Wednesday, August 31, 2005

I swear I thought today was Thursday... *sigh*

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

I must be feeling better now, because I felt ambitious enough to actually cook myself dinner. Mashed potatos, green peas, and a pork chop! Obviously, I'm not 100% though, because my potatos were too dry, my peas were too mushy, and my pork chop was an ugly mess. But it mostly tasted good, and I'm proud of myself. And I really am starting to feel better. I put in a full day or work today, which is good because I have a ton of stuff to finish before COB on Thursday. *sigh* I'm ready for a day off.

Monday, August 29, 2005

being sick and going to bed at 4:30 makes going to work at 9 am very difficult. but somehow i managed, and actually felt pretty good until about 20 minutes ago when it all started to go down hill. so now i'm at home microwaving some soup and then it's time for a nap. maybe then i'll try to get some more work done here at home. we'll see.

Apparently I've reached the stage of being sick where sleep is impossible. My body is trying so hard to fight off a sinus infection that I am physically unable to sleep. My head is pounding like a jackhammer, I can barely breathe, and my nose hurts when I touch it. I can't wait for my alarm to go off in a few hours... It's going to be a half day at best for me tomorrow.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

I apologize if my previous post made no sense. I'm blaming it on being sick, tired, and feverish.

Apparently, Sudafed can be used to make methamphetamines, so there's a new active ingredient in Sudaphed PE. I had not been made aware of this before venturing to the store today. On a side note, Safeway finally finished their remodelling and is trying so hard to be Wegman's; it's really just sad. But in my illness-induced stupor, I couldn't figure what the difference between these two drugs were. I of course bought the store brand at half the cost, but the new stuff with phenylphrine is way more expensive than good old pseudoephedrine, and I know my old stuff helps. Perhaps the new stuff works even better, but I'm not really up for trying new things at the moment. I mostly just want to get better quickly using my proven method. Unfortunately, going outside is usually not part of my method, and as such, I am now running a 99.2 degree fever, so I'm going to go lay down for a while with some ice water and a cold washcloth. Yesterday I couldn't get warm enough, today I'm burning up. That means my body is fighting infection. So far it seems to be winning, but I suspect the defenses could crumble at any moment. Hopefully a nap will summon reinforcements.

Friday, August 26, 2005

So that whole "feeling good today" thing? Not so much... I feel like I'm getting sick. My nose has been runny all day and now my throat is scratchy. Whee!

Happy awesometastic 22nd birthday to Emily. =)
It makes me feel like a young buck still (even though I'm a ripe old 24) to be dating a younger woman. Even more so after Melissa and I were talking last night about how I'm going bald and she's already dying gray hairs. Emily does keep me feeling young. Now that she's gone, I honestly feel my age more often. It's sad, since I'm not old at all, but my bones to creak, I am going bald, certain activities are much more painful than they used to be. *shrug* Whatever. I'm as young as I feel, and today I feel pretty good (I got a very simple, but way awesome compliment that totally made my day).

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Maybe having coffee for dinner wasn't such a good plan afterall. It feels like my stomach is tearing itself apart, and not in the "i'm hungry" kind of way, but in the "i'm angry at you for what you've done to me" kind of way. *blech* i'm going to bed.

My away message tonight:
Poll: How awkward is it going to be meeting up with one of my best friends from high school (also my ex and the girl i had a crush on all through junior high and high school) but haven't spoken to since spring break my freshman year at Tech for coffee tonight?
A) Mildy awkward
B) Quite awkward indeed
C) Extremely awkward
D) Nightmareishly horrendous; what the hell was I thinking when I agreed to this...
E) All of the above at various times.

