8:19am: Yesterday was a "hungry day"...
...and I hate "Hungry Day". This phenomenon was noted long before I started in on any weight loss programs. Every so often, roughly monthly, but I've never marked them on a calendar to assess the frequency, I have a day where no matter what I eat, I am still hungry. Yesterday was one of these. It may be the first time since starting HMR that I broke 2000 calories in a day. I ate a cereal, two shakes, a bar, four entrees, half an acorn squash, two cups of corn, a plum, an apple, a pear, half a bag of kettle corn*, some pickles, and some olives. Those first four are about 1400 calories, and the veggies all have loads of their own. Balancing this, we walked yesterday, from our house to the home of marlburian and bokrog, about 50 minutes round trip, so for me about 400 calories of PA (physical activity). Enough to bring the net intake down a bit, but not that much.

For the last week I have been on a tiny plateau of my own, sitting solidly at 222 lbs. Imagine my surprise this morning after Hungry Day showing up on the scale at

221.5 LBS!

I have not weighed this since shortly after winning Calontir Crown in November of 1996. I dieted and fought four times a week, went from 245 lbs to 221 lbs, won the Lists and immediately stopped my training. By Coronation five months later I weighed 245 again, but it was ok, all my clothes fit again.

I am mightily pleased. Half a pound from my goal, and down hugely from when this began. January of 2007, I move from ABQ to IND weighing 283. 21 months later I am down 62 lbs. Over one fifth of my body weight gone. I am healthier in every way, BP is down, cholesterol is down, joint pain is *way* down, depressive phases are down and easier to come out of by will alone. In short, for me a healthy weight is reaping benefits everywhere.

To everyone out there who is on this same path, big ups! Keep rocking the exercise, keep rocking the veggies, remember that it took years to put on the weight, and it will take months to get it back off, but getting it off is TOTALLY worth the struggles we're going through. To everyone who's thinking about it but not sure they can do it, I promise, you can. It ain't easy, but it can be done. Call me, write me, whatever if you want to talk about it. Call or write g0atface, I can't imagine a better, more supportive coach, who has the cred of having walked the walk.

* On HMR, one can eat any of the 94% fat free microwave popcorn including my favorite, Kettle Korn!

9:00pm: We're having a two-for-one sale here in Cathyn-land!
On the music meme, I was tagged by djsparkydog with Slayer and marlburian with a much tougher choice, da Chairman uh da Muddah Fuggin Board, Frank Sinatra. To make it easier, I'm not gonna post links to lyrics or anything, you'll just have to find your own sources for the songs if you want to hear them for yourselves.

( I did it my way! )

p.s. One of the funniest things I've seen in a while was on one of the early episodes of "The Sopranos" where Tony had organized the monthly poker game, regularly attended by some affluent non-mobsters, including Frank Sinatra, Jr. At one point, Jr.'s dithering on a bet, and Paulie Walnuts harrasses him, calling him "Chairboy of the Board". Friggin' killed me.

8:41pm: Favorite Band Meme!
I was given Queen by g0atface, who claims to defy expectations, which I reckon is her way of saying she thought that I figure she'd give me the Red Elvises or Metallica.

Comment on this post and I'll give you a band. Don't worry, I'll make it one you know and love. You put your ten favorite songs by that band on your LJ and challenge others to do the same. (My own codicil: If I don't know what you like you get randomness and I expect you to play along anyway!)


( And two by two, my human zoo... )

10:34pm: Life has taken a turn for TEH AWESOME
So, I met this girl.

I went to Pennsic this year, and was playing the single-but-still-wounded-from-the-divorce thing, but this year I had started the turn-around towards single-and-guardedly-hopeful thing.

So I met this girl, we had a wonderful and tender evening and when she left in the morning it kinda hurt in the shiny way, like "why did I let her go". There was a spark, one might say. I saw her a couple nights later, and watched her from a distance, that spark growing. We got to hang out some, too. Then I got tired, asked her to come with me, but she was busy being the life of the party, so I went home alone. I started falling.

