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[Jun. 4th, 2008|03:57 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  okay | ] |
So - I survived Elephant Rock.
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[May. 27th, 2008|11:55 am] |
Boy, I've really been slacking off on writing lately... Been busy with cabling and administrative project, plus rebuilding our Windows Update server, which decided to stop reading data from its hard drive the day we were supposed to apply the latest updates... Perfect timing.
Just found out that the Circle Jerks are coming back to Denver in August, as part of a show that also includes NOFX, the MIghty Mighty Bosstones, Bouncing Souls, Street Dogs, and Frontside Five (never heard of the last two, actually). So looks like I'll be seeing plenty of live music this summer - friends of ours picked up tickets to Beausoleil and Buckwheat Zyedeco at the Botanic Gardens, so there's that going on, too.
Finally getting somewhere with the bicycling training rides - between mechanical problems and a nasty cold earlier in the season, I hadn't managed more than 35 miles on any one ride so far this year, which isn't really adequate prep for a 50-mile ride - but I did make it all the way from my front door down to Hudson Gardens, which is a 40 mile round trip. All flat, so it's still not great prep for Elephant Rock, but I've gotten in some hill workouts earlier in the season, so I should be okay. There's a sag wagon if worst comes to worst...
And the sign up goodie bag had notices about several other organized rides this summer, so we should have riding goals for July and September... May not make it all the way up to a century ride this year, but should be able to do at least a couple of half-centuries and maybe a metric. |
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| Disting/Plow Charming |
[Feb. 21st, 2008|08:51 am] |
It's not entirely surprising, given my own decidedly non-agricultural background, but one of the things that has been difficult for me in Heathenry has been really understanding the seasonal cycle of things. I do computer work for a living, and exist in a world of fluorescent lighting in windowless rooms for at least 8 hours a day, then come home to LCD screens, curtains closed to keep the HOA from spying on my home life, with a xeriscaped back yard to provide as little maintenance as possible so that I can focus on reading and playing on my computer at home...
But this spring, I'm finally really feeling it. There's a definite shift happening, and even though I'm still feeling sluggish and torpid, I'm not happy about it, and feel like I should be doing something to get the sludge cleared out of the pipes on a more regular basis. We're actually noticing plant growth (which we've been mostly ignoring for the last couple of years), and feeling an urge to do something about that, as well...
So tonight, as part of our regular weekly religious observations, we'll be digging out our pruning shears and putting them in front of the Disir altar as a reminder.
And this weekend, we'll be doing bicycle maintenance as well... |
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| Multiculturalism, Pluralism, and the limits thereof... |
[Feb. 8th, 2008|08:59 am] |
So - don't get me wrong. My arguments in favor of treating Muslims as individuals and not simply stereotyping them all as fundamentalist radicals shouldn't be taken as anything but my own bias and reaction against lumping entire populations into quick and easy pigeonholes. It doesn't work very well when we try to do it to Heathens and Asatruar - why should it work better when dealing with Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Christians, or the Chinese?
On the other hand, my own biases in favor of multiculturalism and pluralism have limits. autobeast posted a link this morning that ties right into where I'd planned to go with this line of pontification: Archbishop backs sharia law for British Muslims
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| Head/Desk |
[Jan. 28th, 2008|10:26 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
For those of you that haven't heard yet, Freya Aswynn posted an entry on her blog that's being seen as an anti-Islamic screed - and for good reason. I found the link from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lwood's LJ (as did several others on my FList) - if you're curious, I can do the HTML-fu necessary to add a link here as well, but having read the first few paragraphs, it's all pretty standard xenophobia and nothing that I actually want to drive traffic to...
After pondering a bit over the weekend, I'm realizing that part of my own negative reaction stems from something that's not quite hypocrisy in the classical sense, but more a realization that people just aren't thinking things through to the same degree that I try to (yes, I flatter myself from time to time - don't we all?)
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| For the 2 or 3 of you that haven't seen this elsewhere already... |
[Jan. 16th, 2008|04:05 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Arizona", Scorpions | ] |
...It's the Huckabee Meme!
