Cream Cheese Warlords

Dobedo...Quick update. KC is burning through her two weeks of paid vacation before we move, so we're back up in NNY for a while now, without the obligation of running around to the millions of random relatives that flock around here, it's nice....

The Houghton's down the road burned down the other night at 2:30am, it was a great show. The feed processing part is completly destroyed but the mini store and the McConnel's barns survive unscathed. I'm pretty sure the silos are still smoldering, but maybe the rain today will help that. Estimated damage is around 3 million or more. I swear I didn't do it.

Other then that, we've been chillin, hunting down people we actually enjoy seeing, and playing with our new dog, Noah. Kenny and Heather get to meet him when we go to teh drivein's this Friday. It's so nice to have a dog who's actually calm and quiet...he rarely ever barks and likes just following us around and laying down in whatever room we're in. And he's pretty with creepy ass blue eyes.

        I had just woken up after falling asleep at work and went for a walk. It was a typical, middle of the day activity for me. The short naps reset my thought processes and let my mind wonder to things that I normally wouldn't waste thought cycles on. Today, the first thing that pops into my head is how cool it would be to build my own guitar. The immediate, knee jerk thought in response was that it wasn't practical. I already had a guitar, what did I need to build one for? Where would I store it? I already had a shortage of space. There's no way it would sound right anyway and how would I even notice? I only know three chords. I would be spending all that money to build something that probably wouldn't sound even as good as the guitar I already owned. What was the point?

        This was also a common activity for me since moving to San Francisco. All of these doubts and fears and nagging concerns fall under the umbrella phrase "it isn't practical." Most days, I would have shrugged it off and thought of something else, but in my sleepy, half conscious state I found myself thinking "When did I get so fucking practical?" When did it happen? The point of building something, or playing something, or working on a personal project is the joy of the activity itself, not the final product. It reminds me of a talk Adam Savage gave about how he set out to create the most accurate reproduction of the prop of the Maltese Falcon used in the movie, right down to the 1950's era san francisco based chinese newspaper to wrap the Falcon in. At the very end of the talk, Adam says "Then I might finally reach the end of this exercise, but if we're being honest with ourselves, finishing the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with, was it?"

        The thought process I detailed above is toxic. It kills any project or activity I think about starting all because I've adhered to some abstract notion of practicality. So when exactly did that happen? The best I can figure is during Grad School, I endeavored to find and buy the most practical clothing possible. I'm hard on my clothes and my shorts are notorious for developing holes from rubbing against my bicycle saddle. After I succeeded in finding practical shorts that wouldn't wear so quickly, I decided to extend that thought process to my other clothes. Somehow, the idea of practicality burned its way through every aspect of my life, including my choice of bicycle. And guess what? It's making me miserable. All because I was concerned over the cost of buying new shorts every few months. Like everything in the Bay Area, it all comes down to over-focusing on money. But that's another rant.

        I find myself missing the crazy lair of an apartment I had in Watertown. There wasn't much I liked about the area, but one thing I did get into was the crazy projects I put together in that apartment. Who remembers the hammock stand? That was a perfect example of a ridiculously impractical project. A bunch of steel tubes screwed together to form a sort of industrial limbo bar I would hang a hammock from. It took up an entire room, blocked my way into the computer room and I only used it for a month before dismantling it and piling the steel in an unused corner. Seriously impractical, but the planning and construction consumed my thoughts for nearly three weeks. It was fun.

        I need to turn my current apartment into a Crazy Lair again.

Tim prevents the win

The metal Macbook is now a Pro. I guess I was wrong about them dropping the plastic macs altogether, I thought they would just sell them off and be done.

and yeeaaaay Snow Leopard is cheap. I like cheap things.

www.astroboy-themovie.com

The visuals alone are enough to make me want to kill. Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma... I really don't see it.

