Seems I am playing catch-up with the Blog, yet again another entry finished on a Monday morning instead of a Sunday night. Still, it's DONE, so that's all that matters... words on a page, not a blank 'Under Construction' banner of old.
Aug 18th - Failure to Launch
The shift today was frustrating; yet again another Monday Product Launch, and for the second time in two weeks nothing worked correctly. The promo contest managed to crash the system two times out of three, and resulted in reams of wasted paper as multiple print commands were sent for every transaction. Seeing as we do not have the fastest PC's on the block either, this resulted in some rather long transactions as I had to start them over several times each, hoping for success.
On a lighter note, I was browsing around a few of my thousands of bookmarks and came across this place. I collected Playmobil as a kid, and though most of it is lost or sold off, I still fondly remember the amazing Pirate Ship I got for my eighth birthday - wish I'd had a pool to play with it in, but one can't have everything; it was still a damned cool toy. Seems something just as cool has come down the pipes again: a Roman Colosseum! Something else that I do not have the time or space for, which is a pity, as the Roman Empire was another bit of history I really enjoyed as a kid, and still do today. The chariot race in Ben-Hur still stands out vividly in my memory, despite the fact I have not seen it in many a long year. Playmobil chariots...
Aug 19th - Neil Gaiman
I was digging around YouTube, and stumbled across quite a few videos of Neil Gaiman, author of such works as "Neverwhere", "The Sandman" and the movie Stardust. Neil is a mesmerizing speaker when reading his own works, as I had the privilege of hearing at the Torcon2003 SF convention on a Sunday morning. The room was packed to the gills as he read an excerpt from "A Study in Emerald" in which Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft merge universes in a world that seems all-too chillingly real - download the free Mp3 of the story at the bottom of the blurb here. Near the end of the Torcon reading, an usher tried to signal Neil to "wrap-up" quickly. Neil paused, looked around at the sea of rapt faces and told the usher "You had better let me finish, or they WILL kill you," he said with a gin. The usher promptly vanished as we all laughed and waited eagerly for the end of the story.
More good Gaiman News: a stop-motion version of Coraline is coming out, being done by the creative genius who did A Nightmare Before Christmas, Pete Kozachik. You can see a preview of it here - looks amazing! You can read more about Neil Gaiman here, in his own words - he keeps a daily blog. Mesmerizing!
Aug 20th - Car Wars
Evening shifts are day-eaters, in that by the time the noon-hour rolls around, one has to get ready for work - and that's the end of the day. I much prefer morning shifts, as I get home in the early afternoon and still have the evening to do as I please - I always feel rushed if I only have the morning to work with; maybe its the open-ended versus the have-to-be-at-work-by-this-time schedule thing. It's just so odd not to give specifics in this blog, but then I understand about security concerns for my workplace. Knowing that my blog is monitored is somewhat stifling, but it presents a challenge to me as a writer to convey my thoughts without compromising the security or integrity of my employer... not easy to do if you want to make it more than pablum-fare to read
Speaking of fare, it seems that the old B-movie classic Death Race 2000 is being remade. The video preview of Death Race 2008 is out, starring Jason Latham of The Transporter fame. Fans of the old tabletop Steve Jackson game Car Wars, such as myself, might wonder if this will actually be the first film to come close to capturing the phrase "Where the right of way goes to the biggest guns." Crude, but an interesting analogue to today's society. Interestingly enough, Car Wars predicted a fuel crisis in the year 2000, followed by various other disasters that resulted in an altered history in which oil-based fuels are rare, airships powered by electric fuel cells ply the skies, and the roads are ruled by cars touting machine guns and spikedroppers... are we there yet?
Aug 21st - Fleet Week and Star Wars
Another morning shift today, with the weather turning grey again. The ride to work is always showing me something new, though I really wish the one yard I walk by would stop using such large amounts of pure organic fertilizer on their flowerbeds - phew! Even under cloudy skies, the walk is relaxing despite being uphill. Homes are well-kept, unique unto themselves and surrounded by lush greenery, the result of lots of TLC and abundant rain obviously.