Apparently the answer was "F) None of the above," so it was a trick question. Melissa hasn't changed at all. Or rather, she changed for a while because the reason we fell out of touch was because we couldn't relate to each other anymore, but then changed back to her original self. She looks exactly like I remembered, and I suppose I pretty much do to. I feel a little heftier and more weather-beaten than I did back then, but I wonder if your mental perception of someone ages them in your mind automatically so they look like you remember even though they obviosuly look different. I dunno. But we had a good time, mostly just talking about our pets. =)

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Awesome news! I'm so tired that I can't focus on anything (literally), so my vision is all blurry. As a result, I can finally make thsoe Magic Eye things that were all the rage back in high school work! Now the trio of books my dad has gotten for me as presents over various birthdays and Christ Masses are actually way cool and something I can actually enjoy instead of watching other people laugh at me for not being able to see them.

I am soooo sleepy right now... 6 am + big lunch = imminent nap.

Apart from being way too early, 6:15 am is a really nice time to be outside. It's not hot yet, and it's already light out, but not quite enough to turn the headlights off. If I wasn't so bad about going to bed at a decent hour, and so lazy, I could definitely see getting up this early to go run being a very easy thing to accomodate. Oh well. But I passed my safety inspection with no problems, so now I'm going to get some breakfast, take a shower, and then go to *shudder* Lockheed.

Monday, August 22, 2005

An open letter to Dell:
You suck. That is all.
Sincerely, Adam Bever

Not like I really need a new laptop, or need to spend the money that a new laptop would cost, but I got a thing in teh mail from Dell today with a $400 off coupon for any computer over $1199. Yes, that's still $800, but it's a $1200 notebook for 2/3 that price, which is a pretty sweet deal. Hence their special URL they set up for thie thing: www.dell.com/sweet400. Go there and tell me how awesome that deal is. If you can find it. Or even if you can find the page they advertise. Nice work Dell, very nice. Even if I was planning to seriously buy a laptop, it sure as hell wouldn't be from you anymore. Don't send out flyers with links to things that don't exist. It's a classic bait 'n' switch, and people (me at least) won't stand for it. You can just go right to Hell, it's only a couple letters away anyway.

Happy last first-day-of-school ever to a special someone. =) Also, happy b-day to Tim; without his birth, Emily and I would never have met (so, um, thanks Tim's parents!).

Sunday, August 21, 2005

My first cage cleaning all by myself was a complete success! No escapees, no injuries (myself included). Zoey was being kind of anti-social all night and hiding in a tube. She's still eating and drinking fine, but was reluctant to come out of the tube even for a raisin. But after eating her raisin and me taking her tubes away, she reverted right back to her normal self. *shrug* Sonja is such a sweetheart on the other hand. I'm currently hooked on FF: Tactics Advance, so I've starting playing that during exercise time for the girls. They always seem very interested in what I'm doing with it and why it makes noises and shiny pictures. Last night Sonja sat on my shoulder and watched me play for about 10 minutes, then she decided to start gnawing on my CBRs and biting my cheek, and that was the end of that, but it was fun while it lasted. Zoey seems more interested in playing the game herself and will climb onto my hands while I'm playing. Quite cute if I do say so myself. I'm trying to set up a linux box with apache and get my router configured properly to allow it to actually serve up things. Then I'll be setting up a webcam and will actually maybe use it during play time so everyone else can watch what goes on with Zoey and Sonja. =)

I think sometime last night I swallowed a miniature jackhammer. Over night it worked its way through my blood stream but became lodged in my brain. Then it multiplied in size by a factor of 10 and managed turn itself on. Consequently, when I got up this morning to go do my safety inspection, I could barely stand up without feeling like I was going to faint, so I thought perhaps driving any place wasn't such a good plan. I simply assumed it was because I was tired, so I crawled back under my covers only to discover a couple hours later when I woke up to go to my flag football practice that the pain in my brain had increased, not decreased. So I closed my eyes and just lay there for the last 4 sleepless hours. This sucks. At least I don't feel dizzy when I sit or stand up anymore, but the rhythmic pulsing behind my eyesockets certainly has not abated yet.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Let's see, what have I accomploshed today? Would you live to guess? No, that's not it. Nope, not that either. Whoa, way off on that one. Hey! What kind of man do you take me for, I would never.... Okay, yeah, I probably would. But not today! Today I have done nothing. I woke up at 9:30, got a bowl of cereal, broke my computer, and then went back to bed for a couple hours. At which point I watched TV all afternoon. Mostly AMC's Bond marathon. I don't remember these old ones looking so hokey before, but whatever. So basically, I've accomplished nothing. Actually, probably less than nothing. If it's possible, I've actually unaccomplished things. My video card went all flaky, so I swapped it out and it seemed to be fixed, and then it went all flaky again. I'm not sure what's up with that, but it seems to be working now, though my network card seems to be shot to hell. I suppose if one died it could screw up the other, but since they're on (at least sort of separate) busses (PCI and AGP) I wouldn't have thought they coudl influence each other as much. I'm going to try pulling the NIC out and see what happens. Right now it's disabled and I'm just using my wireless card. Oh well. Maybe it'll screw up my entire mobo and I'll have no choice but to treat myself to a sweet 64-bit AMD. *drool*

Friday, August 19, 2005

Some more pictures of the chinchillas are available here. New pictures start at number 29. Sonja says hi!

This morning I was going to get up at 6 and head over to the gas station to get my safety inspection at 7, and then come into work early since I had a 9 am meeting anyway. Unfortunately, by the time the sirens and flashing lights went away last night, that idea already seemed improbable. Apparently my downstairs neighbor had some medical emergency which necessitated having a fire truck and ambulance in front of the building for 2 hours at 11 pm. And then at 6 am when it was still pitch black because of the rain, I decided that getting up that early was probably just not going to happen this morning. *sigh* So I can go this weekend I guess, maybe Sunday. It'll be a good excuse to get up and moving on Sunday before the GTDC Flag Football practice at 1. I am going to die (from teh heat/humitidy and my out-of-shapeness), but it's the first practice this season, and I think I need to go if I want to play more often this year so I can show how much better I am at wearing a #17 GT jersey that Mr. "I won't mention his name here ever again so I'll just refer to him as dirty dirty #17, " even if it is a different position. I can't play QB worth crap (not like he could either), but if I do sayso myself, I'm one hell of a cornerback. I'm fast, I cut well, and I have big clumsy hands (which don't help me intercept, but certainly help disrupt passes). I'm pretty stoked about the upcoming alumni flag football season actually. Possibly moreso than I am about GT's actual season. It'll force me to exercise basically every week too, so that's good.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

There's something unwholesome about leaving work (especially Lockheed) and seeing the nice bright moon instead of the sun, or at least the sunset.

Companies should give employees "loved ones going away for 4 months leave." I mean, there's sick leave, personal leave, vacation, medical leave, blah blah blah. We only get PTO, and no questions asked about it. But there needs to be a special thing for situations like this. Think about the parents whose kid is going off to college for the first time, or who's youngest is finally leaving the nest, or the husband whose wife has been called up by the reserves for a 4 month (give or take 2 years) tour of duty. I really think this kind of thing makes sense. Part of me wanted to just take the whole day off and go curl back up in bed by myself and mope. But then the other more reasonable part wanted to come into work and be busy so I wouldn't have all day to just sit around and be depressed. So far the reasonable part is winning out, since I am actually at work (we'll see how much I actually get accomplished today...). Honestly, I kind of dread going home now since it will seem so empty and drab. Saying goodbye is always so hard...

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

So last night I uploaded all my Brickfest photos and then went to bed. What I forgot is that with 250free I can't hotlink anything over 100KB, so until I shrink some, I can't show any on here. But, you can go to my website and try to look at some of them. The pictures average about 250K each, and the movies are all a couple megs each. Enjoy!