It occurs to me that my life would go on just fine if I didn't waste time oogling things I cant actually buy. Nevertheless I rather enjoyed watching this years e3 live stream. Every presentation had something worth seeing.

What really got me rolling was the heart-rate sensor. Wow, I mean, really... can you imagine? Just WOW. That was sarcasm.

I want to play mod racers. I want to play mod racers and drive through ringlets of drowned sheep. I want to see if they get caught in the wheels. I'm joking.... but really.

Anyone else out there peeking at the game-world?

Figured I'd update quick before I went in to work today cause its been a while since anyone has updated. The big thing for me to update on is a job, Tim and Justine knew that I had a interview at stream and they finally called me back yesterday after 2 weeks. I will be working phone support for dish network and starting 6/15, its not the ideal job as to what I got my degree in but its full time on a fixed schedule and has full benefits (health vision and dental) so it'll be something to help, plus I'm just getting so worn out at stews its time to move on.

Peace out!

Since we seem to go places and leave them and THEN realize that there were people there we could have seen, I just wanted to let people know that we're going to be in NNY this weekend before we head to NYC on Monday for Alex's graduation. Sorry for the short notice, but if anyone else is around and wants to get together, let us know!

I am going to find the omnipotent being in charge of the weather around her and kill them. At least twice.

I understand people stealing your identity and making small purchases to make sure you don't notice at first...but why steal someone's identity, make small purchases, and then have said purchases mailed to the person's whose identity you stole?

Ok, so we have a dishwasher in our apartment. A while ago the old one developed a leak so we got it replaced with a new to us one that was newer and less leaky. A couple days ago, KC noted that the new one was not draining the water out of it resulting in a large puddle on the floor. We put in a work order but the guy hadn't shown up yet, so I decided to check the overflow/air gap thingy on the sink (aka the part where dirty water drains into the sink drain instead of back into the dishwasher). It looked clogged, which is good because that means that the pump isn't leaking like our last one was. I got a long toothpicky thing and fished out a bunch of rice and four vertebrae bones...

whoever dishwashed a mouse needs to die. As fun as random bones are, they don't belong near foodstuffs.

Just figured this would get the quickest response, I need mailing addresses for Tim and Lyle. send em to my email!

PEACE

So! I moved into my place about a month ago after putting it off for several weeks because of work. I just unpacked most of my stuff today because every other weekend has been spent working. I need to stop spending time working.

In the few lucid moments I've had in between coding, I decided it was a good idea to come up with a longer term plan for my life. And as I've been bitten by the wanderlust bug, I've been looking at other cities. Almost anywhere is cheaper to live than SF, including NYC right now.

Anyway, longer plan! yes. I'm going to get back into RIA development, like the stuff I was doing back at Laszlo. I really enjoyed the work I did back then, if not the crazy deadlines. So with that as a day job, I'll continue my writing and I've started digging into the Source API (the graphics engine that Half Life 2 uses) so that I can start modding video games. It'll take me a few years of doing that before I can get hired at a video game company, but that's fine. I'm thinking long term right now.

My only question is where. Unfortunately, it seems I'm stuck to Cali for a little while longer. If I want any hope of writing tv or movie scripts, I have to be in LA, at least for a little while. It's either that or defect to Toronto.

As you can tell, I'm doing a lot of thinking right now and not a lot of doing, which is a typical mode for me. Stay tuned, maybe that will change, finally.

Why am I posting here? I'm not sure, I looked at the site and said hey, something I can do. I need to go to bed.

The reason being I am working many hours in an odd fashion, which I'm generally ok with because it means I'm getting paid. I'm employed at the historical museum now, giving tours, helping 3 year olds use scissors to make flamingo sunglasses, and having 5 year olds ask me if I have a girlfriend. A very cute 5 year old I might add. Oh, and making 4th graders faint. Ask me about the arm buried by the lake here sometime. She did...

