Random Access

Monday
Back in the proverbial saddle again. Gym (Day 16). Home. And soon… to work! I am definitely leaving early this afternoon.

Song of the Day: 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) by Gorillaz. This is the version that you hear during the Icebreakers gum commercial. I like the original, but this one is a little more upbeat. And the video for the song is… odd. Go figure, it’s a Gorillaz video. Odd, but funny.

Off to Ye Olde Purveyor of Caffeinated Beverages for a cup of espresso-laden frozen mocha goodness. And then, off to that happy place known as “work.”

Peace.

Sunday
Lazy day. And that’s a pretty good thing. I was up late, yet again, last night/this morning… working on the “toy box” again. So, I slept in. WAY in. That, too, was good. (And, speaking of the new puter, I got the new vid card and have been watching TV through it. And test-recorded a couple things. I like!)

We were thinking of going to Wendover (Nevada) this afternoon. We couldn’t seem to work up the motivation to go. We may go next weekend, though. This also gives us a chance to see if anyone else would like to go with us. Instead, we went to lunch with Sandi and then off to B&N.

Both the Panthers and Dolphins lost today; the Ravens play tomorrow night… which means that I’m going to have to leave work a little early again tomorrow. *sigh* Oh, well. Some sacrifices just have to be made.

Peace.

Saturday
I did leave work early yesterday… at 16:00. This was a good thing. Not because there was anything bad/wrong with work. Quite the contrary. It was just nice to not be there all day on a Friday.

Stopped at Adrian’s for a bit and then went to one of the local computer shops and… well… shopped.

I finally upgraded/rebuilt my PC. It’s been 3 years since I built my system (even though there have been a number of minor upgrades), and it was about time to get some much-needed improved processing speed. When we redid Jess’ computer, last month, she wound up with a system that completely outpenised mine. Well, not completely: Mine has a DVD drive, but hers has a better CD burner. After last night (read: “…this morning around 05:30…”) and a lot of “Why in the Nine Hells isn’t this p.o.s. working?!?” bitching and moaning, the technical balance has shifted back.

I am keeping the old system more or less intact; it will be running as a Linux box, though. The new one will be the “Toy Box” as I am beginning to affectionately refer to it. Although, I am sure that when it starts to give me technical problems that I will most likely start referring to it as “Son of Bastard Ass.”¹ I said that the old one will be “more or less” intact. I am using some of the hardware from it in the new PC. I was planning on using a video card that I had lying around until I got ready to get this. It looks like the old card is shot, so there is a Best Buy/Circuit City trip in my immediate future. Oh, damn. *snaps fingers*

As I mentioned, I was up quite early/late working on this. It was a few minutes past 06:00 when I got into bed. Jess had to work at noon today… I remember her getting up and getting ready (and the kids outside the window stomping/running around and yelling), but it’s mostly a dull haze. After she left, I slid back into the quiet oblivion of sleep. My dad called around 11:30 or 11:45. I must have sounded pretty rough; he told me to go back to bed and that we’d talk later.

And so, here we are. It looks like a nice day out there. And I still have the Corvette. Time to find something to do and get out of here.

Peace.

¹ For those of you who may be (relatively) new to my journal, Jess’ computer and mine are known, in times of stress, as “Fuckwad” and “Bastard Ass.” This is usually only when I want them to do Process X, and they tell me “Sod off.” Maybe the late Douglas Adams was right about his whole Apple Macintosh idea after all…

Friday
Day 15. That’s right: Three weeks of gym-laden goodness.

Song of the Day: What Have I Done to Deserve This by the Pet Shop Boys (feat. Dusty Springfield). They were playing Opportunities, also by the Pet Shop Boys, at the gym this morning… it almost made it as SotD, but I’m a little more partial to What Have I Done…

NPR/PRI Stories
The World
Talk of the Nation – There was a great segment on Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball (and major league sports, in general) on this program.
All Things Considered

Friday. I am definitely leaving early today. But, first, I have to GO to work.

Peace.

