Thursday, March 08, 2007

What kind of a crazyhead doesn't check their email for two hours?

I locked my keys in the truck today. D'oh! But I was at the library, so, yay! stuff to do.

I called home. My sister and my mom were there, so I left a message on the answering machine. (No, you didn't misread that.) Then I read for a while.

Then I emailed my mom. Then I read for a while. Then I emailed my sister. Then I read for a while.

Then I considered installing TightVNC on the library computer so I could VNC into my laptop and make it start talking, in hopes someone would hear it. But I opted against this. There's no good portable (as in, noninvasive installation like you'd use on a USB memory stick) VNC client for Windows, to my knowledge. So I read for a while.

After about two and a half hours, my mom arrived. So I went home, listened to the two new messages on the answering machine, deleting the second one since it was from me and I was no longer at the library.

This is not the first time I've had trouble getting in touch with people at home. Only my brother and I use IRC regularly, and Miciah's in Germany. Only I use IM regularly. My sister is on PowerPets a fair bit, but that was blocked at the library and I didn't feel like dealing with it. My mom usually checks her email fairly often.

Why can't people be more like me?

When my family visited my brother in Germany, he told us (after all the arrangements had been made) 'The nice thing about your room is that it doesn't have a lock.'

But no one snuck in and murdered us. Or if they did, they replaced the dead person with a good enough imposter that the rest of haven't noticed.

So it's all good.


By the way, my blog layout sucks. Floating images don't stay within the confines of the post div, so I made the label thing clear: both, meaning if the top post is short, the others are forced to be lower than the sidebar. Why do the floating images not stretch the containing div?

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

A stick figure wearing a hat. Caption: 'Free hat!'So, today I gave blood, and they were all 'Anyone type-B or type-O?' and I was all 'O-neg FTW!' and they were all 'Great, go there' and I did, and I gave double red. Conscription. I'm down with that.
A stick figure wearing a hat. Caption: 'Hero with cancer!'
Anyway, because I gave double red, I got a groovy Red Cross baseball hat. So I can wear it and advertise the Red Cross and people will see me wearing my cool hat and think, 'Oh, look, he must be trying to hide the fact that he's going bald' and then they'll think 'OMG, Luca's in chemo!' and I'll be branded a hero, because people with cancer are heroes.
Only, I don't have cancer and I'm not going bald. But I gave blood doubly, so I am a hero. Props to me. I also got cookies.A partially-blue stick figure wearing a hat. Caption: 'Blood so cold it's blue.'

Alternate post:
So, today I gave blood, and they were all 'Anyone type-B or type-O?' and I was all 'O-neg FTW!' and they were all 'Great, go there' and I did, and I gave double red. Conscription. I'm down with that.

Anyway, because I gave double red, which means they put the plasma back in, and it was cold. Normally, I'm fine walking around in sub-zero (C) temperatures in short-sleeved shirts, but that's because I'm warm and the outside is cold. Here, outside was meh and inside I had cold blood flowing through my veins. While I 'drank' the ice from my orange juice. So next time I'll dress more warmly.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

OMG, it's awesome! I can't see the Moon at all!

Yes indeedy, all those clouds eclipse the Moon really, really well.

You how dictionaries have all the words alphabeticalised? Not so with cookbooks. Some cookbooks (members of what we'll call the 'annoying, but passable' variety) have the recipes arranged by type of food: Breads, cakes (turns out Marie Antoinette was right), cookies, pastas, meats, vegetables, soups, and so on. Now, I think cakes, cookies, and pastas are all breads. I'm also under the impression that some recipes mix multiple ingredients, such as pork (meat) and beans (fruit, but categorised, no doubt, by these books as a vegetable). Still, if I want to make lasagne, and there's a pasta section, I can guess where to look.

Other cookbooks like to arrange the dishes by when the author thinks you should eat them. Breakfast, lunch, snack, supper, or dessert. Usually I can probably guess whether a type of cake is considered by the author to be a snack or a dessert (though I haven't tried), but are hod dogs lunch or supper? Are all cookies snack, or are some dessert? And why the hell does this old bat think it's her place to tell me I can't have pancakes for lunch or pizza for breakfast? Or roast beef for lunch, for that matter? When I make a list of people who should be making that decision, it comes to one person, and his name's not Betty.

'But, ah!' you might say. 'Ah! These books have indexes! Indexes are alphabetical!'
'Tis true. The index is alphabeticalised. But by this I mean 'Pasta' comes after 'Meats'. The index oftentimes is no flatter than the contents itself. Lasagne still comes after Sugar Cookies.

You might think this is what we refer to as a 'Table of Contents'? No, the TOC is at the front of the book and lists only half the sections. I don't mean, 'Only H2 and H3', but 'Only H2 and some of H3'.

There are only three ways to cook: Know what you're doing, trial and error, and Google.

I mostly cook for people who would dislike my taking the second route, so I tend to use Google.

(In the textarea, 'use Google' is wrapped onto its own line and makes me wonder what amazingness such a package could do. Prolly just an interface to the web search. Bah.)

Almost forgot: When you finally do find the lasagne recipe, it assumes you already have pre-cooked noodles. No, dumbass, you're supposed to tell me HOW to cook the damn things. Luckily, my brother noded it years ago.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

What did you watch when you were a kid? Barney? Beavis and Butthead? MTV?

