On hold.

For good or ill, I read through the Amanda Congdon blog this evening.

And suddenly all the "Something To Say" posts seemed derivative, even though I'd never read a single entry of "Today's 5"

Even the talk about my cat seemed impersonal in light of "The Cat is Back"

So I say, forget it. This is a medium entirely driven by novelty, and I'll bow out before I have to put up with any arguments that I'm not being original.

This space goes into the deep freeze until I get over this perceived notion.

Something to Say #8

It's a sad day when the only new news story that's jumping out at me is "MC Karl Rove", and the only thing newsworthy about it is that he proves he can be a bigger ass than Steve Ballmer.

So I'll make you a deal. Post links to interesting news stories in the comments. I'll do my best to add some insightful commentary (or at least witty banter). Leave a link to your website or blog or vlog or whatever, and I'll credit you for the source (and possibly start reading your website or blog or vlog or whatever.)

Let's get stupid.

Something to Say #7

Due to a lack of news, there's nothing to be said today.

Seriously. I'm seeing the same headlines and the same stories I've been seeing all week.

If I find something interesting, I'll update, but I think the media is in a rut.

UPDATE: Ok, so this is pretty good, in a shameless and horrible sort of way.
"I've got it! We'll cut jobs! And we'll start with the people that get paid the most!"
"Does that mean you, boss?"
"No, I mean the little people, you know, the ones that actually keep the place running."

Something to Say #6

"First I went South, then I went East, then I went West, and finally North. Get it?"
"You might want to re-think that one, Captain Dyslexia. You just got SEWN."
Fuck it. Let's talk up some news.

Tony "Stop asking such hard questions, I'm terminal!" Snow has cancer. Can't think up anything witty to say about that.

The Senate is still for pulling out of Iraq. If the after-school specials taught me anything, pulling out is a risky proposition. Next time we want to go fuck something up, I say we use condoms.

Through the magic of genetics, we now have sheep that are part human. I'm troubled by this, as lamb is one of my favorite meats ("Them's be cute and tasty!"), and it calls into question on of my finest culinary inventions, the "Lamburger Helper" (For the record, it was Southwestern style. Zesty!) Somehow, this sort of GM innovation just makes me think "Manburger Helper", and that's just sad. Couldn't they have stuck with the old method: "More organs makes me more human."

Hey, speaking of sheep, this article turns out to be quite the commentary conundrum.

1. Let's start with the URL. Sheep neglect, huh?
2. "He lives upstairs and the sheep were living downstairs,"
3. "...wandered away from a suburban North Carolina home to graze on floral arrangements in the town cemetery."
   

Oh, just go read it. The going's gone weird. I think the winner is the contrast between the last two sentences.

Industry is giving us the testosterone patch as an aid for boosting the sex drive of women. All I'm saying is "Let the pranks begin!"

And if anyone's keeping track, Sex is totally being beaten down by Death on Google News. (And no, sheep wasn't even remotely close)

Webcasting.

In case any of you think that technology is the biggest challenge we face, be sure to go read the updated JWZ webcast license explanation.

It's worse than you might think.

-transiit

Something to Say #5

All the news that prints to fit:

The US prosecutor scandal continues, now with various senators adding some much-needed doubt to the equation. Still not sure that anything meaningful is going to come of this.

Things stand to get ugly between the Iranians and the Brits. I've heard a lot of doom and gloom about this one, but I think it still stands at saber-rattling.

The average conissieur has found a new enemy: The Ladybug. I find myself ambivalent on the subject. (extra bonus points go to this link that I found while trying to figure out how to spell "conissieur")

Failing a good headline, the winning story lead-in for today is: "Feeding chocolate to a bunch of middle-age, overweight people for weeks on end may not be as unhealthy as it seems."

something

The media doesn't mind feeding into
Our subconscious craving for homicide
And no one ever questions why we
Breed to live then live to die

We're all part of this big machine
A monster called Society
If you think that you are immune
You'll be the next one it will consume
-nocturne

More nothing.

I hate you
Talkin' to myself
Everybody's starin' at me
I'm only bleedin'
where are the kids?
Maybe pregnant,
or on drugs,
or on welfare,
on top of the world,
the honor roll,
on parole,
on reruns,
in the Dodgers,
back of milk cartons,
on stakes in the middle of corn fields,
on covers of future history books,
on old lady's mantles,
walkin' on water,
nailed on crosses,
I think it's time I had a talk with my kids
I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me
YOU AIN'T NEVER GONNA AMOUNT TO NOTHIN'
-FNM

A slow friday evening.