Thursday
Just getting back from the gym. Waking up wasn’t so bad this morning… it was the “get your ass out of bed” factor that was the hard part. I did it in under :05 today; I was proud of myself. The workout wasn’t bad, either. Still, no Land in sight…

Song of the Day: Thursday. Three-fer Thursday, at that. Today’s selections come from Sting: Windmills of Your Mind (from The Thomas Crown Affair soundtrack), Shape of My Heart, and La Belle Dame Sans Regret.

Stray toasters…

• I had one of THE most random thoughts while on the way to the gym: If you were playing “Chicken” (with cars), which way would you turn? And, is there a correlation between someone who is right-handed (or left-handed) and the way that they would turn?
• A friend left this link in an IM for me this morning.
  

  [08:36] Sp4sm: I can think of no one more deserving of that car than you.
  [08:36] ShadoRunr: I’m almost afraid to ask “Why so…?”
  [08:37] Sp4sm: Because… You are the ‘keeper’ (referring to my title “Keeper of Useless Pop Culture Trivia Knowledge”)
  [08:37] ShadoRunr: Ah.
  [08:38] ShadoRunr: “Who….. who are you!?!?”
  [08:38] ShadoRunr: “I’m Blaqman!”
  [08:38] ShadoRunr: ::: swirls cape :::
  [08:39] Sp4sm: exactly.

• Cats are still funny. Xena has this habit of laying across Jess’ hip… no, I guess it’s more “down her side…” when she (Jess) is lying down. She will wait for Jess to lie down and turn on her side and then… ::: perch :::. She then proceeds to look around, like a queen being carried around, as if to say: “All of this is mine… I just allow you to be here in my presence.” It’s cute… in a cats-are-funny way.

And now… time to get ready for work.

Peace.

Wednesday (pt II)
I know that this may come as a shock, but I was listening to NPR & PRI at work today. I know: Such a radical departure for me. But, I did…

There was a segment of Talk of the Nation on Integration and Resegregation. It started with one of the lesser-known stories of the civil rights movement: The story of James Meredith and his struggle as the first African-American to enroll at Ole Miss (for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, “Ole Miss” is the nickname for the University of Mississippi). It was a very engaging (and thought-provoking) hour.

It was interesting to hear a story about which I was unaware. It had many things in common with other stories of desegregation/integration. What it didn’t have in common was the fact that then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy admitted that he mishandled the ordering of certain troops not to intervene. (NOTE: They spoke with Charles Schockley (Lieutenant, U.S. Army), one of the officers who lead a rifle platoon that was sent to Oxford, MS… and prevented from taking action.)

The segment moved forward to more recent times and a trend towards “resegregation.” This is something of a misnomer. It is more like… “a decline of integration;” this took into account people moving from Place A to Place B, wherein racial balances are different. This section also covered:

• Differences between private and public schools;
• Bussing (and how this differs from desegregation);
• “Suburbanization of minority students;”
• “Reverse racism;”
• Geographic differences in peoples’ attitudes and, in some cases, teachers’ behaviors.

I listened to this segment with a measure of… irritation. Not anger. Irritation. This was borne from the fact that I have lived in four different areas (Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, and West) and like to note peoples’ interactions with others. I don’t just mean their attitudes/reactions towards those who are “different” from them, but also how they treat others who are “the same” as them. Some of the cases have been nothing short of fascinating. Two of the oddest in my personal experience came when I was attending Purdue University:

1. One of the guys in our group was from a small town in rural Indiana (yes, that’s somewhat redundant, but bear with me… it has relevance). The two of us were talking one afternoon and he looked at me and said “I don’t know how to talk to you because you’re black. We didn’t have many black people in my town. So… *shrug*” I was flabbergasted. After I regained my composure, I explained to him that he could – and should – talk to me like he would talk to any of our other friends. It seemed to take a few moments for this to sink in, but I think that he got it. At least, we never had any other problems/issues after that.
2. Another guy in our group and I were watching MuchMusic, think “Canadian MTV,” when a Natalie Cole video came on. His first comment: “She’s pretty good-looking for a black woman.”
   ::: jawdrop :::
   I asked him to explain what he meant… before I snapped him off a little somethin’. He “explained” that while there is “variety” in white women (blonde, brunette, redheads, blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes…), “…you only get dark hair and skin with black women.”
   ::: boggle :::
   I reminded him of a few other artists… and some people whom we knew on campus… and how different they looked from each other. And then I left the room. It was in both of our best interests that I did so. (I should also note that this person and I had another… run-in along even less-acceptable lines that nearly ended very poorly. Some peoples’ children just don’t, or can’t, learn. *sigh* Pity.)

