Enabler

Nightly ritual of drinking wine and providing some to cat.

Science Tattoos

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/

In case you were wondering - do the scientifically-inclined get body art?

Certainly, some do, and the photographic proof is here.

Every day

I make sandwiches like this every day for the wife and myself.

This one has wasabi mayonaise.

Getting ready for the test

I'm studying to take a test to be a certified PMP - Project Management Professional.

Have been reviewing the material nearly every day for the past week and a half; and for the rest of the coming week I plan on taking one practice exam per day.

It's been nice having a clear goal to work towards (and sometimes slack-off from :) ) during my otherwise amorphously-defined free time as I search for a new job.

Not sure what I'll do after I finish the exam (and pass) - I'm hoping this will be one extra thing to help me  land a job.

In the meantime, I like having some time just for me during the day and getting to explore the neighborhood on sunny spring days and spend time with our cats when I'm at home...not an unpleasant existence; it's just that requirement to have continued steady income for survival seems to be at odds with it.

I'm not usually a dog person, but...

Was at a party last night and a friend brought his newly adopted puppy.

Gotta say, indeed very cute!

Very friendly, and even though he peed in places he shouldn't, he was
a big hit. People liked the dog too. Ha ha. :)

I am liking the itunes genius feature

I am kind of lazy about making playlists on my own; I tend to either listen to everything on shuffle or specifically narrow down to an artist or album. So, the "auto-playlist" feature that Genius provides in iTunes is much appreciated. My experiences with it thus far are solid.

Unfortunately, it's not too solid with anything too obscure; sucks if I'm feeling like listening to punk-rock from east Asian countries. Oh well. I can deal with that.

novelty of studying all the time is wearing off

Glad that my cats are around to keep me company at home. Also glad that the exam I'm studying for is now less than two weeks away. Studying all the time at home is growing a little old & isolating.

Maybe it's just that I overdid it yesterday.

Bedtime cat

We always have company in bed. We are not allowed to move much.

study helper

I'm trying to get some studying done, and someone at home is giving me her special brand of "help".

I appreciate the company, but she does make it difficult to read.

pictures of DIY home hotpot

Had been working on making hotpot at home last weekend, here's some photographic evidence:

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

From Valentines Adventures

really should post something

Have been sort of bad about posting lately; although I've been getting a little more active as far as Twitter goes that's not exactly the same thing.

The weekend was fine - and the weather was fantastic; visited a little historic town outside of Tacoma for the purposes of meetup/flickr enthusiasts event.

Got some interesting pictures up (most of which are  which I do intend to load up on Flickr at some point, but I haven't got around to it yet).

Had intended on doing some cooking; but after getting all the shopping done we decided to take it easy at home the rest of the day. We did a bunch of laundry & tidied up quite a bit, however.

Will do some Lasagna tomorrow and I think it should turn out pretty good.

sick of twitter already

So, I guess for some people twitter is a way of life?

I like the ability to keep up with friends  & learn a little more about them than I'd know otherwise.

On the other hand, I have now met some people who really, really seem to love twitter and use it constantly, and I am not getting the value of it from them.

I do not want what is effectively another RSS reader, feeding me more news than I can handle.

It's almost as if Twitter = the hive mind.

You can achieve an almost constant sense of awareness, at the price that you become so involved in that reality that you cannot really do anything else....if you're constantly writing tweets and are also scouring the net for new stories to post to your twitter feed & digg & other news aggregators, then what the hell kind of life is that?

Well, maybe it works for some people. But it's not my thing. Will try and stick to minor twitters...

going to try twittering

I'm late to the game here but I guess better late than never....

If you'd like to follow me, please add "daninbusiness" to your list.

the nerve of some people

Just was terribly annoyed (galled?) that someone just tried the following stunt today.

I needed a haircut, and after I got done with my workout at the gym, I called my usual place of haircutting business, confirmed the wait, put my name on the list, and headed over.

As I'm parking my car, another vehicle speeds in at the same time, and a half-bald dude runs out of the car, pushing me out of the way as we enter the hair-cutting establishment.

