Touch
Tonight I had my first “skin-on” contact of my massage class. It was kind of terrifying. I think I have a reasonable aptitude for touch, but my brain really wanted to “get it right” this first time. By the end of 20 minutes worth of some basic back massage strokes my legs were on fire, my brow was dripping, and my brain was shot. Not to sound too spacey, but there really is a lot more to this stuff than just touching. There is connection, care, and an empathic tendancy to this sort of work.
Granted, there is also homework. Ick.
OOo
Screw Microsoft. I’m done with their Office products. I’ve been using OpenOffice for a while, and have now given their 2.0 beta2 a good test drive. It’s simply great. Everything almost anyone could need (including DB connectivity and presentation software) in a 75 meg download. Don’t pay for MS Office when you buy a new computer: just get OOo.
Bad English
I was eating sushi with a friend the other day. We went to the little place that is right near my new house, which is really good. Honestly, there is nothing better than having a great sushi place less than a mile away. Anyhow, they are good at carving up tasty fish, but their publishing abilities leave something to be desired. Inside the little payment folio we got with our bill was one of the most wacked-out sentences I’ve ever read. After stating that they don’t do the debit-card-thing was printed: “We’re apologized for you inconveniences.”
Seriously, you almost have to try to make that many mistakes in one sentence.
In my ear
I have new Etymotic 6i in-ear headphones. They rule. It is going to take a little bit of time to get used to having earplug-like inserts in my ears, but I really am amazed. The amount of detail I’m hearing from my MP3 sources is unreal, and CD’s are jaw-dropping. Plus, they’re white so I can maintain my iPod “white supremacy” ‘tude.
Is it just me, or are white ear-buds some sort of badge of coolness these days? I found them to be awful, and chucked them into the back of the closet and stuck with my old reliable Sonys. They’re nothing fantastic, but at least they manage to block some surrounding sound and I don’t have to constantly put them back in my ears at the gym. Stupid ear-buds!
Evicted?!
I’m in Colorado with the Pranger clan having what should be a good time. However, it is all down the crapper now. I just talked to mitchn on the phone and we are apparently being evicted. 30 days notice. 2 well-paid engineers with unreal credit ratings and decade-long employment histories. Evicted.
I was really hoping this would be a place I could spend a lot of time in. I really like it! It’s comfy and roomy, and mitchn and I get along fine. I wanted to have housing-stability, but now I don’t get that. Again, for the 5th time in 6 years, I will be moving house within the Bay Area. Damnit!
No wammies!
Did you know that there was a Press Your Luck scandal? I didn’t until recently. The story is at first interesting, but then incredibly sad. The guy figured out the game, but couldn’t get a bit of luck going in his real life afterward.
Legally yours
In our modern litigious world, it is sometimes hard to know where the lines lie. Fortuntately, every once in a while someone will step in and help out the laypeople of the world with some plain-English guidance. Take it for what it is worth, but the EFF put out a legal guide for bloggers which I think is pretty cool. I’m only a few degrees of separation from people who have gotten sued or fired because of their personal blogs. This seems like a new, interesting realm of law.
Geeks make better lovers
There is of course quite a little buzz in the nerd/geek world over the article in the NY Daily News claiming that nerds are better lovers than their pretty boy counterparts. There is a considerable amount wrong with the article, but we do have to assume it was written by a guy who was popular with the ladies in high school and thus doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. That can be forgiven.
I do feel the need (as did my buddy Jeff) to point out that there is a difference between a nerd and a geek. I’m a geek. I’m not a nerd. I get a little too excited by computers: I can go on for days about them and spend too much time with them. But I take breaks to talk to humans, go to the gym, and run through the shower periodically.
Nobody wants to hook up with an un-groomed, un-showered, socially inept nerd. But all the ladies want to get with geeks now. Oh what a cross to bear!
Floss!
Just now, for what I believe to be the first time in my life, I finished a spool of floss. I didn’t lose it. I didn’t toss it out when I realized I had inexplicably ended up with 6 spools. I actually finished it: pulled out the last piece.
I shall take this as a minor victory in an otherwise difficult day.
Revenge of the Suck
I keep going on and on about how much I like working for my current company; it really is a great place. But today they did something of dubious value: they took me (and the rest of the engineering team) to see George Lucas’s latest abomination. Really, watching something that horrible as a group was an awful thing to do for morale, especially with some big release deadlines coming up. What were my bosses thinking?!
Seriously, though: I’m so glad I didn’t pay money for that. If I want to see wooden delivery and puppets I’ll glue some googley-eyes to a sock and make it lip-synch to a tape of my 7th grade play.
Update 6/21/2005: I really enjoyed a deconstruction of the Star Wars prequels and the persistent characters therein that I found via American Idle. Very well written!