The annual Fleet Week down the coast in San Francisco is coming up in a few months, where the US Pacific Fleet comes back into port for its yearly stop. - the Snowbirds will be performing this year too! Apparently a very talented wag decided to make this video showcasing what would happen if the Imperial Fleet of the Empire from Star Wars made a showing instead... very well done, subtle and seamless - makes all those hundreds of Star Wars Kid videos seem cartoonish in the extreme.
Aug 22 - Getting Bugged
Worked the morning shift today, feeling a little rough. Seems I've managed to pick up a bug this week - my nose started jogging yesterday and is in full run today. Good thing I made sure to have kleenex on hand at work just in case of such things... when the facets really start to leak, the handy roll of TP just doesn't cut the mustard. Sad to say. For some reason I thought that tonight was the night for the local Jazz Festival, but apparently it is next week, or at least that was what the ticket says - go figure. So I had the evening to rest up, and I did in a big way - I practically fell over after dinner, with brief moments of consciousness until a wave of weariness carried me away well before 11pm. Erk.
Aug 23 - Sweating a cold
Glad I had the day off today, so I could spend it resting up and trying to get rid of this bug. I kept the heat theory in mind, and the apartment was a toasty 29 degrees, with the windows open just a crack for airflow - the PC and Xbox put out a lot of heat both. I ran a summer party today online today in NWN, which had been in the plans for a few weeks. So I spent most of the day around the TV, chatting with people and getting other things done in conversational lulls. It was a little odd, being home sick but at the same time talking with dozens of people as they dropped by my 'online tavern' - yet another use for the internet nobody foresaw back in its early days. A good time was had by all, and at least my online nose wasn't a kleenex-killing machine.
Aug 24 - And on the Third Day He Sneezed
I took today off as well( thanks Meaghan! )as I am still feeling clobbered - the nose is under control but the throat is touch-and-go. Still using the Heat Theory, that a little sweat is good for the soul and bad for bugs. A few games of COD4 were all I got in before several of my Niagara friends lost power due to a thunderstorm in the area which knocked them offline for the day. So I played a few games of Civ: Rev, the first ended when the game crashed, and the second was a clean sweep for Lucas - payback for a similar game I won some weeks ago. Well done.
And done is what I am, for another week. Hopefully I get my energy back enough to get some work done this week, as the weekend past was a total wash. At least the struggle with Blogger was a little easier this time, popping back and forth between Opera and FireFox seemed to do the trick; about an hour's work.
On a lighter note, I was browsing around a few of my thousands of bookmarks and came across this place. I collected Playmobil as a kid, and though most of it is lost or sold off, I still fondly remember the amazing Pirate Ship I got for my eighth birthday - wish I'd had a pool to play with it in, but one can't have everything; it was still a damned cool toy. Seems something just as cool has come down the pipes again: a Roman Colosseum! Something else that I do not have the time or space for, which is a pity, as the Roman Empire was another bit of history I really enjoyed as a kid, and still do today. The chariot race in Ben-Hur still stands out vividly in my memory, despite the fact I have not seen it in many a long year. Playmobil chariots...
Aug 19th - Neil Gaiman
I was digging around YouTube, and stumbled across quite a few videos of Neil Gaiman, author of such works as "Neverwhere", "The Sandman" and the movie Stardust. Neil is a mesmerizing speaker when reading his own works, as I had the privilege of hearing at the Torcon2003 SF convention on a Sunday morning. The room was packed to the gills as he read an excerpt from "A Study in Emerald" in which Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft merge universes in a world that seems all-too chillingly real - download the free Mp3 of the story at the bottom of the blurb here. Near the end of the Torcon reading, an usher tried to signal Neil to "wrap-up" quickly. Neil paused, looked around at the sea of rapt faces and told the usher "You had better let me finish, or they WILL kill you," he said with a gin. The usher promptly vanished as we all laughed and waited eagerly for the end of the story.
More good Gaiman News: a stop-motion version of Coraline is coming out, being done by the creative genius who did A Nightmare Before Christmas, Pete Kozachik. You can see a preview of it here - looks amazing! You can read more about Neil Gaiman here, in his own words - he keeps a daily blog. Mesmerizing!
