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July 15th, 2008
07:26 pm - Lesson learned: the value of a blanket
The cats are healthy. And I learned this today while shedding less blood than the last two times (scratched once, rather than bitten). The vet says what made the biggest difference was that I brought the cats' blanket, so she was able to examine S. while he was swaddled in something that smelled familiar.
Just thought I'd pass this on. Dunno how well this extrapolates to dogs, ferrets, or children.
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July 14th, 2008
June 4th, 2008
08:00 pm - I has a wet...
…is not so gret, actchuly. I can has dry naow?
Okay, it's not that bad, but still. At $ORKPLACE, when the first band of storms + tornado warnings hit, they were evacuating the upper floors of the building and moving people into the basement.
Thankfully, nothing really bad happened. $HOUSE is still standing.
Uh-oh, here comes the second front. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anneb gets weather a little before I do, and she just went offline. She mentioned the hosts of Mordor before she left, though.
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June 3rd, 2008
10:34 pm - And for anyone else who wants it...
jferg asked for the first of these images, but I figure other people might enjoy them:
 
And if you don't recognize these, be glad that you've been spared this particular brand of pain.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/working.gif) artistic
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June 1st, 2008
09:52 pm - Milquetoast weather
I wish the weather would make up its mind. It's neither cool enough to be comfortable, nor hot enough to be definitely worth turning on the A/C. It's been this way for two days, and they're forecasting a third. Make up your mind, already!
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April 29th, 2008
12:27 pm - Children's music
If you're reading this and have children, then songs about duckies and kitties probably aren't cutting it with your kids. Thankfully, Tom Smith rides to the rescue:
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April 27th, 2008
06:09 am - Pretentious Book Meme
Stranger Fruit recycles a list of books that, I gather, a lot of people own but haven't read. I.e., books people buy because it's chic and pretentious. Compare your list to mine to see how gauche you are by actually having read them.
( On to the pretentiousness )
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April 19th, 2008
02:02 pm - Pictures of naked chicks
I don't think I've mentioned it here, but a dove decided to build her nest in my gutter, just above the downspout. That was pretty stupid (dare I say "bird-brained"?), but at least I get to watch her nesting up-close. How close? Let's just say I have to step back from the bathroom window because my zoom lens won't focus on objects less than an arm's length away.
And now, after two weeks, at least one chick appears to have hatched. At least, the mother's been doing something to a gray downy lump somewhere beneath her that occasionally pops up into view. I've tried to get a better view, but without success so far.
She's also more wary of me: every time I came to look, she'd turn her head 90 degrees from me, the better to glare at me with her right baleful eye. Now, she sits with her head up high, presumably to watch the surroundings; but when she sees me, she crouches down into the gutter, presumably in hopes that I won't notice her.
This morning, I also saw her throat flapping back and forth, as if she were gargling or something. Her beak didn't open, though. I don't know what that was; I think maybe she was chewing up food to regurgitate later.
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April 12th, 2008
06:08 pm - Rock Band
Question about Rock Band: when they were deciding which of the handful of band "skins" to use for the on-screen animation of Kiss's Detroit Rock City, why did they go with the same shirtless long-haired rockers they used to represent the Rolling Stones? It would have been more natural to go with Lars and the Umlautettes, what with the makeup and all.
Also, props to curvemudgeon for nicknaming the last song in guitar career "Green Grass and Solos Forever".
Current Location: Falling off a cliff onto a bus
Current Music: Something that's not in the Rock Band soundtrack
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April 1st, 2008
09:20 pm - Want!
Too bad it's almost certainly an April Fools joke.
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March 30th, 2008
12:32 pm - Things to do today...
- Launder bed linens, including sheets and blanket.
- Make cat-fur coat.
(List compiled last night immediately after getting into bed.)
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March 28th, 2008
01:59 pm - GDMFAIX!
$MACHINE is an AIX box that used to be part of a DCE cluster, but is now a standalone. $user's account got carried over as part of the transition. He called to say that he couldn't log in. This was the first time he'd tried, so I figured he'd forgotten his password, and went to reset it.# passwd $user
3004-687 User "$user" does not exist. Sigh; go into SMIT; change authentication grammar from "DCE" to "files". Fails because "User $user does not exist".
Try to delete the account so I can start from scratch. That fails because "User $user does not exist".
