Almost there...

As 2018 winds down, I sit nursing sore muscles. I overdid it yesterday. A life lesson: make sure your destination has what you're looking for before you walk a couple of miles to fetch something.

Got my SSD configured. Turns out I had to do things. Google pointed me to the things. I managed to do the things. I feel very empowered and technical, despite my inability to describe what I had to do to get everything working properly.

I'm set for New Year's Eve, for the most part. I couldn't get the beer I wanted (part of my fruitless trek yesterday) but I've got plenty of other stuff to make up for the lack. I've also got a deep-dish pizza waiting to be baked as my dinner tomorrow. Mmm...

I figure I'll marathon some movies, maybe all the Avengers flix in my library or the entire LotR series. If I'm still up around midnight, I'll toast the new year and go to bed.

Yeah, it's not exciting, but I'm not really looking for excitement.

2018 was a fairly ridiculous year for me. It certainly had no small bits of excitement. I changed jobs. I saw one of those "landmark" birthdays come and go. I thought I was going to lose my mind more than once. I changed Internet providers (aaah... to be websurfing at civilized speeds...). I did a lot of personal journey stuff that would mean nothing to anyone other than myself. All said, despite the worldwide shitshow that was 2018, the year itself treated me fairly well. Gonna be interesting to see where 2019 takes me.

The Force is not with me

That's it. It's time for me to burn my geek card.

While ribbing some British co-workers over their good fortune of having May Day as a paid holiday, I was reminded that I should be looking forward to the fourth here.

Silly me, I corrected said worthy soul and said "Oh no, you're thinking of Cinco de Mayo. That's the fifth."

Never have I been so ashamed to be so terribly, terribly wrong.

I find my lack of faith disturbing.

Odds and Ends of the brainstem

Had a bacon, bacon, bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwich for lunch today.

Could have used a little more bacon.

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Got about a third into "The Providence of Fire" by Brian Staveley and decided to stop for a bit. It's kind of a slog. Lots of misfortune happening to people and folks talking about bad stuff, but not a lot actually happening to move the story along.

Now switched over to "Half the World" by Joe Abercrombie. The sequel to the brilliant "Half a King", I'm already well-in and I just started this morning. I need to pace myself if I want this book to last the week, but it's so good...

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Sent by a friend:



I believe no further commentary is needed.

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So... this. Seriously. $200 for this thing? It's cool, but $200 cool? I am not presently convinced.

A Letter to the Future

Dear Future Self:

You're going to be tempted to do some really stupid things, especially on a bike. This is because you're impatient.

It would probably be a good idea to reconsider. One of these days, your luck is going to run out and that is going to suck a lot.

Sincerely, Present Self

Nearly out of Aprilness

Not particularly liking this unusually-warm weather. Oh, it's making the bike ride in during the morning quite nice, but overall I'm not enjoying it. If it's this warm in freakin' April, how hot is it going to get in September?

I shudder to think.

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Managed to scald my hand with boiling water yesterday. Now when any hot water touches my hand at all, it's like acid is getting poured on the scalded parts. Good times when I'm taking a hot shower.

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Today's "Worst Case Scenario" calendar entry is about cockroaches:

• A cockroach can hold its breath for more than 30 minutes.
• A roach can live for a week without its head. Of course, there's entire swathes of humanity that can live without a brain for their entire lives, so color me unimpressed.
• Cockroaches need water and will die after a week without it. Given that humans tend to die after three days from dehydration... just... yeah. Another mark to you, roaches!
• Roaches have been around for hundreds of millions of years. And they ain't goin' anywhere.
• A cockroach can handle radiation equivalent to the radiation released from a detonated nuke.

Just in case you didn't already think those little fuckers were effectively indestructible...

Thoughts to end the week

So... yeah. When deciding to ride your bike for the first time in months, it pays to first verify that all the moving parts work.

This is best done when it's not dark and you're already en route.

The more you know...

Things Not To Do

When juicing citrus fruit, such as lemons or oranges, do not do so if your hands are dry and cracked.

My only comfort is that my screams were doubtless manly and fierce.

Well... fierce.

Well... they were screams.

Very loud screams.