(warning: particularly old content) I don't ask for it to make sense RSS feed

2008.09.30

Nine-tenths of the way towards having Ginrei totally replace Takako. The great file migration is going on, and then really the only thing left will be configuring Apache properly. Site stuff has been definitely hacky, so I haven't been touching it, and probably won't have it set up proper until this weekend. Still loving Ginrei, except for the action on her return key, which seems to stick more than I'd like, which would be none.

We made butter chicken for dinner tonight, off a recipe that I remembered really disliking last I made it (2002-ish) but hoped to be able to fix. I'd still want to tweak the spice mix, but it was ridiculously easy and lightweight, and it was amazing how much a difference immersion-blending the tomatoes made. Butter chicken just isn't proper with chunks of tomato the way that recipe originally dictates.

I'm pulling for a lamb curry this weekend. Indian food has been out of the cooking rotation lately, it's time to fix that problem.

Think

2008.09.27

I'm being griefed and I don't appreciate it. There are rules and etiquette; unless you're being a dick, you retreat to your own territory for a good long while unless it's absolutely necessary. You don't go to the other person's places, repeatedly, at times that you know are their times, and hang out.

I fume. I wish I were the sort of person who'd return in kind, but no, I simply drive past, and fume.

Think

2008.09.24

My new MacBook Pro, Ginrei, fills me with absolute and utter glee. This weekend's task: finding a firewire cable and transferring stuff from venerable Takako to the new goodness. After 3.75 years, it's time for a new wave, yo!

Think   2 Thoughts

2008.09.22

Two days in a row of Micah snuggling to sleep on my chest on the couch. We're both in heaven.

Think

2008.09.19

We Wrote the Book on Connectors, I love you THIS > < much, for pretty much an infinite value of > <.

Think

2008.09.18

That was some pretty good koolaid. Much better than last year, but then, just about anything would be better than last year. I am thanking ALL THAT IS GOOD for the shift in our ad campaign. I like the I'm a PC ad (can be watched at mscom/windows). In fact, I rather love it, right here from having just dropped 3 grand on a long overdue laptop upgrade... a MacBook Pro that I'm going to dual boot OSX and Windows on.

In other news, I took a three hour nap on my couch this evening to recover from the news that the repair place thinks I need a new catalytic convertor. That shit be SPENSIVE, yo. Stupid Volvo, why must I love you? All you do is repay me with, all told, something like $3800 in repairs right as I pay you off. At least it doesn't need to be done all at once. Bah.

Think

2008.09.17

It's koolaid day tomorrow! I can't wait!

Think

2008.09.15

Sigh. I'm bad at math. It's depressing how bad I am at it. I can only hope that tax time brings me something nice, as opposed to continuing the crap.

Think   1 Thought

2008.09.14

I have been consistently remiss. The question may be, for those few of you who keep tabs on me here and not elsewhere... wtf? Well, it basically comes down to some soap opera shenanigans (we all know how GOOD I am at those), involving a breakup with Todd in early July, and the subsequent getting back together with Jeff and being retardedly happy and busy and involved with him. I've not been hauling my Mac around up to his place all that often, and /tht/ing just tends to fall by the wayside.

I am going to try to be better. Not for any of you, but for me. It gives me some amount of comfort to know that I can page back through nine years of time. My talk may not be of much objective import; I may not blog about my work, that I am so passionate about, or my hobbies in some sort of publicly helpful detail, or anything else that would make this space more than an ongoing letter from the past to myself, and that's the exact damn point.

In other news, my review was well beyond glowing and into incandescent. I got it on Friday, which was my birthday, my 3 year anniversary at MS, and a day when most other people's absences made it that I could actually get stuff done. We had a few things to do this weekend, but there was ample time for things like sleeping 12 hours on Friday night and watching 4 episodes of Bullshit tonight over PuzzleQuest.

It's been a good weekend.

Think

2008.09.08

I was so ready for a nap yesterday that I forgot to actually upload this file. It's a full day later, and I'm still totally wiped. Only Brandon gets to have three day weddings, people. No more. I couldn't handle it.

Think

2008.09.07

Brandon and Kim got married today! It's been three days of non-stop wedding shenanigans, culminating in 4 hours in way-high heels making faces at Kim over Brandon's shoulder to keep her from sniffling. Too much.

I'm ready for a NAP. Thank christ he didn't want me to be the best man, I would have had to come up with a speech or something. PHEW.

Think

2008.09.03

I got the convention plague, bleh. Sore throat since waking up yesterday, but while I could justify not going to work on Tuesday, I really couldn't be that wussy today. But hey... sore throat versus... leveled up at work. In a majorly good way. I think I'll not gripe too much on the sore throat front.