Good thing I didn't dawdle getting to work today. No sooner had I walked into the building than it started raining. Perhaps fall-out from Irene? *shrug*

Monday, August 15, 2005

I've already gotten more done this morning that I feel like I did all of last week... And it's not even lunch time. Normally when I'm this busy time disappears. On the plus side, I'm not at LM, and probably won't have to go out there today. Whee! Tommy and Steph's wedding was fun, and I only totally flubbed up once (this is what happens when you ad-lib). As soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew it sounded wrong and by then it was too late to do anything about it. My apologies to the bride. And even with the killer heat and humidity, I think everyone had a good time, and it was fun to see the Tavenners again (Tabitha is so grown up now!). Dinner was delicious and Steph's cake was excellent (as always). Breakfast teh next morning was mighty tasty as well. We helped shuttle presents back to their house before heading downtown for brickfest. The t-shirts this year were lame, and some of the creations from last year I was hoping to see again were gone. And some were butchered in order to combine them into other things. I did get to see Sean's half-sized Homer in person finally. There was also an Imperial Star Destroyer that must have been about 6 feet long and weighed over 500 pounds (lego gets very heavy very fast). Someone build a replica of a WWII-era Japanese cruiser that was impressively large, but not nearly as detailed as the Star Destroyer. We also saw some cool mechs, a train-to-robot transformer, several really neat scultpures (including a 6 foot tall angel), some cute penguins, and a multi-stage ball contraption. Lots of fun, too many little kids who don't understand "look with your eyes, not your hands" and who kept walking into my shots, but hey, Lego is super fun, so I can't really blame them for being excited. It's always fun to go to these things and see what kind of new and unique ideas other people have come up with or how to use common bricks in uncommon ways to do really cool things. I have to sort through some photos and a couple movies, but then I'll post a link sometime in the next couple days. A great weekend and a good way to close out the summer. Okay, back to work before I get all sad again.

This morning it hit me like a ton of bricks that Emily is leaving in 48 hours and my summer is coming rapidly to an end. But instead of being all mopey about it, I decided to curl up into a ball under the covers at the foot of my bed and be depressed. No more smiling face to come home to, no more delicious home cooked meals, no more company on my weekly errands, and no more kisses. =( But, the upshot is that graduation is only 4 months away, and then I get to have Emily back! =)

Friday, August 12, 2005

I have been sooo busy at work this week. I figured with both Manish and Dave back in the office, things would slow down a bit on my end. I mean, I'm back to doing my job instead of my job plus 3/4 of Manish's job plus 1/2 of Dave's job. But yet things have still been insane. And next week looks equally crazy. Whee. Everything looks like it's lined up for Tommy and Steph's wedding festivities this weekend. Grandma nearly had a hissy fit when she found out I was marrying them, and it wasn't in a church. Number 1, it's none of your business. Number 2, it's not really any of my business to tell you, even if I knew for sure why (though I do have a mighty good idea why). That's their choice for their reasons, so don't get so upset about something that doesn't affect you in any way whatsoever. In other news, Emily's leaving on Wednesday morning (*sob*), so this is our last weekend together. On one hand, I'm bummed that we're not getting a lot of alone time, but on the other hand, we're going to be having a lot of fun with some close friends doing something very special, so I'm okay with that. =) I just hope my busy schedule next week doesn't interefere with Emily-time before she has to leave. My family is back in town, but all at different times and different places, and trying to see them all for any meaningful length of tiem is really hard when I'm so busy and have long-standing plans already in place for most of the time they're here. Fortunately, this Sunday is the public expo for Brickfest, and I'm pretty stoked. This time I'm definitely taking my camera. Craig sent me something pretty awesome the other day that just might be in Arlington this weekend. Escher is cool and all, but Lego is vastly superior. Zoey and Sonja are doing fine. I think they're going to be sad when mommy leaves, but fortunately for them, they've got me wrapped around their little fingers on their cute little paws, so I'm sure they'll be okay. ;)

Monday, August 08, 2005

While I'm on the subject, have you seen new Big East logo? It's goofy looking. The Big East does look to be the new conference to beat in basketball, I'd say top-to-bottom they have the most talented group of teams, but their new logo makes me not care about that at all. It's just so "edgy" and "eXtreme" and "youthful" and "in my face." I can just picture the team of graphics artists sitting around a table brainstorming ideas and spouting hackneyed buzzwords for this silly thing... I almost feel bad for the Big East sometimes. They just seem so helpless. Then I remember they tried to sue the ACC for offering their best football schools a better deal in all sports and I don't feel bad anymore.
Old:
The classic, classy, familiar Big East logo
New:
This is the best standalone logo I could find.  Just go to the website

