteness. Its very nature is almost “kind”. Light… fluffy… delicate. BUT… Something darker lurks beneath the surface. The docile exterior of ice belies an ethereal core of absolute stupidity.

The snowflake is a complex object. The crystal husk is merely a carrier vessel for a small portal to another sort of supersymmetrical dimension. The true quintessence of snow lies in this ethereal form. The particles from this dimension exist partially in our realm and partially in the supersymmetrical realm. The component of these particles that exists in our dimension is very small. These “fingers” into our “heavy space”, known as an LSSP (lightest super-stupid particle) is what snowflakes seed upon.

The mechanism by which snow “works” upon humans is even more interesting. Snow would normally float about in the upper atmosphere since snow clearly floats. Throw a snowball into water and you’ll see what I mean. But this superdimensional seed of stupidity adds just enough mass for the snowflakes to fall slowly and gently to the ground. Upon reaching the ground, the LSSP is released from the snow, and rises to the upper atmosphere to seed another flake. While in these states, snow is harmless. It could even fall on your head and it wouldn’t matter… there’s simply not enough force to drive the LSSP into your head. After alighting on your head, it floats back into the atmosphere like normal. However, a curious thing happens when snow is hit by a car. The crystal is hit with such force that the payload of stupidity is ripped from the core of the snowflake, and travels through the windshield of the car, leaving its icy prison behind. The LSSP is driven into the driver’s brain, where it is pulled the rest of the way into our dimension. It expands to its full size and darkles the driver’s mind, impeding neural activity and impairing the subject’s higher functions.

Normally, one such incursion into the human brain has little effect (especially in the state of Massachusetts, where the drivers give the LSSP very little to impair on in the first place)… but during a snowstorm, the drivers are pelted with countless vessels of crystalline stupidity. They are reduced to a near inanimate state(except in Massachusetts, where they become only slightly less intelligent than normal).

“Turn signals” become horribly daunting objects of epic complexity!
The meaning of “STOP” signs becomes nearly impossible to decipher!
Fundamental concepts of weight transfer and friction are lost in a furious storm of pedal mashing!

…Or at least this is the only possible explaination I can come up with for the sub-human behavior of winter drivers.

It’s truly astonishing how irresponsible drivers can get with just a small blanket of snow. “It’s slippery out! I wanted to keep both hands on the wheel!” is a poor reason to not use your turn signal. “I had to run the red light! I couldn’t stop because my brakes kept locking up!” is not sufficient excuse to run through a red light. Plan ahead. Think. Conditions aren’t just dangerous, they’re DEADLY. It astonishes me how many people manage to survive winter in unprepared cars and with such moronic disregard for other drivers. Inclement weather does not give you license to drive in a manner that would normally be considered unacceptable. You get no deference for your hardship. I am driving in the same conditions you are, and I can handle stop signs and turning signals.

Sorry for the rant, but I was nearly run off the road 3 times today, and on 4 occasions had luxo-barges come within inches of my front bumper after running a stop sign or red light. Today was bad even for New England. And it didn’t stop after the morning commute… they were just as bad during lunch. It’s as if drivers were trying to make a spectacle of themselves… aspiring to some sort of Platonic form of stupidity than no human could possibly ever become (except in Massachusetts). Pardon me, my bitter is showing.

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December 17th, 2004 Enter your password to view comments.

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December 12th, 2004 10 comments

So my car got broken into tonight. Ain’t that some shit? They busted out my right rear window. No biggie… Glass is free in MA. They stole the faceplate to my stereo. That sucked a ton since it was a gift. Oh, and they my fucking briefcase. That’s kind of a big deal. I got it as a present from my parents when I graduated college. I’ve always taken it everywhere with me (which was probably stupid). I’ve kept every important piece of paperwork in it. Recors and receipts and shit. I also kepy those little digitized pices of convienience in it. Like my PDA. And my digital camera. I wasn’t even pissed till I saw that my bag was missing. It was my stupid fault for leaving it in the passenger seat instead of putting it in the trunk. The one fucking time I go to a party in Worcester. So livid right now… my body doesn’t know quite how to react… It’s a wonder I could finish typing this.

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ganked from pseudomeat

December 8th, 2004 No comments

It’s not that I’ve been looking so much for these things, I’ve just been hearing about them.
http://www.google.com/sms/

1. Enter your query as a text message. See some sample queries.

2. Send the message to the US shortcode 46645 (GOOGL on most phones).

3. Receive a text message (or messages) with your results, usually within a minute. Results may be labeled as “1of3”, “2of3”, etc.

4. To get Google SMS help info sent directly to your phone, send the word ‘help’ as a text message to 46645.

tell me it’s not pimp.

GOOGLE take me away!
AO

————-

Damn…. Google is going to be the new world order, I swear. The main purpose of the internet is to serve up information with the form and function of the user’s request, and Google does just that in a number of ways.

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Reach for the laser

December 7th, 2004 6 comments

Apparently I’m going to see DJ Tiesto tonight. I made tentative plans with danowar and buho on Saturday (that I had since forgotten about), and Dan0 just informed me that the two of them are still planning on it.

