September 02, 2010
Hey! It's Wednesday! And it's DeeDee's birthday!
Picture of the day!

Witchy DeeDee, from many moons ago.
It's also Cynthia's birthday, but I don't have pictures of her, and I have no idea if she reads this. But happy birthday to all you crazy September 2nd babies.
Keeping this really short, as I'm somehow really behind on work today, and it's already the afternoon. So, hi!
Halloween planning has begun in earnest. Well, kinda. I haven't started any construction yet, but I've got some ideas. I'm still without a good costume idea, though.
That's all I have time for. Your turn - what's happening, my friends?
September 01, 2010
So...September.
Picture of the day!

A rather grand canyon.
August, you weren't really that bad. I've seen worse. Let's see if September can keep on it.
I just noticed I'm quickly approaching 10,000 flickr photos (I've got about 270 to go). That's a lot of visual imagery.
Mused on Food Trucks yesterday at Tofufighting. I know they're an interesting niche, but you'd think they'd be getting speedier - waiting 20-30 minutes for food out of a truck is absurd, even if it's great.
My daughter saw a picture of a cube yesterday (standard 2D drawing), and decided to make one - in 3D. She ripped pages of a coloring book out, folded them in to rough squares, and taped them together flat so that they'd fold up into a cube (she taped the first five flat, then assembled, then taped on the "top"). Part of me hopes someone at daycare showed her how to do this (though there haven't been any projects like that coming home) - otherwise, my daughter is some sort of weird genius artist, and that's scary.
Lunch time, 'cause I'm writing this in the afternoon, regardless of when you're reading it. Have a fine day!
August 31, 2010
What up!
Picture of the day!

Partial food spread at this weekend's event. I love cheese.
Warming up a bit out there - I feel that more after I run. Ran some of my path today, and feelin' fine. I also got my hand weights out yesterday.
I never think of it as such while I'm there, but Irvine is a really large city - it's quite spread out. Lately, this is due to a food truck announcing they're in Irvine, and me realizing it's a 25 minute drive there, even though I'm RIGHT next to Irvine.
Does it creep anyone else when someone uses your desk when you're not at work? We have laptop docking stations, so it's not like someone's using my computer, but still...it's weird.
That's all for today. I think I need some non-crowded labor day plan suggestions. Any thoughts?
August 30, 2010
Happy Monday, friends and neighbors!
Picture of the day!

Cinnamon at this weekend's "Dress as your favorite God" party. Easily the best costume in the house.
Good times this weekend - we've been looking for a good excuse to have a non-Halloween costume party, and this fit the bill. Next year, I think we'll do it around May, so it's on the other side of the year. There are more pictures, but most are set to "Friends only", as Greek and Roman gods aren't particularly family friendly. I will say that I was dressed as Priapus. I'll let you do your own research.
Google rolled out a Skype-like service for making phone calls in Gmail, and it works very nicely. And especially nicely for me, they finally integrated video chat for linux. I can't get most webcams to work well and consistently in Ubuntu, of course, but it's a nice step.
Politics aside, it amazes me that in 2010, we can't count a crowd within an order of magnitude (as pointed out here in an article about this weekend's Glenn Beck rally in DC). You'd think there'd be some better consensus.
How was your weekend? Anything exciting? What does Labor Day hold for you, other than a day off? Enlighten me!
August 27, 2010
Hi there! It's Friday, and Chris' birthday!
Picture of the day!

The aforementioned Chris.
The weather is much improved. Thanks for not sucking hardcore, August.
"Wayne's World" is on, and I don't think I've watched it all the way through in 15 years. I'm a bit shocked at how much it's affected our language (well, "our" meaning "my generation") - I keep hearing things that I didn't realize came from this movie.
I'm betting I'm the only person who hears the "My Clean PC Dot Com" commercial and thinks "That dude sounds like Wil Wheaton".
Keepin' it short - there's work to be done. Happy Friday, and happy weekend!
August 26, 2010
Thursday!
Picture of the day!

Mr. Potato Head. I dunno why turning him upside-down made me laugh so much, but it did. He looks like Ed Grimley.
See, August - this is why I don't like you. You always have a few of these nasty, humid days every year, even if you're generally nicer (like you've been this summer). Even a little bit warmer but dry would be a relief.
Considering Vegas in September, early October, or early November. Who's in?
Took yesterday off from exercise, but don't have any soreness from my run Tuesday. Got my mile+ walk in today.
Lots of rodeo/bullfighting talk on the internets today. My stance? Just as you'd expect. Though I like the fact, as opposed to slaughter for meat, sometimes the bull wins.
Running out of time today. Thanks for reading!
August 25, 2010
Wednesday!
Picture of the day!

Katie and I made party hats. Here's mine.
For those of you who care about such things, Flickr now offers both HTML and BBCode for all pictures (making it that much easier to share online). Nice little touch.
I finally found some awesome peaches at the farmers market this weekend. It's been too long (maybe two years) since I've had an awesome peach.
It's hot, but the nights are cool. That's heat I can put up with. Helps also that it's gonna cool down this weekend.
Craving street-style tacos. This is a recent phenomenon for me; I'm generally not a fan of corn tortillas, but Seabirds makes them so awesome that I don't mind at all. Alas, they're usually 20-30 minutes from here at lunch - too far for a quick jaunt.
Do something weird today. Report back. Bye!
August 24, 2010
Happy Tuesday!
Picture of the day!

Booze and computers. I should check how many of my photos feature this combination.
Actually ran most of a mile and a half today (early before it got too hot) - feelin' good.
For a while, my spam levels on my blogs seemed to be way down, but this week, it's back in force. Spam sucks, and you're a horrible person if you buy or sell anything with it.
My white laundry ratio is off, and I have about twice as many pairs of skivvies as I do socks. I finally found some Made in the USA socks, at Costco of all places. Kinda pricey ($13 for 6 pairs), but they're super comfy.
Man, I thought I was OK with staying out of Vegas for a while, but when I get crazy hotel deals, it's like a siren song. Who wants to go in November?
Keep cool, friends! This weekend is expected to be about 20 degrees less oppressive, so work for the weekend!
August 23, 2010
Happy Monday!
Got an Eye-Fi memory card for my camera this weekend (family birthday get-together present from my niece). Why it's awesome: It's the same size/shape as a regular memory card, but has its own wifi server embedded. It's got a lot of different settings, but basically it uses your home internet connection to automatically upload files to its servers/your computer/your online sharing places. It also syncs your stuff between locations. I'm very impressed so far.
Opened up a can of whoopass on the bougainvillea yesterday - it's now mushroom-shaped, and not in my way. Still provides for a more private backyard experience, though.
It's August out there. That is all.
Made a brown-sugar vanilla custard-style ice cream yesterday. It's good, but I'm reserving judgment until it sets up better. I'm concerned that my freezer ain't doing the job lately, and the ice crystals might be too big. We'll see tonight.
Question of the day: What's your favorite god (or god-like creature), "real" or from fiction?
August 20, 2010
Haha! Friday!
Picture of the day!

Marek and Jenn. Another Totally Random picture.
Once again, a beautiful day out there. August, you've redeemed yourself a bit this year.
It would appear the extent of my civic duty was checking a website every day this week at 5pm. Without stepping foot anywhere near the courthouse, my jury duty is now complete. Not that I wanted a long trial (or thought I'd actually pass any sort of questioning), but it would have been fun to get into the process a bit more. Oh well, maybe they'll try again in 2012.
Wearing shorts at work. I enjoy this little freedom.
Finally got streaming Netflix to work with my home TV (and work computer, but who's counting). It's nice having access to that part of my subscription. Every time I do something like this, it's another reminder that I'll likely never buy a DVD again.
I finally got a hold of Facebook Places yesterday, and I'm underwhelmed. It's like Foursquare without any sort of silly incentives. Also, the privacy freakouts are silly - it's a very minor thing which will be used by a very minor number of users, and the ways you can interact with your friends are minor too.
Finally subscribed to 2600 Magazine this week. I buy the issues as soon as I see them, but kept forgetting to actually subscribe. It's one of two print magazines I subscribe to now (the other being Make). It's probably also the most niche thing I read - I love it.
Have a fantastic weekend, amigos - get the most out of the rest of Summer. Enjoy!


