Archive for the 'Random Thoughts' Category

Extra glasses

Published on August 23, 2010 in Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: money.

The ticket-seller at the Metra station just came out of his booth to hand me the sunglasses that I dropped in the parking lot, on Friday morning. His cryptic smile combined with the weird nod the coffee-guy gave me lead me to believe that they probably watched me on Friday, as I casually started walking across the parking lot, then saw the early train start rolling into the station, started running, thinking I might be able to catch it and have some extra time to pick up a coffee while walking to work after the trains, slung my bag around from back to front to grab my wallet to pay for parking (which is probably when my sunglasses flew out of the not-quite-closed pocket that they were in), punched in my number and waited for the machine to register my payment, then whipped around the corner to see the conductor get on and close the doors.

I want to believe the coffee-guy saw me running, because, clearly, his job is boring that early in the morning, and seeing someone run for a train is exciting. I even want to believe that he saw my glasses fly out of my bag and turned them into the ticket-guy. I’d also love to stretch the reality a bit and imagine that he thought about approaching me between the early train that I missed and my regular train to tell me something flew out of my bag, but decided not to, because I looked like Bruce Banner about to go hulk. The actual reality is probably that someone turned them in when they saw them in the parking lot and the ticket-seller just knew they were mine, somehow, and has a weird smile all the time… and coffee-guy gives a nod to anyone he thinks might buy from him again.

Whatever really happened, I now have a spare pair of sunglasses, since I went to lenscrafters on Saturday. I also have a spare pair of regular glasses from the Friday that they fell out of my pocket when the school bus that I was in jumped a curb. Those came back in the middle of the next week, in the same case that these sunglasses came back in… the one with the broken zipper-pull, maybe it’s a lucky case. But again, they didn’t quite come back fast enough for me not to replace them.

It’s weird to have spares for both, but I don’t think I should return either pair, knowing my luck and given the worn out condition of the 4-5 year old pairs that tried to get away.

Sarah says I take too long to write a blog

Published on August 15, 2010 in Family & Friends, Photo, Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: camp, driving, food, friends, memories, mobile.

Frank, Sarah’s little brother, is now 21. We went to Famous Dave’s, a chain BBQ place, last night, and he did not get carded. Sarah didn’t get carded either, but she wasn’t that surprised. It made me think back to when I was 16 and my sister was 26 and the two of us were wandering around Key West, Florida, during the week that my brother got married. We stopped into a bar, because there’s more of those than anything else in Key West. She got carded; I ordered a Sprite, the bartender asked if I was sure that’s “all I wanted.” My sister was upset… in a few more years, I’m sure that getting carded no longer upset her.

I also took a trip down memory lane, earlier in the week, when an old ex-girlfriend apologized to me on facebook, in case she was ever heartless or selfish. She wasn’t and I told her so. It got me thinking about past relationships… there are a few people I should probably apologize to; I guess I have a few regrets, but I think I only really hold one grudge, maybe two. Facebook is certainly good for bringing up these random memories and feelings.

In other news, camp is almost over, though I got roped into an extra week. It’s going to be a low-enrollment/more chilled-out version of camp, but it’s still another week of getting up early and going to the city. My hope is that my seniority and 15+ years of camp experience will mean that I’m running the show as the fill-in director. My history in these matters is that I’m promised a director’s position and/or I fill in for one until a decision is made and then it isn’t given to me… no such promise was made this time, so maybe this will be the time it happens.

The commute to camp has been made much nicer, this summer, by the set of Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5vi that I picked up when they went on super-sale at Amazon. Unfortunately, the cord busted on the first set, so I had to get myself another set, but Logitech customer service got back to me about my complaint and replaced the first set for free… in the meantime, the cord started to separate, right at the jack, on the second set. I put some electrical tape on there to hold it together until the replacement set came. I’m hoping they replace them as well. The foam tips are the most comfortable, but it makes me sad that they fall apart after a week and half or so. I think my ear canals are too small or something because all of the various sized silicone tips irritate my ears a bit and seem to wiggle their way out. The cord is obviously cheap on this model, both have broken and it makes lots of contact-noise when I’m walking around, but if I ever upgrade to something better, I might look into those custom ear-molded ones.

