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Monday, September 13th, 2010
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12:24 am - Wine for longevity
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After reading about that study finding that people who drink little-or-none are outlived by people who drink rather a lot, who are further outlived by those who drink 1-3 drinks daily, I decided that I wanted to compound my genetic legacy of longevity by adding red wine to my diet. Tonight I brought home six bottles of red wine and one bottle of Riesling, plus a six-pack of gluten-free beer.
To your health!
(Though I guess I should make sure my liver works well enough to handle the increased load...)
This entry was originally posted at http://lucis.dreamwidth.org/2694.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
current mood:  happy
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| Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
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11:54 pm - Zojirushi
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My rice-bot toiled an hour, yes,
and sang its happy song,
but though it cooked just as it should
it worried it went wrong.
Why is this rice so short and thick?
Why dark, and soft, and light?
Worry not, my little bot;
it's buckwheat. It's alright.
This entry was originally posted at http://lucis.dreamwidth.org/2326.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
current mood:  creative
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| Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
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4:03 pm - okcupid's revolting new approach.
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I recently saw that someone posted a journal entry about getting an email from okcupid with the following content:
We are very pleased to report that you are in the top half of OkCupid's most attractive users. The scales recently tipped in your favor, and we thought you'd like to know.
How can we say this with confidence? We've tracked click-thrus on your photo and analyzed other people's reactions to you in QuickMatch and Quiver.
. . .
Your new elite status comes with one important privilege:
You will now see more attractive people in your match results.
This new status won't affect your actual match percentages, which are still based purely on your answers and desired match's answers. But the people we recommend will be more attractive. Also! You'll be shown to more attractive people in their match results.
. . .
Suddenly, the world is your oyster. Login now and reap the rewards. And, no, we didn't just send this email to everyone on OkCupid. Go ask an ugly friend and see.
I sent okcupid the following note:How can you think this is a good idea? Dating is about attraction, yes, but your website claims to match people based on questions. You are instead implementing the display of users to one-another based on perceptions of the attractiveness of tiny images, and on the actions of users who, for whatever reason, record ratings of how attractive they find other people.
Furthermore, you're telling people they should be happy that they're part of an Attractive People Club, and that they'll have more-attractive people to look at. Your assumption that users want that kind of function is flawed. Also, suggesting that people who didn't get this kind of notification email may be ugly is just plain mean.
The change in the way you show users to other users, as well as your attitude in announcing the changes, is revolting. Your acts make me want to discourage anyone from using your site.
No word back yet. But, ew.
[Added: Still no word back, but they sent me a 'birthday message':"Still single? Come check out your matches..."
Dude, not even my parents bug me about the fact that I'm "still single" - what the fuck? I seriously do not need that kind of abuse from a dating site.]
This entry was originally posted at http://lucis.dreamwidth.org/1826.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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| Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
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11:39 pm - ZOMG weekend to do stuff! join me!
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Friday: Depeche Mode Dance Party @ Black Cat? Or 48FP films at the AFI in Silver Spring, 9:30?
Saturday: clean house, go out Saturday night with a couple folks. Details to be arranged.
Sunday: Housewarming party, 1-5pm! Be there! At night, Prince vs Outkast Dance Party @ Black Cat?
Monday: Rest. (maybe...) Also, She Wants Revenge1 @ Black Cat!
My life is full. (No, I'm not going to all those dance parties... but enough of them...) Thank you, universe.
[1: She Wants Revenge show is canceled. Monday is a day of rest. Or, perhaps, a day of Aikido, motorcycling, swimming in a pool, and also rest. We'll see.]
This entry was originally posted at http://lucis.dreamwidth.org/1538.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
current mood:  satisfied
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| Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
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9:04 pm - Crimefighting update
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Tonight I walked the streets.
Partly to get groceries, but also to celebrate the end of Phase 1 of my main pursuit in crimefighting.
I got the papers in order. All it takes, in the end, is two or three pieces of paper... the right two or three. But the evidence, finally, is together.
Tomorrow they will know I know. Tomorrow Phase 2 begins.
(Hopefully Phase 2 will mostly be someone else's job. I have other things to attend to.)
This entry was originally posted at http://lucis.dreamwidth.org/800.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
current mood:  accomplished
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| Friday, June 5th, 2009
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2:00 pm - goodbye Livejournal
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i've thought about transitioning to dreamwidth since their policies are better than LJ's and apparently they have an import feature... but i don't really use LJ much anymore, and my paid account expires tomorrow. (and i'm glad to be done giving my money to this company.) i haven't been a regular reader for the better part of a year, thanks to the abundance of everything else i'm spending my time doing. i like you, and i don't want to appear to be promising anything that i'm not giving.