He looks at the list, moves his finger down it, sees the name (my name) "Dan" is at the top, and tells the reciptionist, "I'm Dan." She seats him, but there's a wait.

I tell the receptionist, "I'm Dan. I called 10 minutes ago, do you want to see my phone and my ID?"

The receptionist pauses, not making a scene, stars the "Dan" at the top of the list, writes "Dan" down at the bottom of the list, and tells me to have a seat.

The next opening that comes up, she passes to me, and "impostor Dan" is still waiting.

I smugly enjoy my haircut; I'm happy that I'm a regular (the receptionist knew me and was certain she had only received one phone call from a Dan).

But seriously (as far as imposter Dan goes), who the fuck tries that kind of crap? Does it work? Is it worth it? Was he in such a rush that this really was going to somehow save time? Has he ever been called out on this before?

I appreciate that the receptionist had to be diplomatic & discrete, but on the other hand, I kind of want this imposter dude to be called out on being a douchebag...he should be punished!

I guess he was, in a way, in that he had to wait longer than he probably intended to get his haircut...but it's not like he's really discouraged from trying this shit again.

Seriously, is the economy so bad that people have to be douche-y to one another? Or would this guy have been a dick no matter what the economic state of the union?

So Michael Phelps smoked pot...so fucking what?!?!!?

Seriously, is there not something more important for the global media to be focusing on?

Just since he is an athlete he cannot smoke a mostly harmless product? He's not allowed to kick back & relax?

Too bad that pictures got taken, hopefully it will blow over soon (no pun intended) :)

-

unemployed & dealing with it

Last friday did not seem like a particularly unauspicious or auspicious day.

Things were kind of slow at the office, however. Only after having been in for an hour or so, I was called into the HR office by the new boss and our HR manager, and was simply told that despite my excellent performance on the job they had to let me go as our profits for the past month were lower than expected.

Cleaned out my things and I was home well before noon.

Played some Left 4 Dead and drank a bit...took things easy....was trying to get over the cold that I had come down with the previous wednesday.

Saturday & Sunday were social; we had people over & went to a superbowl party.

During this week, I've been attempting to do some networking & keep my online profiles up to date. Registered for unemployment insurance. Started looking at my resume & at job opportunities out there.

Enjoying the sun outside - for whatever reason, the weather is great this week.

dan no sleep

Should be sleeping - went to bed early to try and recover from the sore throat & fever that came on with a vengance earlier today.

But not sleeping yet.

All I can think about is the meeting I have scheduled for Friday at work where I finally get to talk 1:1 with my new boss. I get the feeling like it could well be a "justify your existence" type of discussion...could be a great opportunity to try and improve my job or change the direction of things so I can get more satisfaction out of it.

So yeah, it's important.

And I'm glad I've worked out an entire outline of what I could say whilst tossing & turning.

But I really need to go to sleep.

I'm wide awake with the hint of a heavy headache in the back of my head.

bum-rushed by sickness

Had been doing okay today but suddenly developed a sore-throat in the late afternoon. Headache & fever later.

Now I'm sitting in bed at 20:30 pacific time. Not 100% ready for bed but probably will be soon.

Don't really want to take a sick day tomorrow...may try "working from home" but we'll see how that goes - have a new boss and I'm super self-conscious (to the point of being a little paranoid) right now - maybe better just to take the sick day.

(It sucks that our sick days & vacation days are combined...I guess this encourages us to really pay attention to our health; but on the other hand I'm super reluctant to take any time off if I am sick)

New definition - Saddlebacking

Per Savage Love:

Saddlebacking - the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities." After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage

great NY times rebuttal

http://bokane.org/2009/01/26/help-help-help-the-police/

Well said, dude, well said.

While I appreciate that the NY times does not blindy repeat official Chinese gov't news pronouncements, on the other hand, the article being rebutted  smacks of parachute journalism.

It's important to call them out on that.

BTW, this video is fantastic: