plesantish holiday thusfar

Survived church.

The priest, although apparently quite academic, sounded like a robot every time he read something out loud...each syllable was very distinct, if not natural.

Dinner and drinks with the family. Traditional Ukrainian Borscht and Perogies.

More drinks and a round of spinner. Fun game.

It's late and I'm ripping cds onto a portable hard drive...had a lot of cds from my high school days and I guess I'd like more of them on MP3. Too heavy and awkward to bring all that plastic over to Washington.

I'm excited for Christmas morning, but this is the first time (ever?) where I'm more excited about how my parents will like the gifts I got for them rather than the stuff I'm hoping to receive. I know I should have had this epiphany at an earlier age, but the past MANY christmases post-college for me have all been abroad and away from family...so this is different.

going to church for christmas

I suppose it might look bad if I'm playing with a Nintendo DS throughout the proceedings?

(I think I already know the answer here, but I'm hoping someone can come up with an amazing rationalization that somehow has escaped me...I've been trying though...)

more travel infoz

So our Monday morning flight (already rescheduled) got canceled; luckily Northwest airlines ended up getting two spare 747s over to help clean up the mess of stranded Seattle travelers from this weekend...so; we got on a flight that was supposed to leave at 2pm.

2 hours of delays later, we finally took off...

Then, once touching down in -2 degree weather in MN, the gate we landed at did not have an operator so we were stuck in the plane for an extra 20 minutes until that got resolved.

Happy to be out of the plane & at home with the family now.

Big thanks to the NW airlines flight crew that opted to do a little extra work and help people rather than start their vacations early.

snowed in....again

Was supposed to fly out to Minnesota today.

However, the weather was not cooperative. Flight cancelled. :(

So, our parking lot looks like a christmas card - would rather be hanging out with friends and family, but I guess if I have to settle, then a picturesque, if not driver-friendly, outdoors at home in our warm-ish apartment with our cats isn't too bad.

chinese truck driver obstructing police

Nice work here:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_14996928.html

No big complaints yet

Work went well today. Later had happy hour  & pizza with some co-workers.

Can't complain too much about that.

Had sangria & watched yesterday's heroes with the wife.

Pretty solid evening as far as a weeknight post-work goes...can't be staying out & up late *every* day.

 

I miss Macau.

teh alkoholik cat

 

Still my baby...she's very smart, knows how to play us off one another - as soon as she hears us pull a bottle out of the refrigerator, she's there, and after she confirms that it is, in fact, a bottle that she'd be interested in, then she bounds over to the couch.

As I pour wine into glasses for both the wife and I, the cat will first be in one of our laps, imploring us to give her a taste of alchohol. After one of us says "no more", then the cat jumps over to the other one to get her fill.

Repeat until everyone is happy. Smart, smart cat... :)

Post dinner

Yeah, it's the cat and I. And that's how things usually go.

Okay, the above sentence is not really true - that cat rarely sits in that position during dinner - and we don't live in that apartment anymore.

But I'm glad I was digging through pictures.

This still cracks me up

I know that this isn't an entirely new song, but the live version is so kick-ass - I'd love to have a chance to play guitar for DVDA.
The back story about the whole thing is awesome too - seems that Brian appreciates the love. 

Google Reader is slow as hell?

I'm not sure how many of you (anyone?) who reads this fine blog and also uses Google Reader - but I for one sure do.

I really like the fact that it's browser based and conveniently tied to my google account, so it keeps current no matter which computer or browser I happen to be logged in from.

However, there's recently been an update to the google reader page. Visually, it's good - seems to be a little more refined and some nice features are there. But their servers seem to be getting pounded or something - service is SLOW. Where it had once been very snappy & responsive, it now takes ages to refresh & reload. 

I hope they get the bugs worked out...will I soon have to keep up on news by checking the main sites which I follow directly? (gasp) 

Yeah, this is probably one of those posts that goes up and no one cares...it's not the biggest problem in my life at present (by any means), but it does go to show how ingrained google stuff has become in my life.

disgusted

Compare the article summary here

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hBmrz7TnFWwf8qLht-vkvowu9DTQ

with this one here:

http://www.unbossed.com/index.php?itemid=2439

...amazing that the AP article cherry-picks the not so bad sounding stuff and puts up the puff-piece rhetoric that makes the president sound presentable. The quotes called out from the interview transcript are damning.