"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."
— Mike Huckabee, campaigning in Michigan.
Right - because theocracy has worked so well historically. It's almost enough to get me to register as a Republican just so I can vote against him in the primaries.
I've been keeping an eye on the Christian Right since the Reagan administration, and this bozo is the Great White Hope for them (so to speak). Bush is seen as a cynical sellout, who sold himself as a God-fearing, Pro-Life, Anti-Gay candidate - and then pretty much ignored Christian Right issues in favor of an ill-advised military adventure, surfacing to promote the Defense of Marriage Act briefly, then getting back to squandering the GDP. Most of the other Republican candidates seem to be viewed with equal measures of suspicion, Giuliani for not being enough of a fascist and Romney for being the wrong sort of right-wing religious wackjob.
Look, we've already had too many presidents lately who cultivated an affable, personable air - Bush II, Clinton, Bush I (though he wasn't that good at it), Reagan, Carter. It's to the point of making me nostalgic for the Nixon administration - and never thought that would happen. Can we just please elect someone who appears to have some functioning brain cells for once this century? |
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[Jan. 15th, 2008|04:02 pm] |
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
-- F. NIetzsche
Some days, he just nails it... I've posted here and elsewhere about my own experiences growing up, and my distrust of group-think and collective identity, and this pretty much says what I've been thinking all these years. |
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[Jan. 14th, 2008|09:13 pm] |
Chaturanga Dandasana hurts 24-48 hours later.
And Ustrasana isn't much better, if your shoulders are tight.
(in other words, I'm back to Sunday morning yoga classes - it's good for me). |
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| More Memeage... |
[Jan. 2nd, 2008|03:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pensive | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Bad Lovin' Never Felt So Good" - Stonerider | ] |
This one's making the rounds - I swiped my copy from walkyrja...
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[Dec. 28th, 2007|09:27 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Dracula", Gorillaz | ] |
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| Winter Stagnation |
[Dec. 26th, 2007|10:21 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cold | ] |
It's been a good season for introspection. Not that I ever seem to have a bad one, though I manage to distract myself from time to time... One of my friends from college once described me as "The most aggressively self-aware person I know", which may explain some of my fascination with navel-gazing and the sorts of psychological tricks people use to avoid dealing with unpleasant truths.
The current unpleasant truth that I'm running into is the fact that I've been stagnating for a while now. I haven't run a CoffeeMoot in several months now, I've not attended many Heathen events locally (except for my own semi-masochistic drumming up of Sunna on Saturday), and I've been allowing myself to get sucked into a couple of major time sinks (WOW online and the first season of Babylon 5 on DVD - sometimes both at the same time). I haven't gotten off my ass and finished my essay for the Troth Lore Program, I haven't studied for any of the MCSA certification exams, I haven't sent Yule cards to anyone outside of the immediate family (with one exception). It's not been a terribly productive end of the year.
And I'm kind of tired of that. At least this time around, the mood swing only seems to have held for a few months instead of a couple of years. Maybe getting into the habit of weekly libations to the Aesir and Vanir, Alfar and Disir, and the local Landvaettir is starting to pay off... It's about the only habit I've been trying to maintain over the last few months that has really stuck as yet. Have to see if I can get the physical exercise, yoga, and meditation habits back in the mix as well. |
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| More Birthdays |
[Nov. 27th, 2007|08:43 am] |
A happy belated birthday to johnnyfactotum - we're going to get off our asses and call you guys real soon, we promise! We finally figured out the 3-way calling procedure on our new cell phones and everything...
And happy birthday in advance to cobaltamber - I hope things are going well for you and hondovious. |
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[Nov. 22nd, 2007|11:53 pm] |
Happy Birthday, battleraven!