I woke up the next morning knowing she was heading off to Scotland for three weeks, and was pretty determined to let her go. Pennsic fling, and all, eh wot? Then the dark voice spoke up and said "Hey, you, you remember that longing the other morning? Remember how your heart flutters when you see her smile or hear her laugh? It may well have been a Pennsic fling, but she touched you deep man, and you'll kick yourself for years if you don't go find out." I dragged up out of bed, talked to her, told her how I was feeling, and asked if we could stay in touch. She said yes. I was falling.

She left for Scotland, but not before inviting me to October Crown. I bought my tickets that very same day. I was falling.

Crown (our second date) was spectacular, me being romantic and well prepared for romance, her trying to be aloof but interested, and failing miserably at aloof, but succeeding admirably at opening her heart to possibilities. I was done falling, I had fallen. Completely.

We started talking about how much it hurt to be apart, and how long it would be 'til our next time together. I was scheduled for many long weeks away from her before coming to visit. She surprised me by showing up a bit early for our third date, which was supposed to happen in California, but instead took place in Indianapolis. It went amazingly well, as did our fourth date, here in Indy the week before Thanksgiving, and blended into our fifth date, a plane trip to SJC and Thanksgiving week with j_i_m_r and callistotoni and family, etc.

We started talking about living together, as the time apart was a terrible thing. I was resolved to wait until my first anniversary at work, being a very loyal man, and being hugely in debt to faheud for rescuing me from a terrible situation in New Mexico by offering me a snacky gig with his company, I was going to give him a full year, and then give him 3-4 weeks notice so I could help train my replacement before leaving behind my house for the distant Western Shore.

Remember the agony I mentioned at being apart from her? It kept getting worse, even though we now had A PLAN(tm). This was something of a surprise, but we were managing, talking a lot, and noting that we had plans to see each other for the long X-Mas shutdown at $COMPANY, as well as the weekend trip to NM in mid-December. It still sucked, though.

Several somethings happened kinda simultaneously, all of which pointed to the idea that me leaving Indy was a BAD IDEA(tm), and that g0atface moving here made much more sense. We talked more, and the decision was reached. She was leaving California and moving into the Hermitage. Suddenly the weight of separation was lifted. Suddenly things seemed much easier to deal with.

There you have it, my Constant Beloveds, the news. I will soon no longer be rattling around in my estate alone, my dearest Lady will be joining me here, where we shall work at making my house Our Home.

For a year or so, anyway. Then we're likely wooshing away for the land of the setting sun.

Wish us luck, please...

Your Humble Narrator

p.s. She writes it much better than I do, feel free to read her announcement here.

p.p.s. Good my friend faheud, I hope you don't mind an extra resident next year in the Tavern, as it appears we have company...

9:13pm: My week so far
BEST. TWO. WEEKS. EVAR.

( Long posties, some romance, some travel notes )

7:41pm: I think I'm getting it!
Part of how my sweetheart eats involves leaving out things that have been processed beyond recognizability, part is eating smaller portions more often, and then exercizing hard to keep a good balance, and part is eating delicious food, even if the ingredients are "bad" for you, just reducing either the amount of "badness" per dish, or eating *much* smaller portions of "bad" dishes. I invite her commentary here to confirm wether I really am getting it or not.

With these ideas in mind, I reworked an old stand-by to be both delicious enough for her to eat, and healthy enough for anyone. Without any further ado, I present you with

( Click for the recipe! )

8:37pm: Excellent week!
g0atface came for a visit Monday, and as hard as this may be to
believe, every passing minute found us falling deeper and deeper in love. I am all
a-squee, like unto a schoolboy.

The past few weeks for me have encompassed a great deal of travel. Really.
Three weeks, four interstate trips. Hardly any excersize over the course of it
all, save for this last week. However, good eating habits prevented my lack of
shaking my boo-tay at the gym from affect me negatively. I returned from West
Crown weighing about 240, and in three weeks of inertia gained back about 5
lbs. This week with ramping up my good eating habits in the presence of my love,
I hit the scale yesterday morning, and it showed me standing at a solid 238.
This puts me at a nice even 45 lbs less of me now than when I moved to
India-no-place. 75% of target weight loss achieved. There was even a delightful reward
from my sweetie for hitting this milestone. In case you haven't figured it
out yet, she is made entirely of TEH AWESOME. I even bought new pants and a belt, all set for (drumroll please)

38 INCH WAIST!

All good things come to their eventual ends, and this merry week of ours
concluded with me kissing her goodbye on the curb at the airport, and watching her
vanish within to be whisked back to the wilds of Northern California. She will
be coming back in about ten days, and I can't wait to see her.

