Failed Attempt
Finally got proactive and went to the gym yesterday. Mary Beth was up in Nashville for some legislation stuff. I also sat around and watched a few episodes of Rick and Morty (finally getting to the second season). I set my dreamwidth account and tried to import this lj over but it failed. So I'm still posting here again! Maybe I did something wrong? We'll see when I try again.

If you don't see any more posts from me, I've moved to: http://ateolf.dreamwidth.org/

Current Mood: confused

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Uh...
Not a whole lot right now. Ran some errands last night. Worked today. Hard to focus. Distractions. A little bit of a headache. Didn't make much progress. Anyway, back to the whatever it is it's back to.

Current Mood: a little tired...

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Review
Did some coding work yesterday and pretty much finished my webhook stuff much sooner than I was kinda expecting. Met my parents and nephews for an early easter dinner thingie at Soul Fish yesterday. Tidied my code up at work this morning and had a code review in the afternoon. It went pretty well. Have some things to change but overall not horrible. Mary Beth made these West African cookies that I brought to work. They're apparently almost the same thing as a certain Indian pastry, a bunch of my Indian coworkers were remarking on it. Okay, that's about it for now.

Current Mood: aight

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Condomonium
Got Jacques to give me a ride to pick up my car so that's done and I have a car now and we were able to do fun things like finally go to the grocery store! Later in the evening was Condomonium. Mary Beth accompanied me and we walked over to Playhouse. It was pretty cool. Looked at some of the costumes/dresses (none were quite like the Van Gogh's "Starry Nights" via condoms dress they have on display up at Choices from a previous year, but there was still good stuff). There was a cabaret down in the basement. Some burlesque, some drag, some comedy, some music. The first thing we saw was burlesque to Grimes's "Genesis" (there was some Rammstein burlesque later that was a little lacking). This one drag we saw later was really good. Cole (am I spelling her name right?) who we used to work with back at relay was really funny (seen her once before at another Choices benefit a year or so ago...enjoyed her material then too). Lisa was mcing and was funny in her little bits. Okay, upstairs for the fashion show. Lizz Winstead was the host (she's one of the creators of the Daily Show) along with D'Lo (in costume as his Sri Lankan mother). First there was an auction of a few things. Dinner with Steve Cohen was first and his presence was enjoyable as usual (all things given, at least we have an awesome congressman). Then it was the condom-laden fashion show. Ooh and someone brought a bulldog on stage, which I know can be a cheap move...but it was a bulldog on stage and it was awesome. There was more cabaret downstairs for a little bit, but it was about time for my volunteer shift. I'd signed up for clean-up as that's the one no one else had signed up for at the time. When I got there (after trying to find what was going on, I guess it's the end of the event and things are a little looser) there was one other volunteer for that shift. First to pick up cups and stuff. I took it upon myself to clean the auditorium and I'll just say that people are animals. I mean, we know this, but I'll say it again. Can't say I've never been guilty of leaving a cup behind at my seats at an event. But it needs reiterating, people are animals. Then moving Choics's stuff into the room by the back door and finally into a car. Then we walked home and I passed out. There you go.

Current Mood: okay

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Ready and Waiting
Walked over to Playhouse on the Square for some volunteer orientation for Condomonium (Choices's big fundraiser event). Good thing it happens to be so close! My car is ready now. I've got someone coming to pick me up in less than an hour. Finally. Wasn't quite as cheap as I was hoping but it's not expensive either. Anyway, having a car again will be a good thing. That's about it for now.

Current Mood: warm

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Friday
Pretty alright day at work today. Not a lot of people there. I was pretty productive. Realized a thing I was doing for the webhooks was too extra so I had to back it out. Then I was working on the one last thing I needed to do. Testing and all that. My car still isn't ready. They want to charge the battery or something so they're doing that tonight and will fix it in the morning, I hope. It'd really better not take longer than that (especially considering how long it's already been to even start). Anyway. Got out of work early today because of the non-holiday. Woo. And I'm trying to post and the damn internet's down. Nice. Looks like the ol' unplug-the-router trick actually worked!

Current Mood: still waiting...

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The Wait
Got a ride to work from Zach this morning. Got some Ching's wings for lunch. Stephen was there but he was at another table so I'm not all too sure what's up with his new job. Felt pretty productive today. Made some progress in improving my webhooks stuff. But I keep doing new stuff and each time I got really really stuck on something for a good while. Then it turned up in every case to be with the wrong string somewhere (though once it was actually the class name misspelled and the string representing it was "right"). Anyway, that's that. My car still isn't ready. The guy didn't come today, at least not yet. He needed a part to be picked up and Kanan is going to do that for me. Should be tomorrow...hopefully!!! Got a ride home from Zach again. That's where we're at now!

Current Mood: okay

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Start
Well, today was fuckin' something. I'm leaving work and get in my car and it just will not start. No sound, nothing, so I'm wondering how deep this problem goes. I got in touch with Zach and he was able to come around and help me try to jump it. We tried and it wouldn't take. As we were giving up Kanan came by and he works on cars as a hobby so he had a battery tester and we were able to better diagnose the problem. I may need a new battery too, it is pretty old, but the main problem is the starter. He has a friend who works on cars who he's going to get to come up and check it out in the parking lot. So hopefully that will resolve itself alright. I got a ride home from Zach (he lives just about around the corner anyway). Mary Beth's window is still out, the people called her today and they can't get to it til Monday. Yikes. Hopefully I'll get my car working soon. Til then I guess it's a matter of getting more rides. A minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things, but that's where it's at now. Also in sad news, Bored Lord apparently just moved to California so he can't play the festival anymore. Sad. I wasn't aware of him before, but I really dug his stuff after checking it out and he's probably the biggest name we had on the lineup. Ah ah well. We'll make it on our own gumption, I say!

Current Mood: bluh

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Pass Through
Didn't get much sleep last night so I was pretty tired today, but I was pretty productive at work. The webhooks thing I've been working on (the universal code for all apis to use) has passed its first rough draft and is actually working. Needs some cleanup, I think, and it may need a little more functionality but we'll see. Came home from work to find Mary Beth's car has one of the back windows busted. Yikes. On a more pleasant note, I came home to some things in the mail: Forbidden Planet dvd (to be played during the Memphis Concrète festival!) and a couple cds: The Hafler Trio: Fuck, Grauzone: Die Sunrise Tapes. Anyway, we went over to Sarah's for seder. It was my second seder ever (the other being years ago at Hanover's parents' place). It was nice fun and some good food. We did a humanist script. Fun day to be thinking about passover given Forty-Five and Co.'s antics today of all days. Anyway, came back home to tape up Mary Beth's window but someone should be coming by to fix it tomorrow. Well I guess that's it for now.

Current Mood: tired

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Jerk
Not a whole lot. Mild design work yesterday. Back to work today. My scrummaster thought I've been mad at her. I don't really know why and I feel bad. I guess I've just reverted back to my standard awkward behavior and I should make some kind of gesture to make up, but what? In other thoughts, is dreamwidth my best option? We'll see if I can actually make a jump after oh shit reall? 17 years? Is this almost adulthood?

Current Mood: blah

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Serves
Mary Beth and I went up to Impossible Language last night. This time it was sort of guest curated by a group over from Fayetteville, AR. All the poets were really good. Later in the night we went to a party over at Jesse's. There was supposed to be karaoke but there were technical issues. Mostly just people talking. Most of the people were fine but there was this one obnoxious guy, a self-proclaimed "asshole." At one point he spearheaded the conversation into a religious debate that devolved into arguing over the literal definition of the word "agnostic." Then I just bring up the definition of the word because this is pretty tedious but he still argues against it. Anyway, I'm feeling at a crossroads because of all the lj shit. I've been on here so so so long. And I don't mind how dead it is, sort of makes it feel like a little personal journal. But with this new shit I don't know. I wonder if there's a comparable site to switch to. I'm not prepared right now. We'll see.

Current Mood: contemplative

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Day Date
Got up this morning and went to the writers' workshop. So some more prompts and a few more beginnings of things that will probably be pretty good if I ever finish them...like all the ones so far that I haven't finished! After that, since I was around the corner I figured I'd swing by Heather's bookstore. I thought there was supposed to be a star trek day or something, but I think it's tomorrow. She wasn't even in the shop. I still picked up a book: Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler. It really stayed with me when Mary Beth read me the title story. Today is the day of the crawfish festival down the street at Overton Square. So we did like we do most years and walked down to it to pick up some crawfish. It's definitely spring. We sat on the back deck where there's no shade and dug up my sun hat. I got down my technique much quicker and better than I usually do. Of course, you twist the tail off at first to get more meat out of the body. Then the other trick I've had trouble with in the past I guess is peeling back the tail's shell with the thumb, getting all or as many segments as possible at once together. Then you can mostly peel it back as if it were hinged. I thought it was a pretty successful strategy. Then what? Then more grocery shopping. Alright! Oh, I should mention that tickets for Memphis Concrète are available for purchase! Not that anyone's really here to read it, but: here's the link anyway.

Current Mood: good day

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Homes
Went to the gym last night. Nothing intense, just steady cardio for a while. Today at work, John was crossing the street from a meeting in the other building and slipped and fell and someone had taken him to the hospital. He ended up fracturing his elbow. I wasn't around for all that, but I did drive his car home to him. Other than that, those jboss issues reared their head again a little bit. Oh, and I helped a little last night with testing a production change so I went home a little early today. Alright.

Current Mood: okay

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Issues
Last night Mary Beth introduced me to some Red Dwarf which I had never seen before and the few episodes I saw were really dern funny. She also noticed a had a little bit of a rash on my stomach. Hm. I noticed she was right. Then I wake up this morning and it's spread on my arms and other places. I felt it a little bit on my left arm but it seemed to let up some throughout the day and I don't feel it anymore. Hope I just don't have some damn rash on me and this resolves. Work was kinda annoying today. Felt like I was making progress on the thing I was working on then all these jboss issues popped up in test and I got tied up and sucked away into that and didn't really accomplish a damn thing this afternoon. Balls. Also, the guy from Holy Gallows seems to have gotten mad at me about the festival and money. He had asked for an amount and I said we couldn't meet that guarantee and then he said I don't know how to negotiate. Okay. I'll try to nicen things up in an email later. Don't expect him to end up playing now, but wouldn't want to leave things on a bad note with anyone. Definitely not my intention. Okay!

Current Mood: reddish

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Boring Stuff
Did work stuff at work today. Working on this one thing where I'm encountering some new stuff so I've spent a while just trying to wrap my head around all that. Think I was finally starting to figure it out at the end of the day. But I'm using events (and delegates) in c# and I've never done that before. I guess it's a bit like callbacks in javascript, but I'm not super-fresh on that either anyway. I left an hour early today to make up for the time I stayed late on Monday. So that's something.

Current Mood: sleepy

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Ambergris
A pretty normal day at work today. But I do have a couple bits I'd forgotten from earlier posts. First is the Radiohead show. The bass was really loud, which can be cool but it often swallowed the other instruments. That's all, just a memory of that aspect of the show. Didn't stop it from being a good show of course, but wanted to make note of that. And I forgot to mention a wonderful thing that happened yesterday. Mary Beth and I listened to a podcast about ice cream while eating ice cream! Fantastic.

Current Mood: okay

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Continued
So work. Blah blah blah. Kinda normal day. Got another email from my employer that the freeze in raises has been extended at least another month. Big surprise, yeah. Oh, but we're assured that the system of periodic raises as an integral and important and essential component of the program. Alright. There was a production issue there was a meeting about at the end of the day so I was held after for an hour. I wasn't actually doing anything in the meeting, but whatever. Not a whole lot else. I dunno.