We have come a long way in a relatively short period of time (especially when you consider the brief (225+ years) history of the country as a whole). There are still issues that we need to address, but I’m one of those optimistic types who likes to think that given enough time (and kicks in our mental asses), we can learn to recognize, understand and appreciate the ways in which we are different and the same as one another.

I am hereby officially recommending that everyone listen to this segment.

::: gets down from soapbox pulpit :::

Peace.

Wednesday
Elastica, in their song “Waking Up,” said: Waking up and getting up has never been easy… They knew what they were talking about. Of course, going to bed at a decent hour might make it a little easier.

But I woke up, thanks to the handy-dandy alarm clock on the nightstand. I even got up, got out of bed and made it to the gym. Day 13! I didn’t skip cardio (recumbent bike) this morning; I did have the “Why am I here” thought again a few minutes into it, though. I have (re)discovered that watching SportsCenter while riding helps the time go a bit faster. Land wasn’t there, so I worked out alone. The urge to write that as “No Land in sight…” was almost overwhelming. But I was able to curb the temptation to do so. For the most part.

Song of the Day: 8:45 (read: “Quarter to Nine”) by emmet swimming.
(Corollary: I did a piece based on the song last year on Renderosity. I should do something new on there… Anyway, feel free to check out the pic and to leave comments.)

Time to go and finish getting ready to go to Hell work.

Peace.

Tuesday (pt II)
Not a bad day on the whole: Gym. Work. Home. I made it the full 8 at work today. I even impressed myself with that one!

NPR/PRI Links
The World
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

You’re all big kids. I trust you to be able to find the interesting things by yourself. That… and I’m too lazy to hunt for them myself. Go figure.

And another thing…
From tonight’s chat with :

[23:26] : who exactly is the little girl on the cosby show
[23:26] : i know it’s raven simone
[23:26] : but how the hell did she end up on the show
[23:26] ShadoRunr: Denise’s step-daughter
[23:26] : some little kid just shows up?
[23:26] : lol didn’t know she was married
[23:26] : oops
[23:26] : OH wait wait
[23:26] : the navy guy
[23:26] : riiiiiiiiight
[23:26] ShadoRunr: him
[23:27] : ok, ok, the fog has lifted
[23:27] : i think cos got a little desperate towards the end there and just started to add characters like mad
[23:28] ShadoRunr: *cracks up*
[23:28] ShadoRunr: Could be.
[23:28] : ‘course i’m still trying to figure out the age old question
[23:29] : why are all his kids different colors
[23:29] : claire – black
[23:29] : cos – black
[23:29] : sandra – echru
[23:29] : denise – white
[23:29] : the rest – black
[23:29] ShadoRunr: ecru BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
[23:30] : lol s’better than “egg shell tan”
[00:10] ShadoRunr: Ecru.
[00:10] : lol
[00:10] ShadoRunr: *cracks up*
[00:10] : flashback?
[00:11] ShadoRunr: Yeah.

Peace.

Tuesday
Yet another day that I made it to the gym. I skipped cardio, because I was running a little late. I’ll make up for it tomorning. On the plus side, I am starting to increase the weight that I am using; it’s nice to see signs of progress… even if they are slow.

Song of the Day: Today’s selections are Changes and Changes by the Thin White Duke, himself: David Bowie. Why two songs? Because it’s Tuesday! And, not just “Tuesday,” but “Twin Spin Tuesday!” That’s right… you get two… TWO… TWO songs for the price of one!