$IPE_Level++;

:D

Think

2008.09.01

Another year down, a second PAX attended. No pictures, seeing as I haven't replaced my camera yet, but I figure I spent enough time there to warrant an actual wrap-up post.

We lined up on Friday to get concert wristbands (which was an effort in irritating vain) and to absorb the crowd (that goal, at least, was accomplished). We played Zombie Fluxx on the floor and plotted our assault on the con... and immediately confirmed that there was no way that we'd be able to go to all the events we wanted to. Sigh. Next year, next year. At the first panel we went to, I picked an aisle that had a couple people already in it; I stepped over a familiar-looking woman's feet without mishap and immediately semi-tripped over the extended legs of the man she was with. She tugged at his elbow, whispering "Zack!," pretty much simultaneously with me realizing that I was tripping over Zack Johnson, aka Jick, creator of KoL. I was so startled that I couldn't help blurting out something retarded along the lines of "Dude, I play your game," falling into a seat a couple away, poking Jeff and pointing Jick out. Not very quietly.

Sigh. Not one of my finest moments. I'm tongue-tied and spazzy around people who impress me when I'm prepared for the encounter... surprise me, and all meager bets are ENTIRELY off. I'd gone to the Designing a Free-to-Play Game panel purely because I was curious whether KoL's design philosophy is echoed throughout the F2P industry (it is, basically), and ended up spent the entire time completely mortified. Whee! I did decide that Klei Entertainment makes just about the cutest game ever.

Then it was keynote time; Ken Levine talked about being a giant roleplaying geek and I cheered. The first Penny Arcade Q&A panel can be summed up by a paraphrased comment made by a metroblogger: it turned into a semi-embarrasing parade of gifts for the perceived demigods of geek culture. Still, there were some interesting bits, and many many funny bits. We poked our heads into the expo hall afterwards, but fled quickly in favor of getting dinner and exploring the fabulous, fabulous tabletop gaming areas in the Pike Street Annex.

Friday night concerts were the One-Ups (AWESOME, I'm sad I missed them last year; who couldn't love lounge-style covers of video game music?), Freezepop (TERRIBLE, at least whenever their lead "singer" was "singing"), and Jonathan Coulton (AWESOME TO THE MAX, in so many and varied ways)... we left before JoCo's encore (sniffle) in an attempt to catch the last bus home; given that we missed the last bus, I really wish that we'd stayed. We managed to get home via some juryrigged transportation, and crashed into bed.

Saturday we got to the Convention Center right in time to get into the Make A Strip panel, which was hilarious and one of the shining high points of the entire con. The extended Fallout 3 demo afterwards was most excellent, almost making me want to actually play it (which is saying a lot for someone who swore off non-casual computer games 5-6 years ago), and the swag delivery method made me smile (we got Vault Boy puppets!).

The next several hours were spent holed up in the Annex, playing DS (me), the WoW TCG (everyone else), Citadels (Jeff and me and two random people from Texas, and it was a totally fun game) and Skallywags (me, Jeff, Kyle, and Christy). We loved the Annex THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS much. If I hadn't insisted on going over to see the Front, we would have stayed there all night.

Saturday night, we skipped the first concert and came in at the very tail end of Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (AWESOME, Cthulu metal with totally sweet outfits!), followed by MC Frontalot (AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME, he makes me sniffle he's so frontalicious, and I have a new favorite song: Tongue-Clucking Grammarian... TUT TUT TUT!), and the Minibosses (mediocre... we almost skipped them after my disappointment last year, and we really should have... three hours is too long of a concert for it to not be all awesome). TUT TUT TUT!

Sunday we rolled in to the Dragon Age toolset demo (Jeff had been hoping for gameplay, but I was frankly much more interested in the creation-tool demo than I would have been in gameplay), and finally hit up the expo hall. Meh. I did buy some band merch, and played Schizod a bunch... I think I'm more in love with that game than I've been since the first time I played Zuma. It's so... pretty... (insert whirling eyes here). But the expo hall just isn't my bag, and after about 45 minutes, we headed over to queue up for the Omegathon final round, figuring (I think, correctly), that chilling out reading and playing DS would be a better use of an hour than idly staring at game demos. On the way out, I forced Jeff and Kyle to try to roll a 20 for Frontalot gear (from his mother!); we all failed, but the attempt had us right next to Wil Wheaton's booth when someone brought him a Commodore 64 keyboard to sign. Speechless, he grabbed it and held it up in the air; dissatisfied with that gesture, he leapt up onto his chair and shook it above his head in wordless awe. Hee.

The Omegathon final round was less epic than last year, but as Jeff put it, just... better, somehow. VS ExciteBike was beyond humorous to be cheering riotiously for in a crowd full of a couple thousand fellow geeks.

Next year, my plan is to actually watch all the Omegathon games. And drink more water.

I can't wait.

Think