7:04pm: Going public
I posted something last week that probably should have been made public, and I have just made it so. Instead of pasting the post here, you get linky:

http://cathyn.livejournal.com/174530.html#cutid1

If you haven't seen it before, maybe you go look now. If you'd like to read the companion post, click here:

http://g0atface.livejournal.com/250690.html#cutid1

This one might be secured at the moment, but trust me, in the next few hours I'm sure the author will unlock it.

REVEL IN THE SQUISHY! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!!

11:04pm: This will be fun to revisit in a year or two...
The fun part will be when completely un-pre-aranged, she cuts and pastes this into her LJ or just replies with her answers, and we'll see how far apart we are...

( Some memeage, kinda romantic )

8:39am: mmmm Opinion memes
Costumers all tend to have a specific era or genre that appeals to us aesthetically, which is fine, but sometimes we get too focused and fail to appreciate other eras or genres that might suit our body type, our facial features, or even just challenge us to think outside the box a little bit. So, I'm opening the floor for suggestions: Give me one costume you'd want me to wear, and why. Picture links appreciated.



In other unrelated news, I gots it bad...

10:25pm: Best weekend EVAR!
( Yeah, this is a long story, but well worth the reading, at least to me. If you don't like romance, don't make with the clicky-clicky )

12:59am: My latest insanity
As described the other day, I am making another basse to fight in. This is the lining:



It's a yard each of green and purple satin, cut in 3" strips and then sewn with .5" seam allowances. The final yield is a piece 45" wide by 1.33 yards long.

It will be lining pieces inside the doublet of the basse, cut to make a nice herringbone meeting at the back and sides. It is all I can do to not go in the sewing room, cut the strips a second time, and make a nice piece of green and purple paly-bendy. Now *that* would be lunacy.

Madness! Madness I say!

7:43am: The last few days
( Behind a cut in case you're bored by diet and excersize stuff )

There was a deer in my yard this morning, looked like big well-healed antler gashes down its side, though this early in the year, it hadn't started growing antlers of its own, or it was a doe that had run afoul of some farm equipment or something. I watched it eat for about ten minutes, then came up to write.

In other news, my internal soundtrack hates me.

1:11am: Done and done
Finished HP7, not gonna talk about it here, no spoilers from me, and frankly, I'm happy to say that among the entirity of my friends list, no other spoilers have appeared either, BRAVO!

Off to bed.

10:19pm: Daddy needs a digital camera...
If I had a digital camera, this post would be accompanied by photos of the now absolutely completed Dining Room in my house. Cranberry paint, oak table and china cabinet, red and gold brocade drapes, red and gold tapestry, and an antique bronze chandelier. Two rooms down, eleven to go! Next I think will be the master closet. Pool table green, cherry furniture, brown rug, good lighting, maybe even modern track lighting. Should be pretty easy, more money than time, as the closet unit parts are pretty spendy. I already have the carpet, and the paint color is selected.

Then the master bath...

9:40pm: Accomplishment!
So, this weekend was grand. I finished a major task at the office, which left me feeling jazzed rather than exhausted as I have been for the last several weeks. Add to that I'm recovering from a mighty cold, and my weekend was kinda set.

I got to bed kinda early friday night, but the cold knocked me out pretty good, about twelve hours of sllep all told. I woke very energized, and feeling something I haven't felt in months, MOTIVATION! So, I got out the tools and buckets of stuff, and painted the hallway. It's now a very nice blue, covering the horrible off mustard/desert sand color it had been. I still need better lighting in the hallway, but that will come.

Strangely this did almost nothing to drain my MOTIVATION, so I put my bookshelves together and unpacked ten cases of books. Organizing them after the haphazard way they were thrown into the boxes by my movers was quite the chore, and stil not a completed one, but it got me through waiting for paint to dry, and the second coat of blue was added Saturday evening, followed by buckets full of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzs.