Stray Toaster…
Last night, Jess and I went to one of the local B&N’s after work. I’m looking through a few books and this guy walks up and stands there… After a few moments, he looks over and says, “Excuse me, but I think that I know you from somewhere…” He doesn’t look at all familiar to me and I am usually very good at remembering faces. Great.

He proceeds to ask me if I’ve worked downtown (yes, during the Olympics) and what I do (work for the Postal Service) and other questions of that sort. I answered them… vaguely. It turns out that he is working with/for a startup company who is “looking to get into more technical things.” Joy. They are looking for people who might be able to “help them out” when they get ready to take the plunge. Have I said “Joy” yet? I did? Okay.

Then the other shoe drops and he whips out his calendar and asks when he can contact me again. I tell him, quite honestly, that we are gearing up for our busy season: Christmas. Then he asks “So… how about… January 6th?”

::: braincramp :::
I politely tell him – again, honestly – that we are usually still dealing with heavy mail volumes through mid-January, at least. I didn’t mention that right after that, we usually start getting into Valentine’s Day volume. Oh, well. Fortunately, I was able to escape without having to give any personal information (other than my first name) by asking him for a card and having him write on there to give him a call sometime in January. That seemed to appease him.

That’s not the first time that I’ve had something like that happen. I’m sure that it won’t be the last, either. But… it’s not the kind of thing that I really enjoy. *sigh* No rest for the weary wicked, I guess.

Almost work time… I’d better get moving!

Peace.

Monday
Made it to the gym again this morning. This is definitely becoming a habit. Again.

Being a train buff (and the fact that it was a very economical purchase), I bought a copy of Railroad Tycoon II last week. I finally got around to installing it last night. I played it while watching MacGuyver in Space Stargate SG-1. I’m still learning the ropes… um, rails… but it’s fun. It’s like having an electric train set without taking up any space in your bedroom or living room… which is pretty good, considering that you get to have the world as your playspace.

After a long hiatus, Jess () has returned to the land of the LiveJournalers. Hmm, the land of the LiveJournalers… I wonder if that was possibly a forgotten (or omitted) chapter of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. After all, we did get Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms… maybe he just didn’t think that the world was quite ready for LJ-land. We may never know… Anyway, drop her a line and wish her a (belated) happy birthday! I’m sure that she’d get a kick out of it.

Song of the Day: As it is Monday and the start of most peoples’ workweek, Blue Collar Man by Styx is appropriate.

Work-prep time.

Peace.

Sunday
Slept in. This is was most definitely a “good” thing. Got awakened by the phone, but since it was a little after 13:00, it was acceptable. More or less. Watched a little football: The Panthers and the Dolphins both won today; bye week for the Ravens.

Hola and welcome to .
Will we get to hear HRH stories here? Just wondering.

::: time delay :::

Went to Sandi and Jim’s. Had a nice cook-out dinner and homemade pies! And, just in case I neglected to mention it: Home. Made. Pies! Watched a little of Junkyard Wars and the Emmy® Awards.

I just finished watching tonight’s ep of Justice League. I still say that this is one of the most-consistently best-written shows on television today. Think that I might try to squeeze in tonight’s ep of Enterprise. Or not… apparently, the station that airs it on Sundays has moved it up an hour. Bastard-asses! So, it looks like I taped an early ep of the Sisko Show. Oh well, there’s always syndicated Stargate SG-1…. or “MacGuyver in Space,” as we call it.

Peace.

Saturday (continued)
Long. Busy. Active. These are the words that best sum up the day. I would have said more about it in my earlier post, but there were a few surprises that I needed to make sure that Jess wasn’t aware of. If I had commented on them and she had read this, they would have been non-surprises. One of which involved cars. Specifically: Corvettes. Jess had made a comment last weekend about wanting one (she saw one in the parking lot of the Village Inn after bowling). After the whole Humvee incident last May, I couldn’t let this one slide…

As I noted in my earlier post for today, it was Jess’ birthday. I think that I have also mentioned that I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. (I admit that this is a subjective statement, but it’s my journal… and I can be as subjective as I damn well please! Besides, she is the coolest. Period. Bar none.)