Too tired to do much, so I took a nap and then made this:

Nothing. Zero.

My tribe is the indifferent kind
Stumbling round in the valley of the blind
What are you afraid you'll see
If you open your eyes and take a look at me
Won't you look at me
Don't you want to see
What you made of me
Look at me
Why don't you look at me
You'll see
Nothing, nothing,
Nothing, nothing
ZERO
-NMN

Something to Say #4

M-O-O-N, that spells News:

Ok, so we can lay to rest the Pet Food Recall stuff. It wasn't bacteria. It wasn't even wheat gluten. It was rat poison. Here come the lawsuits.

In the meantime, the FDA who's been hot on the trail of the pet food debacle, still can't figure out the source of the E-Coli in the spinach from last year. Of course, some say it was a wild boar. Some say it was Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick. My money is on the second coming of Elvis.

Fans of services such as Last.fm or Pandora might take note of this piece talking about the impending death of the internet. Or internet streaming radio, anyhow.

And that's all I cared to talk about on this Boomtime, Discord 9, YOLD 3173.

fnord.

From the past.

So back in 1996-1997, my friend Andrew and I were trying our best at music creation.

I present, for the historical record, a couple of examples (fire up your favorite mp3 streaming app again)

Track 7
Track 5

I regret we never completed these, and I ask myself how far we could've gone if we'd stuck to it, but things didn't work out that way.

I give you nothing.

Hey, everybody's looking but they never can see,
All the angst, corruption and the dishonesty.
Think about the times and places you've never known,
Youre a man-swarm atom and yet you're alone,
So I give you me, I give you nothing!
I give you me, I give you nothing!
So you got a place that you can call all your own,
But you make a habit of carrying the stone.
Look around and ask someone if you are alive,
You're a sidewalk cipher speaking prionic jive,
So I give you me, I give you nothing!
I give you me, I give you nothing!
Respectable, despicable, it seems all the same.
Now we realize that we have nothing to say.
If your reserve is weak, audacity complete.
Ask yourself again, do I deserve much from them? No!

-BR

Something to Say #3

And now, for the news:

As seen on Slashdot...So you've probably seen or heard about this video floating around on YouTube by now:

Right. So anyway, somebody tracked down the creator, and now he's been fired. Probably not surprising, as he worked for a media consulting firm hired by Barack Obama. I haven't figured out exactly where I stand on this yet. It's certainly not a 1st amendment issue. Part of me wants to say, "Well, no shit, you got fired.", but then I don't like the idea of having to keep my opinions about everything my company might any stake in. For now, I'll just say that I'm not terribly surprised this was the result.

Speaking of YoooTooob, there's a theory floating around why Google would buy them right as they were heading into an extinction-level lawsuit. Funny that I read this the same day that portions of the same industry serving as plaintiffs in that lawsuit have announced they'll be forming a ewe-tewb rival.

Ok. Enough of that.

And can I just say that I'm more than a little tired of most "technology news" being thinly-veiled advertisements?

The winner for the best headline of the day: "Harvard Students Rally Against Mindless Sex"

And as a follow-up to an excellent news story I almost certainly mentioned somewhere (but can't find now): He got probation.

Nothing about Something

From nothing to something
and something for nothing.
From no one to someone
from someone to same one

same old thing.

The only way out
leads to no way back.

What can you do?

Easy
You shove it back where it came

-NE

Something to Say #2

And now for another brief jaunt through today's headlines:

I usually could care less about entertainment news, but I have never seen so many jokes about missing a leg as some reality television nonsense seems to have generated in the press: Here. Here. Here... Granted, I could care less about her or the program, I'm just saying that when I make the jokes, suddenly, I'm the monster.

They say that Chinese Take Out might be bad for you. In other surprises, they're saying cigarettes might not be so good either. Personally, I'm shocked.

Equally surprising, in the federal prosecutor scandal, it seems there's an attempt being made to blanket anybody that might have something interesting to say (and possibly a few others) with executive privilege.

And as a follow-up to yesterday's mention of the pet food recall, the surprise twists I've been hoping for ("Don't bury me I'm not dead!" or "It's in the blood!") have not yet come. However, I did get thinking about the long list of products that all come out of the same factory, and I've got this image in my head that the control panel for the line looks like a McDonald's register, with little company logo buttons on one row (the IAMS pawprint, the Kraft logo, etc.), pictures of intended consumers on another row (little pictures of cats, dogs, humans), pictures of the final product (canned meats, hot dogs, Taco Bell high speed caulking canisters) and the last row little pictures of ingredients (Sorry folks, too many jokes here.)

