Sadly, due to the no "cell phones or electronics usage (*besides personal music devices)" policy at work, I can't show you a picture of the announcement or the quite possibly hilarious aftermath...

A week from tomorrow it is Star Trek/Twilight Dressup Day

Oh the hu-fannity...

A part of me yearns to represent the Federation, because I have a feeling that the 18-20 year old female set is probably more likely to dress up; also because said clique already dresses like that, minus glitter or whatever other makeup is required. I don't even have anywhere to start... time to figure out who will overnight me a communicator badge?

Laptops aren't really worth buying used/refurbished. The mechanical bits break down, putting stresses on the PCBs and cabling which snakes about inside, until one day it stops working; probably less than two years after you bought it (since most refurbs and used come off of 3 year leases, or private individuals sell them after the 3 year warranty is up).

When my old laptop got stolen, it was nearing the end of it's lifetime. It had been well tended, but at 3 years of age it was getting ready to stop. Due to financial difficulties, I hadn't even thought of replacing this bit of my digital life until last week.

I got me one of these cheap little numbers in black. Its no gamer on the go, but its a solid dual core with enough ram and adequate tracts of HD space. The keyboard is excellent as on all the newer model Lenovo machines, with quite a bit of travel and a solid, desktop feel to it. Glossy screen... but that means that the oil from your fingers evaporating off the keys whilst stowed doesn't eat into the screen guard as it would with a matte finish laptop screen. Oh, and it burns dual layer DVDs. I'm not sure why it needs to do that; they probably don't manufacture any other sort of slim optical drive these days I suppose.

The case is heavier than you'd think by looking at it, but this lends quite a bit of rigidity to the rather slim machine. Weirdly, the screen doesn't latch shut, rather sprung cams at the hinges exert a force on the screen to keep it shut. A lifecycle living with this feature will inform me what to think about it.

I haven't tried Kubuntu in it yet, but about half of the reviews on newegg say that everything, webcam and mic included, work properly there. It comes with Vista Home Basic, which is just... eh. However, Lenovo provides Windows XP drivers for it on their website. I'll probably stick with Kubuntu/Vista (rather than Kubuntu/XP) on it just to have some more of that Windows Experience with the spawn of WindowsME, so I can help others when their Vista becomes recalcitrant, or begins sliding into the canyon.

Data entry makes you want to do anything besides type at your computer when you get home.

Cooking

So I've cooked a bit, learned some new recipes. I attempted Crepes, and besides me not mastering the skill of getting them off the pan before being singed, I was successful. I've also attempted some of my childhood favorites mom used to make- which is easy to get right since I have her cookbook with it's various notations and edits.

Next on my list are some of the various potluck casserole dishes in a cookbook compiled by my mother's family before I was born; its a neat way of being to pick out what to try ("oooh Great Uncle Ron liked that alot, I share his tastes..."). Some of the recipes were out of the paper, some off of brand name cans and boxes, others from various cookbooks, and a select few from my Great Grandmother were handed down from the distant past. Many recipes have variations with separate reviews (potatoes instead of carrots, turkey instead of chicken, etc.). Basically everyone brought a dish to a sort of family potluck and the dishes were reviewed by the diners and cooks over a period of about 8 years.

I've also discovered a restaurant chain's recipe for guacamole; its a bleeding pain to make without a food processor/blender though. I'm coming closer to replicating another's General Tso sauce.

Gaming

Limited to a Wednesday night roleplaying session, which cycles between 3 GMs, campaigns, and game systems; and a handful of hours spent playing "proper" computer games, for the past few weeks mostly Demigod. I spend those spare minutes (waiting for something to cook or download) playing the "Tales of..." series of JRPGs in various emulators; this has supplanted playing flash games of late.

Sleeping

New pillows are helping that alot; control over my new place's thermostat helps a hell of a lot to. Lack of bathroom contention also makes this easier. Thursdays are the only day I don't have to wake up on time though, and this is slightly stressful after years of making my own schedule.

Work

I got rehired at work for 227 days after the end of my current appointment. Since that is what I was shooting for, "yay". I'll be free for 5-10 days starting 10 or 15 June, depending on if I burn vacation time.

Car

I may or my not be using this period of time to have a proper fuckload of work done to my car to make it last another 2-5 years (my car turns 15 this year so this is dubious even though its in fine shape save the engine...). This is a necessary step due to the absolute impossibility of me getting a car loan (my own bank won't give me a $3000 loan on $4000 cash collateral).

Either way I can't take a long trip as I don't trust my car to complete a long journey at this time (burns a lot of oil, needs power steering pump and a few other gadgets).

"Life, the Universe, and Everything"

Not a whole lot of time for existential conundrums. That might be described as "healthy" by a therapist type.

P.S.
I've been experiencing way to much British stuff lately, here I am saying things like "10 June" and "bleeding".

After missing the Firefly bandwagon by a mile (didn't watch it until the DVD came out), I vowed not to ever doubt Joss Whedon and to actively keep up with anything he was doing, until he gave me a reason otherwise.

Thusly, when Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog hit, I was right on top of it.