I’m also still playing the music on my commutes from my iPod. I was hoping to be just be carrying the Droid. I am carrying an extra battery for the phone, so I don’t have that excuse anymore, and it’s not that it’s not capable, but the lack of gapless playback (for those few albums that really need it) or built-in volume normalization (for regular shuffle) or a shuffle-by-album option (for when I feel like reconnecting with my albums, which is most of the time) makes me continue to carry my iPod. There are alternative music apps that attempt to solve these issues (at least the gapless and shuffle by album), but none puts it all together. I’m sure that future versions of Android will get these features in, especially if the rumors are true and they start using android as an OS for a media-player type device. Will these features make it in before I upgrade to a new phone?

I’ve found the phone very difficult to use this summer. I’m not sure if it’s just too humid at my mostly-outside job, or if I sweat too much (likely) but the touchscreen gets all freaked out and thinks it’s being touched all over the place and renders the phone useless until I clean it off… and even then, I can only get good response from it for a few seconds until it starts freaking out again. If I go somewhere cool and dry (air conditioned) and give it some time to recover… and give myself some time to recover and not be so sweaty … it works just fine. This wasn’t an issue at all in the Winter and Spring; It will probably affect when I decide to upgrade to a new phone. I’ll be eligible for a bit of a discount in early July, and that humidity will just be starting to bother me again. So whatever awesome android phone is available on July 06, 2011, you can pretty much bet that I’ll be buying one. If it continues to happen on the next phone I own, I’ll have to seal my phone in a ziploc bag all summer, or something.

I’m pretty sure I have a legitimate use for the wireless tether feature of the Droid. We’ve booked ourselves a few days at a cabin in Gatlinburg, TN, in late September. The rental policy said something about having “local Knoxville area access numbers…” Dial-up? Awesome. I don’t think I know anyone in the area (unless EJ is still around there, somewhere), so this one is going to be pure vacation, for me, and no attempting to visit friends/family. That stuff will have to wait until sometime around the holidays. It’ll be one of the longer roadtrips we’ve done in the past couple years, and I’m excited about that.

good news, bad news

Published on June 2, 2010 in Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: food, health, team.building.

bad news: I didn’t qualify for the clinical research study that would’ve paid me to take the drugs that I’m already taking
good news: I didn’t qualify because I’m too healthy; A1C of 6.1, down ~50 lbs from a year ago, might even be able to reduce the meds that I’m taking, if I get more exercise and turn some fat into muscle.

bad news: A1C tests usually mean blood samples taken with a needle and a big bruising scar that lasts for days.
good news: today’s A1C came from the same finger prick they used to test my current blood sugar and was ready in 6 minutes.

bad news: I had to fast for this appontment today and hadn’t eaten since 8.30 last night.
good news: panera bread on the way to the red line (with free wifi)

bad news: I’m not done with the stats for work, yet
good news: I’m downtown for the study appointment, so I can swing by the office and get the stuff I’m missing, hopefully.

bad news: between major seasons, so not much work besides finishing the stats.
good news: picked up a few days at a couple other teams courses and met people and have heard from even more courses who want me to work for them.

bad news: it was raining this morning and I had at least one 10 minute walk on the schedule.
good news: the sun is out.

one less tooth

Published on April 30, 2010 in Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: health, money, my.head, team.building.

After digging food out of my wisdom tooth with a toothpick after every meal for the past few months… the cavity became too bad and I was experiencing ridiculously unbearable pain every few days. I lined up an appointment at a Dentistry school, since the rumor was that they did good work and did it cheap. They checked me in, took an x-ray, told me that the tooth was definitely the culprit and told me they could pull it right there and then. It was a couple students who did the actual work, and they did hit my gums with their tools a couple times, but it wasn’t an overly painful experience and I didn’t have any ridiculous swelling or signs of infection. They prescribed me an antibiotic, and I took my final dose of that today. I still have a whole that little bits of food occasionally get stuck in, but I’ve gotten really good at using the mirror on my visor in my car and a toothpick to get it out.

In other news, I got on the list at a couple more teams courses and hopefully I’ll be picking up more work. Already lined up a few days in between the usual season and summer camp. Hooray!

winter (and) games

Published on January 17, 2010 in Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: mobile, money, Web.

So, my big excitement, so far, this year, was the day my facebook got hacked. I don’t know how, and since they didn’t change my password and lock me out, there’s no place to report it to facebook staff, and apparently no action that they’re going to take to try and figure out who this person was who started chatting up all my friends about being mugged while in London and needing money for a hotel bill. So I changed my ancient password… on facebook and several other web-based email accounts and social sites… and I guess I’ll just hope that it doesn’t happen again. I’m sure facebook could at least get an IP address that was signed in when all the messages were sent, but they seem uninterested. The fun part was that I was notified by facebook messages on my phone. I logged in from my phone to check it out… and I managed to change my password and temporarily deactivate my account… all from my phone. I never would’ve been able to do that, before. I love my phone. Also, I set up latitude… you’ll notice a little map with my face on it, in the right column of fashiondisaster.org … no more wondering if I was really mugged while on vacation in London. Did I mention that I love my phone?

Winter. This is my real downtime. The holidays are over and work doesn’t start up again for a few weeks, unless we hire new people and have to train them. I usually entertain myself with a video game addiction at this point in the year, and this year is no exception. Sarah and Frank and I are all addicted to video games. Sarah is still spending most of her time on the Uncharted 2 multiplayer, and I’m almost finished with the The Saboteur. I could go back to Ghostbusters, if I finish it, I guess… Ghostbusters is fun, with all the cast voices in there, but The Saboteur is a way better game. I also have Brutal Legend to finish… and probably some others that I’m forgetting about.

Lazative naming is funny.

Published on December 23, 2009 in Family & Friends and Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: driving.

My new favorite naming convention for businesses/shopping plazas is the combination of the street names it resides at. We drove by “Scharrington Dental” tonight, which is near the corner of Schaumburg and Barrington roads. I go by several on my way to the teams course in Northbrook: Waukdee plaza, at the corner of Waukegan and Dundee; Dunsten plaza, at Dundee and Pfingsten, Dunhurst shopping center, at Dundee and Elmhurst. Is this a Chicagoland thing? I don’t remember such lazy and non-creative (lazative?) naming conventions anywhere else that I’ve lived. It makes me chuckle.

BTW our holiday schedules have changed a bit: here at home, Doug is spending some time in the hospital dealing with an infection. This may delay our Christmas dinner and gift-opening to another day… maybe even next year. Out east, we’ve shifted family days around a little and I think Tuesday afternoon/night and all day Wednesday are still free, if you’re looking to hang out with us, while we’re out there.

Feels like winter, now

Published on December 19, 2009 in Family & Friends and Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: friends, money.

Shoveling hasn’t been too bad, so far, this year… a couple light ones and a couple heavy ones. I don’t have a feeling this year about whether this is going to be a “heavy” winter, like last year was. I really hope we can avoid the storms on the day we’re flying out this year, though. That was a little too stressful, last year. Good job, those of you who claimed days… 12/28 (evening) through 12/30 is still available, for those of you who haven’t (or just want to leave it up to chance). We’ll be tempted to make a trek down to NYC to see the Tim Burton exhibit and maybe catch up with whoever else lives down there and might want to tag along… unless those days get claimed by people in the MA area.

I managed to get through the balances on most of the gift cards that were haunting my wallet… in a related note, some of you are getting christmas presents from me for the first time in years… or ever, maybe. I managed to avoid most of my impulses to buy things for ourselves that we really don’t need.