Current Mood: blah

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Radiohead, Atlanta
Got out on the road yesterday a little later than expected. Zach was delayed in picking up his rental car. But we made it to Atlanta. Was expecting traffic to be horrible given the collapsed bridge, but it really wasn't bad at all. Less bad than any time I remember being in Atlanta. Maybe being the weekend had something to do with it. Anyway, we got it and got to the hotel and didn't have time for record shopping or going too far to eat so we went somewhere within walking distance. It was pretty good. I had a brisket sandwich and grits. Then we got a lyft to the arena downtown where the show was. I picked up an expensive t-shirt and got my seat. Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis was the opening act and they were alright. They had a few songs that were really good. They did a slightly rocked up version of traditional middle eastern music and overall it isn't my thing, but I let my mind be open to appreciate it. And overall it was pretty good. I was there a little early (well, most people just hang out where the "restaurants" and "bars" around the arena are before getting their seats) and this one guy sat there I talked to a little bit. His seat was right next to mine and we were the only two people in the row. Talked a little about Radiohead, of course. Zach was down on the floor in the general admission area. My seat wasn't too bad. It wasn't nosebleed and was relatively close. Not the best seat, far from the worst. The show was good (though the In Rainbows tour show Mary Beth and I saw was the best). Some highlights were "Idioteque" (of course, they've played that every time I've seen 'em, of course it's been amazing every time too) and "The Gloaming" and "Bloom" (which was awesome as I haven't seen them since that album came out), also they had three drums on stage for it (they brought out a kit for Johnny and there was already a second drummer on most songs). I'd assumed there was delay on the drums or something but it's extra drums! Also "Myxomatosis" was really good. The version of "Street Spirit" was really good live. They did "Subterranean Homesick Alien" which they apparently don't play very often. It was Radiohead, lots of songs and they were good. After that we got a lyft back. We walked a bit to get away from the crowd then we were in this nondescript area and it took the driver forever to find us. Oh fuck! I forgot something. After the show, I'm taking out my earplugs and I see something fall. One of my attenuators had popped out while I was taking it out. So I'm searing on the floor all around my seats. I eventually find it or part of it. There's another part of the plastic that anchors it in the mold better. All of it's just tiny clear plastic so it was really hard to find it at all. But I'm looking for the other part and eventually get kicked out by security (nicely but still kicked out). I'm a little frustrated but I'm thinking about it and I think maybe I lost part of it a few years ago at that Devo show. That was the first time it fell out and I had to search for it on the floor. And ever since then it hasn't stayed in the plug as well. It could be because the anchor piece fell off so it doesn't stay in as well. The volume reduction part is still there so it still works, just a little more fragile. Anyway, all this is very interesting to me, so apologies.

Today we got up and we were gonna get breakfast food. Zach's a little in a hurry 'cuz he's going to New Orleans to see them again and is meeting up with family there tonight. Well, we get to the breakfast place and see a line wrapping around outside so that was off. Didn't want to just drive around looking so we headed to Little Five Points where the record store is and figured we'd find something there. Not a ton of choices but we ended up at that Vortex burger place with the skull door. I had a peanut butter and fried plantain burger. It was okay, I mean it at least met the minimum criteria of being what it was so by virtue of that it had to at least be good. More apologies for my convoluted wording. Then it was a visit to Criminal Records. I got some stuff: John Coltrane: Offering: Live at Temple University; John Cage Meets Sun Ra: The Complete Concert • June 8, 1986 • Coney Island, NY; Nigeria Soul Fever; Boogie Breakdown: South African Synth-Disco 1980-1984; The Psychic Paramount: Gamelan into the Mink Supernatural; New Brutalism: Territorial Reconstruction; Matmos: The Civil War; Fleetwood Mac: Tusk; Trans Am: Sex Change; Silkworm: Italian Platinum; Xiu Xiu: Forget; and David Bowie: Stage. After that Zach dropped me off at the car rental place so I could pick up my car (after finding it after driving around the airport a bit). My ride back home was normal I guess. I made it back and the damn rental was more than I was expecting. I had reserved by the cheapest rate but it turns out that was a base price with an additional 30 cents per mile that was mixed in the fine print and I wasn't aware of. I wasn't charged THAT (which would have been way more given the distance) but was given the normal rate which was still more than I was expecting. Not insanely more, but still. It was just a little annoying to find out. But I'm back home and all is well. Oh! I almost forgot! Sarah finished artwork for the Memphis Concrète flyer! I may make a couple minor adjustments but it looks pretty darn good if I say so myself. Getting ready to really get things to start rolling. Okay.

