a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in
A coworker sent me this today: Superdickery.com
Look in the galleries, specifically 'Seduction of the Innocent', old comic covers or panels with captions full of innuendo. Some hilarious stuff here. Some gems here, here, here, and here. Hilarious, and often, very wrong. Enjoy!
What a week! I've been swamped with work, social engagements, and a fascination with a new toy in the house.
On monday Kelly and I met our friend Miranda at Moon & Sixpence for some dinner, drinks, and some Irish folk music. Had a blast!
On tuesday, after some deliberation, Kelly picked up her new baby, a black MacBook (which she named Mozart). I rushed home to get to see / play with it for a bit before meeting Snooks at Kennedy School for a couple beers (and to hand off copies of the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica that I burned to DVD… we both needed to see the massive cliffhanger season finale).
On wednesday, plans to meet some friends fell through, so I was able to get some yard work done, and have a relaxing night at home. After mowing the forest that was my lawn, and doing some other yard work, Kelly and I watched Battlestar. Man, what a cliffhanger, and to think we have to wait until 2008 to see the conclusion. It's just cruel.
Last night I met several friends at my old haunt, the Goose Hollow Inn, for some dinner and beers after work. Both my brothers met me there, and after we went to another old haunt, the ultimate 'dive bar', the Commodore, to shoot some pool. Fun night, and thanks to all who came out!
Today I worked from home so I could focus on all the code I need to clean up / rewrite from the first release of SuperSweetCo's new product. A lot of the CSS / HTML has been driving me crazy since I originally wrote it. Also, trying to write in a lot of the new design. After work, I spent some more time with Kelly's MacBook, getting a few applications installed, and moving some music into iTunes for her. Found a great app called Senuti that allowed me to move tracks from my iPod onto her Mac. The more I play with Kelly's Mac, the more I want one for myself. Later, Snooks and I went back to Kennedy School to talk about Battlestar, drink beer, and eat pizza, while the girls were out eating fancy cheese and sipping wine.
Tomorrow I'm going to spend most of the day migrating data from Kelly's old work laptop to her Mac. To make sure she doesn't lose anything when she hands her work laptop in on monday, her last day at StinkyCorp. While doing such work is usually a big pain, I doubt I'll mind much, since I'll get to play with Kelly's MacBook.
Woke up late this morning. I'm blaming it on the fondue. Though it's more likely a result of all the beer I drank last night.
I spent some time this morning sorting through all of my tax documents, only to realize I'm missing a 1099 form from one of my freelance clients. Not sure what to do about it yet, but I did email the company to check if they ever sent the form out, and if so, could they send another. I feel like an ass… I hope I didn't lose the damned thing.
After that junk, Kelly and I went out looking for new laptops. Since she got viciously shit-canned from her job, she needs a computer (for school), so we went to a few stores so she could play with what's out there. In the end, it seems that she's leaning the same way I am in my own hunt for a new laptop… a MacBook or MacBook Pro. She will probably go play with her two top choices again tomorrow (an HP and the MacBook) after meeting up with her sister for lunch, before deciding. I'm still not sure what I'd to if I were her. I'm struggling with virtually the same chioce. Only I don't need a new laptop, I just want one.
A friend who was over last night for fondue stopped by again tonight for a bit, and after that I went to Kennedy School to meet Snooks for a couple beers, before heading back home and watching Casino Royale. A great Bond movie, more raw and gritty, and not filled with over-the-top ficticious gadgets as previous films. Anyway, that's my Saturday, I hope it stops raining so I can get out tomorrow and do some much needed yard work.
Had a few friends over tonight for fondue. Yup, that's right, it's the 70's, but c'mon, there really isn't anything better than bite-sized bits of veggies and meat dipped in melted cheese. Mmmmm. We played a card game too, something to do with arranging letters into words for points. I sucked (well, I certainly would have if it weren't for the help I received, I ended up in 2nd place, but not because of my mastery of the dictionary or my ability to look at 10 cards and and assemble high scoring words). I'm better when it comes to card games that deal with numbers than games that rely on your knowledge of obscure dictionary words. Despite the game torture, it was a fun night. Although, I'm pretty sure I gained a few pounds from all the beer and the fondue foods.
A friend at work sent me this last week:
Mike O'Connell – What's It Gonna Be?
Something someone sent me a while back, or I found randomly:
Casino Royale II
Yesterday was a detox day. Kelly and I got up around 11am, made cheese & red bell pepper omlettes (I added a bunch of jalapenos and hot sauce to mine, naturally), and sat around a bit before going out to my folks place for my Mum's birthday. Kelly prepared a delicious chicken parmesan dish (despite the fact she's vegetarian and couldn't eat it herself) for dinner, ate some cake, and then came home to watch Stranger Than Fiction, which was really good. I ate way too much, but felt all the better for it.