(i've been practicing feeling abundance lately. it's neat. i just remind myself that there is enough, i've got enough. i don't need to hold on to things that are fleeting, or slipping away, i don't need to grasp at things that might be available... there is abundance, and it's all around me.)
so, yeah, i'm done here. if i make a dreamwidth account, i'll let you know. regardless of that, drop me a line sometime. take care and live well.
current mood:  busy
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| Friday, March 27th, 2009
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3:47 pm - Link as requested: dealing with verbal assault
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| Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
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6:59 pm - here i am
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ok, so, i've been away from here for a while. i've been busy.
quick update: parents came down for Xmas, it was nice.
i went to California for ~12 days in January, it was cold. also, my expectations of my hosts and theirs of me didn't line up. at all. however, i got to see my sibling in California, on both weekends, and that was nice. (despite the flu i got from my hosts - long, long story)
i've been super busy at work. what else is new.
i discovered in California that i'm better at Aikido than i thought. also, i'm teaching it again at the local university, and they've asked me back for two more semesters starting this fall.
bellydance continues well, but schedule changes at the educational venue conflict with my teaching nights, so i have to either practice on my own, or sign up for a class in a more distant educational venue to continue with my teacher. i like my teacher TONS so the latter is my preferred option.
i've begun going dancing again, but not too often, and not with much notice. maybe i'll call up a crew to go dancing again soon.
my motorcycle just got maintenance and i've started riding it again. i finally got a check from the person who cut me off in traffic in 2007. also, a stranger stopped me on my commute to work Monday morning, offering me another motorcycle, same as mine but several years older, for free, though that bike hasn't been ridden in 4 years and would need about the same maintenance my bike just got. i'm going to look at it Saturday, i think, and then i may have a new project. which i can then sell, then sell my current bike, and add the money i just got, and buy a BMW. or i could sell/give my Ninjas to other Quakers who want to be bikers. haven't thought it through.
i didn't see Coraline, but i did see Watchmen. i've been playing AD&D Sundays, and my monthly-or-so AD&D Saturday evenings campaign has been going well.
i've started watching Buffy on Hulu.com. finished season 1, started season 2.
i have use of a car for a year. it's convenient to have it available, and i'm successfully forcing myself to ride the motorcycle as well even if i could just use the car that day.
i've been trying to read on here a bit recently. if you've posted important stuff, i've probably missed it unless i commented on it. feel free to update me. also, feel free to call me, since i have a new cell phone, and a new handset.
that's all the time i have right now. off to Aikido class!
current mood: busy
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| Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
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2:12 pm - my New Year's Eve party will be 5pm - 9pm, celebrating midnight at 8pm
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Here's what I've decided: I'm going to host a New Year's Eve party, small as it may be, at my place. (Housetrained dogs and children welcome!) We'll go from around 5pm to 9pm, and we're going to celebrate 'midnight' at 8pm. When you're done here, feel free to head on to other celebrations. (I'm hoping that, this way, I can be part of your plans even if you've got cooler parties to go to!)
Details: we're reasonably metro-accessible and there is street parking. Fireplace in effect, yo. Alcohol ok inside, no smoking inside. And, in case you're wondering, bakers wake up early, and go to bed early, and that's why the schedule.
RSVP to bring friends and/or ask for directions!
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| Friday, December 19th, 2008
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10:17 am - New Year's Party?
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Still trying to figure out what to do. I'll probably end up hosting a small party at my place, which is fine. Not every New Year's Eve needs grand plans.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
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3:32 pm - bad food; breakup; aikido; article: procrastination; books: Pattern Recognition, Last of the Amazons
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body and relationships
i'm still recovering from food poisoning. that's going surprisingly easily. yay i can eat food! (yay i have food to eat! remembering to count my blessings...)
i'm kinda surprised i didn't get much response to my post about the breakup. it's cool, tho. because of crazy holiday work hours, we're seeing each-other even less than before... which, now, is not a problem, but probably a good thing, in that it gives us both space. it's nice to see each-other when we do, which is like twice a week... though we live in the same house... but, yeah, it remains okay. thank goodness for that.
oh, and my other relationship continues well. again with the counting the blessings.
aikido
i have been thinking more about last week's aikido issues. i wasn't feeling convinced by the instructor that the way technique was being taught was good, and certainly not convinced that it was better than the way i was doing it.
the instructor is a fifth-degree black belt, i'm pretty sure, and was on the testing board when i tested for shodan. i expect that, since the instructor is on the teaching staff and on testing boards and is highly-ranked, that the question 'why' wouldn't be a stumper.
unfortunately, the instructor didn't mention a 'why'. and, i didn't ask why. if i had asked, if the instructor had said something about why, i would have felt a lot more comfortable, not just with trying to change what i was doing, but with being there in general. i would have felt like i was doing it their way, the local way, for a real reason, and maybe that their way was more the way that i actually want to be doing technique. there may be plenty of reasons that i'd find compelling - but they weren't there that night.
and i suddenly want to digress into the details of how to practice the kata... okay, how about a brief digression. here's a specific instance from the kata that was being problematic when i was training with someone at the nearby dojo.
let's say my partner just attacked me, and i have successfully avoided the attack, by stepping out of the path of the strike and by interposing my weapon between their weapon and my body. the way i have been taught, at this point in this kata, the next attack is expected to come from them, again, immediately. the way it is taught at the nearer dojo, the one i've just started attending more, they would expect that, after i was attacked, i would attempt to attack my partner by thrusting toward the throat, and my partner would use that attacking energy (yes, literally, the kinetic energy of my sword pressing forward against their sword) to propel their sword into an arc that would lead to their attack on me.
the problem is this: what happens if i don't attack back? well, what happened last week was that my partner stood there, staring at me, waiting for me to attack. when the roles were reversed, and my partner decided to not do the throat-thrust that is normal here, at the nearer dojo, and i continued my attack without waiting for the input of my partner's kinetic energy. my partner was caught off-guard by my attack, unbalanced and easily defeated.
(speaking of off-guard and unbalanced, there was another student at that dojo whom i trained with who kept shifting forward after completing the 'losing' side of the kata... shifting forward far enough that my sword, staying still, would end up pressed into their throat. (i have been taught that pressing a sword into the throat is rude) when our roles were reversed, my partner pressed the sword point into my throat. when i mentioned this, my partner said i had been doing it... and, when i pointed out that they had been shifting forward into the tip of my sword, nothing changed about that partner's practice. i wouldn't quite call that incompetence, but inattention to detail is at least slightly troubling in martial arts training...)
now, both of these are useful - either pressing an attack or pursuit without prompting or invitation, or waiting for the opponent to reveal their next intention before continuing.
but waiting - waiting is the thing that i've been taught to avoid. the kata we practice are so removed from actual combat with swords. (and thank goodness for that! i wouldn't want to hold a sword and fight someone else holding a sword! holy crap that would be scary! one mistake and i could lose life and limb! one success and i've just killed someone! not something i want to do!) but, being so removed, we have no direct information on what's important, when, or why. neither my teacher, nor my teacher's teacher, has ever been in a fight with swords. we can only guess.
is waiting worth it? i have no idea. are swords so heavy that i should do everything i can to move my sword as efficiently as possible, endeavouring to use my opponent's sword's momentum to move my sword into my next attack? or is it more important for me to take initiative when i can, and attack to get my opponent on the defensive?
i don't know. i don't know how i'd find out.
something i sometimes remind myself is that, while we should be ready and willing to accept an easy victory, we don't spend much of our time learning how to do the easy stuff. clearly, because it's easy, and we don't need to practice that part as much! we should be practicing the hard stuff. (and again the question arises: which is harder?)
and what, finally, do i want to spend my time learning? i guess i want to learn how to do both, and to figure out, in the very moment, when it's time to take initiative, and when it's time to receive.
as i'm sure i've quoted before, "It's better to spend three years looking for the right teacher than spend three years training with the wrong teacher." so, who is the right teacher for me now? do i really want to devote myself to training for nidan?
other stuff
today i read an article from Newsweek on procrastination. (read this article now! ha ha!) included here ( from its sourceCollapse )
also, i finished reading Pattern Recognition. i was a little disappointed - it seems like Gibson does best with beginnings and middles, though there were several places where it seemed the vocabulary words were thrown in with a bucket in an attempt to be writer-ly, and several places where the poesy of the prose was a bit too much for the scene. of course, i'm comparing it to Neuromancer... maybe i should get out of the habit of reading an author's best book before reading any others.
anyway, i've moved on to Steven Pressfield's Last of the Amazons. yes, the same author as Gates of Fire, which was assigned to me before my shodan test. i'm hoping this book inspires me as much as the last one did. (there i go, getting my hopes all high...)