Current Mood: good

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Fonts and Logos
Finally got a chance to look at fonts yesterday but still nothing was right, so I said fuck it and proceeded to make my own damn font (at least the characters I would use in my logo). So I found some website where you can design your own font that probably isn't the best and easiest way to do it but I got it done and reworked it a few times til I got something I think is pretty good (and then second-guessed some more and fixed a couple characters this morning). So yeah, I did work at work but it's also the day of service where all the "full time" employees are off doing community work and the contractors are left at the office. I did a little bit of that font work and also worked on putting an early logo together to put on the facebook page (along with a succinct logo design with just the MC). Anyway, I like my font. It looks like Avant Garde (you know, the REAL Avant Garde with the slanted characters) crossed with some old arcade game's logo font that I can quite place and maybe only exists in my mind, and they got together on a circuit board. That's what it's like to me. Oh, and there's a little bit of sawtooth wave in it for good measure. I also finished reading Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs. It was really good and very Burroughs. So in the news, this bridge section of I-85 in northern Atlanta caught fire and collapsed (no one was hurt, they had cleared the area before it collapsed). But yeah, there's a huge hole in the interstate. Guess where I'm going tomorrow? Atlanta! (With Zach to see Radiohead). We won't be in that part of town or too near where it happened, but I know it's going to have ripple effects in traffic throughout the city (and Atlanta's already a horrible city for traffic). So that is crazy. We'll see how it all goes.

Current Mood: shocked

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Universal
I went to an Indie Memphis screening last night. A movie called Cheerleader and it was really good. Mary Beth was going to go too, but she was still feeling overwhelmed from all the activity of our near week-long trip and didn't feel up to more activity. So I left the extra ticket for whoever showed up after me. It was a high school kinda movie, but very stylized and...it's kinda hard to categorize. Mary Beth thought it was horror but it wasn't horror. There were funny moments but it wasn't a comedy. I'd also hesitate to call it a drama. There was a phone interview with the director afterwards (Ryan held up his phone to the mic) and he said one of his influences for this was Boogie Nights (and while I haven't seen that, from what little Paul Thomas Anderson I have seen, that makes sense). One question from an audience member was about how he was able as a guy to so accurately portray what it's like being a teenage girl: thoughts and emotions and what they have to go through -wise. Overhearing her after it was over, she didn't like his answer though, which was something along the lines of he tried to write from the basic universal emotions we all feel to come from somewhere genuine and filter it through the lens of a different character (in this case a teenage girl cheerleader). I think I remembered a couple Big Ears fragments. I really just wanted to comment on what, for lack of a better term, I call the whole "vibe" of the festival. It was just a really pleasant atmosphere. Everyone was nice and most of the musicians seemed very open about what a great experience it was for them on their side. I think part of it had to do with the way it was integrated in with the city. It really felt like a place (as opposed to some detached field in the middle of nowhere or whatever). Also everything was pretty well organized. And everyone was just nice and really felt like they wanted to be there and wanted to experience something new. Okay, another thing was being able to pick up some French Broad chocolate from that pharmacy place. Just started eating it. So delicious! I'll see if I can even remember anything else later.

Current Mood: good

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