Aug 20th - Car Wars
Evening shifts are day-eaters, in that by the time the noon-hour rolls around, one has to get ready for work - and that's the end of the day. I much prefer morning shifts, as I get home in the early afternoon and still have the evening to do as I please - I always feel rushed if I only have the morning to work with; maybe its the open-ended versus the have-to-be-at-work-by-this-time schedule thing. It's just so odd not to give specifics in this blog, but then I understand about security concerns for my workplace. Knowing that my blog is monitored is somewhat stifling, but it presents a challenge to me as a writer to convey my thoughts without compromising the security or integrity of my employer... not easy to do if you want to make it more than pablum-fare to read
Speaking of fare, it seems that the old B-movie classic Death Race 2000 is being remade. The video preview of Death Race 2008 is out, starring Jason Latham of The Transporter fame. Fans of the old tabletop Steve Jackson game Car Wars, such as myself, might wonder if this will actually be the first film to come close to capturing the phrase "Where the right of way goes to the biggest guns." Crude, but an interesting analogue to today's society. Interestingly enough, Car Wars predicted a fuel crisis in the year 2000, followed by various other disasters that resulted in an altered history in which oil-based fuels are rare, airships powered by electric fuel cells ply the skies, and the roads are ruled by cars touting machine guns and spikedroppers... are we there yet?
Aug 21st - Fleet Week and Star Wars
Another morning shift today, with the weather turning grey again. The ride to work is always showing me something new, though I really wish the one yard I walk by would stop using such large amounts of pure organic fertilizer on their flowerbeds - phew! Even under cloudy skies, the walk is relaxing despite being uphill. Homes are well-kept, unique unto themselves and surrounded by lush greenery, the result of lots of TLC and abundant rain obviously.
The annual Fleet Week down the coast in San Francisco is coming up in a few months, where the US Pacific Fleet comes back into port for its yearly stop. - the Snowbirds will be performing this year too! Apparently a very talented wag decided to make this video showcasing what would happen if the Imperial Fleet of the Empire from Star Wars made a showing instead... very well done, subtle and seamless - makes all those hundreds of Star Wars Kid videos seem cartoonish in the extreme.
Aug 22 - Getting Bugged
Worked the morning shift today, feeling a little rough. Seems I've managed to pick up a bug this week - my nose started jogging yesterday and is in full run today. Good thing I made sure to have kleenex on hand at work just in case of such things... when the facets really start to leak, the handy roll of TP just doesn't cut the mustard. Sad to say. For some reason I thought that tonight was the night for the local Jazz Festival, but apparently it is next week, or at least that was what the ticket says - go figure. So I had the evening to rest up, and I did in a big way - I practically fell over after dinner, with brief moments of consciousness until a wave of weariness carried me away well before 11pm. Erk.
Aug 23 - Sweating a cold
Glad I had the day off today, so I could spend it resting up and trying to get rid of this bug. I kept the heat theory in mind, and the apartment was a toasty 29 degrees, with the windows open just a crack for airflow - the PC and Xbox put out a lot of heat both. I ran a summer party today online today in NWN, which had been in the plans for a few weeks. So I spent most of the day around the TV, chatting with people and getting other things done in conversational lulls. It was a little odd, being home sick but at the same time talking with dozens of people as they dropped by my 'online tavern' - yet another use for the internet nobody foresaw back in its early days. A good time was had by all, and at least my online nose wasn't a kleenex-killing machine.
Aug 24 - And on the Third Day He Sneezed
I took today off as well( thanks Meaghan! )as I am still feeling clobbered - the nose is under control but the throat is touch-and-go. Still using the Heat Theory, that a little sweat is good for the soul and bad for bugs. A few games of COD4 were all I got in before several of my Niagara friends lost power due to a thunderstorm in the area which knocked them offline for the day. So I played a few games of Civ: Rev, the first ended when the game crashed, and the second was a clean sweep for Lucas - payback for a similar game I won some weeks ago. Well done.
And done is what I am, for another week. Hopefully I get my energy back enough to get some work done this week, as the weekend past was a total wash. At least the struggle with Blogger was a little easier this time, popping back and forth between Opera and FireFox seemed to do the trick; about an hour's work.