Try to just add the account, and SMIT can just overwrite whatever it likes. This fails because "User $user already exists".
Stab stab stabbitty stab.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/angry.gif) pissed off
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March 9th, 2008
09:28 pm - RB W00t!
Whoo-hoo! I just finished "Won't Get Fooled Again" on drums, hard level. Only three stars, but hey, that's all I ask.
I realize that if you don't play Rock Band, then you're probably wondering whether I have anything better to do with my time. No. No, I don't.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/happy.gif) excited
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March 3rd, 2008
08:20 am - From the Police Blotter
From the "Crime Alert" email report @$ORKPLACE yesterday:
On 02-29-08 @ 12:40p.m. the suspect entered the Chevy Chase Bank located at 7406 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD (http://tinyurl.com/2l2a22). The suspect approached the victim teller and passed a handwritten note to the victim. The victim advised that the note stated "$3000 NOW." The victim advised that she acted confused by the suspects note and asked him for his account number. The suspect advised that he did not have one and in a low threatening tone stated "just give me the money." The victim then asked the manager to come over and assist. The manager/witness came over to assist and asked the suspect some questions. The suspect then changed his story and advised that he wanted a cash advance. The suspect walked out of the bank and turned left, fleeing on foot.
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March 2nd, 2008
01:32 am - Serendipity!
It's cool to discover something while searching for something else. In this case, I picked up a Tones on Tail album because it had the song Slender Fungus (it's not as weird as it sounds. It's weirder). And when I listened to it, I found that the album also had Lions, which I'd heard before and liked, and never knew who it was by.
The moral of the story is: when your car's in the garage, don't just sit in the waiting room watching daytime TV. Take a walk down to the nearby coffee shop and stop by the used CD place on the way. Even if you don't find any good music, and don't like coffee, it's still a walk.
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Tones on Tail - Slender Fungus
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February 16th, 2008
02:39 am - There might be a reason for that
I suspect that the reason there aren't any Cocteau Twins songs in Rock Band (aside from the fact that their music doesn't really lend itself to loud guitar solos and crashing end-wankery) is that for the vocal track, they would've had to figure out what the hell Liz was singing. And that might be hard, since she had a habit of throwing away her lyric notes one a song was recorded.
Current Music: Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld
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February 7th, 2008
11:40 am - Phrases You Don't Hear Often
"Load-bearing stripper pole"
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January 4th, 2008
10:02 pm - Tool request
Does anyone know whether there's a tool that'll (losslessly) swap channels in an MP3 file? (Kind of like the way jpegtran can losslessly rotate a JPEG image by 90°)
I'm embarrassed to say that I've recorded something like two dozen tapes with the left and right leads exchanged. I still have the original AIFF files, and I'm sure I can swap the channels in Audacity or something, but I'd rather not have to redo all the normalizing, cleaning up, splitting into tracks, etc.
Update: Yay!
I found a song with a distinctive left channel that I also have both on tape and on CD (i.e., made by competent people with a clue). So after finding my mini-to-1/4"-jack adapter, I was able to plug headphones into the tape deck (distinctive left channel: check), receiver (distinctive left channel: check), and laptop (distinctive track in right ear: oops!), and traced the problem to a cable with mislabeled red and white leads.
I've swapped the cable for a good one, which means I now no longer need to do anything. Thanks anyway to jferg for prompting me to Google and find out how joint stereo works.
Current Mood: relieved
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December 29th, 2007
03:23 am - Kids are natural scientists
$BROTHER tells me that $NEPHEW performed a scientific experiment, all on his own: when one of his milk teeth fell out, he started by leaving it on his nightstand for a few nights. Then he put it under his pillow, but didn't tell his parents. The next morning, when all that was under his pillow was his tooth, he angrily confronted his parents with the inescapable conclusion that there's no tooth fairy.
Good to know he's a budding skeptic.
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December 8th, 2007
01:42 pm - It makes perfect sense...
The other day, I stopped by $coworker's office, but he couldn't talk.
See, he'd brought in chili for lunch. He'd heated it up and started eating it when he realized that he'd worn a white shirt that day. So he put on his jacket to protect the shirt. But then he got hot, so he opened the window. But then his food started getting cold faster, so he had to eat quickly, which meant he couldn't stop to talk.
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