av8rmike: Mythbuster's Adam, text: I reject your reality and substitute my own! (reality)
So, what's been going on the past month? Lots of the same uninteresting stuff, like trying to organize stuff around the house and get things unpacked. The PHP/MySQL project for work for which I've been up to my eyeballs finally seems to be clearing, so I may actually have time to start doing things like updating and Support again. It's been really interesting, and I've learned a lot about server-side programming, but probably not enough to help out significantly with DW/LJ because I still find Perl pretty impenetrable, and I didn't have to consider a lot of scalability problems for the work site.

For Thanksgiving Jamie and I flew back to see her family in Wisconsin. I found it amusing that the question nearly everyone asked was, "How was the security?" or "Did you get [frisked]?". What people who have been following the stories only loosely may not have understood is that not everyone is required to get scanned. At BWI and Milwaukee, for instance, I only went through the same metal detectors I always go through. The millimeter-wave scanners were there, and some people were going through them, but I couldn't see a pattern to it, nor was I asked to step through. So, you do still have a choice, and it's not exhibitionism vs. groping vs. arrest.

Anyway. Off to a full week of rehearsals for 3 separate concerts!
av8rmike: 10 HOME; 20 SWEET; 30 GOTO 10 (home sweet goto)
(Yes, it's been a while. 'Scuse me, I've been a little busy.)

It occurred to me while driving to work on Friday that I would only have to make that drive two more times. I've done it every day for the last six years, so the commute is so ingrained I barely think about it any more. It's because two things are happening simultaneously: tomorrow we close on the house and move in on Friday, and on Friday my office is moving from its home of the last 25 years to a shiny new facility built specifically for us. Well, the building was there before, but the interior is all new. We took a tour of the building yesterday and I got to see my window-less office. I can't decide if it will be an improvement over what I have now.

I also just came from the bank to get my cashier's check for the down payment and closing costs. There's something about holding a check for that much money that makes things seem more all the more real.
av8rmike: Photo of pile of Korean money (money)
They're ripping siding off the building, the grounds-keeping crew is outside with their leaf-blowers, and someone else is outside cutting down the giant bushes with a chainsaw.

It's way too much noise for a Monday. Good thing I ripped all those Mahler and Bruckner symphony CDs from my dad, which should be pretty effective at drowning them out.
av8rmike: Optimus Prime on Obama poster; text: "Change into a truck" (change)
I haven't been in much of a mood to update lately, in case anyone has been concerned. I spent all of my working time last week in a sort of training session for some stuff for work. Fortunately the working days were shorter, so I was getting up and getting home at my usual times. Unfortunately, the training was at a Navy lab that's 45 miles away, on the other side of DC. So, I spent an hour or more driving each way. At least I could file for a local mileage reimbursement.

I left a little early on Friday so Jamie and I could drive up to Pennsylvania. One of my close friends from college was having her "pirate-themed post-wedding parrrrr-ty" on Saturday morning and we were staying at my mother's place. Not only would we have to drive into Pittsburgh early that morning, we'd also be missing Rosh Hashanah services. I know that I had a much better time at the wedding party, bees and all. Since the party was over mid-afternoon, we took a little driving tour of Pittsburgh, then a walking tour of my college and my old house. It's always interesting how much has changed and yet how little has changed.
av8rmike: Text: Resistance is futile (if < 1 ohm) (resistance)
Pic! )
One of my co-workers was in California last week and picked up this nice coffee mug for me. It's oversized and is a pretty pastel blue color, but while I was washing it I saw that it had a sticker* on the bottom. Apparently the glaze used on the mug contains trace amounts of cadmium and lead, which because of Prop 65, causes cancer in the state of California. I guess it's a good thing I live in Maryland.

* According to a different co-worker, these stickers are on everything in CA. How fragile are you guys out there? =P
av8rmike: Photo of pile of Korean money (money)
Unbelievable... people actually seem to be doing real work today. The few people that are here, of course. No one's going to be here Friday, myself included.

Really

Jul. 29th, 2008 03:31 pm
av8rmike: Photo of pile of Korean money (money)
If I can't figure out how to visualize what I'm trying to design, I may end up bringing in my LEGO Technics to work tomorrow.
av8rmike: Pumpkin barfing seeds (barf)
At a lunch meeting today, one of my co-workers, who is German, mixed up a half-and-half cocktail of Sunkist and Coke. He claimed it was popular with German kids and had a name, but I didn't catch what he said.

Surprisingly, it's not actually as bad as it sounds.
av8rmike: Darth Vader on Death Star, text: I find your lack of pants disturbing (pants)
I'm having way more fun than I should be searching through the ABS Steel Vessel Rules for the string "poop".

Sample results:
  • "Poop Side Plating"

  • "Bridges and Poops"

  • "Exposed Poop Decks"

  • "Access to Midship Quarter between Poop and Bridge"

  • "A bridge or poop is not regarded as enclosed unless an alternate means of access is provided for the crew from any point on the exposed portion of the uppermost continuous deck to reach the machinery space or other working spaces within these superstructures when the bulkhead openings are closed."

I even found the equation to calculate the thickness of the poop.
av8rmike: (rolleyes)
They finally replaced the carpet in my office last night, which as you'll recall, was ruined in the first week of September. I came in at 4:30 after a day-long meeting to find the office manager had completely cleaned off my desks. This means I'll never be able to find anything again.

And no, nothing else has been happening for the last two weeks. :p
av8rmike: Pumpkin barfing seeds (barf)
Everyone who's come into my office in the last day or so has said the same thing: "Man, it smells like cat pee in here."

Thanks, I hadn't noticed.
av8rmike: Alton Brown with megaphone (AB-rant)
This could shape up to be a bad week. The office I share with someone is right next to two of the air conditioner units, and we came in yesterday to find some kind of water leak, mostly in his half and under his chair. Today, I come in to the smell of mildew. The carpet in his half is still soaked. I'm thinking that one or both of us could be displaced for a while, since they're going to have to replace the carpet.
av8rmike: Star of David (jewish)
I wonder, if I go put in a few hours at the office tomorrow, if they'll let me use my holiday hours for Rosh Hashanah next Wednesday.
av8rmike: (rolleyes)
Apparently, neither Maryland nor Wisconsin got the memo that it was supposed to be an early spring. I left the heat off in my apartment, and someone even left the air conditioning on in the office all weekend.
av8rmike: (rolleyes)
My first day back in the office after a three-day holiday weekend, and I'm supposed to do work?

OK, so it's only sort-of work: playing with power tools, and right now, going to Home Depot to buy wood with a company card.
av8rmike: (rolleyes)
Weekend was very long and tiring.... for good and bad reasons. ;)

I'm really starting to get disappointed by my personal performance at these concerts, but maybe it's OK that no one other than myself seems to notice.

I need to get some of [livejournal.com profile] gingy's recipes.

I wore jeans and work boots to the office today, thinking I'd be doing manual labor. So far, have not needed to.

I want to wash the crap off the side of my truck, but no way am I paying another $15 for a mediocre job.

No rehearsal tonight. Practicing instead.
av8rmike: Aqua Teen's Frylock, text: Bitch, are you for real? (frylock-forreal)
Never send an intern to do an engineer's job. Gaah.

Also, there's something wrong with needing to have the air conditioner on in December.

Musings

Sep. 11th, 2006 09:35 am
av8rmike: Pittsburgh Steelers helmet and logo (steelers)
Corporate sent out an e-mail asking us to observe a moment of silence at 8:59 AM today, or 9:37, or whatever. Given that during this time of day I'm usually just sitting silently at my desk, is there something different I should be doing? Not typing or clicking the mouse? Turn down my radio? I certainly wasn't going to do that, they were playing Copland's "Lincoln Portrait", with narration (Adlai Stevenson), and that's something you never hear on the radio.

Instead I'll talk about football. I'm getting killed this weekend, both in office pool and fantasy, because there were so many upsets. The problem was, when in doubt I went with the home team, and most of the visiting teams won this week. And who'd have thought the Saints, Bears, and Rams would do so well this week? I must have to check the fantasy news before every game, because Cincinnati must have benched Houshmanzadeh just before kickoff. Tom Brady had a good day, unfortunately Chad Pennington had a better one. If Clinton Portis has a good night tonight, it'll thrown my whole world into doubt... =(
av8rmike: (webcam)
It's going to be really hard to get any work done today... Fortunately, I don't seem to be doing anything high-priority compared to the last few weeks.

I'm going over to Dad's place after work, because our cousin is in from England until the end of the week, and also my brother's coming down from New York this afternoon. I'm bringing my violin, and we'll probably play through some of the stuff my cousin needs to work on (he has to accompany a violinist in a few weeks).

Jamie's flight gets in after midnight. No, I won't forget to pick you up. ;) Tomorrow, among other things, we'll be going downtown to try some new instruments.

Saturday is a concert with my string ensemble, which I pretty much just want to get over with. Anything else that happens is just icing on the cake! =)
av8rmike: (webcam)
After two years of asking, and two more years of suffering with a partially broken CRT monitor, guess who finally got a flat-panel LCD in his office?

That's right, ME. And it's freaking HUGE.

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av8rmike: Futurama's Bender in Jeffries tube, text: I'm done reconfoobling the energymotron (Default)
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