I just asked my sister 'What would you say if I read every word in the libary?' She didn't respond (verbally), so I continued. 'Every word? That's not infinity!'

So I continued, now singing:

What would you say if I counted every note I ever played?
Every note?
That's not infinity!
What would you say if I danced more steps than anyone had ever danced before?
No, no, no. That's not infinity!
Okay, so you never saw Square One TV (and even if you did, you wouldn't go up to people and start reciting lyrics from it twenty years later), and they're too lame to release it on DVD, but sexy people have posted it online. YouTube has stuff from Square One TV. It tends to be poor quality taken from old VHS tapes, but who cares? It's Square One TV, man! 321 Contact! Classic Sesame Street! Maybe even some Newton's Apple? I must go check!

Copyvios are immoral. Not releasing this stuff, though, constitutes cruel (though usual) punishment. I DEMAND SQUARE ONE TV!

'Infinity' was /The Jets/, by the way, but I doubt you ever saw /it/ on MTV.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

This morning I noticed that my mom had put a green avocado in the refrigerator. So with my sister tsk-tsking, I explained that doing so is ever so wrong.

I'm Alton Brown's disciple.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

(Potentially relevant link)

(Note: Edits prior to 2001-08-05 are not counted.)
1 each: April 2006, August 2005, December 2005, January 2006, May 2002, October 2001, September 2001, September 2004
2 each: April 2002, August 2004, February 2002, July 2004, March 2002, November 2002, November 2006
3 each: April 2004, June 2002, September 2005
4 each: February 2004, February 2006, July 2005
5: March 2006
6: January 2002
7 each: May 2004, May 2006, November 2001, October 2003
9: June 2006
10 each: August 2006, January 2004, July 2003, July 2006, June 2005, March 2004, October 2006
14: August 2001
20: March 2003
21: April 2003
27; December 2003
33: June 2003
39: August 2003
42: February 2003
45: September 2003
49: October 2002
66: September 2006
71: January 2003
85: December 2002
88: May 2003
100: January 2007
104: November 2003
Total: 965

Over 10% were this month. Wikid. I think I'll go make a few more edits, just to break my monthly record.

Also:
Oldest edits that are the most recent for said article:
* 17:42, 22 December 2002 (hist) (diff) Talk:Khazad-dum (Khazad-dum = Moria (Middle-earth)) (top)
* 01:41, 23 January 2003 (hist) (diff) Talk:Death Metal (Redundant article) (top)
* 17:35, 25 January 2003 (hist) (diff) Defining dictionary (Fixed redirect.) (top)
* 23:24, 25 January 2003 (hist) (diff) Ibn Sina (Fixed redirect) (top)
* 00:12, 26 January 2003 (hist) (diff) Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (Redirect) (top)
* 02:50, 26 January 2003 (hist) (diff) m Demo scene (Fixing redirect.) (top)
* 02:53, 26 January 2003 (hist) (diff) m J.Paul Getty (Fixing redirect.) (top)
* 23:46, 5 March 2003 (hist) (diff) William Taft (REDIRECT) (top)
* 18:29, 13 June 2003 (hist) (diff) Absolute Visual Magnitude (fixing redirect) (top)
* 16:19, 29 April 2004 (hist) (diff) Francis Iles (redir) (top)
* 21:03, 20 July 2006 (hist) (diff) Thomas West, 1st Baron West (Category:1335 births => Category:1365 births) (top)
Of course, Talk and Redirs aren't that relevant, so 2006. Not bad at all.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I'm so stupid.

I've had my 19" CRT sitting unused on my floor for months and months. Finally, in a mad fit of brilliance, I finally hooked it up to my laptop. Combined resolution is 1280*1824. Makes up for my laptop being unable to go to 1600*1200.

Optimally, I'd put the CRT on something just behind my laptop so it really was right above my LCD so they were physically in the same location as they are desktopically. As it is, the CRT is physically to the left and desktopically below.

On the plus side, my desk hasn't been so clean for ages. The floor, on the other hand, has acquired a large collection of stuff that belongs on the desk. Or belonged until the CRT took the position of honour.

I have a couple more spare CRTs, but I'm out of ports and I don't know how well a Presario r4000 would support five monitors. Well, maybe I do know, and the outlook is not good.

Oh, and on the plus side, my room will be much warmer with a 19" CRT running in the corner.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

A few days ago I decided to make a sandwich. Yay! Swiss cheese and fake meat and sauerkraut and Russian dressing and extra-delicious bread. Toasted. It was great.

So I made another. Also delicious.

Over the course of the day I made four of those sandwiches, each as delish as the last, except for one that got a soggy spot from overly wet sauerkraut.1

Anyway, I was pondering whether I should have another when I noticed the now-half-empty Swiss cheese actually said 'Mozzarella' on the package. In retrospect, this explained the flavour, and the texture, and the lack of holes always found in what passes for Swiss cheese in the US. Oh well. Mozzarella is probably better, anyway.

I don't really have a point, but I figured I should post something, and my sister found the episode quite amusing.

1 Oh, and I guess the one after that was as delicious as the one before what was then the last.