Something about nothing

I taught you how to cyclops rock
And then you go and turn around and break my heart
And then you go and waste my cyclops time
Mess up my cyclops mind
-TMBG

Something to say #1

And this is today's news:

The Inquiry on Firing Federal Prosecutors continues, but probably still won't amount to much in the long run.

Another execution in Iraq. You'd think that if they're going to discard with certain pleasantries
(I know, it's the Onion, but sometimes we need the laughs),they might as well think up something a little more efficient, no more of this single serving execution nonsense.

The Siberians prove that they still have more Mine Disaster Know-How than those West Virginian amateurs.

The Pet Food Scare has jumped the shark and given up on all reporting except human interest stories. Bonus Evil points go to Menu Foods for killing seven lab animals while testing to see if it was worth having a recall to begin with, with a triple word score for listing their name as the "Menu Foods Income Fund" on their website (some part of me wants to believe the domain was hijacked. Irony like that rarely exists in the real world.)

From Fight Club:

Very modern art.

Take the number of vehicles in the field, A.               
Multiply it by the probable rate of failure, B.
Multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, C.
           
A x B x C equals X.

If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

And of course my favorite article, the two southern gents that tried a double suicide using a circular saw. They lived. I just keep picturing the one that still has one arm left looking at the saw and thinking "Aw, shit. Hadn't thought of this." (But even that story is trying to go human interest now.)

What a weird world.

The cat returns 2

Well, it took her an hour or so, but apparently something finally clicked about "Huh. You're the thing that feeds me and pay attention to me" and now she won't leave me alone.

I think what troubles me most is that I really need to think up something better for this space before I get labelled as that "creepy guy that's always writing about his cat."

The cat returns.

And I'm currently trying to determine if there's any pattern to her re-discovery of the apartment. It's certainly not the right-hand rule (diagonal across. around the corner on the bed. out the door. on the desk. in the bookshelf. behind the couch.)

And, as expected, she shows know signs of recognizing me at all.

Oh great, she's in the ventilation....

Illness

So I managed to get myself sick again, so I called into work and tried to rest amongst the din of powertools operating just outside my window.

I think I'm going to go take a shower and call it a night. At least I get the cat back soon.

Quotable.

Embrace the absurd. It might be all we have left.

Things found on You Tube.

I don't know that this is worthy of a regular feature, but when I find something original and creative, I feel inclined to share.

Pet Food.

So it seems there's a major pet food recall going on.

Of course, very little of the news seems to suggest any course of action, so I presume it means you should be feeding your pets to each other.

Taking something back.

So I'd let it go for a time, but that time is done.

I went off and picked up the They Might Be Giants User's Guide today.

So while there was a time, that time is done.

Goodbye, Ze.

Thanks for the great year, and I'm sad it's time to end. Looking forward to what comes next, and by that I mean for both of us.

And for everyone else, go look in the sidebar.

-transiit

braindump.1

So much to say, so little attention span. Let's go.

I checked my landline voicemail about half an hour ago. 2 new messages.

Message 1 (cow-orker): Uh, we need the BIOS password on server "XXXXXX", the RAID isn't coming back up and we're don't want to do anything that breaks it. You probably won't get this message until June, so I don't know what we're going to do.

Message 2 (same cow-orker): Oh, nevermind. We did it anyway, and it seemed to come back up fine.

The backstory:

I was a system administrator and network administrator for most of my college years. I'm somewhat adept at getting systems and networks and whatnot working again, through kludges or voodoo or ritual sacrifice or just down-home technical mojo. I keep telling people that the trick is to remember to scratch behind the system's ears, and they'll like you more. It sounds goofy, but nobody has yet to come up with a better explanation for the times that I can solve problems just by standing near an ill-behaving machine.

I found over time that I wasn't happy doing the IT gig. Too often, I felt like the only time that I got any recognition was when something had gone horrribly wrong, and they were casting the hairy eyeball at me, whether it was something I could control or not.

By luck, it turned out that my brain was wired to understand the systems beneath the systems, and so I picked up a degree in computer science and landed a job as a software engineer. I've been on projects where I've exceeded by virtue of understanding what already exists, where I can take existing stuff and glue it together in no time at all, and I've been on projects where I'm told to recreate the wheel, no matter how I protest that there's already a proven facility in place. And I've been on projects that my management thinks of my IT past, and so they keep tasking me with system management issues.