Tonight I met Snooks at Kennedy School after work for some beers and some manly/nerdy conversation about Battlestar Galactica, life, the universe, and everything. Kelly met us later as she headed home from a happy hour hang-out with her soon-to-be ex-coworkers. Fun evening. And yes Aaron, this is for you, since you made such a big deal about me not blogging over the weekend 🙂
Yesterday a coworker sent me a link to a funny video titled Shoes, by comedian Liam Sullivan. Thought I'd share it, and a couple of the other Liam Sullivan videos I found on YouTube, though you can download them from his site (even in iPod format) if you want to keep them around. Enjoy!
Shoes, Muffins, Hard-Hitting Questions, and Love Letters
Oh my gawd, shoes.
I was listening that old school form of media, something called radio, just now, NPR, and they started playing a slightly truncated version of the journalist Bill Moyers' speech at the National Conference on Media Reform. Found them on YouTube, you should watch / listen. It's very interesting.
Friday SuperSweetCo took the company up to Mount Hood Meadows for a ski/team-building day. We had to get downtown to the office by 7:20am to get on the bus, aiming for a 7:30am departure time. Thankfully, Kelly was able to drive me in and we left the house pretty much as planned to get to the bus on time, but about a quarter of the way in I realized I'd left my phone on the dresser so we had to turn around and rush back home. I was going to need it for this weekend, so it wasn't an option to leave it. Fortunately, while I was late, I wasn't holding the bus up, as others were still filing in as I got there. Whew!
The bus departed at about 7:40am and shortly thereafter, out came the beers and booze, and while I just sipped my coffee, the ride was a fun one. We also got to watch one of my favorite movies on the way up. On Thursday, one of my managers had asked me what would be a good movie to watch on the bus's entertainment system. I said "well, if you're going skiing, you've gotta watch Better Off Dead", a classic 80's movie starring John Cusack. My manager replied "Oh man, do you have that on DVD? Bring it!" It was a hit on the bus… many people hadn't seen that film in years, and some had never seen it before.
We arrived at the mountain at about 9:45am, rushed to our private room (the Finish Line) in the North Lodge to drop our stuff off, and then run down to the rental area to pick up our rental gear and head out for whatever lessons we'd signed up for. SuperSweetCo was covering the rentals and lessons, so I decided (with a little push from Kelly, heh) to try my hand at snowboarding. I got my gear on and head outside to begin my lessons. The instructor was very friendly and patient (a 58 year old man who started snowboarding when he was 40), and I was able to pick certain things quickly (turns), and other things slowly (stopping without falling). I fell a few times, once fairly hard, but I kept at it. After about an hour we took the lift up the 'bunny slope' and practiced all the things we were taught (turning, stopping, 'falling leaf') and by the end of the lesson I was starting to get the hang of it, but I was getting exhausted. Having to stand with knees half-bent for 2 hours was giving me wobbly legs, so by the time the lesson ended I was done, and it was time for lunch.
I got up to the room at about 12:30pm, met up with Ghost Dog (who took the day off to ski and was invited to hang out with us), ate a bit of food and sipped on a beer. I was feeling totally spent, so I didn't go back out. Instead I relaxed and chatted with other coworkers who were spending the afternoon hanging out. Around 2:00pm we found out that one of our crew had smashed into a tree and broken his arm in three places (yikes!) but despite everything he seemed to be doing OK. Some of my coworkers played 'speed quarters' up until they all had to file on the bus at 4:00pm to get back to Portland.
This wasn't the end for me however, Ghost Dog gave me a ride off the mountain so I could meet up with some friends. A good friend Tyson is getting married at the end of this month, and his friend rented a cabin for the weekend outside of Rhododendron. Got to the cabin a little after 5:30pm, unpacked, and started in on the beer drinking. There were about 11 people there at one point, including Tyson's father and two brothers. Lots of food, music, games, and of course, drinking. I was totally exhausted from the snowboarding, and held on for as long as I could (apparently about midnight) before having to go sleep in the cabin's open loft, while everybody else kept on going until 4:30am or so. Apparently everybody was surprised that I kept sleeping through all the loud partying, but I was dead to the world.
I woke up to beautiful sunny morning around 9:45am, feeling pretty sore but refreshed, and despite the beer count I had no hangover, unlike everybody else. 🙂 I helped clean up the mess, did some dishes, and helped Tyson cook up some breakfast. Nothing like some bacon, fried eggs, and toast to set you right in the morning! One of the group was heading back to town at around 1:30pm so I got a ride home early. I wanted one night in my own bed, and one full day at home before starting another work week, but it was a really fun time at the cabin. I had a great time, but I'm now feeling VERY sore all over.
Went out this evening to Rose & Thistle with Miranda & Brian, and Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog. It had been a while since Kelly and I had gotten together with these kids, especially the Ghost Dogs. Had a great time catching up, chatting about all manner of things, from Lost, to Battlestar Galactica, to the headaches of driving in our local metro traffic hell. I have to mention the dish I had for dinner, the 'Charles Stuart (Chuck)', sort of a chicken & gravy pasty, with mashed potatos and veggies… very delicious. Near midnight Kelly and I caught our bus homeward, stopping at Binks for a final drink or two before walking home. Great night, and a perfect end to a productive weekend day. If only I had my millions, I'd be able to have this kind of day EVERY day. 🙂