I’m getting very comfortable with my new phone; I’m happy with my choice… no regrets. I have a new number that sort of forwards to my old number, by the way… so, if you’re on Verizon, it’s cheaper just to call my old number, but if you’re not, lemme know and I’ll get you my new number.

I finished Mini-Ninjas, though I might just play it again on Hard. I am looking for a new game to become hopelessly addicted to during my break from work. If you have suggestions or games that you like to play online that we can play together, hit me up.

gift cards should come with suggestions

Published on December 3, 2009 in Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: food, money.

I’m bad at using gift cards. I’ve dig through my wallet several times in the past year and piled all my gift cards up and went to each website, one by one, to find the value of each card. The I try to use the cards… food-specific cards are the easiest to use. Store cards (especially Target, for some reason) stay in my wallet for years. And those visa gift cards are really the worst; I use them until there’s a dollar or two left on them, and then forget how much is on there, and never use them for the small purchases that might not put them over their limit. By the time I remember to try and split a purchase into whatever is left on the card and the rest of the balance on some normal card, the card is more than a year old and some maintenance fee has wiped out the remaining balance. The exception, of course, was the stockpile of Apple gift cards that Sarah (and her mom) gave me over the past few years. I had no problem spending them, all at once, on the macbook that I happen to be writing this post from, right now.

I’m genuinely worried about the two $100 gift cards that I put into my wallet this week. One is an American Express card that I only paid $50 for at their Daily Wish site, and the other is a rebate from Verizon. Regardless of my extensive and ridiculous wishlist, I like getting gift cards. They make things easy, theoretically, but I’m still bad at using them.

In other news, we got that tree up, and got lights and ornaments on it. Peanut helped untangle the lights.

wraptember

Published on November 20, 2009 in Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: mobile, Web.

The Droid has been pretty awesome, so far. The phone works. I just got my Google Voice invite, so we’ll see how that affects things. It should, at least, open up some cool voicemail options. The web works. The apps work… though, the web apps still seem redundant, with such a good browser onboard. With the push gmail, I get notified on my phone before I even see it on the web; It’s creepy. The navigation does the job. It does need some more options and features built into it… ability to customize routes or at least request shortest vs fastest or non-highway routes would be nice. The audio part is surprisingly functional. I miss the Sound Check and the ability to shuffle by album that I have on the iPod and I don’t know if it has the battery life to use it the way I did on the trains all summer and since it also has to stay on all day as a phone.

This is the month where work usually wraps up… and that leads to the month when we wrap presents… and it will all blur into a month I will call Wraptember.

Those of you who plan on seeing Sarah and I when we’re back east, claim your days now.

I loved Freeway

Published on October 27, 2009 in Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: memories, Mom.

My mom found this. It was somewhere in her house, probably in the basement with a bunch of other old mail. I definitely played Freeway, a lot. Like any good addictive game, it would still be there, long after I stopped playing, when I closed my eyes. Seeing the picture and screenshot in the “Summer 1982 Activision Video Game Cartridge Catalog” made the memories come flooding back. Now I have to figure out what I should put the patch on.

The text of the letter:

Dear Fan of FREEWAY™ by ACTIVISION:

Congratulations! You guided your chicken through traffic at least 20 times, which qualifies you as an official member of the Activision “Save the Chicken Foundation.” We are pleased to reward your traffic dodging achievemets with the enclosed patch.

Your name has been added to our mailing list and we will keep you posted on new Activision game cartridges as they become available.

Thank you for sharing your accomplishment with us. We hope you’ll try other video games by Activision and write us about your experiences with them.

Yours truly,

Jan Marsella
Customer Relations

JM
Enclosure

PS. Please read the enclosed Heat Seal Instructions carefully. Children should not attempt to heat seal the patch to clothing. Improper use of an iron (or related appliance) may result in damage to clothing, or bodily harm. This patch may also be sewn to any fabric.

Also be sure to check out the scans of the Activision catalog at flickr.