What Sort Of Head?

Link --> A Marblehead! <-- Link

A New Year, A New Life, A New Blog

So, I've been thinking... I'm not a huge fan of this blog anymore.  I don't feel inspired to write here, the color scheme is SO 2003, and I feel like all I do here is whine and bitch and complain, instead of what I should be doing, which is waxing philosophical and enlightening the masses (which is how my dad would describe whining and bitching and complaining, but whatever).  Therefore, I am going to be firing up a new blog, and best of all, it's NOT going to be one that you have to register to comment (unlike SOME blogging places *cough*LiveJournal*cough*).

I have been stockpiling free music and pictures, and I figure if I get myself on a real schedule, and stuff, I'll be able to keep on top of this one.  A new layout, new and improved spiffinosity... in fact, a whole new me.  I will post a link here at the top of this one, so people who only have this link can find my new one. Even so, I can't decide on a new name for my blog.  I've been Mighty Jalapeno for so long, it's all I know how to be.

Suggestions?

Busy... Busier.... DEAD!

Ok, to sum up my immediate future:

I was on TV yesterday.  I'll be dropping off a blank tape at the studio tomorrow so they can put a copy of it onto a tape, then I'll find some way to put the tape onto a viewable format, and then upload it onto YouTube (I might be such a cheap bastard that I'll just aim the camera at the TV and record it that way).  Since then I've gotten 96 unique hits on my website, and one interested party looking into straw bale homes.  Consequently, I really have to finish the website ( http://www.thinktankdesigns.ca ).

Nextly.... that's a word, right? Nextly, I have to get my boards and presentation material AND Powerpoint stuff ready for the Energy Fair, where I will be touting said business for eight hours to people interested in energy efficient housing.  I also have to give a presentation to all of them at some point without barfing on myself.

Thirdly, I have to make up my half-page advertisment for the booklet that's being distributed by the thousands AT the fair.

Fourthly, the Seniors Guide (http://www.seniorsguide.ca ) is up and running again, and I have to complete the Victoria guide in about three weeks, on top of everything else I'm doing here.

Fifthly, I am really behind on my writing projects, which I have been putting off like crazy.

Sixthly, I have a full-time job at work, and a full-time job at home, plus yard work and farm work.

Seventhly, I have to go over here and die a little inside.

....

So, to everyone who keeps bugging me and bugging me to blog.... there, I blogged, now shut the fuck up.

Welp...

... I finally got a good night's sleep, and my stomach finally isn't sending shooting pains from my ass through to my eyeballs, so all in all, I think it's safe to call today "Recovery Day #1".  With any luck, tomorrow will be "Exercise Day #1", assuming, of course, Throkette either miraculously stays asleep in her crib all night (like she did last night.... wierd), or Throkky lets me put her on the mattress in her room.  Whoopee!

Also.... I think that, after 18 years, thousands of dollars, thousands of hours and millions of kills.... I think I'm finally getting bored of the computer! I mean, over the past week, I've only set up my laptop at home twice.  At first that was because I was too busy to sit down for a minute to check my forums or anything, but then it just became because there wasn't anything I really, really wanted to do.  I can't find my "The Movies" disc, and it's driving me NUTS, because now I'm afraid I have to go buy a new one to replace the one I got for Christmas that I used for all of 45 minutes.... but other than that, and a few writing projects in my head, there's nothing I feel like doing on the computer.  Chatting on the forums has lost it's luster, my blog is just self-gratification (and you're ALL watching!) and most of my games now bore the whatever out of me.

I think... I'm finally bored of computers.

This couldn't have happened at a better time.  Now when I look at my computer, I think "I should really work on my CCG", or "I should work on my website", or "I should talk to building suppliers and start building a catalogue" or "I should work on a story", or "I should play a little Alpha Centauri..."

...

What? I love that game.

Anyways, this is a break through (or a break down? MAYBE!!!) for me, and I hope it means positive things.  I can't handle many more negative things.

And now, I'm off to save a building from imminent collapse.  Cadmonkey, AWAY!!!

Allright, Confession Time

Over the past three months, between the wonderful joys of working my day job, doing the Seniors Guide, handling Throkette during the evenings and nights, getting ThinkTank Designs off the ground, and generally making sure we have enough money to keep us from becoming destitute, I've let my diet and activity levels slide.  Those of you who knew me before are probably thinking "Yeah, but you were already at rock bottom, how much could you have slid?"

Quite a bit.

I myself have noticed quite a bit of chunking-up in the past few months, something I've never actually NOTICED before (it's never happened fast enough for me to ever look down and think "I look bigger than I did not too long ago...") It's always been a slow, steady climb.  Lately, though, I have most definitely noticed extra weight.  I'll spare you all any gross details, but needless to say... it's there.  Now, Throkky has somewhere between bupkis and zero self-censoring ability, so either she actually hasn't noticed that I've gained weight (and volume), or she has discovered the ability to be tactful about it (insofar as her constant jabs about my weight and excercise haven't increased, but stayed at their steady roughly-one-a-day pace). 

Zalgite had been on a tremendous excercise-and-healthy-eating kick lately, due in no small part to a couple books we've read together as well as the discovery that healthy foods TASTE good (mangoes! asparagus! red onions! nine different kinds of apple!)  He is constantly asking me who is winning the "Trying New Food Race, Where Whoever Tries Everything Except Brussel Sprouts Wins" (he hates brussel sprouts), and I reply that he is.   I am moving less and less from my desk at work, and there are painful and persistent leg-kinks whenever I actually get up to get coffee, or walk to the car.  I estimate I walk less than 3000 steps in a day (probably nearer 2000, and that's generous), and my diet consists mostly of:  coffee, coffee, coffee, fast-food or restaraunt-food, maybe a sandwich, coffee, pop, coffee, coffee, dinner, then assorted snacks, then bed.  Periodically throw in cookies, Easter candy, more pop, and occaisionally a banana.

Throkette is FINALLY sleeping through the nights (most nights, diaper-permitting) with a better than 50% rate, to the point where if I wake up at six am, it's because I WANTED to, not because someone is screaming at me.  Because of this, I am going to start excercising in the morning, which is really my only time to get stuff done (evenings are taken up with chores, kids, the occaisional must-see TV show, e-mail, and sleeping).  Now, I know I've said this before, but the stabbing pains in my knees, ankles, and entire gastrointestinal tract are sort of gently reminding me that if I don't do it now, I'm probably never going to start.

Does anyone out there have any advice to actually STICKING with a diet and excercise regime?  I do it for, tops, four days at a time and then backslide back to my neutral position (or right now, backslide to my fat-ass-McAmerican position), and I fully acknowledge that I suck when it comes to quitting food, and moving when I don't have to.

I'll be checking ShinyStat to see if anyone reads this.


Huh, it seems that my bad diet stemmed from this sickness and this response to it. That was the last time I felt "good", when I got over that... whatever the hell it was. I feel the same way now, for some reason.... at Coopers, wandering the aisles, all I bought was juice and yogurt. EVERYTHING ELSE looked nasty (even microwave popcorn... and I'm a man who loves his microwave popcorn).

ShinyStat Saves The Day

According to ShinyStat, fully 66% of the site hits on this blog are.... me.  That means for every two times I go to my blog, one other person does.  Throkky did so last night for some reason, and a guy I know named Seven went here a few days ago, so with the four times I came here to find links I'd posted, that accounts for everyone.

Whoopee!

See, this means I can write violent and disturbing things here, because no-one will read them.  See, if you write violent and/or disturbing things, and someone reads them, you could go to jail, although since I'm not Asian, I should be safe.  Now, it is argued that he should have censored himself because the VA attacks had been so recent, but really, the teacher specifically asked the students to write what they were thinking, what they were feeling, to write anything.  Nothing this kid wrote was threatening... just sort of creepy and gross.  You know, the same stuff that makes Hollywood billion$ and makes Stephen King a household name.  When it's a quiet, well-liked straight-A Asian kid with aspirations of joining the Marines, then you kick him out of school, and send the police to his home.

Good to know.

FACE!

Or rather, FACEBOOK!

Geoffy, aka Mona, wouldn't shut up about it, so I joined up, and have had way better luck at tracking down people I knew in high school than I did on MySpace (piece of CRAP) or anywhere else.  So, add me!

FACE!

Lately...

... a few things have happened!