[editing note: i've been adding emphasis to some bits here and there, hoping that it'll make my entries more readable/scanable. what do you think?]
current mood: busy
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| Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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1:09 pm - couples' counseling, session one
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we went to our first couple's counseling session Thursday. this is how i imagine the blog entry of one of our counselors:Session one with the new clients went reasonably well. They broke up and one of them is moving out, at least on a trial basis, but they did really well with not interrupting, which we complemented them on at the end. Also, they agreed on some goals together, like reducing their stress levels, and we set our second appointment for next week. I'm looking forward to it. so, overall, things look to be getting easier for both of us, but not the way we had intended when we decided to sign up for couples counseling.
that's the news from here.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, December 12th, 2008
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11:21 am - new year's party, my place?
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other personal news will be posted later today or tomorrow, but i thought i'd put this out there: i'm thinking of hosting a new year's party at my place. interested?
[details on location: in Takoma Park, with a fireplace, drinking of alcohol permitted, board games are available, there's a TV or two but they're not in the living room or dining room or kitchen.]
also, for those of you in my AD&D Part-Humans campaign, i'm thinking of following the party with a session on the morning of the first, 10am-4pm or so. thoughts? and yes, i'll send out an email about it soon.
current mood:  excited
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| Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
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10:05 pm - lessons from class with the Shihan; lessons from kyu tests; lessons from class in a foreign dojo
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class with the Shihan, right before kyu testing, is an unusual thing for me to experience. the Shihan emphasized very specific details of technique. one example that i would like to ingrain in myself: when performing iriminage, nage's ura hand is on the side of uke's neck (not the shoulder, not the cheekbone) and presses uke's neck into nage's omote shoulder, while nage's omote hand is palm forward, pronated, on the crease of uke's elbow, extending uke's arm and movement forward and off their balance.
i'd really like to keep that one. hopefully someone will ask for requests and let me practice iriminage some class soon.
kyu testing was fun; it was at the dojo i train at less often, and my attacks were a little unfamiliar to the students here. the first time i took ukemi, i did really well, giving nage attacks that could be thrown into the appropriate techniques - the test looked really good. the second time i went up, i was relieving an uke before me, and the energy of attacks had been flagging, so much that the testing board had asked it to be raised. (that uke was tired, having already taken ukemi on a previous test) i took their comments for the previous uke to heart, which i think was a mistake, as those comments weren't for me. when attacking a lower-ranked student who's testing, it is better to be told to attack faster than to attack slower. the testing board called for an uke change after i was thrown into a few various techniques. it was a fun ride, and it wasn't that terribly brief, but i was being slightly more aggressive than i should have been, so i'm glad they swapped me out when they did. that student deserved to have more appropriate attacks than i was doing at that point.
the foreign dojo thing is how i've decided to see the dojo that's closer to my home. i've been attending a dojo in Northern Virginia for over ten years, but for the past five or so i've lived much, much closer to a different one. i have just recently started attending the closer dojo most of the time. i'm finding that techniques here, and attacks, and especially weapons kata are really different. for example, in kumi tachi, a tip-down rising block should be positioned not just to prevent a strike, but to make contact with the attacking blade. the way i had been taught to practice it in recent years is, well, why wait for contact - as soon as the opening is visible, attack it and win. what i get from tonight's class, though, is that it is through the contact that you receive momentum, and it is through learning to use received momentum that aiki, the essence of the art, is studied.
but what's the right way to study it? i think it depends. if your students are timid, hesitant or lack energy, maybe they need to work on attacking as soon as they see the opening. if your students are brutish, squirrely or insecure, maybe they need to learn to accept attacks as a gift from which they can learn and which they can turn into something constructive. i'd say the ideal is to be able to do either, and maybe other things as well, and make your specific response depend on what's going on in the moment, now.
while i can take specific, individual lessons from the differences it is not just learning from the differences that i want to do. in order to prepare myself better for facing culture shock in other nations, i can practice facing culture shock in other dojos, and practice observing and imitating the way people move in their attacks, techniques and kata. there are other lessons from tonight - when ending a kata, if the loser shifts forward to regain balance but risks impaling themselves on your sword, you can still take control and responsibility by adjusting distance to avoid contact, but, of course, know that you're doing it so you can be intentional about it - but what i want to remember is the importance of contact in blocks as a tool for studying momentum, and the decision to treat this as a cultural learning opportunity.
so that was a bunch about aikido, but it's on my mind tonight. tomorrow, however, i've got other important stuff going on, so off to bed with me.
current mood:  tired
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| Monday, November 17th, 2008
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2:12 pm - LJ is poop. plus, my life in a nutshel
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i turned off automatic payments; my account will expire next summer. i'm disappointed again and again by LJ, this time it's the userpage stuff, but it's consistently getting more annoying and not better. i do plan on downloading all my crap before my account expires. if i can't find a good tool to automate it, i'll write one. i don't know where i'd go next for blogging.