( Dollhouse opinion after the cut! )

Deposit on a 1 bedroom apartment in the same building as the one I'm rooming with others in paid.  This could upgrade into a 2 bedroom by the move-in date on the 1 bedroom, and the landlord has given me dibs in this case.  Otherwise, I wait around a couple months with most things packed for a 2 bedroom to open up.  I really need an office/study.

I retour (if they keep you past your expiration date, you become a career employee- so they furlough you for a work week in between appointments to keep you as a temp; paperwork mishaps were responsible for the last 5 temps who became career...) with the postal service in June.  I expect no problems.  I excel at this job.  I've also been trained in all the systems I expect to be trained in (the only one left is the one you don't want to be trained in.  Ever.), and there is nary a blemish on my record.

Well, OK, I ask a lot of questions they don't have ready answers for.  Also, I stirred up some trouble between union, management, and the uber-union...

...I can't just ride a good thing, can I?

Target ETA for going back to WSU:  Spring 2010.

...so I'll make it quick and random!

Thought I'd return to my default ellipses format...

Since when did LJ get this complex rich text style javascript editing window on their post page?  This is slick, tested technology; it is also New To Me as the default.  It scares me a little.

I miss Alternative Nation (kiddies who don't remember can wiki for it). I'd like to watch some VJ intros/outros from it... who thought back then that recording that sort of stuff would matter?

Since when did I start expecting to be able to access recordings of pop culture history instantly?

I've done my bit to make obscure content accessible by collecting all media related to something and figuring out sly methods of distribution which have endured for half a decade without fault or intervention on my own part.  In other words, "links please?".

Sign up for all the junk mail you can!  The more mail, the more work for me!

I type 40 hours a week.  This is broken into 10 4 hour shifts (an 8 hour work day with a half hour lunch).  Counting my breaks into the total time, I key 9700 keystokes per hour, which is 32 WPM.  Without stopping.  I dare you to try this!  My hands now have bulging veins and my forearms are toned.

I see about 34,000 pictures of mail per week.  Plus or minus.

Some poor kid mailed a letter to Santa on Christmas Eve and marked it as "Ur-gent!!!!!".  Another mailed what must have been a large and heavy list, Calvin style- it was mailed in a large flat envelope, and every christmas song mentioning santa was carefully scrawled on the envelope (when I saw it I immeadiately thought about the Egyptian Book of the Dead, but maybe that was the Metallica cover blaring at my ears at the time), making the true destination impossible for a computer and nearly impossible for a human to determine.  I really hope they intended it for the North Pole.

People in Wisconsin have messed up addresses.  People in the deep south mess up addresses.  Some men where I work wear dresses.

Wow, lots of people can't send mail to the IRS right.  I'd think... its something that you'd take extra special care doing.  Apparently not.

All the zip codes for Topeka, KS start with 666. 

A lot of people couldn't spell "Sarah Palin".  A disturbing few can't spell "White House".  Thank the Electoral College none ever had the chance to combine/compound those errors.

I now cringe at the sight of mail and my fingers twitch out keystrokes.

I forgot how much working second shift kills your social life.  At least I work someplace where:

1.  Everyone knows you're not a felon;

2.  Everyone knows exactly how much money you make;

3.  Everyone knows your name (pretty ID badges required at all times);

4.  Everyone knows that working for the government means you're through being cool.  Pretty much everyone but the kids (yeah, I think of the under ~22 set as youngins these days) who picked it as their first real job out of high school knows how to be a coworker and make small talk.

5.  Everyone knows that their in the same boat as you (half the managers are out there doing the same job as you when they're not managing, and the rest are fighting the system to make sure you can do your job);

6.  The undependable types are systematically weeded out.  You just come to work and suddenly never see them again.

All these factors mean its pretty easy to talk to the opposite sex and head for drinks after work, or catch dinner before.  The ones who aren't already attached due to earning power, dependability, and lack of a social life at any rate.

P.S.

Ok, so I lied about the quick part.

P.S.S.

Since when did anyone read this anyway?  I don't think it was ever truly intended for public consumption...

...I know one of the folks that occasionally reads what they see here makes the occasional icon.

On XBox Live, user icons known as "gamer pics" are sold in exchange for XBL points. For instance, these Penny Arcade gamer pics sell for about $2.50 (or 200 "MS points"). Four full lists of the packs available: 1-E, F-L, M-R, S-Z.

...you can right click and save as these things (at their full destination resolution) right through your web browser. Even in IE. There are some free (as in corporate-sponsored-advertising-themed) packs for the poor XBoxers, like this 7-11 pack or this incomprehensible McDonald's one.

Comments?

Watch the whole interview here.

From the rather excellent British car show Top Gear (the best fansite).

Apple Trailer Download is a handy dandy greasemonkey user script which allows your Firefox to neatly snitch the .mov files from Apple's Trailers Site. Get Greasemonkey if you don't have it already, and then grab Apple Trailer Download from over at userscripts.org. Of course, you can play these files best with VLC or mplayer.

I just love rendering crappy software like Quicktime pointless and unnecessary in a mere few fell swoops.

The Official Monty Python Channel on Youtube