******SPORTS-RELATED POST******
Since I've been thinking about college football, would someone please explain to me why GT is effectively ranked #29 in teh USA Today preseason football poll? What is that based on? Our dismantling of an over-rated Syracuse team in the Tangerine Bowl (which by the way we had no business being in in the first place and only went that route because UVA is retarded, and I might add that we were only barely bowl eligible in the first place). We had no convincing regular season wins last year. Yes, we hung with UGA most of the game, but they were weak and injured and we had just gotten PJ Daniels back. Reggie's not getting the coaching he needs to fine tune his game (unless someone else has been made the QB coach unbeknownst to me), and our offensive playbook has been severely lacking (a result of the same mediocre assistant that's not helping Ball get any better) the past couple years. Yes, Daniels is a beast when he's not injured. Yes, Calvin Johnson is incredible (even moreso when he's diving out of his way to catch Reggie's wayward passes...). Yes, our punting unit was finally starting to turn things around. Yes, Ace Eziemefe has had his moments backing up PJ. And of course, Jon Tenuta is the best thign to ever happen to our defensive squad. But overall the team is still only mediocre and we're lacking a lot of the senior leadership. We've lost a lot of key defensive players from last year (pretty much everyone except safeties Reis and Landry), and we're going to lose all of our experience at running back at the end of this year. All I ask for, as I've said before, is improvement. I have yet to see much in Gailey's reign as head coach. We have brief flashes of greatness that are all too often extinguished by stupid mental mistakes on the field (ie, not enough coaching) or poor play calling (ie, bad coaching). I said last year I'd give him one more year. After that, I'm calling for Gailey's resignation, or at the very least, a big shakeup in the ranks of his assistants (especially Mr. Patrick "I suck at coaching" Nix).
All that being said, I'm still looking forward to the upcoming football season, and to all the heartbreaks that come with it, and to sitting on my couch for 12 hours every Saturday watching 18-23 year olds beat the hell out of each other on my pretty new tv in high definition. Go Jackets!!
******SPORTS-RELATED POST******

So despite my insistence that RFK stadium sucks, we went to see the Nationals play on Saturday. The Huey company picnic was tailgating for the game, as food and tickets were free, so I gritted my teeth and hopped the Metro. On board for an hour each way, I noticed two things. One - who OK'ed this name: University of Maryland Univeristy College? I am not making this up. Why not call it the University of Maryland College Institute and get all your bases covered? It's a grammatical nightmare! Two - 50 Cent, despite Snoop Dogg's assertions, is no longer "hard as fuck," at least not in my book. Not when you appear in an ad for ultra high-end grape-flavored water, the ad for which shows him reading the Wall Street Journal. Don't get me wrong, from what I've read, "Fitty" is very business-savvy, I just think that it's hard to keep singing about how hard your life is and how you're "keeping it real" since you got shot when you're hawking grape-flavored vitamin water from Glaceau to 40 year old women in business suits on the DC Metro. *cough* target audience *cough cough* (related sidenote - why is Snoop hawking cars alongside Lee Iacocca now?) Anyway... We went to the "stadium," after some awesome BBQ, and it was as crappy as I remembered, possibly moreso, and man oh man did all those bad memories of HFStival and the TFC just come flooding back. The game started out good, but slowed to a snail's pace in teh 6th with teh worst relief pitcher the Nats could have found. They went on to lose by one run, apparently their trademark over the last 2 months. They started out so well too... I guess they're just getting tired. I really wanted someone else to win the division for once, the Braves have had their chance and keep blowing it in the postseason. Let somone else have a shot. Oh well. I think the most annoying thing about RFK is that it takes almost as long to get to as Camden Yards, and I'd rather to go Oriole Park anyday. Plus there's just a lot of other stuff to do in Baltimore around the stadium. The only other thing to do around RFK is get mugged. I can't wait until they build that new ballpark in an even worse section of SE. It's going to be awesome.