Sunday morning dawned and I found I was still MOTIVATED! So I removed the tape in the hallway, taped off the bit of blue that touches the dining room and painted it, too, a lovely Cranberry color. Sadly this took quite a bit of paint, so I had to go to $HOME_STORE and get more paint. And curtain rods. And outlets, switches, and switchplates. And a chandelier. And then ran like hell before I spent even *more* money. Came home, applied the second coat, wanked online for a while, pulled up many more feet of blue masking tape, and then moved the oak furniture into the dining room. On top of the red area rug that needed to be vacuumed and shampooed *twice* from whatever happened to it during the move. Then I mounted the brackets and hanged the red and gold brocade curtains. The room looks amazing. As soon as I get a good digital camera, I'll shoot some snaps and post them here for your viewing pleasure.

Hmmm, almost 10PM, and still kinda Motivated. Maybe I'll poke at the rest of the books. Or maybe I'll hang the lovely tapestry that was my housewarming gift from faheud...

6:53pm: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature
( Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature )

12:43am: OMGZombies
Illinois NAZIs.

I hate Illinois NAZIs.

When they die, they become Indiana Zombies. More friggin' zombies than you can shake a stick at, and I'd know, I shook a stick at alot of 'em today. Turns out this Cardinal gig is good for more than just selling indulgences and a snappy wardrobe. Remember the crap in AD&D where Clerics can turn undead? Yeah, it works. I make with the blessing, "spectacles testicles wallet and watch", and poof (well, really it's a wetter sound than poof, maybe more of a "splortch"), they shuffle off their immortal coil. Damned good thing, too, I had a massage appointment at 8.

In honor of the survival of mankind, join me now, Brethren and Sistren, as we recite the Patermonster*

Our Father, which art a zombie,
Shuffling be thy Gait.
Thy clothing's torn.
Thy mind is worn,
In Romero as it is in Fulci.
Give us this day, our daily brains.
And forgive us our gnawing,
As we forgive those who gnaw at us.
And lead us not into shotguns;
But deliver us from fire:
For thine is the cemetery, the morgue, and the deserted farm house,
For ever and ever.
Amen.



*courtesy of the wonderful ferrousoxide

3:09pm: Proclamation from the Ministry of Goodness
Z'DRASTVOYTYE TOVARISCHI!!

The Minister has directed me to announce that after many delays and a season of ruined crops due to poor weather, The Hermitage now has bi-directional satellite connectivity with TEH INTARWEBS. Colonel Bondarenko reports that he is monitoring the quality of this connectivity *so* closely that it joyfully runs at 12.5% the speed of the wild claims of the imperialist running dogs at Comcast, for only twice the price! REJOICE AT OUR GOOD FORTUNE, COMRADES!

That is all, return to your labors on behalf of the State!

WORK!

WORK!

WORK!

WORK!

2:20am: vrooooom
Flew into DIA today, and picked up my rental car. Turns out the Nissan 350ZX kinda sucks. The driver's seat is narrow, and kinda hard. The steering wheel seems a tiny bit geeked to the left. The car handles like a pig. Well, that's not exactly accurate. It handles like a pig at most legal speeds. Once you break 70, things start to seem what I might call "normal". The car actually drives like a Caddilac at about 100. Smooth, responsive, agile, but still like driving. It's when you break 120 that you see what the fuss is about. Strangely, the car still doesn't feel much like it's going "fast" at that speed.

It almost seems like you're jogging when you break 140. Not jouncing and jostling, but moving with a small degree of haste, though not too much.

Much to my disappointment the road got squirrely before the car did, and I did not break 150. Tonight's top speed was 149. This is not to say I topped out the car, but the road got a little too crowded to make that spped prudent, which is roughly equal in my mind to more than three cars in visibility. Sadly I have not driven this fast in far too long.

Did I mention that at 149 the Nissan 350ZX feels like gliding on a polished marble sled on a sheet of melted chocolate silk?

Now, much beloveds, I will retire to my comfortable hotel bed, and sip at some 20 year old Port, Graham's Tawny Porto to be exact. Life, as it turns out, is grand.

12:55am: Gleefully quoted for you from the journal of ferrousoxide
She wrote this in celebration of the impending holiday, and I though that there would be some small number of you who read me and not her, so I asked on her behalf if I could share it here...