Last night, we witnessed the most severe case of road-rage ever (for me, at least).  We passed a guy on the highway who was pulled off to the side of the road, but he leapt over the retainment and into his car right when we passed him.  About a click or two down the road, he comes up beging us about about 150 or 160, and starts flashing the highbeams DIRECTLY behind me.  Ok, dickwad, I start to pull over, but he FLIES past me on the inside lane.  Uhm... ok, fella.  Then, he pulls up behind a truck right in front of us, and does the same thing... highbeams, then passing.  Once he pulls BACK in front of the truck, though, he slows down... 120... 110... 100.... 90... 80... semi trucks are now passing, and I'm scared to pass the truck/BMW pairing, who obviously have something personal going on, because the BMW is swerving like mad.  Eventually, the truck, and then me, pass the BMW.  Shortly, though, the BMW SOARS past me, and pulls alongside thr truck, and they BOTH begin to slow down to 80, then 70!  Obviously, some sort of heated exchange is going on between the drivers.  BMW pulls in front AGAIN and slows down, and I pass them both.  Thankfully, they both slowed down to 60 or so, and we never saw them again.  One phone call later (Small BMW convertible, drunk driver, license place 077-AMS), and we were home, safe and sound.  Now, two options...

1.) He was drunk
2.) That's how he drives when he's SOBER.

Both are terrifying.

Also, I have just now decided to make my own CCG.... Not sure what it's called, but it's going to consist of religions, the same way Magic consists of colors.  And yes, "Flying Spgahetti Monster" and "Aetheist" will be represented, as well as Buddhism, Hindu, Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, and more if I can think of them.  There will be a variety of cards for each (Do you play "Loving" Christian, or "Fundie" Christian?), and "mana" will be replaced with "believers".

So.... going to hell, or what?


Video Hilarity Of The Day - Why Are My Fingers Little People?!? (Note: all voices are the same guy)

Zalgitism Of The Day

Zalgite: "I want my underpants made out of candy, so I can eat them when I'm done."
Throkky: "I don't think you want to eat anything that's touched your bum."
Zalgite: "Oh, that's a good idea.  Ok, normal underpants."

I love's him so much.

One of the best AMV's I've seen in a while... Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever?

There Are No Words

Read my previous post, below, and then read this....

.... M is HERE AT WORK.

F***ING AUTOCAD

So this morning I show up to work.  Strangely, my computer is at the "Login" screen.... wierd, I left AutoCAD on last night.  It can't possibly be on the login screen!  Nope, sure enough, someone restarted my computer.  Ok, that's not a huge problem.... I fire up AutoCAD, and go to my last worked on file, the cross section, elevation and detail of a huge timber awning for a building in Squamish.

Huh.  All the work I did yesterday is gone.  Peculiar. Apparently, it didn't save when I hit "Save" last night.  No problem, we have auto-backups for that occaision.

Huh.  My temp directory is empty.  Absolutely auto-backups. 

Huh.

Three hours of work, gone, because someone flicked off my computer without thinking "Hmm, this isn'y my computer, maybe I shouldn't do this."

FUCK.

Ding Dong, The Frog Is Dead!

My co-worker, whom I shall call "M", once again vanished after a payday.  My boss has given him six chances so far, and six times M has done this, known as "Going Indian" around here.  Well, this time... my boss finally said "Enough is eventually enough".  M is out of here. No-ones seen him or heard from him in five days... and that's it.  His desk is empty.

AAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Ahhh, it feels good.

Song & Video of the Day - New Clutch Single "Electric Worry".... This is what rock is all about, people.

Bitch, Bitch, Bitch...

"Oh, MJ, you don't blog often enough!"

"Oh, Zalgon, why don't you blog more?"

"Oh, Topper, your blod hasn't been updated in so long!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get the picture.  People inexplicably feel the need to know what's pissing me off on a day to day basis.  On the other hand, it has occurred to me that this is the only place I really talk about what makes me mad, stuff I don't talk about on the forums (since they banned me) or on MSN (since they ignore me) or with Throkky (since she bans AND ignores me :) ).  Still, I only ever feel like blogging when I'm away from my computer, and something occurs to me.

Things like:

• Stuff Zalgite says ("Will Dave come to the potluck, if he's done whining?")
• Stuff Throkette does (Jumped down off of Zalgite's bed with not so much as a bruise)
• Stuff that makes me mad (drivers, technology, patriotism, the world, the RIAA, drivers)
• Stuff that makes me happy (bass, writing, and other stuff I don't do)
• Stuff that makes me tired (drivers, Zalgite, Throkette, work, more work, drivers)
• Stuff that makes me think (see: list of things that make me angry).

I know, you'd all like it if I would illuminate you all more on the inner workings of my brain, but to be honest, I don't feel like sharing what I don't fully understand, especially given the responses I've gotten from people over the past decade. Most of me is destined to stay locked away in my noggin, never to see the light of day, for the safety of the world at large, which means all that's left for me to talk about here is just whiny 'physical world' stuff that everyone already knows.

...

See, this is how I write when I'm sleepy and hungry.

Obligatory Amusing Youtube Video

Obligatory Youtube Video Of Awesomeness

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I am really, really getting close to the limit with my co-'worker', whom I have gone off on here before.  Now not merely content with keeping his job despite massive unexplained absences, he's getting my boss to pay his thousand-dollar certification fee, and he CONTINUES to get mad at me for not doing his work for him, especially when he doesn't even explain to me what I am supposed to be doing.

I just have to vent, but it's not helping.  I am really mad.  I really, really want to hurt him.

SO, My Son....

... and me, and my wife, have a sort of running gag about Steve.  Those of you who have seen the comic Scott Faulconbridge know who Steve is... he's reality-impaired.  Anytime we can't think of a name, or we want to call Zalgite something wierd, or we can't answer a question, we answer with "Steve".  We also got it from Steve the Pirate, a la Dodgeball.

Anyways, many of you know that I am a building designer.  This morning, my son asked me why my buildings looked like buildings, and I explained that buildings have to look like buildings.  He then told me that he wants me to name my next building Steve... and it has to be a human-shaped building, named Steve.  It also needs a ramp up, so you can drive into the belly, because Steve the Building is a hotel.  Steve the Building's feet are the basements, and you can live in his body, and look out his eyes and see other buildings, and keep food in his arms, because Steve the Building has lots of food.

He's awesome.


Song And Videos Of The Day: Al Gore and Bender - An Inconvenient Truth and Seymour Dog - I Will Wait For You

Link Testing 2!

Hows this work? Song AND Video Of The Day!  Buckcherry - Anything

Link Testing!

Ok, seeing if this code works right, too:

Link AND Video Of The Day: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_VqbZBJUMY">Buckcherry - Anything</a>

The Power Of The Remote Blog

Guess what? To the untrained eye, me sitting here at my desk typing an e-mail actually looks like work! How sweet is this? Well, to answer my own question with an answer, I'd have to say "stupid mad sweet". That's really sweet.

So I'm now on a $100 corticosteroid puffer for what may be whooping cough (strangely, one of my employers, Bud, just got over this.... STUNNING COINCIDENCE!), as well as new-and-improved corticosteroid lotion for WHATEVER THE FUCK is on my arms.  If they call it "dermatitis" one more time, I'm gonna smack someone.  The best part, though, is although my physician still doesn't really believe I'm having seizures (since the referral form has quotes around the words "seizures", "typical", "low on sleep" and "thinks"... oi), he has finally referred me to a neurologist who actually specialises in epilepsy! My last neurologist had a 12 month waiting period... this new one? SEVEN WEEKS!  Yayyy!

I know, Throkky is keen to point out that they won't be able to do anything, and Grimsby is quick to point out that his are way worse than mine, but call me crazy (and some do), but I'd like to get some answers for once in my life.  I can't remember names or nouns with startling frequency now, my sleep is getting worse and worse, my stuttering is on the rise again, and I have various eye tics and twitches that are beginning to really annoy me, as well as nervous paper-shredding habits which a waitress at the pub pointed out a few weeks ago, after I had destroyed every single napkin without noticing. The doctor may not be able to help, and my seizures may not be as bad as other peoples, but guess what.... it's my brain, and I'm scared.

Ok, back to work.  Everytime I start typing, one of our drafters (who had been fired, but since no-one told him, he came back to work and now still gets paid, and strangely enough, I can't remember the name of the guy from Office Space in the same situation), gets up and walks over and STARES AT MY FREAKING SCREEN.  Buddy, when you've been here for two whole weeks without mysteriously vanishing for five days at a time, you can make comments about how I spend my time at work.




Song AND Video Of The Day: Buckcherry - Anything

Shameless...

... I'm sure you're all familiar of the practice of "Captive Suggestion", which is to say, forcing someone to experience ONE thing in order to get ANOTHER.  Point in case: the one thing that, statistically, the most people go to the grocery store to get most frequently is milk.  Thus, they put the milk as far away from the grocery store doors as possible, so that you must walk through each and every department to get there, and thus buy stuff you had not originally planned on buying.

At the new Save-On, though, it's shameless.  It's actually TUCKED into a little alcove at the back, between Bulk Foods and Coffee Creamers, with a little low ceiling, so it's like you have to LEAVE the grocery store, and ENTER the Milk Department.  It's remarkable in it's total lack of subtlety.  On the plus side, it did let me get two awesome cards for Throkky... one I gave to her last night, and the other I'm saving for the right time.  I'll ask Throkky to scan it in so I can share the disturbing sentiments of love.

Ok, back to work!

Stupid Manual Posting...

... I sent this three hours ago via "Post by Mail", and, as you can see... ain't here yet. Well, here it is, retrieved from my outbox.


Can someone tell me why Zalgite, after almost two years of perfect dental hygeine is SUDDENLY very, very against ever brushing his teeth, to the point where he starts crying and I have to take away video game privileges in order to get him to take 1 minute out of his evening to do it? Two years of HIM reminding ME that he had to brush his teeth, all gone and replaced with this intractable refusal to let mint touch his gums.

*sigh*

Kids...

Also, in response to some previous comments, he loves meatloaf (even though it was full of onions). He also has tried and likes: pineapple, refried bean tacos, stir-fried tofu, and pickled beets. PICKLED BEETS, people. Even more peculiar, yesterday morning he grabbed Throkky's gardening book, flipped through it, and found "rhubarb", and without knowing what it was, told me he wanted to try it this summer. When I explained that it makes BRIGHT PINK PIE, he was all for it even more!

It was unsolicited, he just walked up to me, put the book on the table, and told me he wanted to try it. After a bit more flipping, I explained what eggplant was, and he wants to try it, too.

He's awesome. In related news, I tried several things that I normally hate last night at the vegetarian potluck, including squash soup, and vegetable-mixed rice (with celery. I HATE celery.) And I liked everything. I still wont try rhubarb (horrible child-hood memories), but if he tries eggplant, I'm all for it. Thank you, vegetarian potluck, for corrupting me.

Ok, Double Checking...

... I can send in blog submission through e-mail, right?

If so, can someone tell me why Zalgite, after almost two years of perfect dental hygeine is SUDDENLY very, very against ever brushing his teeth, to the point where he starts crying and I have to take away video game privileges in order to get him to take 1 minute out of his evening to do it?  Two years of HIM reminding ME that he had to brush his teeth, all gone and replaced with this intractable refusal to let mint touch his gums. 

*sigh*

Kids...

Fear My Crunchy Family

My son is just chock full of surprises.

Last night, he was chock full of something new, when Throkky (wife) announced that I was supposed to have made asparagus with dinner, because Zalgite (son) had announced earlier that he wanted to try it. Then my son pipes up with a speech about he wants to try and like EVERYTHING, except brussel sprouts. Sure enough, he pops a whole asparagus tip in his mouth, after covering it in red vinegar. "Mmmmmmm! Good!"

Then he has two more spears, dipping them liberally in a puddle of red vinegar, and totally forgetting about his spaghetti. He finishes it all eventually, and as a reward for trying something new, he got dessert... a tofu banana smoothie. Dessert tofu, banana, orange juice and some Blueberry Greens+, making for a brownish-purple goo which... tastes surprisingly good. I got to have some, because I had asparagus, too. I used to hate it, and now it's not that bad.

My family is crazy. Tonight, Zalgite will try meatloaf for the first time, and if he likes it, more smoothies! (Really, the smoothies are important since my son's medication destroys his got flora, and he needs the tofu and Greens+ to help it back.)
.

Verbing Wierds Language

So I was talking with a friend of mine today, and the subject came up of my good luck / bad luck cycle, and I explained that some of my friends call it "Topper's Luck", where something good is offset by something bad, sometimes VERY quickly indeed, wheras bas things are usually not offset quickly by good things. As my friend Tyler put it, "At least your bad luck is evened out by... periods of less bad luck..."

I also realized I'd never told my friend about "Pulling a Topper", which can be defined thusly:

To do something stupid right after doing something smart.

Example: I'll explain something complicated and math-y on the board at the front of the class, possibly pulling correct answers out of my ass. I will then walk back to my desk, trip on my laces, fall over, and take some other desks with me, possibly spilling peoples paper and pencils all over the floor. Then everyone laughs.

I wonder how many people are verbs, too?

Oops, I Destoyed Cancer

From the article:

"'I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died,' Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. 'The co-author on my paper said, "Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?" I said "Oh," and took a closer look.' ... [They found that the compound killed] 'pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen.'"

That'll teach her to safely destroy tumors.

In similar news, some other scientists kicked HIV in the nads by finding the one non-chameleonic weak spot, and then stabbing it with protien until it died. It's a good week for infectious diseases!

Speaking of infectious disease, Ted "Tubes" Stevens is back at it, trying to ban schools from looking at websites that have... content. He has introduced a bill to the legislature, but of course, we're not allowed to read it yet, because we've been banned from accessing it over the tubes. Go, DJ, go.
.

Mini-Me's Birthday

We had it at the pool, and as per his requests (over the past three months), it was a surprise party. This worked out well, because he has a pretty lousy memory for things like that. Throkky went "garage-saling" with her mom that morning around 11, so they could pick up the cake and order the pizza and buy everything they need for the party. Then me and the kids went out for a bit to go to see our friends Dave and Mishy.

Of course, we had to pick up their pizzas along the way, but when we got to their place, they weren't there! Gasp! So I told the kids that they were still at the pool, so we had to go pick them up. We head to the pool, and sure enough there's Dave outside having a smoke. We grabe the pizzas, wrangle the kids, and head inside.

Everyone jumps out from behind the table we reserved, and yells SURPRISE!!!

My son, true to form, looks stunned, and almost starts crying. He walks up and hides behind me, and it's almost three minutes before we get him loosened up to smile. *sigh* So much like me, despite my best efforts...



The party itself was a success, though. Most of his cousins, some of his friends, pizza and cake, a pool with a waterslide, and presents galoe (including some SWEET ones). The part I'll remember most, though, was putting him to bed that night:

Son: That wasn't a nice lie you told me today, Dad.
Dad: Well, I had to get you to the pool, with pizzas, without you figuring out it was a surprise party.
Son: Here's what you should have said, you should have said that we were just going for a little swim.
Dad: I'm sorry, I just thought it was going to be good to be a surprise party.
Son: I almost cried. That wasn't a good lie. Don't do that again.

I thought he was going to ground me.

---

Lastly... sweet fancy moses, hot diggitty daffodil, it's actually happening! 300 is arriving!

One Good Thing About Illnesses...

.... thanks to the combination of stomach flu, head flu, and sinusitis.... I've barely eaten a thing for three days. All of my formerly favorite foods, which now fill the fridge because I bought them earlier this week... now completely repulse me. The jalapeno cheese ball, the deli pancetta, the Ukrainian smokies... all now make my stomach turn. To quote Black Mage, HORFL.

On the downside, I've wasted a lot of money on foodd that's gone bad while I've been sick... oh well...

Post Below...

… wow, that was just epically misformatted.  Why can’t I just send in text, and have it post… text? Is it really so hard?

 

Yes.  Yes it is.

 

At Least I'm Still Alive...

… up at 5am so I could expunge most of what I ate yesterday, then sat with a crying Poppy for a few hours in time to be violently sick again right before work.

 

And work is where I am at right now, because this is the one day I can’t miss.  I’m cold, but at least I’m sweating!

 

Wish me luck.

 

New Blog Format

Ok, people, I'm a little sick of my current blog format.  I like the sidebars and stuff, but I really wanna spruce this page up, and I am now taking suggestions!

What do you like about the format here? What do you hate? A lot of people keep asking me who the pics on the side are of, since one has yellow hair, and one has black.  As much as I like having Prince Vegeta over there, it's a lot of hassle for people who aren't "in the know", or at least who consider it a stupid television show.  You know who you are.

Is the sidebar ok? Would you like better navigation?  More black? Less black? Darker black? Are the colors ok?

I need to know!

My First Remotely Published Post

And also the first post that's remotely interesting! Give it up for technology, yo!

