Woke up way too early today to go to a meeting. Said meeting took about two hours (from the intended start time, though someone was fifteen minutes late), and the conference room was a bit chilly. By the end I thought I was going to end up frozen, and my thoughts had pretty much crystallized into a crawl. Good thing we finished up then, it took me a good thirty minute walk to thaw out, and I even managed to acquire lunch on the way back. It was another of Ernie's taco specials, this time a different type of pork, whose spanish name I have forgotten, but distinctly different from the usual carnitas and spicy pork tacos I have gotten. Very tasty though. This afternoon was hectic, turns out some of our big compute machines were down, and the only eight-node machine that was up had another grad student's processes running on it (eight of them), and they were nice'd up to altogether annoying amounts of load. So I ended up having to use the four node machine, which worked out okay, though I have left it running tonight in hopes of having enough cascade data to email out tomorrow.
This evening I called up F, as it is her birthday (Hi! Happy Birthday!) and discussed her plans to be out in the LA area. It looks like C+J are moving from Las Vegas now, and she is headed out there to help with the move / play with the baby and just visit people in LA. Should be cool, we'll hopefully get together when we're back from Florida.
Also today, in World of Warcraft, was a raid upon the dread dungeon Karazhan. Spooooky! I was leading this one and it worked out pretty well. Even better, the class make-up was such that I filled a dps spot as a retribution paladin, and I have to say did very respectably. Two were ahead of me in damage, and it was extremely close up til the end so it wasn't as if I was getting blown away. A lot of that had to do with having L's character Icespark in the group, as an enhancement shaman always makes other melee classes work well. One of the other two I was close to was also melee though, so it was a pretty fair comparison. Anyways, this was the last raid I'm leading until next week, and it's always nice to have a break from leading.
And... that's it! I've got a bit of other stuff to do before going to bed (it being 2 AM), and so I should finish up and sleep.
Showing posts with label rambling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rambling. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
August Doldrums
I feel like most of my posts in August have been fillers, because I'm too tired to come up with anything to say. Oddly, there were two which I didn't feel that way, and one was very short. Anyways, I'm not sure quite what to do about it, there just hasn't seemed to be anything interestingly amazing to say, so instead you get the boring news from today:
Group meeting today was interesting. Programming today was bleh. Frisbee was also today, and went well, except I think I hurt my thumb fairly badly, my ankle feels weak and I'm very sore. I ran and played a lot harder today than I have been, which was nice, but it didn't really feel like I did any better. The ankle feels weak because I've been moving to make faster turns, but my shoes aren't getting the traction to actually do so and it feels like that stress goes to the ankle. So maybe I need to find my cleats or something.
Played a little Overlord today, it is awesome and my minions are doing very well. Except when they all die and I start outfitting a new squad with such diverse elements as pumpkin hats, spears, morningstars, a king's crown, and a unicorn horn. Except I didn't find the unicorns, L did, but I'm gonna go there so one of my guys uses one.
Tomorrow morning is yet another dentist appointment. Hopefully not as bad as some of my previous ones in terms of length, but I'm not sure at the moment whether that will be the case.
Group meeting today was interesting. Programming today was bleh. Frisbee was also today, and went well, except I think I hurt my thumb fairly badly, my ankle feels weak and I'm very sore. I ran and played a lot harder today than I have been, which was nice, but it didn't really feel like I did any better. The ankle feels weak because I've been moving to make faster turns, but my shoes aren't getting the traction to actually do so and it feels like that stress goes to the ankle. So maybe I need to find my cleats or something.
Played a little Overlord today, it is awesome and my minions are doing very well. Except when they all die and I start outfitting a new squad with such diverse elements as pumpkin hats, spears, morningstars, a king's crown, and a unicorn horn. Except I didn't find the unicorns, L did, but I'm gonna go there so one of my guys uses one.
Tomorrow morning is yet another dentist appointment. Hopefully not as bad as some of my previous ones in terms of length, but I'm not sure at the moment whether that will be the case.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Back from SF!
And we're back! Yep, these two posts were made within a few minutes of each other. That'd be because I've been out of internet contact. I did pull up my laptop while in a mall in SF friday, but while there were several wireless networks, the public ones didn't appear to work (I suspect they were public, but only authenticated MAC addresses could be used on them). Oh well, so instead yall just get a pair of posts essentially from saturday.
The trip up and back was pretty uneventful. There was one weird bit with taking the bay bridge into SF: it was during some really heavy traffic, and I was in a leftmost lane. I couldn't figure out what lane I should be in, because some were marked FastTrack or something, and so when I saw a carpool lane (the first I'd seen in SF) I got into that one. We entered the toll booth area, and I was ready to pay the 4$, but the lane I was in came to a booth with no person in it, and it didn't appear to care that I was there (there was a screen, but it was hard to read in the glare, I recall it flashing up a 0$ sorta thing). So we went on, but I had this nagging feeling I was supposed to pay 4$ for the toll. I found out later that the nagging feeling was correct, but for the wrong reason: apparently carpools don't have to pay the toll, but carpools in SF are three people, rather than the two person per car rule in LA. So I shouldn't have been in the carpool lane, and thus would have had to pay the toll. Oh well, I just hope they don't get irritated about the carpool lane thing and fine me huge amounts. Coming back across the same bridge, we were all set to pay the toll, I had figured out which lane type would work (after talking with a native) and let me pay by cash, and then there was no toll booths at all going eastbound. Doh!
Anyways, here's how our stay in SF went: Drove up, got there about 4:30pm or so, received multiple calls to figure out where/what we should do. We ended up needing to delay til about 6:30pm before we'd have something to do, so we went looking for Cody's books, a bookstore I'd heard about. Finally found it after walking in the wrong direction a bit, only to find out that they had closed, and their Berkeley location should still be open. So we went back instead to the huge mall (between Market and Mission, and 4th and 5th). It gave the impression of being huge, with directory displays that didn't just have a flat listing of all the stores, but instead had a touch screen searchable index, and when you picked a store it displayed how to get there. I think it was actually smaller than the Beverly Center mall, but it gave the impression of being bigger. Hard to tell though, we only stayed for a little bit and went to three stores in a localized area of the mall.
We did see a cool store, which seemed extremely niche: It sold handbags, fancy ladies dress shoes, and half-trenchcoat-like coats. I spent a while trying to figure out how that could be economically feasible, but gave up. If you've got ideas, let me know.
After the mall visit, it was time for dinner! This is good, because we'd eaten a long time ago. We first navigated to pick up Weronika, and then headed to Little Italy to meet up with L's parents and sister. We arrived in Little Italy ok, and then spent the next way too long trying to find parking. Finally found it, and had an extremely good dinner at a place whose name I was too tired to note, and thus don't remember.
Zzzzzzz. Then there was a drive again and then sleep. Today, we met up again and L's sister joined us. (I don't know how to write about her - I think she reads this blog already, but I don't like using people's names. Except I clearly don't mind in some cases, so I'm not sure exactly what it is. I almost always keep myself and L partially anonymous in name, but not always other people... Sorry for the digression...) The plan evolved: Go to Berkeley! We found out that Cody's books in Berkeley had closed, at least the location on telegraph. Doh! But there was still Claire, a friend of Weronika and L, whom L hadn't seen in a year or so, so we met up with her for lunch and afterwards went to Games of Berkeley. Lots of great stuff there, we ended up buying a module for Serenity (written by Laura and Tracy Hickman!), and a board game based on Order of the Stick. Also very tempting were Exalted books covering Autochthonians, and one covering Fair Folk, plus 3rd edition L5R and Nth edition Paranoia. (The latter two Weronika did pick up, and I was sorely tempted to). There were also a ton of other things that were pretty cool: Arkham Horror expansions, which one of the store's staff said were excellent, in the we're all gonna die quicker version of excellent. I also saw the Sluggy Freelance cardgame, a Paranoia card game (It's mandatory!), lots of the new Magic cards, some great figurines (both painted - Hero Clix and some Mechwarrior type stuff, and unpainted - lots of great fantasy hero/heroine type ones, saw a great elven ranger that might have been Thiryal), and more stuff I'm forgetting at the moment. Anyways, this took up most of our time and we left late in the afternoon, luckily still early enough to miss the traffic (thanks Lem for the warning about traffic times!), though there was a little but it cleared up quickly.
The trip back was uneventful too, though I thought it worth mentioning that I was going to stop at the Shell on the hill (do people remember that place?), but we ended up needing gas and drinks about 25 miles before that point, so instead we waved as we went by. The only other thing of note was that I was alone in the front seat and we were listening to CD's. At one point we had put on the Postal Service CD I recently got, and it finished and started over. I took it out and asked for another CD to replace it (the case was in the back), and it took a little bit to figure out that the reason I wasn't getting any response was that they were sound asleep in the back. Oh well, I ended up listening to that CD three times through, and the rest got a nap. :)
The trip up and back was pretty uneventful. There was one weird bit with taking the bay bridge into SF: it was during some really heavy traffic, and I was in a leftmost lane. I couldn't figure out what lane I should be in, because some were marked FastTrack or something, and so when I saw a carpool lane (the first I'd seen in SF) I got into that one. We entered the toll booth area, and I was ready to pay the 4$, but the lane I was in came to a booth with no person in it, and it didn't appear to care that I was there (there was a screen, but it was hard to read in the glare, I recall it flashing up a 0$ sorta thing). So we went on, but I had this nagging feeling I was supposed to pay 4$ for the toll. I found out later that the nagging feeling was correct, but for the wrong reason: apparently carpools don't have to pay the toll, but carpools in SF are three people, rather than the two person per car rule in LA. So I shouldn't have been in the carpool lane, and thus would have had to pay the toll. Oh well, I just hope they don't get irritated about the carpool lane thing and fine me huge amounts. Coming back across the same bridge, we were all set to pay the toll, I had figured out which lane type would work (after talking with a native) and let me pay by cash, and then there was no toll booths at all going eastbound. Doh!
Anyways, here's how our stay in SF went: Drove up, got there about 4:30pm or so, received multiple calls to figure out where/what we should do. We ended up needing to delay til about 6:30pm before we'd have something to do, so we went looking for Cody's books, a bookstore I'd heard about. Finally found it after walking in the wrong direction a bit, only to find out that they had closed, and their Berkeley location should still be open. So we went back instead to the huge mall (between Market and Mission, and 4th and 5th). It gave the impression of being huge, with directory displays that didn't just have a flat listing of all the stores, but instead had a touch screen searchable index, and when you picked a store it displayed how to get there. I think it was actually smaller than the Beverly Center mall, but it gave the impression of being bigger. Hard to tell though, we only stayed for a little bit and went to three stores in a localized area of the mall.
We did see a cool store, which seemed extremely niche: It sold handbags, fancy ladies dress shoes, and half-trenchcoat-like coats. I spent a while trying to figure out how that could be economically feasible, but gave up. If you've got ideas, let me know.
After the mall visit, it was time for dinner! This is good, because we'd eaten a long time ago. We first navigated to pick up Weronika, and then headed to Little Italy to meet up with L's parents and sister. We arrived in Little Italy ok, and then spent the next way too long trying to find parking. Finally found it, and had an extremely good dinner at a place whose name I was too tired to note, and thus don't remember.
Zzzzzzz. Then there was a drive again and then sleep. Today, we met up again and L's sister joined us. (I don't know how to write about her - I think she reads this blog already, but I don't like using people's names. Except I clearly don't mind in some cases, so I'm not sure exactly what it is. I almost always keep myself and L partially anonymous in name, but not always other people... Sorry for the digression...) The plan evolved: Go to Berkeley! We found out that Cody's books in Berkeley had closed, at least the location on telegraph. Doh! But there was still Claire, a friend of Weronika and L, whom L hadn't seen in a year or so, so we met up with her for lunch and afterwards went to Games of Berkeley. Lots of great stuff there, we ended up buying a module for Serenity (written by Laura and Tracy Hickman!), and a board game based on Order of the Stick. Also very tempting were Exalted books covering Autochthonians, and one covering Fair Folk, plus 3rd edition L5R and Nth edition Paranoia. (The latter two Weronika did pick up, and I was sorely tempted to). There were also a ton of other things that were pretty cool: Arkham Horror expansions, which one of the store's staff said were excellent, in the we're all gonna die quicker version of excellent. I also saw the Sluggy Freelance cardgame, a Paranoia card game (It's mandatory!), lots of the new Magic cards, some great figurines (both painted - Hero Clix and some Mechwarrior type stuff, and unpainted - lots of great fantasy hero/heroine type ones, saw a great elven ranger that might have been Thiryal), and more stuff I'm forgetting at the moment. Anyways, this took up most of our time and we left late in the afternoon, luckily still early enough to miss the traffic (thanks Lem for the warning about traffic times!), though there was a little but it cleared up quickly.
The trip back was uneventful too, though I thought it worth mentioning that I was going to stop at the Shell on the hill (do people remember that place?), but we ended up needing gas and drinks about 25 miles before that point, so instead we waved as we went by. The only other thing of note was that I was alone in the front seat and we were listening to CD's. At one point we had put on the Postal Service CD I recently got, and it finished and started over. I took it out and asked for another CD to replace it (the case was in the back), and it took a little bit to figure out that the reason I wasn't getting any response was that they were sound asleep in the back. Oh well, I ended up listening to that CD three times through, and the rest got a nap. :)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Slow Post (Use Caution)
Yup, this one is way late. Yesterday (monday) was one of those write-off days for me, where I feel like I don't get anything done, even though I spend a lot of time working, just on all sorts of scattered things that don't really come together. The other problem with that sort of day is that I forget all sorts of things, like posting something to the blog (among others). Oh well, here's a filler post from the future!
The Xbox 360 arrived at the repair place yesterday (UPS tracking said so!). That's good.
The web login for my xbox account couldn't bring up the info on the repair. That's bad.
The customer service rep on the phone got the xbox to link correctly to the web login. That's good.
The website now shows my xbox repair as still being in the "we sent him a box" stage. That's bad.
But, the customer service rep said that the box arrived at the repair place too! That's good.
Unfortunately, he also said there was a two to three week turnaround time.
That's bad.
Can I have my Xbox now?
Here's to hoping that this is the usual say it's going to take way longer than it actually will. Maybe I will take Lem up on his offer to play Overlord on his box. :)
The Xbox 360 arrived at the repair place yesterday (UPS tracking said so!). That's good.
The web login for my xbox account couldn't bring up the info on the repair. That's bad.
The customer service rep on the phone got the xbox to link correctly to the web login. That's good.
The website now shows my xbox repair as still being in the "we sent him a box" stage. That's bad.
But, the customer service rep said that the box arrived at the repair place too! That's good.
Unfortunately, he also said there was a two to three week turnaround time.
That's bad.
Can I have my Xbox now?
Here's to hoping that this is the usual say it's going to take way longer than it actually will. Maybe I will take Lem up on his offer to play Overlord on his box. :)
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