Oumisoka

2008 draws to a close. I'm preparing to head out to a party where there's a bunch of people I really don't know terribly well.

At least I can take BART there. My Scharffenberger brownies are prepped and ready to accompany me.

I'm finding myself oddly grateful for two things I've always taken for granted:

* Running water

* Hot running water

Sure, I live in a first world country. Those should be a given. Times are a-changin'. There's predictions that in our lifetime, clean water may stop being a given.

And I got my Federal tax booklet today. Whee?

In any case, that's pretty much it for 2008.

Happy New Beer, everyone. Akemashite omedetou.

I hope 2009 is full of good and lacking in suck.

That would be lovely.

A final WTF from 2008

I had all sorts of things I needed to do today.

* Make stuff for a party tonight.

* Clean.

* Take a friggin' shower.

I'd like to do those things. I would if I had running water!!!

They chose today to replace the goddamn water heater. No warning. Suddenly... no water.

Good times.

I am unhappy.

another conversation

1: So, slacker. What's up this week?

2: Spent a lot of time walking today. In new shoes.

1: Ow. Still need to be broken in?

2: Yep. And then I went running wearing them.

1: Pain?

2: Pain.

1: Good.

2: Die.

a conversation

1: So what did you do for Xmas?

2: Oh standard stuff. Xmas with the family. Food. Gifts. Good times.

1: When do you go back to work?

2: Heh. After the new year. Nice long break.

1: Nice. So what have you done on your break so far?

2: ...

2: ...

2: ...

1: Oh, c'mon. You haven't done anything?

2: Does sleeping in and watching TV count?

1: Dude...

urp

Xmas is over and I ate too much.

Got nice schwag. Very nice schwag.

And I ate too much.

Went out and bought running shoes today 'cause the old ones were killing my toes. The new ones... well, they need to be broken in.

I hope this helps me deal with the "ate too much" problem.

I'd planned on seeing the Afghanistan exhibit at the Asian Art Museum today, but there were unexpected problems. It's all good. Gave me the chance to get shoes and generally putter about.

Feels good to slack.

A time of gifts

My friend E asked me (kind of out-of-the-blue) what was the best gift I'd ever received.

Hands down I replied that the kitten my folks got when I was a boy was the best gift ever. We got him in the late summer, not Xmas, but nonetheless, he was the best.

I'm allergic to cats but not sensitized to it, so we had to keep him outside in the garage for his time in our family. Considering how much time we spent outside keeping the little guy company, I'm surprised I didn't get sensitized anyway.

He passed away of old age back in '97 or so. He was a well-loved cat.

Funny. I don't think E meant to make me nostalgic, but I miss that cat lots.

Smooth sailing

My work year is done. My rockin' manager let me leave early (a bit after 1pm). I headed home, did laundry, and digested the scones I'd snacked on earlier in the day.

Not my most productive day ever.

Vicky asked to borrow the final disc of season four of the revived "Dr. Who". We had a couple of the beers she made for me back in Sept./Oct. then I made a light dinner.

I'm still full, too. I guess the beer and pretzels in addition to the light dinner wasn't a good idea. Ah well.

I can go to bed late. I don't have to get up early for the rest of 2008. Heh.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm hoping they'll let us leave early today. Looking grim, though.

I'm full on scones from this morning. I'm staring off into space.

Argh.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This says it all.

Thanks George. What love I had of "Star Wars" in my childhood is pretty much gone now.

Bastard.

And there we go

Today is it. End of the work year for this little buckaroo.

With luck, I can jet around noon or one.

And I'm ready for the break. I'm ready for the down time. I'm ready for the extra sleep.

I'm ready for a vacation.

2008 has been a crazy year. A good year (personally), but a crazy one.

It will be very interesting to see what the future holds.

A mighty yawn

Yep. It's Monday again. My last working Monday of 2008.

And it's likely that tomorrow is a half-day.

"W00T" doesn't quite cover it.

A week and a half of sleeping in. Ah, that will be delightful.

During this long break I need to get new running shoes and I'm supposed to see the Afghanistan collection at the Asian Art Museum with family. Been invited to a New Year's Day (not Eve) party also.