Lest you think that I am looking at stuff out of context, look at the BBC coverage of the issue - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7759908.stm - at least they keep it short.

productive-ish weekend

Ate turkey, hit the gym, got a few shopping deals, did some studying, and finished some games that I've been sitting on for quite a while.

Not too bad.

rainy sleepy friday

Settled in the new place and no rush to do anything tonight.

Having a few drinks, watching some TV, will probably play some games later.

mmm...chicken

Picked up some "Cajun Chicken" coldcut meat at a semi-upscale-ish grocery store near my place earlier in the week.

When sampling it, it tasted like someone had taken chicken-flavored cold-cuts and wiped taco powder all over them.

I told the salesperson that.

I also told her it was awesome.

Truly, the best sandwiches I've ever made in my life every day this week. :)

temper temper

Feeling a little embarassed of myself...

Was at the gym, where I'm paying for the "towel servicee"; where I understand I'm supposed to be getting a fresh towel whenever I'd like one at the gym while I'm there.

Of course, none there when I show up.

Laugh it off, lady behind the desk says "glad you're cool about it, some people have really lost it."

30 minutes later, after I've been running for a bit, and have noticed that the front desk received a delivery and should be flush with towels, I go back to get a towel...there's a line and the lady at the desk is giving towels to all the people just entering the gym.

She looks at me and asks what I want.

"2 towels please."

She looks apologetic, "sorry, we're out"

And for some reason, I lose it and then I'm that guy...

"I can't believe this shit! God, this is so fucked up!"

The lady looks at me in disbelief (as do some others waiting around), then turns around and looks at the two fresh towels sitting behind her and is suddenly, "Hey look, I do have some towels. Here you go."

I'm momentarily placated, then ashamed...so ashamed.

But I think I'll be over that soon enough.

new laptop battery = happy dan!

Man...if I actually posted for all the times I thought "man, I should post this" ...I'd have a lot more, better, posts.

As it is, you're getting shallow reflections of when I see something new & shiny.

Case in point:

Laptop battery (after 3+ years of service) was getting almost completely useless - not keeping a charge for more than 2 minutes or so.

Ordered a 3rd-party replacement via Amazon.com - and this one is already so much better (haven't even charged it yet)....

I'm mobile again!

Though, come on - truth be told, especially given life in the USA, the only mobile action this laptop sees is me occasionally bringing it from the living room to the bedroom.

Still - happy it's working.

The iBook G4 is still holding up fairly well since its production in (i assume) mid 2005; but one can certainly see the new white plastic of this battery and how it differs from the umm..."weathered?" plastic of the rest of the machine.

reunion?

so my 10-year high school reunion is coming up....this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it on the whole.

Should be good to see old friends & people who I haven't seen in 10 years or so.

peaceful

Despite a lot of big thoughts to go over in my head over the past 3 weeks + the near financial implosion of the US economy, I feel pretty good at the moment.

Then again, that might be the wine talking.

New music (at least for me) that I'm liking a lot at the moment:

 - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - everything they've done...I had to wikipedia them to get the whole deal; I'm thrilled to know that they are a side project from members of several excellent rock/punk bands. They cover everything and are super fun.

 - Rancid "B sides & C sides" - although some of the B-sides aren't stellar, there's enough unique Rancid there to make me very happy...

 - Fleet Foxes - Another great Seattle band! Very melodic...

 - Kasbian - good enough Brit-rock
 
 - The Verve - although I am listening to their new album, I also am revisiting "Urban Hymns", and like it a lot.

noteworthy weekend

2 major events & one comment:

Event #1 - On Saturday, we went to PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo). Was fun. Lots of cool new games that one could play with (but we didn't do much since the lines were huge). Nice people, among those we talked to. Got to see the people behind Mega64. They had some amusing clips & did an insightful yet humorous Q & A session. The location in downtown Seattle was great too, in that we could run over to the Pike Place Market for lunch.

Event #2 - On Sunday, we went to Bumbershoot, which is a big festival/concert/performance/art event in central Seattle (around the Space Needle). Lots of bands & other artists over 10 different stages. You can't see it all. But what we saw was good. Some jazz acts, some world music /fusion acts, some rock acts, & other stuff. My favorite act (& the whole reason why I wanted to go today) was the Saturday Knights. They did not disappoint; they did a fun show that involved the crowd. Marsha & I were in the front row and it was super cool; got to high-five members of the band!

Comment: While I disdain watching TV all the time, it is nice to have a connection...