Trouble comes in twos. After finishing up my day at work, a handy bag of banana chips by my side, I pop one last one in my mouth and turn to start packing up to head home. Suddenly, my stomach siezes up in a knot of pain. I slump back in my chair, wondering I'm going to hurl or if the feeling will pass. I wait. It doesn't pass quickly. I eventually decide I'm not going to vomit, so I attempt to get back up and make my way home, where there is a comfortable couch waiting for me to stretch out on.
I reach my car, open the door and unload everything inside. I slump behind the wheel and sit for a moment, wondering what the heck I could have eaten or drank that could be causing the problem. Shrugging, I turn the car key in the ignition and.. nothing. Nothing happens. No starter motor, no whine of a dying battery -- not even a simple click, dashboard lights. Nothing.
I decide that I have legitimately earned my sad puppy dog status at this point and call my wife, Andrea. She is in a generous mood and willing to drive down and give me a jump. Excellent! While I am waiting, I call my friend Zoe who is a specialist in bacterial research and knows all the warning signs of green meanies like E.Coli or food-bourne Staph. I describe my symptoms. She doesn't think it's the banana chips. I glare at my fountain drink I got at the local deli. My wife arrives.
Quickly, I get my car jump-started and we proceed to drive home. At the traffic light near my house, I get a phone call. It's Andrea. She says, "is your parking brake on?" "Uh, no.." "Well, your brake light has been on since you left the building parking lot." I ponder this as I pull into the driveway of my house. I turn the car off, and sure enough, my brake lights are still on. All three of them.
Sighing, I start troubleshooting. Parking break? No. Regular brake? Nope. Headlight setting? No. Ok, so there's a problem. I decide to pull the taillight fuse and send it to the shop next week. I pull the fuse. Still lit. I pull more fuses. No change. I scream.
After a few minutes of pondering, I decide to disconnect the battery. Finally, this seems to have killed what I now realize are evil, posessed glowing demon's faces attached to the back of my car.
THE END
I reach my car, open the door and unload everything inside. I slump behind the wheel and sit for a moment, wondering what the heck I could have eaten or drank that could be causing the problem. Shrugging, I turn the car key in the ignition and.. nothing. Nothing happens. No starter motor, no whine of a dying battery -- not even a simple click, dashboard lights. Nothing.
I decide that I have legitimately earned my sad puppy dog status at this point and call my wife, Andrea. She is in a generous mood and willing to drive down and give me a jump. Excellent! While I am waiting, I call my friend Zoe who is a specialist in bacterial research and knows all the warning signs of green meanies like E.Coli or food-bourne Staph. I describe my symptoms. She doesn't think it's the banana chips. I glare at my fountain drink I got at the local deli. My wife arrives.
Quickly, I get my car jump-started and we proceed to drive home. At the traffic light near my house, I get a phone call. It's Andrea. She says, "is your parking brake on?" "Uh, no.." "Well, your brake light has been on since you left the building parking lot." I ponder this as I pull into the driveway of my house. I turn the car off, and sure enough, my brake lights are still on. All three of them.
Sighing, I start troubleshooting. Parking break? No. Regular brake? Nope. Headlight setting? No. Ok, so there's a problem. I decide to pull the taillight fuse and send it to the shop next week. I pull the fuse. Still lit. I pull more fuses. No change. I scream.
After a few minutes of pondering, I decide to disconnect the battery. Finally, this seems to have killed what I now realize are evil, posessed glowing demon's faces attached to the back of my car.
THE END
- Music:Yello - 02 - Moon In Ice
I have to praise you like I should.
- Music:u -
Collective Soul - Run. Just because.
- Music:m Version) - Coll
Let's try this again. Walking music take 2. Now with less FAIL.
- Music:or
Perfect walking music. Get out there and walk.
- Music:or
Listen to my station on Blip.fm!
When I attended college, the computation center had internet-connected Sun workstations. There I first began to use telnet, FTP, gopher, IRC, and Usenet.