Have you ever wanted to slash someone's tires because they did such a bad parking job? Certainly I've had my share of bad parking jobs, especially in the parallel arena, but this one is amazing. This guy pulled forward through one spot and into teh next (not uncommon), but pulled about half a car length too far ahead. So instead of being in one spot or the other, or even taking up both spots, he's halfway in one spot and halfway in the parking lot. There are cars on both sides of him whose bumpers are lined up with his rear doors and it just looks like he's a complete idiot. I wish I had my camera on me.

Well nuts, I forgot my coffee mug at home. *sigh*

Saturday, August 06, 2005

The NCAA has one again found a way to shoot itself in the foot. Instead of having a smal percentage of people nationwide mad, they're now going to upset those same people with their wishy-washy, vague, "hostile and abusive" policies and enrage 95% of students, parents, boosters, fans of every school in question, and probably 50% of those same peopel involved with college athletics. NCAA, if you're going to go through with this, go all the way. Take a stance and stick to it, don't do this "testing the waters" crap with creative and intentionally ambiguous laguange just so you can back out of it later when there's a huge backlash. In fact, let's even go one step further and ban all animal mascots since it's insensitive to animals, especially any live mascots who have to be carted around with the team (like Uga, Bevo, Renegade, etc). Then let's ban anything violent, threatening, dangerous, or sacreligious. Also, let's make it so those mascots are okay only at away games played on Tuesdays when there's an eclipse, but banned all other times. Say good bye to the following (which I came up with off the top of my head, so I know I'm missing some):

Blue Devils, Demon Deacons, Spiders, Warriors, Musketeers, Falcons, Tigers, Cougars, Panthers, Yellow Jackets, Hurricanes, Bulldogs, Bulldawgs ("deliberate" misspellings are sooo not-PC), Trojans, Longhorns, Volunteers (unless they change it from it's militaristic meaning), Wolverines, Hawkeyes (implying injuring an animal?!?), Gators, Seminoles, Sun Devils, Broncos, Cardinals (though harmless, they are an animal), Bears, Bruins, Red Raiders, Eagles, Caveliers, Thundering Herd, Crimson Tide (a tsunami of blood? if that's PC, then I'm changing my name to Jesus Muhammed Buddah), Ducks, Beavers, Utes, Badgers, Wolfpack, Nittany Lions, Golden Gophers, Scarlet Knights, Blue Demons, Red Hawks, Huskies, Rebels, Wildcats, Salukis, Illini, Jayhawks, Cowboys (they carry guns!), Golden Tornado, Bearcats, Tar Heels, Rams, Terrapins, Cyclones, Catamounts, Aztecs, Mountaineers (if he gets rid of his gun), Razorbacks, Spartans, and especially the Fighting Irish.

So who gets to stay? How about the Sooners, Buckeyes, Boilermakers, Aggies, Miners, Engineers (threatening though we are), Orange, Hoosiers, Cardinal (Stanford's stupid tree mascot), Hokies (since, according to VT, it's a made-up animal), Zips, and Big Red from Western Kentucky. I personally like my idea. Isn't everyone happier this way? NCAA = morons. Their ruling is going to get them sued and their ruling is going to get overturned or retracted so fast it's going to be awesome. I swear, just take a strong stance, on either side, and stick to it. This phase in/out thing that only applies at certain times is just plain stupid.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Are you sure today's not Thursday? Cause I really feel like it should be for some reason...

Monday, August 01, 2005

Also, when did it become August? (yes yes yes, 11 hours and 41 minutes ago, on the east coast...) But seriously, where has the summer gone? On a related note, happy birthday to Chuck D and Professor Griff of Public Enemy. Also of PE note, they're playing Hellfest this year (how hot is that?), and Fear of a Black Planet was one of 50 records selected this year for preservation by the Library of Congress.

DHL = sucktastic. They delivered my package to my front door. *sigh* Now I have to run home after lunch or something and pick it up. Not that I'm all that worried about it getting stolen, but I'd rather not tempt fate.

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  • I'm Rev. Adam
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