Oh, and Xmas is in there. Can't forget that.

Helps take the edge off of Monday morning, let me tell you.

Today I'm supposed to have lunch with three ladies from the office. It's tough being me.

I love my life.

I really, really do.

par-tay

It's a little after 11pm. I just got home from my office holiday party. I'm wiped out (and a tiny bit tipsy).

Best party I can recall.

The food rocked. The setup was great. It was just good times.

Helps that I got an award, but that was expected. I didn't win anything from the office raffle, but that's life.

I opted not to linger, dance, and make an arse out of myself. The lack of dancing talent is just a problem.

And I'm tired.

I must be getting old(er).

Gwa?

Trying very hard to stay awake. Got a meeting in a half-hour (starting at the time I normally leave for the day). I can nap then.

I think I'm finished with my xmas shopping.

I think I may explode from all the junk I've eaten today.

Why the hell do I have a meeting on a Friday afternoon? Gah!

Another friend just gave me a small box of Godiva chocolates. Very unexpected. I'm touched. They are, of course, gone already.

I've discovered I need to purchase new running shoes if I expect to get any exercise done soon. My old shoes are killing one of my toes.

Aaaand... that's my brain-dump for today.

Thanks for reading. I'm sure it thrilled you to read as much as it thrilled me to write.

I need a nap.

Kosher?

So the question came up over pints last night:

Are Gryphon's kosher?

To be clear, I don't know the rules for kosher. I wound up getting the rules backwards (apparently you can't eat something with claws, doesn't chew cud, etc.).

We (the five of us at the table) discussed it off-and-on, then Vicky texted someone from work for the offical word.

The answer is: No. Gryphons are not kosher. No matter how you kill and prepare them, they just aren't.

And odds are they'd be difficult to kill.

We didn't discuss dragons. I already assume they're not kosher.

Indulging in being a fanboy

The Chin signs some fan's back. This guy had the Army of Darkness poster TATTOOED ON HIS BACK!



The back of Bruce Campbell's head (stoopid digital camera didn't take a fast pic for me to get a clear headshot)



Yeah... so pocket-sized digital cameras... not so good with the zoom and all that in bad lighting.

This is the Chin doing a crank call.

Actually, it was a kind of cruel prank.

Holidaze Goodness

Xmas came a little early to me yesterday.

* Xmas bonus (helped the savings account a bit)
* big office "to-do" which resulted in free pizza and a pretty awesome company pic
* got in the mail my key fob (a gift to myself)
* got in the mail a set of warm jammies from one of my friends overseas (awesome warm jammies in my size!)

I had one friend make me a paracord bracelet (in black!), which is just... so... very... awesome (it's being re-sized). Hand-made. How f***ing cool is that? (Answer: pretty damn cool)

Just got mail from another friend who said he ordered me one of the bracelets and had it shipped.

I'm amused that this became a gift theme for me. I'm not sure how, but good times.

And to top this off, I came in this morning and yet another friend (and co-worker) left me a small basket of chocolate on my desk.

I guess I'm not subtle (not that I've ever pretended to be).

An end to things

The last full work-week of my year ends today. I have a couple of days next week, but let's face it - nobody's getting much done then.

I'd feel pretty good about today but I have a f***ing meeting that starts exactly the time I usually get off work and will run till who-knows-when.

I'm a little bitter and whiny.

Actually, I'm mostly fine with it at the moment. I originally wanted to try to corner precious laundry-room time (my building has limited fascilities and it's a semi-constant war among my neighbors to get laundry done), but I have a party to go to tonight and wouldn't have time anyway.

Yes. Woe is me. I have too many social obligations.

I find that funny too.

Chintastic

"My Name is Bruce" was pretty hysterical. I only found myself wincing at Ted Raimi's portrayal of a (bad) stereotype of a Chinese man.

Still, when questioned on the topic later, Campbell pointed out that pretty much everyone in the movie was a stereotype and every character was badwrongbad as well as pretty stupid.

I should rewind.

The evening started at Beckett's for pub fare and pints. I met some of Vicky's friends, including this mysterious "Guy" character I'd heard so much about.