in other news, work is super-busy, relationship life is active and busy, aikido is ramping up again, bellydance is going reasonably well, AD&D is down from weekly to monthly for me but it goes well, i haven't done shoe repair or truffle making or photography in a while, my spiritual life has been fallow for a while and i'm trying to get back into the habit of lifting weights. oh, and i'm writing a novel this month and thus have been taking the metro more and motorcycling less.
there ya go.
p.s. i am completely incapable of reading my friendslist anymore, partly because work is so insanely busy since my promotion/raise/thing early this year. if i missed anything important, shoot me an email.
current mood: busy
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| Friday, November 7th, 2008
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6:18 pm - stupid CNN giving independents and third parties the shaft
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i sent this via cnn.com's 'contact us' section. if it bugs you too, i encourage you to contact them. my note follows:
I've got a complaint about the way you cover elections, particularly the election results in the 2008 election. I'm an independent voter, and I'm sad to see that your coverage reflects a bias toward showing the Republican and Democratic parties and no one else. In my idle browsing of races of interest to me, I've found two examples that make it clear that this is a serious and repeated problem.
One example is Ohio's 2nd U.S. House district. Your map flyover shows the percentage for both the Republican and the Democratic candidates. The total of the Republican and Democratic candidates' percentages is 82% of the electorate. Who did the other 18% vote for? Were they all write-ins, or was there an independent or third-party candidate? Even clicking to drill down on the district doesn't answer that question. Both the Fox News and the Washington Post interactive maps answer that question, though Fox fails to supply party affiliation info of non-red-or-blue parties.
Another example is the senate race in Arkansas. According to your national map, the Democratic incumbent ran unopposed, and even drilling down to all results in Arkansas, CNN states that the Democrat was running unopposed. Both Fox and the Post provide information on another candidate, one who received over 20% of the votes cast for the U.S. Senate there. (Though, again, Fox fails to mention the party affiliation of the second candidate)
I'm saddened and disappointed at this apparent bias in your coverage.
Sincerely,
(me)
current mood:  angry
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| Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
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2:59 pm - busy also HALLOWEEN PARTY
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so, work is good. i made my thing, at least to an alpha milestone, and showed it to people. they liked it. so my boss made me cupcakes.
then my boss showed it off internationally and it was a hit. people are coming to talk to me.
yesterday, i walked past two scenes of tragedy, one person having plummeted off a building, another person murdered.
today i signed up for NaNoWriMo.
i've been playing Blood Bowl online through Fumbbl.com.
clearly, i've been participating in and witnessing a wide variety of stuff. everything i haven't mentioned is kinda stressful but going well, or has been put off for the time being. if there's specifics you're interested in, ask away.
also, COME PARTY ON HALLOWEEN. the suggested costume theme: dress to get laid.
why? because you are wonderful sexy awesome people, and i want to invite you to show up at the top of your game. heck, it's Halloween. Anything Can Happen.
note: my housemates will likely be around, though (if i clean ha ha ha) there'll be room to hang out in private. 7pm to whenever.
current mood: excited
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| Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
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2:02 pm - i'm in this room, see...
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| Friday, September 26th, 2008
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1:18 pm - the Television's so-called plan
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| Friday, September 12th, 2008
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4:46 pm - WOWless?
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My Warcraft account expired today. Recently I've mostly been fishing. Yes, fishing, raising my skill level, to do the fishing competition and try to to get a Lucky Fishing Hat to give me an advantage in low-level inter-faction competition. Do I seem bored to you?
I'm pondering installing a free graphical MUD instead of renewing. (or even skipping the installing-something-else option) I'm sure those few people I actually interact with on there would be sad if I didn't renew it. I dunno, I'm just feeling a vague ennui, probably borne of lack of sleep, but something tells me that I should cancel my Warcraft account and instead go camping.
My boss asked me to prepare for my upcoming performance review by thinking about what dreams I've got, what I'd like to do/be in the long term. No, not in the scary we're-going-to-fire-you way, but in the supportive we're-happy-and-want-you-to-be-happy way. Yay! (I immediately mentioned being traded for a month or six to a European employer; it's worth asking!)
I still dance. I still do Aikido. My motorcycle is scheduled to get maintenance next weekend. Oh, and I'm still moving downstairs this weekend, and doing the final bits of cleanup/settling next weekend. So, yeah, life it is generally really quite good.
current mood:  bored
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