Say what you will about Tiesto (and I’m sure you’d be right =P), but I’ve always had a soft spot for the occasional helping of prog-trance. Tiesto has been someone I’ve wanted to see live at least once. Tonight he’s playing at Avalon in Boston, and apparently tickets are like $10. 10 dollars? WTF? I’d be stupid not to go.

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December 6th, 2004 No comments

The weekend was interesting.

On saturday, Seth and I picked up an engine for his prelude. He recently spun a bearing. Car people will be making painful-looking faces upon reading that last sentence. Non-car-people should know that this is because spinning a bearing is among the worst things that can happen to an engine. Taking an engine with a spun bearing to the shop isn’t usually an option since it generally it requires tearing the whole engine down, replacing the spun bearing, and inspecting just about every damn thing in there for damage. See also: prohibitively expensive. Doing it yourself is not usually an option for the same reason. See also: prohibitively complex. Anyways… one of my contacts at Honda-Tech (the same one that sold me the crossmember during The Great Clutch Debacle of 2003) recently IM’d me asking if I needed an H23A1 for cheap ($200). Within 5 minutes Seth was on the phone with him, and he was wondering if he was letting it go for way too cheap =P. He was faithful about it and let it go for the promised price. We drove for a net time of around 6 hours to upstate NY. Never drive for that long in an early 90’s pickup truck. My back aches so bad from sitting in it. It was actually exhausting to sit in those nasty bench seats for so long… It was un-possible to get comfortable. I would have rather been standing. But we got the engine, and all is good.

Sunday was productive. I installed the stereo that Tereza gave me when she upgraded hers. Thanks so much, sweetie =D. I wicked appreciate it. It really made my gridlock commute much more bearable today. Up till now I’ve been using my PDA and a set of earbud headphones for a car stereo. It was convenient as it was legal. It’s a little skippy sometimes, but whatever. Much better than the punching bag non-functional stereo I had in there before. Later I went to toss on my snow tires since it’s going to be snowy/freezyrainy/newenglandy for the next couple days. Oddly enough I could only find 3 of them. =/. Not cool. I really need to find the fourth. 3 snows and one bald “all-season” would be pretty nasty in inclement weather. Also, I couldn’t really race this season since my dynamics will be *a little off*. Even driving around on dry pavement feels very weird. If I can’t find it, I’ll have to hit up James for 2 new tires on steelies. I don’t want to go that route since Dunlop doesn’t make Graspic DS-1’s anymore IIRC, and I don’t want mismatched tires. bah.

Oh, and I got a cat. My parents had 4 cats (all siblings)… 2 were theirs and the other 2 belonged to my brother. They got pawned off on my parents when he moved to Poland. The one female cat didn’t *get along well* with the other female cat. She was quite brutal in fact. So much so that my parents were about ready to give the victimized cat back to the shelter. Apparently it had been denied foot and the kitty litter by the other female cat for some time and was getting very unhealthy. They were very convincing in asking me to take her, and once they offered a couple dozen Lindt balls as incentive I didn’t stand a chance. I mean seriously… that’s good chocolate! So I took her in. Her name is Desdemona, or just “Dezzy”. I’ll post pics once she settles down enough for me to actually snap a few.

So yeah. That’s my story.

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beef is no longer for dinn4r

December 3rd, 2004 1 comment

For the love of all that is good and holy… Why on earth did the Macaroni Grill stop serving their roast beef calzonetto? It’s like the powers that be decided to deliver me a swift kick in the nuts via my tastebuds. why? WHY?

By the power of Greyskull, I will not rest until I see this mountain of deliciosity back on their menu. Ok, maybe I will rest sometimes, but I promise not to enjoy it.

So here I sit eating a Ceasar chicken calzonetto instead. ….Bleh… TEPID.

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With love from Poland

December 2nd, 2004 2 comments

I’m talking to my brother over IM. He’s been in Poland for 8 months and just finally gotten the intarweb.

doctorbenway42: in poland, guys have 21 fingers
IggDawg555: what are the extra 11 for?
doctorbenway42: toes are foot fingers
doctorbenway42: then there’s the one in the middle
IggDawg555: oh yes, that one.
IggDawg555: =|
IggDawg555: ooooh….
IggDawg555: THAT one….
IggDawg555: odd, americans seem to have that one too.
doctorbenway42: but it isn’t a finger on americans

It’s good that he keeps me updated on the important stuff.

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December 1st, 2004 2 comments

The other day Dan0 was telling me about how one of his friends wanted to play with plasmas by doing the old “focus 2 magnetrons at a spot and excite some blob of target matter into plasma” trick. My reply was simply:

“Oh hey, I have a spare magnetron in my closet if you need one”

O_o

The surprising thing wasn’t that I found myself saying something like that, but that it didn’t strike me as an odd thing to say. I’m not a geek. Not at all.

In other news, I think it may be time to clean out my closet.

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