So, let’s take this from the top:

• Last night, I was up FAR later than I had intended. I was wrapping her small presents:
  • A 1:18 scale 1967 Corvette Coupe
  • 1:18 scale C5 Corvette
  • Two (2) Thomas Kincade puzzle sets (three puzzles, each)
• Got to bed for a too-short sleep.
• Woke up. Eventually went back to sleep.
• Woke up around 11:15, when Jess called to say when she’d be done with the orientation class that she was giving for fresh meat new employees. Didn’t move… fell asleep.
• Woke up around 12:15, when Adrian called.
• Got up, did the hygiene rituals, got out of the house and …
• Pick up a friend’s car. Specifically, his ’89 Corvette. I explained to him why I wanted it; he said “no problem.” So… I went and picked it up. Unfortunately, there were only fumes in the tank when I got it, so it stopped running about 100 yards from a service station.
  ::: braincramp :::After pushing the car out of the intersection in which it had chosen to go *kaput* and walking to the station for a gas can and some petrol and walking back to the car/putting the gas in and driving back to the station to fill the tank/return the can, I was back in the game!

• Went to work to get Jess. In the Corvette. Adrian met me there to: a) bring the (musical) keyboard that I got her, b) provide part of an alibi as to why her car wasn’t there, and c) take pictures of her reaction when I handed her the keys to the ‘vette. She was more than a little surprised. Quite a bit more, in fact.
• We drove to her folks’ so that she could show off the car (and take her nephews for a little ride in it). They were just as excited about riding in it as she was about driving it.
• Came home, changed and then…
• I took her out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. I told her that it would be just us at dinner since our scheds don’t always allow us to do that. Well… that wasn’t as true as it could have been: I had a few people (Sandi, Julie (Jess’ sister), Land and Catherine, Jim and Louise (co-workers), Adrian, Larry and Mycah) waiting there for us. Again, she was quite surprised. Happily! I was a little worried that someone might accidentally let Jess in on something about the dinner… but it went off without a hitch.
• After dinner, we ran back down to the inlaws’ for a bit, came home, got the bowling balls and headed to the bowling alley. Mary, Matt, Larry, Scott bowled, too. Jen (and Keith, long story) came along, as well.
• Traditional post-bowling eats at the V.I. and then home!

Like I said: It was a pretty full day. Jess said that in thinking back over all of her birthdays, that she thinks that this one was the best (at least, of the ones that she remembers). That made all of the planning and running around and lack of sleep worthwhile. Very worthwhile, indeed.

That’s a good cut-off point. Time to seek the gates of The Dreaming. Tomorning brings football! And dinner at Sandi and Jim’s… Sandi mentioned something about making a chocolate pie! Hoo-AH!

Peace.

Saturday
First and foremost: Happy birthday, Jess!

Additionally, happy birthday to .

There’s quite a bit to say… but very little time to say it. Tune in later.

Peace.

Friday
GymTrek 10: Gym-esis. That makes two weeks… in a row… every weekday morning. Not bad. Hmm. I suppose that if I was going to name the past two weeks’ gym activities in terms of Star Trek movies, they would be:

1. GymTrek: The Motion and Bitchin’
2. GymTrek II: The Back of Rob
3. GymTrek III: The Search for Muscle Tone
4. GymTrek IV: The Workout Alone
5. GymTrek V: The Final Grunt and Sneer
6. GymTrek VI: The Unrecovered Atrophy
7. GymTrek: Gym-erations
8. GymTrek: Wrist Bend-back
9. GymTrek: Gym-surrection
10. GymTrek: Gym-esis

Song of the Day: Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim (featuring Christopher Walken in the video).

Off to work!

Peace.

Thursday (Part II redux)
Severely edited repost after the server decided to eat my last entry…

I am tired. No, that’s an understatement. I am well past tired. I did not get that frozen mocha this morning. I was able to score a cafe mocha, though. It helped.

NPR/PRI Stories
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

Hmm… I really don’t feel like re-entering the entire last post. Maybe I’ll do it tomorning. Maybe not. We’ll see.

Peace.