Soon after I subscribed to an ISP at home and got a dedicated phone line. This was around 1990.
My living room has the most comfortable chair in the house. Plus, the couch is great for sleeping on, and I have a nice TV.
A few days ago, I posted 25 things about myself, mostly for my FriendFeed friends. But, I thought, I'd take a chance and maybe start a meme with my LJ friends too. You know, bridge-building or whatever. Although folks on FF found it ok and commented on it (comments here), no-one here did. As far as I can tell, nobody even picked it up as a meme. Which is fine.
But here's the problem. I think I have failed you, LJ folks. Or perhaps you failed me.. or both. The point is, you don't give a shit about what I post here (which is fine), and I don't even read my friends page any more. And maybe that's why. I don't spend time here, and so you LJ folk don't care about my updates.
So I am faced with a choice -- I've had a blog here for over 7 years (active on it for 6), and I could put the time back in, hopefully get some or all of your back onboard. Or, I can just shut it down.
I've been debating this choice for the better part of a year. I'll be honest with you; I don't think I'm coming back. I have my own blog that I am passionate about (Scribkin) and I write for some slightly-larger blogs (Louis Gray Live and Google Tutor), which is about as far as I can take all this blogging stuff for free.
I will admit that I did create a WordPress.com blog where I can post personal thoughts, Sit Awhile. But I haven't really used it much.
When I don't feel like blogging, I hang out on FriendFeed. Those of you who spent countless hours on silverchat can empathize.
So, the bottom line is, I'm packing it up here and moving on. Once I figure out how to back up my LJ, I'm going to delete it. You may be asking why I am writing this long boring post and am going to delete my journal instead of just abandoning it like I do a lot of other services.
The difference is that I need closure. To be honest, I don't care about 90% of the other services I signed up for. But LiveJournal.. I've spent a lot of time here. For me, it's bittersweet. I feel guilty about letting my account idle here. I'd rather know that I have tried to invite you, if you are interested, to follow and interact with me in these new places.
Or at least, feel free to email or call me, invite me to lunch. I will do the same for you. You can find me as 'el ratso' on AIM, 'pglockner' on Skype, and my Grand Central phone number is 512.961.6189.
See you on the internets.
PS - Just posting this is probably fairly drama. But hey, it's LiveJournal. Just honoring the medium.
But here's the problem. I think I have failed you, LJ folks. Or perhaps you failed me.. or both. The point is, you don't give a shit about what I post here (which is fine), and I don't even read my friends page any more. And maybe that's why. I don't spend time here, and so you LJ folk don't care about my updates.
So I am faced with a choice -- I've had a blog here for over 7 years (active on it for 6), and I could put the time back in, hopefully get some or all of your back onboard. Or, I can just shut it down.
I've been debating this choice for the better part of a year. I'll be honest with you; I don't think I'm coming back. I have my own blog that I am passionate about (Scribkin) and I write for some slightly-larger blogs (Louis Gray Live and Google Tutor), which is about as far as I can take all this blogging stuff for free.
I will admit that I did create a WordPress.com blog where I can post personal thoughts, Sit Awhile. But I haven't really used it much.
When I don't feel like blogging, I hang out on FriendFeed. Those of you who spent countless hours on silverchat can empathize.
So, the bottom line is, I'm packing it up here and moving on. Once I figure out how to back up my LJ, I'm going to delete it. You may be asking why I am writing this long boring post and am going to delete my journal instead of just abandoning it like I do a lot of other services.
The difference is that I need closure. To be honest, I don't care about 90% of the other services I signed up for. But LiveJournal.. I've spent a lot of time here. For me, it's bittersweet. I feel guilty about letting my account idle here. I'd rather know that I have tried to invite you, if you are interested, to follow and interact with me in these new places.
Or at least, feel free to email or call me, invite me to lunch. I will do the same for you. You can find me as 'el ratso' on AIM, 'pglockner' on Skype, and my Grand Central phone number is 512.961.6189.
See you on the internets.
PS - Just posting this is probably fairly drama. But hey, it's LiveJournal. Just honoring the medium.
- Music:Chicago Public Radio - #338: The Spokesman | Powered by Last.fm
Since memes are such a integral part of LiveJournal, I decided to post my entry from this FriendFeed meme here. Maybe it will make the rounds here. Maybe.
Anyway, away we go.
Anyway, away we go.
- I love cultural trivia.
- I have a genetic issue that makes it hard for me to commit names to memory.
- I was born extremely extroverted, but that changed after elementary school.
- My favorite food is Lasagna.
- I hate 'Garfield' but I love Garfield minus Garfield.
- I used to be a cat person, but I'm now a dog person.
- I have mild Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) without hyperactivity.
- I have an extremely broad, eclectic, and some (like my wife) would say bad taste in music.
- I indulge in denial more that I care to admit.
- I know more about MiniDisc technology and standards that most people.
- I own an Atari Lynx, A Sega Dreamcast, a record player, and 2 laserdisc players (1 broken).
- My wife (
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
aspen) and I met on LiveJournal. - I inherited a high risk for skin cancer.
- Both of my parents are German, from generations of same. So I am 100% Germanic Tribe.
- I hate eggplant.
- I have near-perfect color vision, and was once told I had 'perfect pitch.'
- I was in marching band in high school, I played trombone.
- I cried when Goose died in Top Gun. I cry every time.
- I love Japanese culture. It's so weird.
- My mom has Seasonal Affective Disorder, and I wonder if I do too.
- I lose weight when under a lot of stress.
- When I was a kid, I had asthma, and had to be rushed to the hospital at least 3 times.
- For a few years, my tongue was pierced.
- I have Tinnitus.
- Nothing has made me more interested in becoming a better writer more than social media.
- Mood:
thoughtful
Blaah. I was jus starting to dig being on this long break.
Aaaanyway, testing out a new blog-to-LJ-from-an-iPhone app. So far, so good.
It supports LJ-cuts and pics too. Fun for me!
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
- Location:30.514923, -97.642395
- Music:Moloko - Fun For Me | Powered by Last.fm
Chickens do something naturally that thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment can't do. Amazing.
This is what FriendFeed is all about.
- Welcome Matt! Please let me know if there's anything that we can do to help out WordPress. - Paul Buchheit
gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": the dell mini
295dellmini.jpeg
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Monty Python FTW
Oblong G-Speak. SFJ (or sweet fancy Jesus as we say in the biz)
- Location:cyberspace
- Music:What is the music in this video?
The Raw Story | Turley: Late Bush move 'almost sign of contempt' for election results
- However, as Politico pointed out on Wednesday, the "little-known" Congressional Review Act (CRA) of 1996 was passed to address just such a situation and will allow Congress to undo these last-minute regulations "with a joint resolution that canâ™t be filibustered in the Senate."
magnificent bastard - your sherpa. your life caddy. your sensei. your brutha.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
I bought a small chocolate frosty for myself (and another one for my wife) tonight, from Wendy's. The total was $2.58. As you can guess, that means that they are no longer on the 99-cent value menu. In fact, a small Frosty now costs $1.19. At some point in the past year, they have sneakily raised the price 20 cents.
That's not all. The small Frosty is in fact smaller than it was in days of old.. it is now served in a cup I believe they call "junior size" and could be the standard cup size for children's meals. I'm not sure how much it holds but I am guessing around 8 ounces. Compare that to just a year or so ago, when a small Frosty came in an actual small cup (10 or 12 oz?).
So the bottom line was, it used to cost a buck for, let's say, 10 oz of delicious frozen chocolatey stuff. Now it costs a dollar twenty for 8. In other words, it went from around 10 cents an ounce to 15 cents.
And I don't know if anyone noticed.
Heck, I don't even think anyone even orders the small Frosty besides me. But I don't think it's limited to the small size.. their large soda now costs over $2.00. Compare that to a regular convenience store that still sells 44-oz fountain drinks for $1.20 or less.
I'm just sort of annoyed that Wendy's can just arbitrarily raise prices, and we just kinda shrug and go along with it. We don't even notice.
Heck, I probably wouldn't have noticed except I paid cash and I realized at the window that I can to dig out an extra 30 cents from the floorboards of my car.
That's not all. The small Frosty is in fact smaller than it was in days of old.. it is now served in a cup I believe they call "junior size" and could be the standard cup size for children's meals. I'm not sure how much it holds but I am guessing around 8 ounces. Compare that to just a year or so ago, when a small Frosty came in an actual small cup (10 or 12 oz?).
So the bottom line was, it used to cost a buck for, let's say, 10 oz of delicious frozen chocolatey stuff. Now it costs a dollar twenty for 8. In other words, it went from around 10 cents an ounce to 15 cents.
And I don't know if anyone noticed.
Heck, I don't even think anyone even orders the small Frosty besides me. But I don't think it's limited to the small size.. their large soda now costs over $2.00. Compare that to a regular convenience store that still sells 44-oz fountain drinks for $1.20 or less.
I'm just sort of annoyed that Wendy's can just arbitrarily raise prices, and we just kinda shrug and go along with it. We don't even notice.
Heck, I probably wouldn't have noticed except I paid cash and I realized at the window that I can to dig out an extra 30 cents from the floorboards of my car.
- Mood:
bitchy
This map shows the most racist parts of America. Only 22% of counties voted more Republican this year than 2004. These are the people that bucked the general trend and actually went the other way, i.e., Democrats and moderates switching to the Republican side. Race is the only reason that makes sense for a Democrat to switch sides this election cycle. Keep this in mind when you plan your next vacation: Americaâ™s âœracist beltâ stretches through the whitest parts of the South and up the Appalachian Mountains.
- This map shows the most racist parts of America.
Only 22% of counties voted more Republican this year than 2004. These are the people that bucked the general trend and actually went the other way, i.e., Democrats and moderates switching to the Republican side. Race is the only reason that makes sense for a Democrat to switch sides this election cycle. Keep this in mind when you plan your next vacation: Americaâ™s âœracist beltâ stretches through the whitest parts of the South and up the Appalachian Mountains.
John Cusack: No Currency Left to Buy the Big Lies
- The orgy of excess has drained every bottle, smashed the furniture and left the cupboards bare. All that's left is derivative debts -- bets between liars and lies. Trillions of dollars. Turned capitalism into a Ponzi scheme for trading worthless paper. No real value anywhere.
- We watch millionaires and paid Republican hacks appear on television yelling "Socialist!" at Obama as if the Bolsheviks are coming to rape our daughters. These are the same people who oversaw the greatest upward redistribution of wealth in the history of this country. The same people who, through general lawlessness and a privatization frenzy, succeeded in shredding the Constitution, turning war, illegal domestic spying, security, border patrol, interrogation, and even torture into profitable industries gorging on the state.
Mirror's Edge music album out in November - Free Mp3 Download - Zimbio
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
The Triumph of Ignorance: How Morons Succeed in U.S. Politics | | AlterNet
But this merely extends the mystery: How did so many U.S. citizens become so dumb and so suspicious of intelligence? Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason provides the fullest explanation I have read so far. She shows that the degradation of U.S. politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies.
One theme is both familiar and clear: Religion -- in particular fundamentalist religion -- makes you stupid. The United States is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing.
What Sarah Palin Is Saying - Anil Dash
- I firmly believe that Sarah Palin is a smart, talented public speaker who makes deliberate choices about her use of language to elicit particular responses from different segments of her audience. She's college-educated and has been a professional broadcaster, understanding the nuances of addressing a large audience. She is certainly experienced enough to understand that signifiers like "hockey mom" and "Joe Six Pack" are explicitly communicating to an audience that is white, overwhelmingly not college educated, and lives in rural or suburban areas.
LinkedIn Applications: Your Resume Just Got More Dynamic - ReadWriteWeb
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
- Music:Morcheeba - Part Of The Process | Powered by Last.fm
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