A little too much of that last one, lately, and it's been putting me in a foul mood. Which brings us to the present.

I've not set a BIOS password on any of the machines I've set up, so I have no clue what they were talking about. It certainly doesn't help that they never explained why they reset the box to begin with, and even more petrifying, they didn't explain what "we did it anyway" meant.

As for the "won't get this message until June" comment, that's easy enough to explain. I gave them my landline number on the understanding that I'm prone to shutting my ringer off and that I'm not terribly attentive at checking the voicemail on that line. A trusted cow-orker has my cell number, and I trust his judgement when it comes to calling me on real emergencies, so I don't feel that bad about being somewhat unreachable during my off hours.

Bionic Records

So back in the '90s, there were a couple decent record stores in central orange county. Top Ten records hadn't quite quite gone into the all-punk realm, Bionic Records cost a bit more, but still had a really good selection, and if you didn't care about price and wanted just odd bootlegs and imports, there was always the CD Listening Bar.

Even if those failed, you could always go the Wherehouse chain and rummage through their used bins.

One evening as a lad, I had some time to kill, so I went over to the Bionic in Orange. Rummaged through the used section a bit, and wandered off. An hour later, the place got held up, and a week later they folded the inventory into their other three stores and shuttered the door. I think the space is a Dairy Queen now.

Top Ten closed down some years back as well. The story I heard had something to do with the owner's wife going full-on religious zealotry and deeming that what they were selling was evil, and it too, ended up shuttered. The space is probably vacant now.

The powers that be finally caught up with the CD Listening Bar for all the bootlegs and everything else. I heard it was a pretty crazy raid. They didn't survive.

Even the mighty Wherehouse empire has largely been shuttered.

So why do I post this now?

Well, I had some free time this afternoon, so I figured I'd swing by the Bionic in Fullerton and see if anything interesting was in their used bins. Instead, I found the space had been split, and what was there now was a salon and a tailor.

So when I got home, I hit the internet to see if maybe they'd just moved somewhere, and found reference to the Bionic in Huntington Beach having closed.

And I'm sitting here thinking about all the CDs I've ordered off Amazon, and my stint with legitimate download service, and wondering, "How much am I to blame?"

Of course, the shelf space they had for the sort of music I listen to was a very small fraction compared to the punk, ska, or death metal sections, but even so...

This leaves only 1.25 independent stores within a convenient drive (Black Hole Records in downtown Fullerton, and Ipso Facto (the 1/4, they're mostly a boutique that happens to have a small rack of CDs to purchase)

Of course, I'm assuming that either of those still exist.

negativity

Ok, so someone asked me today "You're kinda negative, aren't you?"

And I was confused. Turns out they were going for a rather shallow assessment, but here's my thoughts on the subject anyway.

There's things in life I can change. There's things in life I can't change. Sometimes it gets a little fuzzy which are which.

And yes, sometimes it seems like all I do is complain about things, but it's my way of dealing with it. Can't change something? Pluck the thought out, write it down, type it in, whatever...and move on. If I really can't affect it, then I'll vent a little and be done with it.

And so it is.

Mandom

All the world loves a lover.

All the world loves MANDOM

ugh.

so. very. tired.

I want to put my furniture back, but they aren't done yet.

I miss my cat.

Why won't this end?

Another day.

Not too much to report today. Still banging my head against the wall with the same issue at work I've not been able to solve for the last two weeks. Either I'm getting stupider, or this one's a real challenge.

Still fighting to get accurate information out of my apartment leasing office regarding the repairs they've been doing. Right now, unsavory answers would be better than vague and obviously fabricated ones.

So that's all I've got for right now. In the meantime, here's something to watch:

And this is how it was.

So we've been scrambling towards a major deadline at work to demonstrate what we're building to our customer's boss's boss's boss's boss.

Last night at around 6pm, the last piece fell into place and there was much rejoicing. (Yay.)

This morning, there was an attempt at one last dry-run for the demo, and everything took a big shit. Nothing. Some machines would do their thing, and then somewhere in between, it would crap out. So, being good little fire-fighters that we are, we all jumped in and started troubleshooting and diagnosing and trying to get it back up and running. Switching boards, rolling back software versions, manually stimulating it (innuendo, is there nothing you can't do?), no love.

And so the demo turned into a lovely lab tour with the majority of the development team sitting in the back looking morose, and the only other thing shown was the successful results of the night before.

A little later in the day, management thanked us for all our efforts and said not to feel like it was that much of a let-down.

As for the VIP that we were showing it to, he at least gave a good show that he was impressed with what we had, even if there was some ghost in the machine that kept us from showing it to him operable.

Tomorrow's another day. Still too much to do, so I'll worry about tomorrow's challenges tomorrow, and today's challenges are now done.

Zombies!

In honor of the first day of productivity with the early daylight savings time, I'm too stupid to write anything interesting.

So instead, here's a link in the vein of music collage meets zombification:

Courtesy of Monkey Farm Frankenstein



Hey, maybe it's cheating, but I'm making with the postings, damnit.

tired.

stupid daylight savings time.

stupid physical exertion.

so as I was driving the cat to the kennel, I kept getting closer and closer to the big ol' brushfire that's burning today.

And I asked myself, shouldn't a mostly sane and rational person be trying to put some distance in between themselves and a substantial inferno?

Good thing I'd already paid the deposit and reservation on the kennel, as the first wave of suburban evacuees were starting to show up needing somewhere to put their pets indefinitely.

And through the magic of modern technology, I can peek in on the cat whenever. Of course, the controls on the webcam are a little screwy, so instead of panning right or left, it rotates. Odd.

So I came home and I've been moving furniture and crap since, but I think I've now got it handled. Would've been nicer to do this on a day when it wasn't above 90F, but that's why the flying spaghetti monster invented air conditioning.

oh, the moving, and the rearragement.

Spent too much time talking to nutters on the internet. Didn't get enough done today.

Managed to get a few of the larger pieces away from the wall per the "nothing within 4 feet of the exterior wall" rule that's going to be in place for the next week.

What a clusterfuck.

But depending on how out of sorts my apartment gets once I meet said requirement, I might have to abandon my newfound goal of posting here every day, having something to say or not. Time will tell.

uh..um..err...

Nothing to post here. Please move on.

Memories.

I once had a Sesame Street scratch and sniff book.

I only remember a couple things from it, one being the scratch and sniff pickle from the Sesame Street grocer.

The other was a skunk. Of course, when you're making a scratch and sniff book, it makes total sense to appeal to the olfactory sense, even in plot. I think it had something to do with "What's that horrible smell?"

I just got back from a late-evening 7-11 run (addict!) and along the trip was an unfortunate skunk that had seen the worst side of vehicular traffic.

And I thought about where I grew up. I thought about how I'd thought that was the most horrible aroma ever. I thought about how I used to hate it when skunks would get run down because it would make everything smell nauseating for days, sometimes weeks.

And I realized that once-awful stench was now burned in my memory. I realized that I don't associate it with the same horror I once did. Ok, so I'm not running down wildlife with my car, and it's rather terrible seeing it lying there in that state.

But I find I don't recoil from the sensory experience the way I once would. That fragrance just makes me nostalgic, and I think about simpler times. Happy, in a way.

Lengthy, with little value, but no advertisements.

Ok, so about a year or so ago, I signed up for a year's worth of service with one of them legitimate internet digital music companies. Cost me about two hundred bones. I won't say which, as I'm not their shill.

Over a thousand songs later, I'm thinking about the extra 800 bucks it would've cost me to have the DRM-encumbered versions through iTunes. Straight MP3s, 90 songs a month, and here's the final tally by band and number of songs picked up:

Acumen Nation: 57
Alec Empire: 30
Alice Donut: 28
Amish Rake Fight: 10
Bad Religion: 16
Battery: 17
Bile: 14
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: 19
Chris Connelly: 11
Christ Analogue: 17
Christoph de Babalon: 11
Claw Hammer: 2
Cubanate: 10
Dave Brubeck: 1
Deerhoof, Mixel Pixel, Evolution Control Committee, Books On Tap: 32
DJ_ Acucrack: 29
En Esch: 1
Evil Mothers: 38
Foetus: 10
Fugazi: 11
God lives underwater: 10
Gravity Kills: 11
Hellbent: 11
Iron Lung Corp: 15
Jim Bob: 18
John Coltrane: 5
Johnny Violent: 14
Leech Woman: 11
MC 900 Ft Jesus: 14
Ministry: 11
Minor Threat: 24
Mouse On Mars: 11
Murder Inc: 9
Nic Endo: 11
Nocturne: 29
Otto Von Schirach: 35
Peeping Tom: 11
Peter Murphy: 10
Pigface: 20
Revolting Cocks: 10
Ruby: 11
Sister Machine Gun: 31
Skinny Puppy: 11
Spahn Ranch: 14
Steroid Maximus: 12
The Creatures: 11
The Damage Manual: 31
The Dead Milkmen: 1
The Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton: 4
The Filmscore Orchestra: 3
The Pixies: 15
The Stan Getz Quartet: 7
The Young Gods: 10
Tom Waits: 69
TRS-80: 31
Tub Ring: 16
Ultraviolence: 5
Various: 73
Various Artists: 65
Various Artists - Alternative Tentacles _ Mordam: 2
Various Artists - Cleopatra Records: 2
Various Artists - Invisible Records: 27
Various Artists - Silva Screen Records: 1
Various Artists - Underground Inc: 6
Voice Of Destruction: 11
Voodou: 2
Wiseblood: 10