I wanted to repay you for the lovely mental image you gave me for my birthday, but I can't find any pictures of me in a kilt... I'll keep looking, though... :) |
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| Science Quiz! |
[Nov. 21st, 2007|04:29 pm] |
Who else? :D
Your Score: Buckaroo Banzai 168 Heart, 164 Genius, 147 Cool, 132 Excitability
Buckaroo Banzai - (Peter Weller)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
You are Buckaroo Banzai! Hard-rockin' neurosurgeon, brilliant scientist, and all-around cool guy. Maybe you didn't have the cinematic success of some of the other guys here, but it's okay - you're a cult classic!
"Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
Other scientific possibilities:
Gary Wallace
Wyatt Donnelly
Peter Venkman
Jordan Cochran
Egon Spengler
Doc Brown
Newton Crosby
Paul Stephens
Ben Crandall
Wayne Szalinkski
Winston Zeddemore
Ben Jabituya
Lazlo Hollyfeld
Ray Stantz
Buckaroo Banzai
Chris Knight
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| Ah, Vacation... |
[Nov. 13th, 2007|09:58 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Red Tape", Circle Jerks | ] |
Just spent a week back in the Seattle area, which was mostly restful. We spent the last several days hanging out in a guest house on San Juan Island just outside of Friday Harbor - not doing much of anything aside from trips into town for dinner, a drive around the island, and a quick peek at the state and national parks located there (commemorating the Pig War between the US and Great Britain, which I heard enough about in State History class in Jr. High - Google it if you're curious...)
The early part of the week we spent in Seattle, staying in a hotel with a lovely view of the Space Needle and wandering out for dinner with B's sister and her husband and their foster daughter. Their dog is not doing well, so everyone was a little stressed out as a result, so our decision to stay in a hotel was a very good one for everybody's mental health.We got to see ravenlaughing and Tim for lunch one day, spent another day at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, and hung around at Pike Place Market for several hours.
And now I'm back at work. Sigh. I need another vacation.... :D |
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| Memeage |
[Oct. 3rd, 2007|07:05 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | At Work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  working | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Evil", Mercyful Fate | ] |
Well, the upgrades are proceeding apace. Had a few setbacks on Monday night - turns out the batch file chokes if the list of computer names is too long (say, more than 15-20). So I'm doing lots of smaller batches and babysitting the installations. Last night's push went better, and we're doing about the same number tonight and tomorrow night, with Friday to try and catch up on all the frickin' laptops that we've deployed over the last few years that nobody remembers to bring in and plug in overnight every so often to get updates...
So, while I wait to see which installation point finishes its batch first, the LIbraryThing meme that's been making the rounds:
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| Hail to the NerdAlfar.... |
[Oct. 1st, 2007|05:58 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | ... | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nervous | ] |
.. may they watch over this SysAdmin's push of Microsoft Office 2007 to 300 or so desktop over the coming week, starting in about 3 minutes. First five batches are queued up and ready for the batch file to run, sending a massive bunch of installation files over the network, to be installed desktop by desktop using an automated process that works pretty well in testing.
We'll see how well it works in real life momentarily.
Crossing fingers nauthiz-style for luck, pouring out a dollop of Mt. Dew to the museum vaettir (which I'll have to clean up before I leave - don't want to attract any bugs...) |
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[Sep. 17th, 2007|10:28 pm] |
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I tseemstatmykeyboardisnottotallyfunctional-Itinktecatbrokeit,andIllneedtofindaquickreplacementsortly.PossiblytewirelessmodelIwasusinbefore... |
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| WooHoo! |
[Sep. 10th, 2007|08:53 pm] |
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Thc city inspector signed off on our AC installation and gave us a couple of hints on how to replumb the condensate drain line.
And the Insurance adjustor says we're covered, except for redoing the condensate drain line... so once I get the parts and do a little drilling, sawing, and cementing of PVC pipe, we'll get the insulation and drywall replaced. And our deductible will come out of the claim, so we don't owe anything up front. Our labor and the dumpster are getting folded into the claim,
AAAAAahhhhhhhhhhh...... Life is good.
And the Irish/Scottish festival was a lot of fun, as usual.
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depressed