Guy makes chainmail dice. The dude is in my pantheon of heroes.

John, one of the others present, had a Stormtrooper hoodie (I'm totally buying one). Another in the pantheon.

Vicky's other friend, Madeline, shares my exact views on Berkeley - almost verbatim. This includes my thoughts on Berkeley pedestrians.

Kind of funny, actually.

We then hit the movie. It was crowded and entertaining. Then Bruce Campbell did a very entertaining half-hour of Q&A afterwards.

Any cult movie attracts its fair share of unwashed freaky fans. This was in Berkeley, so the percentage of socially-awkward mouthbreathers goes up by a lot.

And there were a lot of socially-retarded attention-whores there.

A lot.

Campbell managed them all like a champ.

There was trash talking. There was barbed but not-unkind jabs from Campbell to the audience. There was a horrific crank call to a guy's mom.

Campbell is hysterical. I regret that I didn't get any good pictures (the lighting was horrible). Vicky got an excellent shot at the end. I'm hoping to get a copy when she has time to download her pics.

Very, very WTF

So apparently some couple decided to name their child "Adolph Hitler Campbell". They didn't stop there. They named a daughter "JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell".

I read about it on sfgate.com for reference.

So I just have to wonder:

* Do the parents really hate their kids that much?

* Does this constitute child abuse?

Seriously. Why name your kid using the one name one could argue is the most villified in the 20th century? Do you want your kid to get the crap kicked out of him a lot?

I joke about naming my firstborn "Darth Vader" or "Nyarlathotep" (regardless of the child's gender), but I'd only really do that if I wanted to be murdered in my sleep during the child's early teen years (this would assume I had a child with a woman who shares my suicidal and inappropriate sense of humor, but I digress).

I get that the parents in the story are some kind of white-trash supremicist bigots or whatever, but c'mon... I've known hard-core white-supremicist bigots in my life. Even those folks weren't that stupid (and they were, for the record, very, very stupid...).

Boggles the mind.

Wrongbadwrong

Found this on rpg.net. After I stopped screaming, I thought I should share the pain.

No need to thank me.

Really.

'Tis the season to share.

Ia Ia Cthulhu Ftagn and all that.

(inhales sharply)

Tonight I go to see the Chin for My Name is Bruce.

To say I'm excited doesn't really quite cover it.

Pretty much the only reason I got out of bed today, really.

Heh

This is in the Xmas spirit... for 2008.

Alas.

---

So at the urging of fellow Battlestar Galactica fans, I watched the first two of the "webisodes" leading into the series finale.

Mildly intriguing but overall I felt a profound sense of "meh". I'm sure this is all building up to the "big reveal" of the final Cylon.

I stopped caring about who the final Cylon was when they did the reveal of the last four.

I have to admit, I kind of liked how season 4 left off before the hiatus. It was kind of neat, but the series has been a bit of a letdown for me since they resolved the "New Caprica occupation" storyline.

One of my friends asked me if she could borrow BSG Season one to indoctori... uh... let her daughter watch. I one-upped and offered my entire DVD set for her viewing pleasure.

My friend was a bit surprised and asked me if I wouldn't want to keep some to watch for the pending January episodes.

I found it hard to express how little I care to retread backstory going into the final episodes. If I re-watch past seasons of BSG, I might not want to watch the final eps.

I'd rather let the memories of my disappointment fade so I can get somewhat excited for some science fiction programming again.

Yes, I take this stuff seriously. It's pathetic, but there it is.

and furthermore

Yes, I'm aware that Bay Area folks in California have no concept of what "cold" truly is.

I have two sophisticated and mature responses to that:

1) I don't care. Nya-nya-nya.

2) Bite me.

Re: my second response, please make certain I'm wearing something fairly padded. Disease and all that. I'm sure you understand.

Good lord I'm tired this morning.

Um... brr? No... BRR!!!!

Brr.

Brr-brr-brr.

Brrr.

Yeah, this is about right

Courtesy of User Friendly.

I'm all about holidaze cheer today.

Necromancy 101 (or Monday morning)

Rain pitter-pattered against my window this morning around 1am. Then it stopped with the pittering and the pattering and decided to do an impromptu "Rock Band" tryout.

I love the rain. My main disappointment for this weekend was the lack of strong, serious rain amidst the cold (my other was the building's water heater going out...).

And to this Bay Area child, it was pretty damn cold.

Mainly, I love sleeping in to the rain. On weekends, that's a treat. On Monday morning... not so much. It's hard enough to get out of my warm bed into the freezing rest-of-my-apartment on a winter morning. Add the soft lullabye of rain (or even the machinegun fire of heavy rain) and it's a Herculean task to get the hell up.

At least now the damn water heater is working. Cold showers on a cold morning? Not fun. It crapped out sometime late Saturday night and Sunday morning was... chilly.

And the weekend is over. Now the last full work-week of the year begins.

Such as it will be a full work week. It's pretty much a series of parties broken up with an evening of Bruce Campbell goodness at one point.

I could totally get used to this.

Well that was exciting

I went to a party in SF at my friend Steve's place.

Nice party. Good food. Hot drinks.

Oh, and there was a fire across the street.

Apparently a recycling bin (or a homeless cart) caught on fire. Before our eyes, it went from a small flame to a bonfire that in five minutes managed to ignite the pickup truck the fire was next to. The truck was in bad shape when the fire department arrived, broke the windows, and hosed the whole thing down.

Oh, for the record, not all of us were staring like idiots. Steve was heroic enough to dash downstairs and coordinate with the building security to get fire extinguishers. They got one extinguisher to the blaze, but it was too far along by that time.

When Steve arrived with the other two he found, the fire department had already arrived and done their heroic thing.

Kind of exciting, all said.

Dark evening

A storm is supposed to be coming in. Couple that with a week or so before Winter starts and it gets dark mighty quick.

Kind of ominous, but kind of neat as well.

It's a shame 'cause tonight's full moon is supposed to be the largest it's been in 15 years and I can't see it.

Ah well.

I'll still give a howl later.

Slouching forth towards the end of Friday

Got back from a delicious lunch of Korean food (once again, dol sot bi bim bap).

Yum.

Filled me up without overdoing it.

I went with four people from work (the odd number - 5 - resulted in us taking two cars. Good times). The randomness of the topics reminded me of why I love having lunch with my friends. When you're going from talking about hair highlights to adopting kids to our office holiday party in the span of a half hour's gabbing, it's just good times.

Weird, but good.

I've got roughly an hour and change left in my day.

And time appears to have stopped. Bleah.

Mackieism

The quote of the day (via Mackie):

"Nerds' Cant - you either speak it or you don't"

Backstory:

I shared this with Mackie and commiserated that I really can only share that with him out of all the people in my office.

That was his reply.

This is why he is acclaimed as a god among nerds.

Or a high priest.

Tick (eon passes) tick (eon passes) tick...

The minutes slowly tick towards the end of Friday (which, at time of writing this post, is incredibly far off).

And as I await my coffee buddy for my much-needed injection of coffee #2, many thoughts vie for the limited processing space in my under-caffeinated brain.

---
I have a party to go to tomorrow. It's supposed to storm and the snow level is supposed to drop to 2000 feet (which means it's gonna be goddamn cold).

What the hell should I bring to the party? I'm thinking brownies go well with the theme.

---

Scharffenberger has the right marketing model: spend XX dollars and you get a free box of truffles. Mmm... truffles.

And they're tasty truffles!

Mmm... truffles.

---

I have a bag of small oranges (or are they tangerines?) here. Vitamin C goodness, but not really satisfying in conjunction with the chilly office.

---

The air conditioning just came on. Air conditioning. WTF? It's in the 40's outside. Why the hell did the cold air come on?

---

I require the "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog" DVD.

---

Next week I shall see the Chin and enjoy "My Name is Bruce". It shall be glorious!

---

I found a cast listing for that insane "Shine on Me" video that plays like an MTV version of Dungeons & Dragons:

Cast: Chris Dane Owens is Jade; Ciel Post is Princess Arra; Kelly Hekking is
Aelin, a Daughter of Starlight; Cheyenne McKinney, Nina Fehren and Mary Hayden
are the mystic sisters; Jay Schulz is Sterling, Captain of the Fleet

I'd just like to put out there for the record that I am undecided who I am more obsessed with at this juncture:

- Ciel Post (and I am normally not a fan of redheads at all, but she can ciel my post anytime)
- Mary Hayden (mmm... gothic witch chick with limited emotive abilities)
- Kelly Hekking (mmm... starlight)

Wow. I really wrote "she can ciel my post anytime". My coffee need is stronger than I thought.

Apparently my need for entertainment is strong too, given that I'm actually re-watching this video. Shoot me. Please.

---

I started re-reading (okay, re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-reading) Stephen King's "Firestarter". Even though it's pretty dated, damn I love that book.

Who would've thought that pay phones would become anachronistic so soon?

---

Vicky just ping'd me about the OotS zombie t-shirts.

I love the message:

Zombies: 100% post-consumer human. Reduce. Reuse. Reanimate.

And, of course, I suffer from terrible impulse-spending issues, so I want one. Now.

What stops me from transmitting my credit card info at this moment is that these ain't cheap and I'm undecided if I want a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, or a hoodie.

Or all three.

And a coffee mug.

Crap. I really need that coffee.

---

I've been trying to revisit the stories I've been eternally working on. I'm trying to resist the urge to delete and start over from scratch. This is how I never get anything done.

Driving me nuts.

---

Friday. I'm so very, very glad it's Friday.

The Sound of Friday

Hello Friday my old friend,

I've come to talk to you again.

Because a weekend softly creeping,

will let me catchup on my sleeping,

And the awesome that was planted in my brain

(braaaaiiiinssss)

Still remains

Within the sound of Friday.

(apologies to Mr. Simon and Mr. Garfunkel)

I love OotS!

Today's is utter genius.

Non-stop excellent lines:

* +5 Icy Burst Archory - A Refreshing Blast of Winter

* My mouth feels like a cool mountain spring!

* My last breath... is also my mintiest...

Know what's fun?

Having your apartment building's water heater go out on a chilly day.

That's fun!

That's GREAT fun!

There's cold showers and there's hypothermia-inducing showers.

Thankfully, this happened yesterday. My landlord fixed the apparently-minor problem so this morning's shower was civilized and had hot water.

'Cause this morning 'tis a wee bit chilly.

Nani?

I'm told by... oh... most people in my life that I'm odd.

Meh. I can deal.

We all have our neuroses. So I often find myself totally blown away when I encounter people who share mine.

Especially the paranoiac stuff.

It's really odd when I encounter someone who is more paranoid than I am.

Am I mellowing? Is this person more paranoid than I am?

Both?

Oh a quasi-whim, I Googled this person. Wow. Less of a footprint than I have.

Damn.

I'm... blown away.

That's just... wow.

In unrelated news, today's lunch (Zao's Noodles followed by a chocolate cookie at a nearby bakery) is not settling as well as I'd like.

Still, two more Xmas gifts down and done. Excellent.

And I've gotten a weird education on international affairs today. One of my friends (a native of Hong Kong) is running afoul of bureaucratic bullshit from China because his paperwork (of over twenty years ago) lists Hong Kong as a sovereign nation.

And China... not happy with that.

I feel for him. That's gotta suck.

Wonder how that works for Taiwan? Gah.

Huh

And the fates tweak with me a bit. My weekend plans shifted. Good. Yay!

Hump day (heh heh)

---
Hysterical
---

I'm already tired of xmas and it's only the 10th. Wow.

I am, however, looking forward to my company closing the office for a week and a half at the end of the month. I'm kind of tired of several folks I have to play nice with. Ah well, it's not like I have to deal with them every day.

Too bad I don't have the cash for a trip... or really a destination that interests me.

Meh. Probably just holidaze blahs.

Musical Salvation

My friend Christine gave me the complete rip of "Gears of War 2", including tracks not on the CD.

I am going to be dreaming this music 'cause I've been listening to it non-stop.

Non-stop.

She has earned herself a permanent place on my list of people in the office getting any baked goods I bring in.

I almost regret suggesting she and her fiancee do a drive-thru Elvis wedding.

Almost.

I mean, really. It is the perfect way to get hitched.

You know I'm right.

Cult-a-riffic

Saw this on io9.

The Jejune Institute

There's a YouTube of their induction process.

They have a Yelp entry too.

I love that they claim to have created "Polywater". The "human-dolphin interaction" makes me think of my buddy Aaron D. and his "spirit dolphin" commentary.

It troubles me that the alleged head of the Jejune Institute is named "Octavian Coleman" for reasons that only cursed few would understand. If you're reading this and you're one of those souls, I'm curious if your therapy is working any better than mine.

Probably not.

I love creepy Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) like this.

Gah!!!

I can't stop watching that stupid "Shine on me" video.

I've watched it six times now.

The music is bad. The guy is a cadaverous freak. Why am I watching this?

Oh yeah... hot women and dragons.

If this was a movie instead of a faux-trailer, it would air on Sci-Fi channel at 2am. I'd still watch it.

And I'd feel just as soiled as I do now.

Meanwhile, Vicky sent me this!

I've decided this is how Skynet got started down the dark side road. It was a printer tormented by cats.

Driven insane, it clearly obliterated humanity in order to deprive cats of their cat-food openers and primary object of torment.

It is, of course, unclear as to whether or not cats were indeed obliterated by Skynet.

I'm thinking Skynet's Terminators actually take care of cats in this dark future and supplant humans as Feline-kind's primary servants.

Which sort of means that cats rule the Earth in the dark future of "Terminator".

Not too different from today, I guess. Just more robots.

Son of a...

Forgot my mp3 player this morning.

Not a disaster. I have music on the hard drive here.

I am reminded how incredibly fortunate I am that this is actually a problem for me. I have several friends who have fallen victim to the economic downturn in a bad, bad way.

Listening to their stories makes me want to do something for them, of course. What they need are jobs. I wish I had an easy solution.

Or winning Lotto numbers.

There is a solution out there. Somewhere.

Accursed evil

Did you know Ghiradelli makes dark-chocolate caramel squares?

They do. And they're exactly the sort of thing that I love and should not eat.

Goddamnit.

---

So I have rolls of wrapping paper for xmas gifts. The main batch of goodies I have lined up for the kinfolk came in today. The rest are pretty easy to get.

This xmas may actually not be terribly stressful. Wow.

There are a couple of friends I want to shop for whom give me some difficulty. I have time, I guess.

---

I really want to take a nap right now. I do believe that's an indicator that afternoon coffee may be required...

Blergh?

Monday is here. WTF?

Ugh.

It was a nice weekend, albeit a chilly one. I went to Ang's place for a holiday party that was most fun. The unnamed gave me spare DVD racks that now hold my CD collection.

Bonus!

Yeah, that's about it. It was quiet otherwise, which was nice. I got a chance to get caught up on sleep (mmm... sleep...) and try to get past the allergies.

Now I have a cough. The drama never ends.

On the plus side, this morning started with mail from a friend I haven't heard from in a long time. Yay!

It burns the mind

I found this on io9.

It's like watching a video that epitomizes (sp?) the 80's glam rock as an internet zombie.

I watched it and I flashed back to the supreme awfulness that was the "Dungeons & Dragons" movie.

(If you haven't seen that movie, add that to the list of things you should be thankful for in your life.)

That said, the women cast in this video are quite hot. The guy is beyond a dork, though.

I thought the video was eurotrash, but apparently it's made in the US. God help us...

Friday!

Afrin advertises 12 hours of congestion relief. It's more like 8. Just sayin'.

Friday advertises 2 days of work relief. That's about right.

I got my hands on the "Gears of War 2" soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky and ripped most of it to my mp3 player.

Me likey a little too much. It is pleasing nerd-music.

So what's up for this weekend? Oh, the first of many holiday parties. This ought to be interesting given how I'm constantly loaded on decongestants. I bet I'll be the life of the party all a-sneezin' and such. I suspect alcohol and I shall not renew our acquaintance for a while yet.

Alas.

Fringe

"Fringe" is pretty much the only TV show I regularly watch now, aside from the news.

And damn is it good.

Tuesday night's episode (which I taped as it's on after my bedtime) was the last new ep of 2008 and it was just awesome.

Mad science! Chainsaws! Matter-phasing bank robbers! People getting stuck in walls! Teleportation! Drugs!

I tell ya, this show can't go wrong!

Okay, sure it can. It could jump the shark any moment now. Still, it's a fun ride so far. I hope they keep it up when they return in 2009.

Am filled with no-jury-duty-joy

That's right. Jury duty excused for another YEAR!!!

W00T!

Now if these allergies would just go away...

Great stuff

Prop 8 the Musical

Awesome

Whee!

I get to call the court around 11 today to find out if I have to perform my civic duty and meander into jury duty.

Good times.

Meh. At least it's easy to get to this time.

---

Yesterday's congestion attack was so severe that I just conked-out early last night. I was exhausted even before I loaded myself up on drugs.

The drugs wiped me out. And by drugs, I mean a combination of Nyquil and Afrin.

Yes, I know combining medications, even over-the-counter ones, is not wise. On occasion, however, it can be hilarious.

Cleared my head out, too. I think that the weird dreams Nyquil gives me helps me process things that are bugging me. I always wake up in a "better place" mentally.

Of course, it could be the Nyquil still taking effect and making me a little drowsy.

Either way.

Allergens

I'm allergic to something in the air. One of the directors at my office pointed out it might be mold/fungi due to the crazy number of mushrooms growing outside.

And, it so happens, I am allergic to mold.

Go figure.

Oh, and my office ventilation? Mold central.

Which does explain why my congestion/allergies are so much worse when I'm in the building.

Bleah.

In an unrelated note, I feel obligated to take back any badmouthing I did about the USPS yesterday. Today they were sunshine and light.

And my overseas xmas packages are done.

Hmph

The fog is pretty intense this morning. Can barely see ten feet away.

Woo-hoo.

Adding to the joy, I do believe I'm succumbing to a head cold.

Just in time for tomorrow's possible jury duty and this weekend's party.

Yay?

I am all a-sniffle right now. Sucks rather a lot.

Might be allergies. Either way, not fun.

Bleah.

Princeps' Fury

I just finished Jim Butcher's latest novel, "Princeps' Fury". The latest in the Codex Alera series, this was...

Wow.

Jim Butcher and Patrick Rothfuss pretty much hold the lead in my list of favorite authors. Butcher might edge out Rothfuss, but only due to sheer volume of books.

"Princeps' Fury" continues the story of Tavi, the former assistant shepherd who now commands an army over the sea and fights alongside former enemies against a worse threat.

Meanwhile, back in Alera, the fit has hit the shan.

And I mean "shan" in the Lovecraft sense.

Butcher is a master of action-driven narrative and strong characters. Sweet Nyarlathotep's toenails was this book good.

It doesn't help that I've been listening to part of the "Gears of War 2" soundtrack as I finished the last quarter of the book.

I am totally spinning now.

It's hard to be me.

the fog (insert creepy music)

It's impressively-foggy this morning.

'Tis the season, I suppose.

Yesterday, I had to head out to Concord to do some shopping. I opted to take Hwy 4 in to scenic central/eastern CoCo County and as soon as I got on the freeway, I lost pretty much any visibility that was more than three feet in front of my car.

Ever been in tooley fog? No?

It's pretty damn thick.

The worst tooley fog I recall was back when I lived in the central valley. I'd gone to a friend's party in Berkeley and - like a true braniac - drove home at 2am. Oh, I was fine to drive (tired, but quite sober). I just wasn't smart.

You see, around the winter season, the tooley fog sets in. It's a low, thick fog that's pretty much impossible to see through. That particular evening it was very, very bad. Visibility was so horrific that I was afraid to pull over for fear of getting hit by speeding cars. I wound up following a truck to my destination and managing by sheer luck to find the correct freeway exit and get home.

Two hours later.

So my trek on Hwy 4 brought back all those lovely memories as I struggled to make my way into scenic Concord to complete my errands.

Good times.

And this morning, there's fog again. It's not the valley tooley fog (thank goodness), but served as excuse enough for my lazy self to drive into work.

Pretty wimpy of me. Oh well.