So yeah, I'm working about 24 hours a week there, tutoring for about 6 hours a week, teaching for almost 16, and then doing lots of prep and other things on top of it. Justine is working even more hours than me taking care of cute kids who have cancer. She's gone overnight doing that. I miss her.

In positive news, I'm expecting positive news from GWU sometime soon. At least I sure hope so. I'll let you know when I hear. Beyond that, Justine and I get to visit my cute godchild and her brother on Easter. We don't do that enough and it will be nice to see them all. I think I'm talking a lot about cute children in this post.

Waiting for it to warm up again so that I can start biking into work once more. It will save me lots of money in parking, and save my body in healthy benefits. It's pretty close now to me commuting but for the times at which I'd be traveling.

Oh yeah, we were in New Mexico for a week recently. It was delicious. There was a wedding from a friend in Baltimore that we got to attend, and we saw lots of TFA friends. Hopefully they will come visit us in December when they come by Chicago for another wedding. During our trip we got to see pictures on rocks, animals, and mud huts. All very exciting. Now we need to be able to make our own green chili...

I think I shall go read some WoT and fall asleep. Then I shall awaken and prepare for my class tomorrow.

taco bell just cleaned out about a dozen illegal mexicans from our store last week. some of these people worked there for almost 10 years. many of them were legal back then and just hadn't kept up on their papers. i guess the problem right now is we need more opportunities for "real americans". these workers received no warning. one day the big wigs came in, started writing draft checks, and showing people the door. any thoughts on this?

Well its been a while since I have posted anything. As of the 19th of march I was 22 and I feel no different. The birthday was good. I went out with some friends. In recent good news I am getting 1100 back for my taxes so I will be able to find bankruptcy very soon. Which means I get to move back to FL. Now I am still throwing the idea around. I don't have much here in NY a few friends and some family. In FL I have a bunch of friends, a lot more stuff to do and the op to start a band with a couple friends which I have really wanted to do. I can probably get a job again at wal mart. Now this is where I ask opinions. It would be a real fresh start this time if I moved down there. o the question is should I take the op and go back down or should I stay in NNY.

Hoo, I will be going down to VA the second week of April. I'm planning to visit my friend Racheal who is now living with her mother in Fredericksburg.

To Meg and KC: let me know if you guys have some free time, it's not too far from where you live... I think.

just a general update, I am attending a job fair Thursday afternoon and also have an interview set up for 2 in the afternoon. Just keep me in thoughts and wish me luck!

First of all, it's Tim's birthday today. HAPPY BDAY TIM! Everybody send him a raw halibut.

Next, it looks like I'm also moving! In the next week if I can swing it, the next month if I can't. I won't be moving far, just back to SF, but it knocks my commute time down from 2.5 hours to 30-45 minutes. That makes for a happier lyle with free time. I'm looking forward to writing again though, all my free time has been spent learning several new java technologies all at once. It's making lyle cranky. It's also making lyle speak in the third person. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME, JAVA?

I'll be over here, having a nervous breakdown. quietly. in my corner.

Oh, and I've started mudding again, too. I'm wondering if I'll keep with it or not. Astromud has pretty much emptied out. Even during the peak hours, there aren't nearly as many people as there used to be. I wonder how much that has to do with their ever changing draconian policies vs WoW. Maybe I'll check out some other muds, see how the scene in general is doing.

Look! I can update too!

Life updates: just putting the finishing touches on an app for grad school which is due at the end of this week. If all goes according to plan, I'll be in DC starting in June of 2010.

Grats on the intership Megan, always nice to know what is happening next. Franklin, PA, eh? Looks fairly uninhabited.

*makes a note for August of '10* Adams in August, eh? Let's start planning Lyle!

What else... what else...

Current reads: Wheel of Time - in conjunction with a reread going on at tor.com Amazing the things that are being picked out now that I missed before, that didn't make sense until recent events, or that are really cool examples of foreshadowing that everyone missed the first time around. Umm.. I'll think of something more to say later and put it up.