Patermonster

Our Father, which art a zombie,
Shuffling be thy Gait.
Thy clothing's torn.
Thy mind is worn,
In Romero as it is in Fulci.
Give us this day, our daily brains.
And forgive us our gnawing,
As we forgive those who gnaw at us.
And lead us not into shotguns;
But deliver us from fire:
For thine is the cemetery, the morgue, and the deserted farm house,
For ever and ever.
Amen.


If you enjoyed it, praise her as she deserves. If you're offended, hammer me as I brought it to your attention.

5:45pm: My condolences to marlburian, bokrog, Erik and The Great Zandroni on the passing of the best dog on earth, who departed our company today.

Rest in Peace, Perseus Hound.

10:59pm:
Crush this person!
Get your own ThisCrush.com CrushTag!

4:03pm: Today is aparently house-buying day!
admiral_jc and faeflitt bought their house today, and I would like to announce that after strange delays caused by my new employer being purchased by my new new employer, I am finally the deed-and-keys-in-hand owner of ( this )

I'll let you know when the housewarming party will be.

12:13am: Geek assist, please
I need a bit of hardware that doesn't exist. I need a PCI SCSI card that has a 25-pin external female port. Yeah, I know, they don't exist. Barring that, I need a PCI SCSI card with any external port, and a cable that goes from whatever port the card has to a 25-pin male cable end.

I bought an older scanner on ebay, turns out the seller neglected to mention it was for a Mac, hence SCSI rather than parallel.

In a box, somewhere at United Van Lines in ABQ, I have hardware that would make this work. It's just not here, and won't be for more than a week, and I kinda need the scanner before then. I will now make with the pouty face.

If you have this part, and don't mind dumping it off on a friend in need, I will certainly hook you up with something nice. I'll even be in ABQ over the coming weekend to pick up the part(s) and deliver the goodies.

Thanks in advance...

4:38am: lyrics
Leonard Cohen is a GOD, even moreso when working with Mark Knopfler.

( Read more... )

10:39am: Oracle Developer Position
Are you a hotshot Oracle Developer? Ever considered moving to Indianapolis? If so, send me your C.V. and salary requirements, as we have an immediate opening.

9:11pm: Maybe it's about time to do this with a bit of real money...
So today I decided to waste some time playing online poker. I still don't think I'm very good, so I have not put any real money into it, instead opting to play on the free tables on Absolute Poker. I found their "No Limit Hold 'Em" tables and sat down. Since it's not real money, everyone starts with the same $2000. In the course of about six hours of play, I busted 33 players and turned my $2000 into $72,000. I played very conservatively, as I think the real learning experience comes from pretending that it is real money and maybe your mortgage payment is in jeopardy if you play poorly. There were other idiots on the table who were going all-in before the flop, and losing their entire $2000 on their first hand, but old tortoise over here slow and steadied his way through the flak and busted ass. I even gave a few lessons during the game.

Yeah, maybe I'll put a couple hundred dollars into an account with them this month.

4:33pm: I got it...
So, I got a call from my real estate agent this afternoon. She reports that the seller made a counter offer in response to mine, but that their counter offer differed by roughly $400. That'd be the cost of the Home Warranty. Then my agent said "Heck, *I'll* buy your Home Warranty!" It looks like (barring fuck-ups of epic proportion) very soon I'll be a home-owner again.

If you want to see my little slice of heaven, click here.

I'm working hard to not get too excited, for fear of jinxing things.

10:58am: Take out your box of Crayola 128 Color Crayons and look for the "Memeslave" colored one, and use it to draw me today.

This one is a meme about music the year you turned 18. Cathyn-Bob Briggs says "Check it out!"

( Read more... )

10:39am: Eeeeek! I been tagged by faheud
( A meme, 40 questions, pretty good ones, take a peek. )

Tagging:
The lovely whooaataaa
The much-loved baronadhemar
The pithy belmikey
The glorious xgreenjudasx
The ever-insightful spsh

9:58am: DAMMIT! Last time I took this I was the ABC Robot from Judge Dredd! DROKK!


Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

2:19pm: Mankind needs YOU!
http://globalorgasm.org/

The premise is simple, if a bit creackheaded. Everyone possible on earth gets laid sometime on the winter solstice, Dec 22nd., the world somethow has it's negative energy field reversed, thereby making the world a better place. Hey, it could work, and if not, you got laid, so it ain't all bad...

As a Cardinal of the Church Militant of the Outlands Most Holy, the Church of the SubGenius, *and* of the Universal Life Church, I hearby grant you dispensation to go forth and throw down. Yea verily shouldst thou get thee some in the name of whoever you consider Almighty, in Their mercy. Any consentual sex act which leads to orgasm on December 22nd is hereby declared a sin-free experience.

Remember, though, that just because it's free of sin, it's not free of risk, so wear a condom. I don't want the retailers of America get all enriched by all the gift buying next September 22nd.

12:45pm: How the Grinch stole this meme from brat_grrl
( Behind a cut to spare you my massive BAH HUMBUGness... )

8:15pm: Kitchen time with Uncle Cathyn
Listen my children to the breakdown of tonight's culinary trip down Deliciousness Lane.

Tonight I made macaroni and cheese.

Do I detect confusion? Perhaps a little gnashing of teeth? What? You already know how to make macaroni and cheese? Hmm. Do you know how to make the deceptively yet accurately named Three Pan Macaroni and Cheese?

Yeah. Didn't think so. Especially since I just invented the dish, and then named it between the stove and computer, oh my beloveds.

This recipe begins as all good recipes do, with a pan, and some Bacon, finely minced for this iteration. Fry the bacon gently on medium low heat to render out it's glorious PORK FAT, which you will use later. Out of my freezer yesterday came a nice package of Boneless Veal Cutlets and some Deer Steak. While the Bacon was rendering, I placed these thin slices between two sheets of waxed paper (worry not, Saran Wrap works excellently in this capacity if you have no waxed paper), and beat it rather thoroughly with the flat side of my meat tenderizing hammer, until the slices were less than 1/8th inch thick. I pulled back the paper, Salted, Peppered and very lightly dusted the cutlets with Flour. For ease of handling, I then replaced the paper, and flipped the meat as a unit, and treated the other side in the same fashion, returning the paper when done, and hammering it some more, to set the flour in the surface of the meat. I had to do this in a few batches, and when done I cut the large thin pieces into small bite-sized pieces and set them aside.

I removed the Bacon from the PORK FAT and set it aside as well. We waste little in this kitchen. Into the PORK FAT I added some Ghee, and fried up the floured meat slices, not all at once, of course, in batches that just covered the bottom of the pan without overlapping. The thin slices took about two minutes on a side.

In the second pan, I started some water heating to cook the approximately 2/3s bag of Wide Egg Noodles I intended to serve the meat and sauce over.

Oh, yes, dear ones, the sauce. In pan number three (see, I told you the name was accurate) I melted a teaspoon of Ghee, and dropped in about two ounces of Gorgonzola Dolci (a young un-aged cheese with a delicate sweetness not in evidence in a well aged and molded Gorgonzola), somewhat less than two ounces of Spanish Cabrales Cheese, and about four ounces of Gorgonzola, giving me a delightful blend of three robustly flavored blue cheeses, along with a little Flour to help it melt (a tip gleefully stolen from Alton Brown), and some Milk to thin it up just a bit. When all the cheese was melted to a nice smooth sauce, I added the Bacon I had saved earlier.

When the Noodles were done, I drained them and added about a cup of Frozen Peas to their pan, and then put the Noodles back, to cook the Peas without overcooking them, added the Deer and Veal pieces, and covered with the Blue Cheese and Bacon sauce, got myself a bowl, and came to write you, my faithful readers.

The only flaw in this cunning plan was failing to follow Saint Julia's first rule of cooking, "Every good recipe begins with two glasses of wine, poured slowly into the cook", which I will remedy now.

I am required by law at this point to ask "WHO'S YER DADDY?!?"

10:28am: Craziest sushi roll EVAR
Went out for dinner last night to the previously reviewed and widely acclaimed Sushi Ichiban on the corner of Coors and Alameda in Corrales, NM. Had a nice normal dinner, but there were two stand out items. Well, three. They had toro, one of my favorites. The quality last night was very good, probably 8 of 10.