Ok, I really don't have much to talk about here, I'm just doodlebugging around with the advanced features of Blogger, especially the ones that let me post from my e-mail, which means I can post a lot more often now! Giggity!

Look! Formatting!

Wasn't that interesting?

Want to know something deeply disturbing? Someone took the time to write up a fairly in-depth treatise on Mr Tyzik. That's someone with a lot of time on his hands (or a college student who wanted to do a term paper that would make their teacher's head explode.)

I'll get back to Links of the Day, Music of the Day, and Picture of the Day soon, this way!

Let's try attaching a picture, see how it works! Daughter will be attached as Attachment, Son and Daughter will be attached as Embedded Link.



Here goes!

EDIT: Hmmm, didn't work... I can't e-mail HTML tags, it seems. That suck-diddly-ucks.... time to hit the help section!

Goodbye, Forums

Well, that's probably it for me. I've now been told in no uncertain terms that I am not welcome on the only forum left that I enjoy hanging out on. About a month ago, I was repeatedly insulted and told to leave my favorite, and most long-lasting, forum, and today I've be quite impolitely asked to vacate my 'current' one.

This, combined with the repeated lifetime bannings I've gotten on other boards, has led me to one inescapable conclusion: it is impossible to ignore anything on the Internet. In absolutely every single case of every disagreement on every forum I've ever been on, if the other posters had just read, and ignored, whatever it was that made them mad at me (me personally), then I would still be hanging out there, and enjoying myself. If they had decided not to be offended by something that was not said with the intent to offend, there would not have been any problems, anywhere, ever.

But that's too difficult.

Therefore, I bid adieu to the world of online message boards. I will continue to comment on UserFriendly and PvP, and maybe Slashdot, but that's about it. No more Internet discussions for me, because it's getting far, far too difficult to put up with the people who have 'board seniority', and are therefore always right.

On the plus side, this should free up enough time for me to finish several books, get into shape, and maybe cure cancer.

In honor of all the people who are incapable of dealing with reality:

SLEEP! Glorious Sleep..

Last night, Throkky said she would take the first shift with the baby, and lo and behold, I went to bed around 8:30. I skipped ice cream, I skipped hot chocolate, I didn't even have a belt of the old Irish... I just crawled into bed and passed out, and was not awoken for a solid 8 hours! That hasn't happened since the middle of December, and for the first time in several weeks, I'm not yawning at work! WOO!

Around 4:45, Throkky decided it was my turn, so I was woken up by basically being beaten with a baby. I figured that eight hours was even pushing my luck, so I had no troubles getting out of bed, and playing with her in the living room (which is post-Christmas SPOTLESS, thanks to Throkky!) She mostly crawled around, and tried to eat day-old Cheerios off the kitchen floor, shen she went ballistic, and passed out. I took that time to heat some meat pies, and clean the kitchen table off. Then she woke up, so we hung out for a bit and watched Superman Returns. Then she went ballistic, and fell asleep again, so I had a shower, while Sebby woke up and watched Superman Returns (though he got mad at the villain girl because she was supposed to be a hero girl... his words!)

Then I got dressed, informed Throkky of the situation, and went to work, with Sebby playing F-Zero X (I FINALLY beat the Joker Cup on Expert yesterday, so now we have ALL the cars, and ALL the tracks...) and Poppy snoring in her little cradle-chair.

I'm probably gonna get stabbed in the head today to make up for all the good vibes.
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Wal-Mart.... Good? Confusion!

Wal-Mart Plans To Use Unstoppable Marketing Power... To Get People To Use Compat Fluorescent Bulbs

I have to say, this is actually a pretty cool step, but when you think about it, it's also probably the cheapest and least impactful "step in the right direction" that Wal-Mart could take. Instead of paying their employees more, or raising prices 1% and donating tens of millions to charities, they will instead just run comprehensive in-store advertising to get people to buy the better bulbs, which already exist (and are manufactured by affiliated companies).

Ah well.... baby steps, there we go....
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I Don't Know Who's More Obsessed...

... him, or me.

Son: When my fish die, I can get new fish?
Me: Probably, yeah.
Son: When my dad dies, me and mom will get a new one.
Me: Uhm... your dad?
Son: Yeah, when you die, we'll get a new one.
Me: Oh.

I know his grasp of life and death is rudimentary, but still... it hurt. In a funny, morbid, Kubrick-esque sort of way.
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