blargh

So my landlord tore down my patio fence, and the neighbor's balcony upstairs in the name of community improvement.

They left a notice on my door today that due to some unforeseen events, they'll be needing access to my apartment every day next week as they tear out some of the asbestos-laden popcorn ceiling and that I shouldn't be around at all on monday. I keep expecting some part of my living room to collapse in the meantime.

But, I get to put my cat in boarding and move all furniture at least four feet away from the exterior wall, which means I'll be climbing over things to get from one end of the apartment to the other next week. So don't be surprised if I don't do so well with the updates. The computer might be buried.

scatterbrain

Shit. Missed monday's post as well.

I'm not so good at this.

But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying reeeaaaal hard.

Better than a Hallmark holiday.

Shit. Missed my daily post by a technicality of a little over half an hour.

working on setting up a collaborative project that's nothing but well-intentioned.

Film at 11. Or later. Or earlier. Whatever.

Inside jokes can be the strangest.

Random Detritus.

A few bits and pieces.

After last night's attempt at musical creativity, I dropped a few bucks on a few new toys in that same vein today. If they work to my favor, I'll happily review them.

Toe's still blue, but it's not getting worse, so maybe there's still some hope for that toenail yet.

After receiving notice from my leasing office that they'd be demolishing my patio next week, I had to clean everything off of it. The only survivor is my neglected bicycle, which is now sitting in my bedroom on a double layer of butcher paper. I wiped off some of the dirt, but it really needs a good cleaning, air in both tires, perhaps a new chain (the last time I tried riding it a couple links were fused) and a lot more usage. As for the rest of the patio, I said goodbye to a few dying plants (leftovers from last chapter) and a few other bits and pieces. No significant loss.

I've been giving the contents of my apartment the hairy eyeball lately with an eye towards "shit I don't need anymore" In a few days, there might be a purging going on.

Attempting the creative.

So the last couple weeks I've been busy trying to be creative again, but with an aim at an anti-self-censorship campaign. I make something, I make it public, and I've already spread a number of drawings.

But tonight was a little different. Couldn't think of anything to draw, so I sat down at my computer and tried my hand at music again.

If you've got iTunes or Winamp or XMMS or anything that can handle m3u streams, here's what I done made: Yup, right here. Yee haw.

Burnout

I'm running on empty. I've spent the last week at work coordinating and moving two labs and a workgroup, and getting all the shit up and running again. Add to yesterday's bruised toe a mashed finger, and all manner of cuts and scrapes from futzing with racks and rails and hardware and what not.

Either I went too far, or I'm getting old. I'm not sure. Certainly in either case I could stand to be in better shape, physically, but whatever, I'm already working on that.

I'm so very glad that I did the higher education thing and got a job as a software engineer. For me next trick, I'll figure out how to do some actual software engineering at work.

blech.

Toe Stub

I pulled off a first for myself at work today. I managed to stub my toe without my feet actually being in motion. Picked up a travel case for a piece of gear, and it swung down on a rotational axis right into my feet.

E: Ow!
S: What?
E: I think I just hurt myself. It feels like I inverted all my toenails.
S: *shock. awe*

So I went off to the nearest restroom to assess the damage (and it turns out that in that case, I seem to have stumbled upon the skankiest head on site) Rather than risking what the stalls looked like, I plopped down against the far wall and took off the shoe and peeled off the sock of the foot that was hurting more.

All the toes could curl without too much trouble. Probably didn't break anything. That's good. Visual inspection time.

So the big toenail on my left foot was already turning blue. This was about a minute or two from initial impact. That's not good.

I'm thinking of everyone I've known to accidentally catch a finger in a sliding window or car door, and the horrible aftermath. For some reason, these stories always seem to end in "and then the nail finally fell off"

I'm going to miss my toenail. We were good friends.