They also had "Monkey Balls". Obviously, with a name like that, how could I not order them? They were button mushroom caps, stuffed with spicy tuna, and tempura'd (Is that really a word?). The chef took three of them, sliced them into thirds, topped each slice with tobiko, eel glaze, and sriracha chile sauce, all artfully arranged around a pile of shredded daikon. Yummers.

The crazy sushi roll went something like this. After finishing his preparation of our meal, our chef started to make his dinner. Three sheets of nori on three mats, spread with three fists full of rice. A heaping spoon of tobiko went on each next, followed by a few strands of kanpyo, avocado, and cucumber. Then came the krab sticks, tempura shrimp, tempura green chile, and pickled daikon. The pile of ingredients was so huge, he had trouble rolling it up and getting it to stay rolled. We chatted the whole time he was making it, and he ended up giving me a piece to try. Damn it was good!

11:13am: Position available
I have a friend who works for visionOOS who says they need a Senior IP Telephony guru. Candidates "need to be able to be very independant, location irrelevant." If you know anyone who has these skills, send resumes to rich.garrett@visionoss.com

To read the Word doc that has the specifics, click here.

10:51pm: I need help, specifically from a Win2k expert
I have a slightly older system, AMD Athlon 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 10GB drive holding just the OS, 40GB drive holding the apps. Once again, I noticed some desperate slowing of the system, then the system seemed to no longer have AVG, SpyBot, nor AdAware. Then I could no longer open the D drive to (re)install those apps. Defragging the drives did not help. Strangely, the D drive was accessible over the network. The Win2k Repair utility failed to resolve the issue. Reinstalling the OS over the existing OS without re-formatting the C drive brought things back, I was able to install the apps, but now the simplest task hammers the processor to 100%, and something simple like a SpyBot scan is currently in its fourth hour of running. It has an Nvidia video card, and I have the system set to use a 1.5GB swap file on the C drive.

I am hesitant to format the drive and start over, though I'm getting close to that, but I'd like to know if anyone has any ideas to tweak the OS and make it run at normal speeds again. Please don't say "Install (insert favorite Linux distro here)." I have reasons for keeping a running Win2k system in addition to my Debian machines, so this is not a solution, nor is installing WinXP, as this board is incompatible with XP.

2:21pm: Guitar Hero not so easy...
...even if you're the guitarist who wrote the song.

In today's Wall Street Journal there's an article about the Guitar Hero 2. I loved this bit that Slashdot posted:

"An unlikely but growing group of rock stars are also avid players of Guitar Hero, a PlayStation title that uses a miniature plastic guitar to let gamers pretend to be, well, rock stars, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Michael Einziger, the 30-year-old guitarist for the hard-rock band Incubus, says he was "shocked at how hard it was" to play the videogame's version of his song "Stellar." He admits he was handily beaten by his then-14-year-old sister, Ruby Aldridge, when the two of them squared off earlier this year. "It doesn't have anything to do with playing guitar," Mr. Einziger says."

HAH! HAH I SAY!

12:32pm: Goodbye freedom! Hello Mom!
The Bill of Rights just disappeared, there it is, whoops it's gone!

Looks like George III has figured out the end-game. He just signed a measure that allows him to mobilize the National Guard in times of emergency, extending to units in other states, regardless of wether or not the Governors of said states approve. Sounds good, ne? During Hurricane Katrina, George III could have mobililzed the Oregon National Guard to go in and help folks out. That would have been good, and is something covered in the new law. The new law clearly defines the emergencies which might necessitate it's implementation:

``(a) USE OF ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.--
(1) The President may employ the armed forces, including the
National Guard in Federal service, to--
``(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United
States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or
other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or
incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the
United States, the President determines that--
``(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent
that the constituted authorities of the State or possession
are incapable of maintaining public order; and
``(ii) such violence results in a condition described in
paragraph (2); or
``(B) suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic
violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such insurrec-
tion, violation, combination, or conspiracy results in a condition
described in paragraph (2).


What this means is that should you decide to organize a rally to protest anything at all that His Majesty's government is doing, he can declare you insurrectionists, call out your own National Guard or a those neighboring state, and then treat you as an attacking military force, or even just as simple criminals to be imprisoned in the temporary detention camps that the government has contracted Halliburton to build, right here in the US. Oh, yeah, one of the "innocuous" uses of this law and the camps will be the potential rounding up of all illegal immegrants in preparation of their deportation. Once the round ups begin, though, I can't help but wonder when and where they'll stop.

My hope is that they stop today, right fucking now. Go, vote, maybe we can still save the country.

Just for fun, let us not forget that they've given themselves the power to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes. Let us also not forget the prediction I made a couple years back about our new totalitarian masters.

8:25pm: And that, dear friends, is that.
anda just came in my office and dropped off the official signed-by-the-Judge-and-everything divorce decree. Turns out it's been signed and waiting for her downtown since the tenth of the month. That'll be easy to remember. 10-10-06. End of my life as I knew it. Begining of my new life as it will be. yaye.


Dear LJ admins.

The "mood" list needs to include one called "empty". 'k thnx bye.

love,

me

11:07am: Not your usual post
Of late I have been posting either nothing, or whinging about getting divorced. Today will be somehting of a switch. Today I review both a game genre and two samples of that genre. For whatever reason, please don't ask, as I don't remember, I decided to look into Japanese dating sims.

( Circumcized, for her pleasure! )

10:46am: Red Elvises Recap
The show was great! They have a new keyboard player who is all at once shy, lovely, and very talented.




I am still hoping to go to the Los Alamos show, though my two riders had to back out for scheduling reasons, which means CadZilla has 3-4 open seats. If I don't get riders, I probably won't go, so if you have any interest in seeing the Red Elvises, now is your big chance, at least until they come back next year.

1:20pm: ROAD TRIP ALERT!
THE RED ELVISES ARE PLAYING IN SANTA FE TONIGHT!!

The Pimpmobile of Doom will be making this trip. There are 3-4 seats available for passengers. Call me at work or reply here or something if you want to ride up with me.

THEY'RE ALSO PLAYING LOS ALAMOS!!!

The Pimpmobile of Doom will be making this trip. There are 1-2 seats available for passengers. Call me at work or reply here or something if you want to ride up with me.

10:11am: I for one welcome our new Fascist overlords.
Aparently the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to extend and expand the ability of various government Agencies such as the FBI and NSA to tap our phones without the necessity of warrants. No oversight. Few limitations. In the words of one writer, "Great way to devolve a democratic republic into a fascist theocracy."

Here's a link to the story on Wired.

11:35pm: OMFG INK!!
Tonight I went to Casa de Monster for some ink. He had offered free ink in exchange for helping him move a month or two ago, and I helped, lent him my appliance dolly for a week, and then when faeflitt found a dentist's chair next to the dumpster by her office, I delivered it to his house in Rio Rathole.

( Here's his work: )

Monster rocks, and rocks hard! What you see above took less than three hours. If you need work, he is clean, fast, and affordable. Get in touch with me, and I'll give you his number

9:14am: Losing weight
The scale said 259 this morning, down from a peak of 283, and a holding steady weight of 278.

Funny how getting divorced takes away one's appetite.

4:45pm: Confessions of a Fantasy Football guy
I like Fantasy Football. I've been playing in some form or fashio for about ten years. I usually run 4-6 teams a year, usually on three different services. I just saw the stupidest thing EVAR.

Jostens, the class ring folks, now offer Fantasy Football League Championship rings. I am not making this up. Though I like the game, and really like winning, I would never wear one of these rings, not even on a dare. I'd happily take the $100-$300 one of these beauties costs, but keep the stupid jewelry.

1:43pm: More stuff about me.
( Hi, my name is Cathyn and tonight is my first time here at Memers Anonymous... )

2:03pm: Jobs in Austin
So, I had an old friend call me from Austin where he's running something of a data center. They're looking for Tier 1 NOC techs pretty much right now. I tried to email these listings to appleang, but got an error message from her mailserver, so here are the listings, forward them to your friends in Austin, because this seems to be a motivated employer.


NOC Technician Level I - Datacenter environment:
http://austin.craigslist.org/tch/162043955.html


Managed Hosting / Datacenter Systems Administration
http://austin.craigslist.org/sad/162041775.html